Sitaphal Rabdi- Product Market Fit?

Once our 5 day slot for exhibition at Udyan Utsav was booked, there existed a sense of worry about who will visit our stall, how much public will come, what will sell, how much will sell. Questions about how much we should take, about restocking our products every next thing was panicking us more before we left for the event.

We had taken a stock of 20 kgs of rabdi at first place and some kgs of millet based products. While commuting, my POC remarked, “Our goal is to sell 20 kgs of rabdi and come back!” We were okay with 2 days of exhibition because many realistic challenges of production and transportation were drooling our heads. We reached the venue early in the morning and organised our stall beautifully. Once it began around 10 in the morning all exhibitors were still setting up their stalls, and no sight of people coming was seen. As soon as mid day passed, a huge number of people began coming, and began tasting our sitaphal rabdi, the children visiting the stall were curious, humming, ” akka what is this, what is this!?” And it seems like “akka what is this” spreads in the air and everyone around can hear that there is something at stall number 47, third last stall.

When the mid sun reached its highest, we began experiencing more people coming in, looking for sitaphal rabdi and minute by minute, all of it in a span of 6 hours was finished. Almost all of our millet products like kharodi, flax seed mouth freshners, banana chips too get finished. All our apprehensions turned to celebrations once our product was finished in a day. During the day we had ordered our coordination team at ambajogai for preparation of 15 kgs of rabdi for the next day. The dessert was prepared in time and it was brought by one of our coordinators to the event. But we under estimated the crowd on the weekend and to our surprise more visitors came for the exhibition.

We finished our sitaphal rabdi by 4 in the evening and answering about unavailability of our product felt more bad than having that extra. We steered for one more day and ordered a 20kg, we assumed that this will work for 2 days and then will finish up with our work at the exhibition and get back to our location. But to our surprise, this 20kg rabdi was over in a day and made us order more. By now we have figured out the transportation and decided that we will stay for the whole 9 days though our slot was only for 5 days. After this we rallied for extension for the stall and we got a space at the organisers stall to keep this product. One more weekend was in the pipeline, one more opportunity for us to make great sales and for the saturday we ordered for 35 kgs and this was also finished in half of the time. Same the case with 47 kg of rabdi on Sunday, it was all over by 4 in the evening and this is how we stayed in the exhibition for 9 days selling approximately around 230 kgs of rabdi. The amount of sales that has happened in 9 days is one case to call this product fit for the market or can say it was cherished by people.

Others are more qualitative. For custard apple lovers it was a natural attraction, and such people were around 50 percent who got fascinated by sitaphal rabdi and were very eager to try. Many of them got a kg or two packed for their families. Other than them, 40 percent have never had the rabdi of sitaphal flavour. They were amused and were interested to know more about how it was made and even available in the off season. Almost everyone who has tasted a spoon, brought two cups on average. Not just Indians, but people from Australia who visited our stall gave us a good review, a australian man bought for his wife as well and in some time, visited again and bought two more cups. Talking of the age who got interested in the product were adults and the senior citizens.


Husbands persuaded their wives to have a taste, adults persuaded their parents to taste as this product has no sugar, diabetes patients too were attracted. Talking of children below 10 years of age, it was liked by approx around 50 percent. This made me cautious of the performance of the product 10 years down the lane when these kids grow up, will this product be cherished by them, but then I was ok as taste buds too change when we grow. There were less people who tasted but didn’t buy, as they were apprehensive about catching cold. Talking of repeat or return customers, there were around 30-40 people in a day who came again or referred this product to other people who were visiting. Other exhibitors in the event visited our stall almost every day. For the second slot, we were required to change our place, this brought apprehensions about the sale of the product but it didn’t affected much. It feels sitaphal rabdi stood out being niche, seasonal, regional, natural, sugar-free, preservatives free, liked by many. This validates our product being fit for market

With respect to pricing we got mixed responses, for someone it was very affordable, some were like, quantity is too less for this price. But many who bought hesitantly called out for the worthiness of the product and bought more for their families. Some also compared the price in the market who responded positively about the pricing and the quality of the product. Though people bargained for the quantity and price but they turned out to be our largest customers. In such heavy markets, the quality and pricing of the product that sells rather than the story behind it. A product is market fit only when price and perceived value meet.

Talking of overall demand, it was consistent across the 9 days. Many of them have asked about our base in Hyderabad, they asked for contact numbers in case they prefer ordering again. Many of them revealed that they are eagerly waiting for our base in hyderabad. They were happy if the product could be delivered to their homes. These responses show future market pull, not just buzz and scalability signals to switch from stalls and exhibitions to a permanent establishment. Supply and planning did become challenging for us. Under assumptions, limited production capabilities, transportation challenges, cold storage keep up has been challenging too but it was overcomed by persistent effort and confidence in the product and good work. Sitaphal may be seasonal — but craving is not.

So is sitaphal rabdi a product market fit? Yesss, a big one — as taste, curiosity and willingness of buy showed strong market pull but supply challenges, packaging and branding need to be worked out. And if this improves, the product has a potential to become a festive desert niche, a local regional hero, or even a modern fusion trend.