Fashion and Clothing Industry – Dutch Uncles

The House of Rare : A Contemporary Indian Fashion Brand that Knocked Global Doors

Shalmoli Sarkar — Mon, 07 Feb 2022 09:09:29 +0000

The vibrant colours and motifs of Indian ethnic fashion have cracked the global fashion market but there are a handful of Indian names whose contemporary western fashion has barely been at a fair place globally. With brands Zara, H&M, DKNY, etc, dominating the contemporary and luxury fashion space for ages, the Indian counterparts are a bit unwelcomed to the western consumers. But, The House of Rare – a premium and luxury fashion brand seems to be an exception. The brand is the most admired fashion brand in the country and across Asia, it aims to establish its premium brands Rare Rabbit in menswear and Rareism in womenswear that will introduce the newest fashion trends in the market at competitive pricing while selling in a premium environment.

The House of Rare is a subsidiary of Radhamani Textiles Private Ltd”, one of the most valued apparel manufacturing companies of India with an annual manufacturing capacity of 2 million and 6 million annually. By 2025, the brand aims to strengthen its foothold in the global fashion market for which it wanted to build its eCommerce platform that could scale with its goals.

The House of Rare: The becoming of a global brand with Shopify

The House of Rare initially launched its exclusive collection on Koovs. The brand’s European-styled apparel with detailed designs was quick enough to attract attention that led Rare Rabbit – a premium brand for men’s fashion from the parent fashion brand to develop its fan base. Witnessing an impressive reception from customers, it nudged the brand to launch Rareism- a premium brand for women’s fashion that further encouraged them to set up their online store.

From a competing platform, the fashion brand decided to build its online store on Shopify in 2019. The reason for choosing Shopify can be attributed to its easy store setup and scalability.

The House of Rare certainly did not want to hire an experienced in-house tech team to manage the functioning of their online store site, which makes Shopify a suitable choice. The platform ensures speed, minimise or eliminates the occurrence of technical glitches, and provides easy scaling with a vast range of plug-and-play applications available for different use cases.

The brand’s e-commerce owner Pulkit Verma wanted to focus on branding for which an e-commerce platform was desired that could be set up using its easy-to-use advanced customisations. With myriad apps and integrations available on Shopify, the fashion brand wanted to improve the shopping experience for the customers without worrying about the site not functioning at any given point in time.

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The brand’s e-commerce owner Pulkit Verma wanted to focus on branding for which an e-commerce platform was desired that could be set up using its easy-to-use advanced customisations.

Easy payment at The House of Rare’s – integration with Shopify

Easy payment for the completion of purchases forms a major part of providing a seamless shopping experience for any online store. A customer with a shopping intention should never leave the cart due to the lack of their preferred payment method. But to set up multiple payment methods manually consumes time and is equally daunting. The Shopify- Razorpay integration helps a digital store to make their online payment seamless. The platform’s one-click integration with Razorpay helped the brand accept payments through the Razorpay Payment Gateway. It enabled the site to accept payments via debit card, credit card, net banking, UPI, and other supported digital wallets. The Shopify plugin offers seamless integration allowing their customers to pay on the store without being redirected to another page. To strengthen their foothold in international markets The House of Rare required a smart payment solution that can accept international orders. With Razorpay’s integration, the site witnessed an increase in international conversions.

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The ratio return to origin indicates the returning of products to the warehouse without reaching the customer.

Minimising the return to origin (RTO) ratio

As more conversions began happening, several incidents of fraud orders took place. The House of Rare being a premium brand in the fashionwear space, tracking and identifying orders that have a high return to origin vulnerability became an essential task. The ratio return to origin indicates the returning of products to the warehouse without reaching the customer and wastage of resources that involved packaging to forward and return logistics costs including the blocked inventory costs. The brand had an RTO ratio of 30 percent on the orders. To minimise the ratio, verification of addresses is required which is a cumbersome process if done manually and can hinder any brand’s growth. The House of Rare needed a solution that would seamlessly work with their payment gateway. Since their site was already integrated with Razorpay for enabling online payment, they were introduced to its AI-powered RTO & fraud detection solution, Thirdwatch, which was installed to the Shopify store with a single click. Thirdwatch is an e-commerce solution by Razorpay which is tailored to suit the Indian market and has helped many e-commerce businesses to successfully reduce their RTO and increase the number of successful order deliveries.

With the Thirdwatch installation with the Shopify store, its AI-powered engine captured more than 300 parameters from the store data. The data captured was then processed to understand which orders were risky and had a high RTO ratio. The solution marked the low-risk ones green and the red ones high. With this solution installed in their Shopify store, the brand’s women wear range i.e. RareRabbit achieved the following :

Identified orders with high RTO risk to enable timely cancellation.
Detect incomplete or fake addresses.
Flagged incorrect contact information (email ID/mobile number)
Updated the address before order shipping by speaking and confirming orders with customers.
Detected and cancelled fraudulent orders before shipping.
Predict impulse purchase patterns with high RTO rates

Using the Thirdwatch application, business owners can also send automated messages via WhatsApp and SMS to the buyers of the red-flagged orders. This adds a layer of confirmation before you approve the orders for shipping. The application’s ability to indicate high-risk orders from the customer data, the Shopify-Thirdwatch integration enabled the fashion brand to implement customer recovery and loyalty strategies like offering direct discounts to shoppers through payment links to incentivise them for upfront payment.

As The House of Rare readies itself to scale its online store to conquer the territories of global markets, the quick plug-and-play integrations offered by Shopify ensure a robust infrastructure and retain the authenticity for the brand to grow on.

The post The House of Rare : A Contemporary Indian Fashion Brand that Knocked Global Doors appeared first on Dutch Uncles.

How Covid is Wearing Out the Ethnic Wear Market

Shalmoli Sarkar — Tue, 31 Aug 2021 03:35:08 +0000

The ethnic wear industry in India is currently running on a rough patch, as the preventive measures to contain covid have limited people’s participation in weddings and festivals. In addition to this, for women, Kurtis and Salwar Kameez are a convenient option for office formal wear whose sales have impacted, as the workforce went indoors.

According to Statista, the ethnic wear segment in India is expected to reach Rs 1.7 trillion by 2023 from Rs 925 billion in 2018. However, due to most shops and malls remaining closed and lower out of consumption, the segment’s growth will remain sluggish. A study from Wazir Analysis confirms this, revealing that the current ethnic market will now grow at 7.8 percent and is estimated to reach $30 billion in 2025 from $20.6 billion in 2020.

The government during the lockdown paused the sales of non-essential goods of which apparel is a part. The demand for essentials like – food, medicines, and groceries took precedence over purchasing non-essential items. As the workforce turned virtual, the consumer preference for fashion shifted more towards leisure and comfort.

Challenges encountered by the Indian ethnic wear market in the pandemic

Increased rentals: Mounting rental costs and no relief from the mall owners, are resulting in brands like Aditya Birla Fashion, Biba, Global Desi, etc, being forced to shut their shops.
Less labour: The labour workforce in the textile production, wary of contracting the virus, have left for their natives that have stalled the production of a brand’s new ethnic range. In addition to this, no sales of summer collection have led to the inventory pile-up that has further added to the losses.
Disruption in raw materials supply: The mobility restrictions imposed during the lockdown and curfews have disrupted the supply of silk and cotton fabrics that have delayed production.
Reduced cashflow: As no revenue was generated, the brands could not pay their tailors and designers that resulted in unemployment and no new launches.

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A study from Wazir Analysis confirms this, revealing that the current ethnic market will now grow at 7.8 percent and is estimated to reach $30 billion in 2025 from $20.6 billion in 2020.

How are ethnic wear brands responding to the change?

The virtual work culture has defined new parameters of fashion. The working women and men are now focussing more on apparel that can provide maximum comfort. Consumers are showing a preference for clothes made out of soft cotton fabric and want to invest in clothing that can last longer.

Biba, an ethnic womenswear brand has responded to this altered consumer behaviour by launching a new range of sleepwear. In 2021, it also launched the loungewear and athleisure category as with gyms closed, the need for activewear surged.

Similarly, designer brand Ritu Kumar launched Label Basics, a range of comfortable ethnic wear range that includes fuss-free dresses, relaxed bottoms and easy-to-wear coordinated sets in muted colours that can be worn for virtual meetings. The colours are mostly neutral and earthy with durable fabric quality that caters to the style and comfort required by the consumers.

The digital ethnic wear shopping in the pandemic

Mumbai-based 14-year-old brand Kalki Fashion introduced video shopping in the pandemic. The brand opened its video shopping experience on various mediums like Skype, Facetime, WhatsApp, and now, Zoom. It also revamped its website that allowed customers to book an appointment to shop through video. Kalki fashion offered an interactive shopping experience to the consumers of the digital native by live-streaming its products in collaboration with influencers on Instagram Live. During COVID-19, the brand clocked a Rs 50 crore turnover in FY 2020-2021 by leveraging video shopping and online sales.

What lies ahead for the ethnic wear market in the pandemic?

With the news of the third wave covid wave lurking in the corner, there might be a fresh announcement of curbs, therefore it will be imperative for the ethnic wear brands to build and strengthen their digital stores. According to Wazir Advisors, the Indian online ethnic wear market is poised to grow at 36 percent. But, amidst unemployment and paycuts, people have tightened their purses to do need-based shopping. However, the demand for ethnic attires like sarees and Kurtis will not fade away as they can be worn on any occasion.

Meanwhile, ethnic wear brands can tap the tier-II and tier-III middle-class consumers as they are willing to make purchases due to the rise in purchase power and the burgeoning social media influence. The industry can expect a rebound with fully vaccinated consumers coming to stores.

The post How Covid is Wearing Out the Ethnic Wear Market appeared first on Dutch Uncles.

Consumer Demand for Sustainable Products is Motivating Brands to Go Green

Shalmoli Sarkar — Mon, 30 Aug 2021 10:35:07 +0000

In recent times sustainable and eco-friendly have increasingly risen to become buzzwords, among Indian shoppers and so is its adoption in several D2C brands especially in the fashion and beauty space. The childhood lessons of environmental harm caused by humans are ingrained in the minds of Indian consumers, especially millennials, are driving the growth of sustainable brands.

A new report from the Capgemini Research Institute says that 79 percent of the consumers are changing their purchase preferences for brands focusing on social responsibility, inclusiveness, and environmental impact.

Is Covid-19 driving the sustainable business of brands?

A global survey from Accenture finds that at the onset of covid, 60 percent of the consumers have shifted to environmentally friendly, sustainable, or ethical purchases, and 9 out of 10 will continue to do so. The pandemic has led consumers to prioritise climate change and is preferring to live a life of minimalism. According to Capgemini’s report, 67 percent of the consumers will be more cautious about the scarcity of natural resources due to the COVID-19 crisis, and 65% will be more mindful about the impact of their overall consumption in the “new normal”.

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A report from Capgemini Research Institute says that 79 percent of the consumers are changing their purchase preferences for brands focusing on social responsibility, inclusiveness, and environmental impact.

Consumers and entrepreneurs following the sustainable suit

India’s millennial and Gen Z population alone constitute 35 percent of the total population. The generation is unique in its way as the behaviour of millennials has been more inquisitive, oriented to self and globalist that are shaped by events of globalisation, and economic stability. These events have made them more conscious of their impact on the environment.

Similarly, the GenZ individuals have been exposed to digitalisation and the internet at an early age and are digital natives, which is why they are communohlic and like to voice their opinions about the injustice done to people or the environment. Witnessing incidents of recession, war, and terrorism since young have shaped their behaviour to be more sensible and practical to the problems that emerged. The consumption behaviour of GenZ individuals entails the usage of brands that are ethical and showcase uniqueness, which is mushrooming new-age entrepreneurs to come up with products and concepts that focus more on sustainability and less wastage.

What are the brands doing to foster the culture of sustainability?

Sustainable fashion brands like Doodlage founded in 2012 by Kriti Tula, upcycles the rejected fabric pieces to create patchwork jackets, delicate shrugs, and exquisite shirts. In a large garment manufacturing factory while stitching apparel a large part of the fabric gets wasted which ends up in landfills or is incinerated, Kriti uses the same pieces of leftover fabric to create clothes.

A fabric after dyeing is washed to remove the excess colours. The chemical dyes released into the water are untreated and are released into the water bodies harming the aquatic life and has a high risk to enter our food chain. Soham Dave’s fashion brand uses dyes made with natural ingredients and after dyeing the fabric he dries them under the sun ensuring minimum wastage of resources.

Beauty and personal care brands are committing to UN’s SDG (sustainable development goals) to ban the use of single-use plastics. D2C Natural personal care and beauty label SoulTree has introduced biodegradable packaging, which can be decomposed naturally with the help of moisture and microorganisms. Once decomposed, the compounds either return to nature or disintegrate, leaving no waste behind.

What lies ahead for sustainable brands in India?

According to a FashionScope report by McKinsey, “Sustainability will gain ground in India, where the local market is projected to reach nearly $60 billion in revenues in 2022, making it the sixth-largest in the world after the U.K. and Germany.” As more D2C brands opt for sustainable packaging, it will open new business opportunities for B2B packaging solutions that offer eco-friendly packaging material. To be more sustainable, brands can offer refill packs that require minimal packaging.

Moreover, there lies an onus with the brands as well where they need to make people aware about using sustainable brands and their impact on the environment. Capgemini’s report says that 88% of consumers in India are willing to purchase a more sustainable product once they are made aware of the sustainability issues.

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These 10 Apparel Brands Have Taken the D2C Route in India

DU Desk — Sat, 10 Jul 2021 03:35:04 +0000

Sales of formal wear, ethnic wear, and party wear nosedived in the pandemic amid the prolonged closure of shops, malls, and offices and curbs on out-of-consumption that kept most consumers indoors in 2020. It was not long in 2021 that the falling number of cases created a beacon of hope for the apparel businesses by reopening of malls but soon the second wave brought the businesses again to the brink of losses and zero sales.

High-end apparel brands in the face of the largest human health crisis are considering the D2C route to stay afloat and keep the demand ongoing despite lockdowns and limited opening store hours. Apparel brands such as Ritu Kumar, Forever New, Marks, and Spencer, United Colors of Benetton, Shoppers Stop, Raymond, Van Heusen, Peter England, and Ensemble have launched or are yet to launch their online store in the pandemic.

What was the need for Apparel Brands to take the D2C channel?

According to the domestic rating agency Investment Information and Credit Rating Agency (ICRA), the apparel businesses to generate revenues like pre-covid times will have to wait till 2023. ICRA also stated that after cases began plateauing in the December quarter of 2020, the apparel brand’s revenue had touched 70 percent of pre-covid revenue levels. It was expected to show revenue growth of 23-25 percent in 2021-2022, but the strike of the second wave crumbled the revenues again. Zero to less footfall in shops has hampered the apparel brands business due to mounting rental costs, and lower demand for new clothes especially formal wear, party wear, and ethnic wear. Though the brands have listed their products on the e-commerce aggregator platform, it prevented the apparel brands from engaging better with consumers with a sensitive approach. Hence, the D2C strategy will be the coping mechanism for the brands in such times.

What are the Apparel Brands Doing?

With Work-from-home becoming the norm, the formal wear segment has taken a backseat impacting brands like Van Heusen, Peter England and Raymond. Brands are introducing a new clothing wear range to focus on comfort and casualisation. Raymond has introduced a virtual shopping experience through WhatsApp and Zoom video calls for fulfilling the demand for tailored garments from the comfort of consumer’s homes. Shoppers Stop has introduced its D2C store where it has introduced 100 of its exclusive brands that are not available on other aggregator platforms. Brand Ritu Kumar receives orders from its online portal as well as WhatsApp.

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According to ICRA, the apparel businesses to generate revenues like pre-covid times will have to wait till 2023.

Apparel Brands Exploring Channels Other than D2C

Beleaguered by zero footfalls in stores, Pepe Jeans launched its fashion retail truck in Delhi and Gurugram to allow customers to buy denim clothes. This strategy will aid Pepe Jeans to scale their business in small cities as well. Besides, apparel brands malls are seen taking the shop on wheels. Inorbit Mall reached the premier societies with its mobile shop consisting of brands like Soch, US Polo, Skechers, Flying Machine and Ceilo in the cities of Hyderabad and Mumbai. A similar strategy was adopted by fashion retail chain Bazaar Kolkata that introduced a movable mini store ‘Bazaar on Wheels’ to cater to the fashion needs of shoppers in Kolkata.

The Gain and Reach of D2C stores of Apparel Brands

Brand label Ritu Kumar’s WhatsApp shopping accounts for 10-12 percent of its store sales while online sales account for 14 percent of the overall sales. Online sales for Forever New account for around 25-30 percent of its total sales. Similarly, for United Colors of Benetton, its online sales cover 20 percent of its overall sales. Aditya Birla Fashion and Retail has witnessed a strong double-digit growth of 15 percent in 2021 from 7 percent in 2020 from its e-commerce platform.

Learnings for Apparel Brands

For survival it will be imperative for apparel brands to consider the following:

Curbing the unnecessary expenses
Bolstering the last-mile delivery operations
Adopt click-and-collect model
Timely delivery
Offer quality products and value for money
Taking the D2C channel for better linkage with consumers and not neglecting the omnichannel power

As more people shop online, apparel brands should evaluate their sales channels and supply chain systems to elevate the online shopping experience for customers. In addition to this, brands should quickly adapt to new consumer interests of leisure, activewear essentials, and lightweight clothing and serve their needs in the best way possible.

The post These 10 Apparel Brands Have Taken the D2C Route in India appeared first on Dutch Uncles.

Rental Fashion and the Indian Market

Aakash Sharma — Thu, 10 Jun 2021 06:05:05 +0000

In the age of subscriptions and prime memberships, owning things has become a very inflated concept. And the vast millennial population has conveyed this very efficiently and clearly with the success of companies like Rentomojo, Zoomcar, OYO, Grabhouse, and many others.

Today, the sharing economy is seen as the best way forward. Although the concept of rentals, sharing, or pooling is not as prevalent in India as it is in the West, it is slowly gaining ground.

While real estate, furniture, cars, etc., have outperformed the lease and rental model, the apparel and accessories sectors are now rapidly gaining market share. It has a vast and lucrative market for those who cannot afford luxury goods but appreciate the taste and quality of such brands.

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Research shows that by 2025, that many areas of the sharing and rental economy will rival the size of their traditional Indian counterparts.

Statistics and Figures

Analysts estimate that the Indian fashion rental market is expected to have an annual growth rate of 10.6% in the coming years. The industry is already capped at Rs 12,000 crore. The growth of fashion rental start-ups such as Stage 3, Liberent, and RentACloset is adding to the segment and is expected to reach $1,856 million by 2023.

The Best Players in the Indian Rental Fashion Market

Flyrobe

Flyrobe is India’s first and largest online clothing rental service. It allows people to select clothes through an online platform and have them delivered to their homes on a rental basis.

RentACloset (RAC)

RentACloset is a start-up that allows consumers to rent a complete wardrobe. It enables people to rent luxury clothing and accessories through RAC to experience new style statements and even earn money by renting out. People can buy/rent new luxury clothes and accessories from RAC’s extensive designer collection.

Stage3

Stage3 is an online unisex clothing rental platform. The platform’s product list includes western clothing and ethnic clothing suitable for occasions such as weddings or parties. The company offers the possibility of renting or buying the mentioned products. It started as a rental platform focused on women’s clothing and has grown and developed since to provide an extensive range of clothes.

OhLook

OhLook is a subscription platform for men’s clothing. It is aimed at men in offices and college and provides them plenty of plain or casual designer T-shirts options. Fashion stylists list new styles each week, which get exchanged for a new collection in the subsequent week. The subscription can be made for a minimum of one month.

Future of Online Clothing Rental Businesses in India

The rise of the internet and increased consumer awareness has made India a very profitable market among South Asian countries. Moreover, shoppers in developing countries like India are finding excellent ways of getting to their preferred garments instead of buying them.

The rental market in India could become a growth model riding on e-commerce growth and start-ups want to encompass the entire industry. While it’s too early to predict the actual future of this segment, renting fashion is undoubtedly a boon for millennials and GenZ, and start-ups are becoming the next big thing in the model lease industry.

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Entrepreneurship Lessons from Coco Chanel: One of The Influential Name of the 20th Century

Monica Behura — Sat, 01 May 2021 03:35:05 +0000

Coco Chanel, the fashion legend, whose name resonates in the world of fashion even today after nearly a century of the brand’s existence has left an indelible mark in the global fashion business. Looking back at Gabrielle Bonheur Chanel’s career, she rose from being a seamstress to a French fashion designer and a successful businesswoman. Gabriele’s hobby of designing hats evolved into a commercial enterprise in the early 1900’s. She became a licensed milliner (a person who designs, makes, and sells women’s hats) in 1910 and opened a boutique in Paris named Chanel Modes. Chanel’s millinery creations flourished as famous personalities like actresses, models started wearing her hats and popularized it.

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Chanel taught us diversification is not only the best way to expand your product range, it ensures financial stability

Chanel’s journey to becoming a fashion ‘icon’

From accessories to couture, Chanel in 1913, soon launched her clothing line – deluxe casual clothing suitable for leisure and sport for women rep. She ventured on a completely different league, creating a market where no one treaded before and replacing the “corseted silhouette”. Her boutique’s address was a prime fashion high street of Paris that previously housed an established clothing business. She sold hats, sweaters, jackets, and mariniere, the sailor’s blouse. She modelled her clothes on her sister and aunt who paraded through the town and on its boardwalks, advertising the Chanel creations.
The Chanel couture became a profitable business enterprise, by 1935 employing 4000 people. She targeted the rich and wealthy as her products went from street wear to high fashion. A prolific fashion creator, Chanel expanded her creative influence beyond couture clothing, realizing her design aesthetic in jewellery, handbags and perfumes. Her signature scent Chanel No.5, is an iconic product endorsed and loved by A-list celebrities like Marilyn Monroe, Charlize Theron. Chanel designed her famed interlocked- CC monogram, which has been in use since the 1920s.
Chanel’s concept of the little black dress (LBD), is cited as a great contribution in the fashion lexicon, a style worn to this day.

Coco Chanel became a prominent designer around the world as her brand mirrored the image of the new age women: confident, independent, provocative and rebellious. She started selling clothes made from cheap jersey material for exorbitant prices and targeted women with money as her audience. Since she was offering something new, and aspirational they were willing to pay a premium price. Her brand created an aura that her customers wanted for themselves. The reason she became an iconic designer of her time.

Facing the Competition

Post World War I, Chanel was the undisputed queen of Parisian fashion. She captured a major share of the market with almost no competitor for over two decades. For the first time in 15 years she faced a real competitor by the name of Elsa Schiaparelli and later Christian Dior and Cristobal Balenciaga among many others. Schiaparelli’s style statement in couture was innovative and surreal, won critical acclaim and generated enthusiasm in the fashion world. But Chanel’s fashion stayed intact – functional, simple and modern.
Chanel collaborated with theatre, ballets and movies, and created designs for artists which was mocked by critics. Chanel’s place on the throne of haute couture was threatened by her contemporaries. In 1939, at the beginning of World War II, Chanel closed her shops, as a result of which 4000 female employees lost their jobs.

The Battle over Chanel No. 5

There was a legal fight to take control of Parfums Chanel – Chanel No. 5 between French businessman Pierre Wertheimer and Chanel. Finally, Wertheimer and Chanel came to a mutual agreement on renegotiating the original contract wherein her future share would be two percent of all Chanel sales worldwide. Wertheimer also agreed to pay all of Chanel’s living expenses for the rest of her life. In 1947, Chanel received wartime profits to the tune of $5 million from the sale of Chanel No.5. Her earnings were projected at $25 million a year, making her at the time one of the richest women in the world.
Gabrielle Coco Chanel had an incredible business sense and the way she built her business is still applicable to young entrepreneurs starting up today. She was a shrewd businesswoman and very hardworking. She learned all the business tricks first hand from scratch.

Lessons Entrepreneurs can learn from Coco Chanel

Find the market gap and fill it

In her shop in Deauville, she offered luxury clothing for leisure and sport. She created her own unisex, easy going style and turned into contemporary clothes for women. Swimsuits for women that were non-existent at the time, Chanel invented it and created a huge demand in women. This was the gap she found and fulfilled it. Chanel had a keen eye towards seeing such opportunities and providing for it. She became a style icon that many emulated, be it her hair cut, or her dressing style. She became more visible in the media, party circuit to flaunt her look to lure and widen the customer base. She even started giving away her clothes for free to induce a sense of desire in people.
Therefore, one needs to find a niche in the existing market and fill it with your strength. Building mysticism and curiosity around the brand is pertinent to draw an audience.
Chanel was creating a demand for something that was new, made from inferior material but she still managed to create a want. The lesson here was build demand and attraction around what you sell. Influencer marketing and blogger outreach in today’s social media generation.

Innovation needs a vision

Chanel gave women of her times the chance to see the other side of clothes and fashion. At a time when corset and tight dresses were norm of the day, Chanel made people realise there was a different way of dressing. Women fell in love with her ideas, brand. Innovation works when you make people see the world in a different way.

Name is everything

When people see the Chanel brand, they think of the women behind the brand, the reason it happens is because Coco Chanel put in so much effort into creating her brand, she became a popular personality hobnobbing with the upper echelons of the society. She positioned her brand into a luxury one targeting the ultra-rich people.
The lesson is, focus on why your product stands out. Your name is what you make of yourself so put in all efforts into making one.

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One needs to find a niche in the existing market and fill it with your strength

Power in diversifying and perfect integration

Chanel taught us diversification is not only the best way to expand your product range, it ensures financial stability. If one of the multiple things you are working on falls through you will always have a backup.
She ventured into perfume making, she got herself involved at every step of the making of the iconic perfume which was named Chanel No.5. From the choice of fragrance to the shape of the bottle. From its making to designing of the bottle to naming it, from marketing to its selling she was deeply involved in the entire process ensuring the integrity of the brand. Chanel partnered with a French businessman who was expert in the field of making perfumes. Therefore, even today after 100 years, Chanel No.5 is the most selling perfume in the world. According to statistics, it sells one bottle every 30 seconds.
Diversification doesn’t necessarily mean success at every product line, but as long as you take quality control the chances of success gets higher. Unlike many designers of today who dilute their brands either by not getting involved into the last detail or by licensing to people who don’t understand the essence of the brand.

You can rise from the Fall

Coco Chanel reigned at the top for two decades, then she remained in a self-imposed exile for 14 years. At 70, she made a comeback but by that time she was out of the business and had to start all over. Other fashion houses had gained popularity in France, so she was panned out by critics for getting her same old style. Chanel then decided to target the American market, as the rich women in America resonated her style profile that was- athletic, easy, practical. Her new line created a huge sensation and she re-established herself within a year of her arrival. Known personalities like Jacqueline Kennedy wore her trademark simple and classic suits, Chanel was reclaimed and came back strong.
The lesson here is Ideas can change lives. Know your target audience, an intensive market research is what sets a powerful brand apart from the rest.

Creative Advertising

Chanel No.5 was, “A very improper perfume for nicely brought-up ladies.” This tagline goes with the rebelliousness of the brand. Invest time and money into developing a great advertising- a good catchline for your brand that goes with the essence of the brand.

Do the unexpected that wows all

Chanel took the color black- a color of mourning and turned it into a glamourous evening dress. What can you do that is unexpected? How can you take existing resources and use them in a different way to provide a product or service that no one has thought before? Invest time in thinking how you can flip the table.

The power of a good story

Gabriele Chanel’s personal story draws sympathy and inspires many. Her background of living in an orphanage and being abandoned by her father is what people feel sorry for and at the same time take inspiration from. So invest in your story as the founder of your company and the company story that you communicate to the market. A compelling story that one wants to be associated with.

Long term plan

Chanel No. 5 perfume remains the major source of revenue for the company. Chanel was farsighted. She knew this product would yield massive profits in the longer term. Chanel had the deal renegotiated multiple times but still ended up earning 10% of the profits, 70% goes to Wertheimers whose factory produces the perfumes, they continue to control the perfume company today. The rest 20% of profit is shared by department store owner, Theophile Badar. The lesson here is no matter how great the equity seems at the start of a business, only make a deal you can live with long term.

Take Risks

Chanel initially started out selling women’s hats in her high street Paris store. She then ventured into clothing, which soon became very popular with women. She never tried to fit in on the old-fashioned corseted clothing that was the trend at that time. She took risk by introducing something that was never seen before. She always ventured territories nobody treaded before- swimsuits, signature perfumes. She took the risk by entering these segments without testing the market and succeeded.

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How does Meesho Intend to Provide Financial Independence to Women?

Anju Nambiar — Wed, 21 Apr 2021 03:35:04 +0000

Meesho is a Bengaluru-based start-up and Social Commerce platform. Recently, they reached a Gross Merchandise Value (GMV) of $1B and they are currently valued at $2.1B after a $300M funding round backed by Softbank Vision Fund 2 alongside Prosus Ventures, Facebook, Venture Highway, Shunwei Capital and Knollwood Investment.

Meesho wants to be the enabler for small businesses also referred to as individual entrepreneurs. They have set a target of onboarding 100 million small businesses and individual entrepreneurs. Meesho wants to help these people obtain business success through their platform.
Their main focus is women entrepreneurs and homepreneurs, a lot of whom have already become financially independent through their platform.

Recently Meesho’s business model was diversified due to its recent rise to the unicorn status. The company believes that the small business sector in India is very profitable for ecommerce to tap into. The ecommerce sector in India is not yet fully catering to small businesses since most of them are still stuck in the offline selling mode. The potential is high for small businesses in ecommerce.

How Meesho is helping women achieve financial freedom

The reselling platform is enabling women entrepreneurs and encouraging them to start their own online business in the Fashion and Home wear, unbranded and longtail categories.They can curate their products across different categories mainly fashion, furnishings and home appliances. They can then resell to their social circles via social media apps (there are so many).

Meesho has onboarded close to 10 Million entrepreneurs. It seems to have aced the social commerce model. By addressing the hyperlocal sector in the fashion industry, Meesho is empowering individuals to start their online business without capital.

They are also offering products, logistics, and payment tools for micro entrepreneurs. Close to 70% of entrepreneurs on Meesho are homemakers, career-oriented women on breaks, and students, forming an extensive trust network of social entrepreneurs. For first-time entrepreneurs, hyperlocal is a hot sector, especially in fashion.

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The reselling platform is enabling women entrepreneurs and encouraging them to start their own online business in the Fashion and Home wear, unbranded & longtail categories.

In the Hyperlocal market, most entrepreneurs are selling on WhatsApp groups. This is how the social commerce business model came about for Meesho. By literally replacing WhatsApp groups in a more efficient manner, Meesho has become the mobile version of Shopify for the Indian market.

The initial users of Meesho were mostly homemakers with offline connections who had suppliers in regions like Surat and Rajasthan. As they were setting up their boutique on the app, Meesho’s intended target group changed since they were originally not targeting women homemakers. The problem commonly faced by homemakers is finding trustworthy suppliers. This is a bigger problem than setting up an online store or a physical store.

The problem Meesho is trying to solve

Meesho is helping people who are not very tech savvy but are well versed with using social media platforms like WhatsApp and Facebook. The UI and UX of Meesho is very simple. The app also works in areas where network connection is poor. Women are commonly faced with these challenges especially homemakers who belong to remote villages or interior locations across the country. They can even source their products through Meesho’s network and sell to their communities on WhatsApp and Facebook groups. Women are even free to decide their own profit margin.

What’s in it for me?

Women empowerment is a tremendous cause to work towards, as a start-up. Following in the footsteps of Meesho, there are many ways to innovate in social commerce, by targeting the female customer base.

Social Media users are putting platforms to innovative use, especially for reselling on groups. Start-ups like Meesho and Slack have emulated these platforms in their own way for specific use cases like community reselling or work communication. As a social commerce platform, even you can come up with similar ideas.

Find out where your target user base is active on and come up with products and services to enable ecommerce on these mediums.

The post How does Meesho Intend to Provide Financial Independence to Women? appeared first on Dutch Uncles.

Richa Kar – Educating Indian Women About Intimate Wear

Aakash Sharma — Tue, 16 Mar 2021 08:35:04 +0000

Zivame, one of India’s largest online lingerie retailers, was founded in 2011 with the aim of helping women to find their intimate wearables independently. Zivame founder, Richa Kar, is considered one of the top women entrepreneurs in India. Zivame is arguably India’s first online lingerie that plays an essential role in educating women across the country about underwear and consumer behaviour.

The company’s terminology, Zivame, is unique as a brand identity. The word Zivame comes from the Hebrew word ‘Ziva‘, which means “to shine”, and Zivame means “shining me”. Richa Kar has genuinely transformed the way women treat and communicate with their bodies through innerwear. Zivame has taught Indian women to carry lingerie with confidence.

Riche Kar has boldly removed shyness from the Indian lingerie industry and added a fashion element to it. She grew up in Jamshedpur and earned an engineering degree from BITS Pilani. She briefly worked in the IT industry and received a master’s degree in 2007 from the Narsee Monjee Institute for Management Studies. She then worked for a global technology and retail company before starting the journey of her own business.

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Richa Kar has genuinely transformed the way women treat and communicate with their bodies through innerwear. Zivame has taught Indian women to carry lingerie with confidence.

Richa Kar’s New Age Application

As the lingerie and clothing industry is becoming more and more online application-oriented, Zivame also harnessed its innovative application value. Its app is developed after careful study of consumers’ browsing habits to create a design that speeds up product discovery. With a browser-based experience, this is done quickly with a two-click purchase and onboarding process.

Almost 60% of Zivame’s traffic comes from mobile devices, and the company is confident it will grow in the coming years. Company officials say they sell more than one bra per minute, or more than 40,000 units per month, a record figure in the Indian market.

Zivame – A Catalyst for the Change in bringing Women’s Innerwear to the Forefront

Zivame claims that it sells more than one bra per minute and has helped bring the segment to light in India. Underwear, lingerie and innerwear are considered the most exciting category of women’s clothing in the world. In India, however, the innerwear segment has always worked under the shadows and behind the counters due to culture impediments.

But today, Indian women are more confident than ever and use lingerie to express their uniqueness and personality. Since its creation, Zivame has devoted a wing to the development of lingerie based on research on the body types and lifestyles of Indian women.

Each product is designed to ensure an optimal fit. 60% of the company’s total sales are made with its own line of products. The company is encouraging more women to shop online while expanding the product line and increasing communication with consumers.

What’s in Zivame for you to learn?

A major takeaway from Richa Kar and Zivame’s story is that nothing is scarce and rare enough to explore positive entrepreneurial opportunities. Richa Kar took something very close and intimate to half the country’s population (vast market) and innovated ways to make that item more accessible and suitable to them.

The key to her success lies in identifying the right products in the right industry with the right target customers and fulfilling what the market lacks. Despite the immense shadows regarding innerwear, especially women’s innerwear, Richa Kar leapt and landed in the market space where only a few had walked upon. If you follow the right path and explore the right avenues, you can excel in your venture as well.

The post Richa Kar – Educating Indian Women About Intimate Wear appeared first on Dutch Uncles.

Don’t Just Dream for Success, Work for It: Suchi Mukherjee

Roopali Kotwal — Tue, 09 Mar 2021 06:36:11 +0000

Suchi Mukherjee, a successful digital entrepreneur, married and a mother of two, is a dreamer! The Founder and CEO of the online fashion and lifestyle brand – ‘LimeRoad’ may not need an introduction now, but here recalling her success story.

Education and Background

Suchi comes from a middle-class family. A graduate from St. Stephen College, Delhi and University of Cambridge. She went to London to pursue her masters in finance and economics from the London School of Economics. She worked as an ‘Investment banker’ with Lehman Brothers (1998). Later, worked with Virgin Media, eBay and Skype. She also ran and built UK’s classified businesses.

How Suchi Mukherjee Built LimeRoad

The thought and zeal to do something different and bigger led Suchi’s journey from being a successful corporate employee to an entrepreneur.

Suchi was on maternity break, scrolling through a magazine and noticed a necklace that she really liked. As the jewellery was from a local artisan in Mumbai, there was no way she could have that anytime soon. She realised that there was no consumer technology that made the availability of products easy. This triggered the idea of ‘LimeRoad’ which culminated in 2012.

She understood that the online presence of India’s manufacturing business is very small. She was passionate about digitising ‘India lifestyle manufacturing’ and felt the idea of fashion accessories and apparels was disruptive and innovative.

LimeRoad, from day one, was focused on ‘Women Fashion’. However, it later extended the product line for males, kids and the plus size segment. As a part of brand recall, the first physical outlet of LimeRoad was launched in Surat in 2018.

Her aim was to solve ‘online product discovery’ for women. Hence, envisioned LimeRoad as a people-centric discovery platform with a focus to maintain a freshness experience every day.

Investments

By 2018, they had raised $ 50 million in 3 rounds from Matrix India Partners, Tiger Global Management, LLC and Light-speed Venture Partners

$ 5 million in Series A in 2012

$ 15 million in Series B in 2014

$ 30 million in Series C in 2015

As of 2020, LimeRoad received Rs 11 crore funding from MA Willmind Holdings. According to Pitch-book, the valuation stands at $ 1.49 million backed by Venture Capital Series D funding with a total of 5 investors.

Awards/Achievements

Suchi was a part of Start-up India Conference 2016 and shared the stage with Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Other achievements include:

Won ‘Coolest Start-up of the year’ award (2015)

Won ‘Infocom Woman of the Year’, ‘Digital Business’ award (2015)

Won ‘Unicorn Start-up Award’ (2016)

Nominated for ET Start-up Award (2017)

LimeRoad’s first major step towards promoting the ‘Make in India’ campaign called for a partnership with the Madhya Pradesh Government’s M.P Laghu Udyog Nigam to promote handloom and handicraft products online in India.

What’s in it for me?

The mind can be the biggest blocker or contributor to success. So, once you are mentally ready, that is a good time to start entrepreneurship. Some traits, Suchi felt are important for success:

Fighter gene to sail through highs and lows

Clear vision

Right talent/team

Highly scalable business model

Funding/Capital

For her, LimeRoad is a way to build a beautiful consumer technology that gives Indians access to ‘Made in India’ products. To sum up her entrepreneurial journey, her self-belief, conviction in the idea, perseverance, passion, creativity, resilience and risk-taking ability are binding traits for success.

Be a ‘Dreamer’ and work towards it! Suchi’s success story justifies the proverb ‘Don’t just dream for success, work for it’.

The post Don’t Just Dream for Success, Work for It: Suchi Mukherjee appeared first on Dutch Uncles.

Tech Trends for Fashion Ecommerce to Rule in 2021

Shalmoli Sarkar — Tue, 23 Feb 2021 01:30:08 +0000

‘It is difficult to determine size while shopping clothes online.’

-The plight of an online shopper

An online shopper in India goes through ambiguity while selecting the right size of apparel. The fashion and apparel category though being one of the most revenue-generating category is recognized to have the highest return rate, with colour, size, and textile being the major reasons. Findings of a RedSeer report of 2019 say that about 20-30 percent of the products bought from fashion e-commerce stores are returned that accounts for about $6 billion of the total $32 billion gross merchandise value of online retail in India. Sometimes, when a customer returns a product, he has to incur the charges for reverse shipping. Reverse shipping becomes expensive for the company since the logistics firm has to go to that location to pick up that one parcel. Also, since the ordered apparel is worn and tried by multiple people, the same is repacked and sold to the next customer, by which the apparel neither gets washed nor ironed. To resolve this problem of high returns, the fashion e-commerce sector needs to implement technology solutions such as AR, VR and virtual assistants, etc. by which the customer can purchase the right apparel.

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About 20-30 percent of all fashion products bought online are returned that accounts for about $6 billion of the total $32 billion gross merchandise value of online retail in India.

- RedSeer Report, 2019

Phygital = Physical + Digital

The pandemic has restricted movement and people are comfortable buying online. With an increase in online shopping, its good times for offline stores. Shops that initially began as an offline store can transit into an online one offering a phygital experience. A phygital experience shopping experience is an amalgamation of technology such as Blockchain, virtual reality and augmented reality infused with the experience of physical shopping. Implementation of such technologies can be used for geo-targeting consumers and help fashion retail companies create specific offers and rewards. It will also aid the fashion e-commerce companies to gather insights on consumer shopping habits and patterns, footfall, efficiency, etc. It also helps to improve brand positioning, promotion, product, pricing and shopping experience.

New Tech trends that will enhance the fashion e-commerce shopping

The virtual shopping assistants

Consumer preferences and trends especially in the fashion industry are highly volatile, making it imperative for fashion e-commerce companies to go for a personalized shopping approach and customer-centric merchandising. Mimicking the sales assistants in a physical store, the fashion e-commerce companies can implement AI-based chatbots as the new virtual sales representatives. These AI chatbots or virtual representatives are computer programs that simulate a human conversation through chatting and messaging. When a customer arrives at the website, the AI chatbots engage with the site visitor in a conversation, first introducing themselves as a chatbot and shooting an array of questions that determines what the customer is searching for. After, knowing the preferences, the AI chatbots can directly take the customer to browse collections in the catalogue. The virtual assistants can provide suggestions of styling, selection of outfits, customer service, and product discovery. The conversational tone of finding products on the website makes the filter feature an obsolete one.

Virtual Trial Rooms

The fashion e-commerce industry is plagued by high returns that can be blamed on the inability to detect the right size of apparel bought. The long queue before trial room can be tackled by leveraging AR (augmented reality) technology that enables a virtual fitting room. In a virtual fitting room, the shoppers can click a picture of themselves and drag the chosen outfits that are AR filters, and create a unique style. Multiple collages of every outfit, style and fitting can be created for comparison and understand what works best.

An alternate virtual fitting room can also be created by including 3D models. Virtually a 3D model can be created by mimicking a shopper’s exact body measurements. Once the 3D model is made, it is a replica of the shopper itself, from where we can drag various outfits to the 3D model created.

A virtual fitting room allows shoppers to experiment with various looks and apparel combinations, which in offline trial room is limited to a few apparels.

Self-Checkout Kiosks

Online businesses are adopting omnichannel strategies to fully leverage the supply chain and better utilization of inventory. Unlike online shopping, billing of items in an offline store consumed a significant amount of time, leaving the shoppers annoyed. In times when customers are seeking instant gratification, the time taken for billing can be reduced by keeping self-checkout kiosks. Self-checkout kiosks enable quicker checkout by allowing the customer to complete billing in simpler steps and without any intervention of humans.

Blockchain Technology

Besides finance and digital currencies, blockchain technology is gaining ground in the fashion ecommerce industry as well. Customers often vent their resentment on social media of not receiving genuine products that eventually erodes the brand image. To counter fake products or products of substandard quality, blockchain technology in combination with physical RFID chips or QR codes, companies can track the multiple stages involved in sourcing the raw materials to distribution of finished products to the end consumer. It ensures that the entire process right from manufacturing to a finished product is performed in an ethical and secured manner by monitoring in between processes. It induces transparency since blockchain’s characteristic of distributed ledger can be accessed by manufacturers, suppliers, and vendors. The ledger contains a detailed history of the product’s origin to where it is presently.

How Shopify Helps Fashion E-commerce

Shopify AR

Fashion online stores website is the showroom, and the better the display of vibrant colours and detailing of a fabric or apparel, the more it entices the customer. Shopify AR is a web-powered augmented reality service that gives an immersive shopping experience to the customers driving more sales. It brings the product alive and allows shoppers to have a realistic idea of the size, scale, and detail of the products. Just like images, we can add 3D models to product pages. As per Shopify’s study, the conversion rate of products increases by 94 percent if it has AR content. It has an accessible toolkit to create a 3D model of the product that can be stored in the 3D Warehouse App that is integrated with Shopify AR, making it easy to add any models to the product pages. Shopify has an AR-powered-product customizer that can determine how potential buyers, window, shoppers, and loyal customers and explore products online. Its ‘size-up feature’ and 360-degree viewer allows customer to get an enlarged view of the product. The file size of the 3D-model should be of a minimum of 6MB and a maximum of 15 MB and file type to be in GLB. GLB is the binary version of the gITF (Graphics Language Transmission Format) 3D file format.

AI Chatbots

Artificial intelligence is shaping the online customer experiences by addressing their queries, grievances, providing suggestions, thus reducing the barrier of interaction between a brand and customer, personalizes the experience. The Shopify app store has a plethora of AI Chatbots apps to install for your fashion e-commerce site. The AI chatbots also connect with social media platforms. In case we want an in-built chatbot for the store, we can have some customized chatbot designs for an A/B test. The top five AI chatbots for Shopify are Tidio, Gobot, Tobi, Kit, and Intelliticks.

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As per Shopify's study, the conversion rate of products increases by 94 percent if it has AR content.

A blockchain plugin

The counterfeit products put business owners’ years of hard work in vain. The influx of counterfeit products in fashion e-commerce can be blamed on the lack of monitoring and control on the journey of raw materials to a finished product. However, Shopify is tackling this menace by blockchain integrated plugins, to ensure that the items sold on the site are authentic. The plugin is a combination of blockchain technology and a cloud-based application ‘TAM’ that allows companies to create non-fungible tokens (NFT) with which the physical assets can be secured. NFTs are cryptographic tokens that are unique and cannot be mutually interchanged. Products consisting of an NFT can be scanned by the customer to check if it is genuine.

The minimum contact to pay

To revolutionize the in-store retail experience for brands with an omnichannel presence, Shopify has launched a point-of-sale (POS) hardware Shopify Tap & Chip Reader. Shopify’s Tap and Chip reader allows customers to complete transactions by scanning the contactless mobile payment apps or by inserting credit/debit cards. The reader also connects with Shopify POS that provides a host of facilities like inventory management, secured payments, and a consolidated backend that links directly to the merchant’s online store.

With the above-mentioned technology advantages that Shopify offers, it is time for the fashion business owners to kickstart their own private fashion label.

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