New Modern Sarees from Tata, Birla & Ambani

Indian modern Sarees - now from Tata, Birla and Ambanis!

India sells ~50000 cr worth of Sarees annually. Out of which ~27% was organized market in FY20, which is slated to grow to 40% by FY25.

New cool brands have been growing with modernised play on sarees. Taniera by Tata, Navyasa by Birla and Avantea by Ambanis are some those new brand launched in last 5 years. 

The erstwhile biggies - Nallis, Kalyan Silks, Pothys, Chennai Silks have been there since ages selling buildings full of traditional sarees.

Interesting play in retail with again expansion of exclusive stores by each of the new brands. 

Definitely, there is a gap in the market with the dearth of modern sari specific brands, contrasting to plethora of western wear brands. 

W and Biba capitalised on this gap earlier in non-saree ethnic market earlier.

Interesting to see, how things pan out.

Where do you buy your sarees from?

#fashion #retail #brand #sarees 

India, Bharat and Fashion Ecommerce

An online brand now needs to evolveto cater to larger growing population from rural areas who will increasingly shop fashion online.

The split between urban and rural internet users is now more in favour of rural india (~52:48) and thats where the growth in online adoption is. From #internet users, they will eventually become shoppers, currently marred by the quality of physical distribution in bharat.

Thus, most brands are vying up for #D2C routes, #partnerships or via existing ecommerce players who already deliver to close to 100% of pincodes in India.

In my opinion, tech fashion space needs:
👉 More of Visual approach Vs text - More #video than reams and reams of text on detail pages.
👉 More of Assisted shopping models - Voice based tech (#alexa) or human interaction on video
👉 More of Real Shopping experience - Personalized selection and TrynBuy services as a customer associate makes you shop
👉 More of personalized fitting - Tieups across physical stores or tailoring network to get you quick alterations. This is one reasons why sales of bottoms/blazers is lower in online world vs offline (top:bottom ratio).
👉 More of fashion advisory vs just putting up loads of apparel selection - Consumers also shop to get eduacted on how to match, layer, coordinate etc while shopping for fashion.

Additionally mixed models or omnichannel efforts will pave the way for offline online integrated experience to capture this opportunity.

Offline brands offering this thru #WhatsApp chat selling thru catalogues, #video calls and mobile shops. Adaptation to changing #consumer preferences and still keeping focus on key competencies of #offline retailing.

All #salespersons who have a knack of human interaction, of how to traverse through steps of #selling - ice breaking, probing, handling objections etc will still be relevant. The skill of fabbing ( Feature, Advantage and Benefit) of a particular product is more animated than a verbose detail page till tech adapts to dynamically alter level of details sought by a consumer. All those skills can come handy in future on e-commerce as well with video assisted shopping taking shape in future.

You might still have your favourite salesman listening to your queries and offering personalised service, but on a video interface while you shop online. Yeah, but that coffee he offers in store with great reverance to make you feel as a king  while you shop to overhaul your wardrobe, will be missed :)

#fashion #retail #salesperson #experience #skill #jobs

WFH Collections, really?

#WFH collections, really?

There are news that fashion brands are coming up with Work from Home Collections keeping in mind the consumer needs when they are WFH. After having spent a decade in fashion retailing, i am putting my thoughts below on the topic.

I believe fashion retail is driven by a larger need of social proof. To define the taste we have, labels to tell how much we earn, and where we belong. Now, given social distancing has dented the need for social proof, its not dead.

We still sport social proof clothing for WFH, though more polos, more round necks rather than crisp shirts. For some, the logos on those polos will serve the need to make those hierarchy statements. Others, might sport 'Slogan Tees' to make thier point in resistance and so on.

But yes, comfort will take a higher precedence over trends. More for shorts than trousers. And yes, the thumb rule of 3:1 (top to bottom (trousers) ratio) might stretch to 4 or 5 given the screen limitation on video chat.

But will designs change, i mean a special line of clothing? I dont think so its more like using the popular term. The reason why i am writing about it also means that in times of covid, wfh collection catches attention and thus a chance for a consumer to at least look at a category which will be in extreme pressure. A larger question, is whether our need to keep refreshing our wardrobe from season to season, would that be needed? That will change...at least for a while. Till we come back to normal with the end of #covid.

So, how can fashion industry wade thru these times? I think, there is a need to detach the industry from discretionary to more value. This would require ways and means to attach to fight against covid. Cause based approach wherein society at large can benefit immediately if people purchase now! Shop and then proceeds will enable a, b and c. Some way where consumer feels that shopping will help me with clothes but also do something for others. The freebies can be given away from the piles of inventory which would be unsellable after some time sitting in warehouses given there will be impact on demand in short term.

While quarantine has also stopped most engagememt calendars of fashion brands, still continued dialogue is needed with these brands talking about tips to deal with wfh, bringing stories that can up spirits of consumers, contribute to fight against covid with efforts around may be developing PPE for covid warriors and son.

These are the things that industry has to address rather than wfh collections as of now.

#fashion #apparel #retail #covid19 #wfh #comfort

Artificial Intelligence going Fashion Street

Watched a movie recently, MoneyBall wherein a baseball manager starts picking his team basis results of a computer algorithm created by a geek. And then the team wins successive matches and sets a record for successive wins in the history. And its a true story.

I wondered how come computer algorithms can predict success so much that coaches/selectors who have played the game for years start becoming irrelevant. People who have been there and have gathered that knack of identifying the hidden potential, can be replaced for the better, efficient and faster Artificial Intelligence driven programs.

However, this is getting real and real today. In my industry of fashion too. Yes, an industry which runs on WGSN trends and worldwide fashion walks trends with hordes of designers and fashion pundits and critics giving thier magical crystal ball predictions of future trends and fads. And all the fashion magazine editors, and retailer feedbacks and planners' output will get replaced with what a piece of code can do. And its here. Now. I digged a little on this and found its happening in India as well.

Closer to home in India, ecommerce companies are having a huge gold mine of data of consumer purchase as well as browsing before purchase. Myntra for example has launched multiple brands like Moda Rapido and Here&Now where the design are predicted basis software's suggestions after mining thier database (together as Myntra, Jabong & Flipkart, they claim 70% online fashion market share) as well as crwaling some thousands of fashion blogs and feeds of social media platforms like instagram. Called as Rapid, this technology would come up with a list of attributes: types of collars, sleeves, cuts, colours and other features currently popular with customers and suggest designs to make.

And they claim huge improvements in sell thru(s), so much so that bulk of thier private labels will start working on AI based trends now.

And then there are global players like Amazon using AI-fashion integration by developing an AI fashion designer. The algorithm learns about a particular style of fashion from images, and can then generate new items in similar styles from scratch.

As per online news articles, i found that an Indian designer brand is using IBM’s cognitive tool Watson to map the future of Bollywood fashion by combining analysis of over 600,000 images of fashion runway shows and Indian couture.

In US, a fashion brand called StitchFix, is solely created out of AI predicted designs for different kinds of customer. The styling service has algorithms to predict what styles people of which profile prefer.

Wow! And imagine the impact in terms of how AI can help brands and retailers with predictive forecasting, capacity planning and merchandising. Issues of unsold inventories, deep discounting, 4-6 months of design to inventory cycle, all getting solved by AI.

How paradoxical it is now. Something as creative as fashion is now predicted by a machine! Is it like a victory of geeks over the fashion pundits? Time will tell.

I am an engineer by the way!

Sources - https://www.livemint.com/AI/tdxtlGYRklB16h8rWj7A2H/How-Artificial-Intelligence-is-empowering-designers-in-India.html

https://www.livemint.com/Companies/tchtq74FOkMM43szMIHh0M/At-Myntra-machines-tell-designers-how-to-make-clothes.html

https://www.businessoffashion.com/articles/news-analysis/how-algorithms-are-threatening-fashions-white-collar-jobs

Sweet Smelling Newspaper Ad

Wow! When my son started reading today's TOI when i was starting my day with ET, i got intrigued by sweet smell. And realized that its the #Myntra #Ad about the #BeautyEdit event and that the page is smelling.

Such a small trick and uses another sense for a print ad - sense of #smell. And its a gimmick connected with the event's nature (Beauty category).

And then my mind starts racing - can it be extended? How about #perfume sprayers in the womens compartment in smelling #Delhimetros/#mumbailocals? Or, womens restrooms in Malls? Where-ever there is a mirror, it might be the place; lifts?

#marketing #brand #core #ecommerce #activation #Myntra