Radhika Aggarwal: Co-founder of ShopClues and First Woman in India to Enter the Unicorn Club

Radhika Aggarwal is the current Chief Business Officer (CBO) and Co-founder of the e-commerce ShopClues, established in 2011 with just 10 team members. She is the first woman in India to enter the Unicorn Club. Radhika’s husband, Sanjay Sethi is the CEO of ShopClues. Her net worth until November 2020 counts to $1 million.

Radhika Aggarwal- Biography

Name	Radhika Ghai Aggarwal
Nationality	Indian
Education	Washington University
Profession	Entrepreneur
Position	CBO & Co-founder, ShopClues
Net Worth	$1 million (November, 2020)
Marital Status	Married
Spouse	Sanjay Sethi
Children	2

Radhika Aggarwal- Personal Life

Radhika Aggarwal was born to a regular Army family. Her father was employed in the Indian Army. Her mother was a dietician by profession. She got married to Sanjay Sethi, whom she met during her college days. Apart from being her husband, Sanjay is also her business partner. She lives in Gurgaon, Haryana.

Radhika Aggarwal- Early Life

Being an Army ward, she grew up in ten different cities including Pathankot, Ahmednagar, and Jodhpur and attended several schools throughout her childhood. Travelling to new places gave her the opportunity to meet new people and adapt the formidable change. This experience helped her in running a business without getting affected by the daunting change in the corporate world.

Perseverance is yet another quality that she learnt while growing up. Her attitude of not giving up helped her in standing against all odds in the startup world.

She eventually got inspired from her father, who established his own health care set up at the age of 45, after leaving the Army in 1992. She helped him in his entrepreneurial venture as a fitness trainer and received her first pay check of INR 400.

She followed him and founded her very first advertising agency in Chandigarh in 1997. The early startup stemmed entrepreneurship within her, which assisted Radhika to excel in future thereafter.

Radhika Aggarwal- Education

Radhika Aggarwal dropped the shutter of her advertising agency after two years, to study MBA in 1999. She pursued MBA from Washington University, in St.Louis, US.

She also did her post graduation in advertising and public relations. She has also participated in an executive program at Stanford University.

Her academic qualification are owed to Devi Ahilya Vishwavidyalaya. She completed graduation from Maharaj Sayajirao University.

Radhika Aggarwal- Professional Life

Radhika Aggarwal started her career, working in the marketing field for companies like Nordstrom, headquartered in Seattle, Washington (2002-2005). She joined the core team for strategic planning at Goldman Sachs in 2001. She was a part of internal consulting resource for the product development group.

She worked as a Marketing strategist in Abhivyakti Infotech for about one and a half year i.e., from January 2006- June 2007.

Prior to this, she ran a fashion blog at South Asian women (2007-2009). She didn’t raise money through this blog but learnt the thriftiness that was replicated while launching ShopClues.

She has the experience of working in diverse sectors like e-commerce, fashion, lifestyle, and retail for about fourteen years in US.

Radhika founded her e-commerce venture ShopClues with her husband Sanjay Sethi in 2011. It became one of the most recent entrants into the Unicorn club.

Radhika Aggarwal- Women Empowerment

When asked if she has been able to change the convention towards women employees across the industry, Radhika Ghai Aggarwal – co-founder & cmo, shopclues.com said :

“The best way I deal with this is to avoid gender-based discrimination in the first place. At ShopClues, we empower a good worker and we provide equal opportunities that can help maximize potential. If you’re an able worker, gender doesn’t even come into the picture. At ShopClues, we have women leading our vibrant community of merchant partners. Our women employees know I have their back, and that they are at par with our male employees, with many of them in the leadership team.”

Radhika Aggarwal promotes women to share their opinions, challenges, and issues that matter to them. She gathers her women employees at a cafeteria for the discussion. One of her young woman employees once said that she was the first person to wear jeans and take up a job in her family. It was her way of breaking stereotypes.

The girl joined ShopClues because of the woman co-founder. An empowered woman inspires another woman to break the stereotypes and live their dreams.

“Every step we take towards achieving our goals is one step closer to breaking these archaic stereotypes. As I said, I personally don’t encourage extra accolades to a woman employee just because she’s a woman and has achieved something. I treat all my employees as equals, gender no bar.”, said Radhika Aggarwal, ShopClues

Radhika Aggarwal- ShopClues

Radhika’s 14 long years of experience in the corporate world has brought rich exposure to best-of-breed global brands. Her vision and entrepreneurial acuity have gradually nurtured the brand. With a keen understanding of the customer’s pulse, she is the marketing robust that has made ShopClues one of the luminaries.

ShopClues was founded in 2011, headquartered in Gurgaon. The company came into the limelight when the founder claimed that the e-commerce venture became profitable by 2017. It has about 25 million registered buyers, 500,000 merchants, and each month ships about three million products.

Radhika holds the position of CBO of Shopclues since February 2011. She claims that ShopClues is one of the fastest growing e-commerce platforms in India. It is estimated that Radhika Aggarwal net worth is around $1-$4 Million as of 2020.

Radhika Aggarwal- Awards

Radhika has been conferred with some awards and recognition as well. She won the following awards in the year 2016.

Outlook Business Woman of Worth at Outlook Business Awards
Woman Entrepreneur of the Year at Entrepreneur India Awards
Exemplary Woman Entrepreneur of the Year at CMO Asia Awards
CEO of the Year Award at CEO India Awards

ShopClues- Competitors

It was obviously not a cup of tea to build an e-commerce website, when there were already some e-commerce giants ruling the space. ShopClues was established at a time when Flipkart, Snapdeal were already raising to new heights. Flipkart and Snapdeal raised desirable money and popularity until then.

Jabong and ShopClues were founded in the same year. An inordinate amount of money was spent by the founders to grow their market respectively. However, Radhika aimed at making ShopClues a profitable venture. Shopclues tossed a Gross Merchandise Value (GMV) of $1.2 billion in Financial Year 2016, just 5 years after it launched!