amidst the threat big onlineretailers pose to smaller rivals gurgaonbased online retail players have thrown down the gauntlet some of them have emerged as a key competitor to established brands and many have successfully created a niche to sustain in the vast online retail world besides wellestablished big players the survival sustenance and growth of other players have been possible after locating the thriving space and market for them said radhika ghai aggarwal cofounder shopcluescom the portal started its operation two years ago and claims to be growing at 600 per cent yoy she added that all the established players from small to large have taken the same route of success though differently its just about following the apt business idea and targeting the right audience or the market explaining the niche of her venture she explained we started its operations as indias first and the largest fully managed marketplace as a managed marketplace we were clear that we would only be the facilitator of buyerseller transactions and our job would be to bring in customer traffic provide infrastructure and develop trust between people who come to transact in the space pearl uppal founder general partner at 5ideas startup superfuel said that though the online world caters to the whole country yet many citybased players have found the niche for their company the venture offers advice to startups and helps them in the business some are delivering food and other stuffs during night hours when shops get closed and its impossible to get anything during those hours different players have found other peculiar business ideas i online retail world targeting the local region said pearl she added that here is the epitome of niche rahul sethi founder and ceo of ladyblushcom a gurgaonbased ecommerce portal perceives the online retail world differently in my viewpoint in online retail the biggies havent devoured the whole market but created an exponentially large market for smaller players to survive and owing to the fact many such gurgaonbased players have flourished in the business the portal started its service two years ago and deals in womenonly clothes and accessories it says that it has been growing at the rate of 35 per cent yearonyear he further explained that the big players are not posing threat to smaller players but competing with each other in this environment of competition there has been creation of space for smaller players to survive grow and flourish citing the growth of itcompanies sethi said i would like to compare the growth scenario of smaller onlineretailers with smaller itcompanies when it revolution happened in india many companies emerged and some became bigger names however the business of smaller companies has never exhausted amongst big companies many smaller are surviving and doing well the industry experts say that these big players have been very helpful in creating the online retail platform they have become the face and unintentionally channelled the tractions to other smaller players these are the pioneers who really