Couch potato alert: DVDs at your doorstep

If you are looking to unwind with a good movie and are in no mood to step out of the house, there may be a solution.

If you are looking to unwind with a good movie and are in no mood to step out of the house to get your hands on your favourite titles, an up-and-coming Karachi-based online service DVD Direct may be the answer.

An innovative entrepreneurial venture with lofty ambitions to become a localised version of Amazon.com — only this time for DVDs — DVD Direct delivers your requested films to your doorstep, and that too within a tried and tested 45 minutes of the order.

The store offers a large collection of approximately 4,900 DVDs from Hollywood and Bollywood flicks to cartoons and documentaries just like any other movie store, but that is where the similarities end. DVD Direct has no physical storefront. Instead, it has a feature-rich website, www.dvddirect.biz where you can browse through the online lists ­‑ complete with trailers, tagline and plot summaries — and have the DVDs you want delivered to you with the click of a mouse button. That is absolute bliss for the always-online ‘couch-potato’ movie buff.

A single DVD can be bought for Rs60, with no additional charges for delivery. The small company that consists of only six individuals, has been continuously adding new features. One of these is the availability of Blu-ray movies, which they provide at a rate of Rs1,350, which is far less that the market cost of Rs3,000. Another plan in the pipeline is to add a ‘concessions stand’ to the website which will allow customers to order snacks along with their favourite DVDs.

Speaking enthusiastically about his brainchild, Faraz Khan, CEO, DVD Direct points out that the company had initially thought the telephone would be the primary method for placing orders, but they soon found out that people preferred to stick to online orders. “Only 20 to 30 per cent of the orders are phone orders,” says Khan.

The initiative is only eight to nine months old but is already profitable for Khan. The company gets a steady stream of around 200 to 250 DVD orders on a weekday, with a spike in orders on the weekends. But that is nowhere close to the target which Khan says is to grow to around ten times the current sales. The budding company has an active Facebook fan page with over 500 fans which allows them to interact directly with their customers. Currently, DVD Direct largely delivers only in the Clifton and DHA areas of Karachi. However, Khan says the business will soon expand not only in terms of location but also in its line of business to possibly include books and electronic items.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 24^th, 2010.