What
We sell bags. Handcrafted, bold, the kind that look like they belong somewhere interesting. Beaded, embroidered, raffia, bamboo, beach-ready, everyday. All of it direct through ellobell.in. The gap we saw: aesthetic travel bags are everywhere in Western markets. In India, that category basically doesn't exist for the domestic buyer. Our collections are tied to destinations, not seasons.
Why
My co-founder was trying to buy a bag. Not a mall bag, not a fast fashion tote. Something that looked like it had a story. She couldn't find one from an Indian brand at a price that wasn't absurd. That was the conversation. India makes this product. The craft exists here. The artisans exist here. What doesn't exist is a brand selling it to Indian women instead of shipping it all abroad.
Work
Owned the marketing function end to end. Strategy, Meta Ads, content, influencer outreach. Also built a prompt generator tool that turns raw bag photos and a style reference into edit instructions for ChatGPT's image editor. Killed the need for a studio on most shoots. Store is on Shopify, heavily customized. There's also an internal ERP for inventory, purchase orders, and vendor tracking.
Learned
Finding vendors willing to work at low MOQs took longer than building the store. Most manufacturers in this category only deal with export buyers. Nobody is in a hurry. That's just how it works. Photography was the other surprise. AI edits are fast but they have a look, and that look doesn't fit what we're building. iPhone photography for anything that needs to feel real, AI for everything else.