India’s lingerie market is currently valued at $3 billion. A mere 1% of it is online. In the next few years the market value is projected to jump to $5 billion. While physical stores obviously ring in the bulk of the sales, the unavailability of sizes, lack of privacy and shortage of trained personnel has paved the way for online lingerie portals.
Currently valued at around $100 million, one of the major e-commerce players Zivame has raised a whopping $48 million in its lifetime. That’s quite a surprise in a country where sanitary pads are packed better than IEDs in Iraq and the word ‘bra’ may send shivers down one’s spine.
Business Insider India chats up with the Founder-CEO of India’s largest
1. You deal in a niche category. What has worked for you at the face of competition from Flipkart, Snapdeal and Amazon?
Our relentless pursuit to understand the consumer. The entire experience is geared towards women and the relationship she needs to have with her intimate wear. While there are other horizontals offering lingerie, the experience a woman can get from
2. What’s your assessment of the Indian lingerie market?
The Indian market is largely unorganized and there is huge potential. Distribution is one of the most defining challenges. No single brand can be present everywhere. Add to that the complication of sizes. Also, Indians buy lingerie more as a necessity, and the purchase is not well thought over. That’s exactly what we are looking to change.
3. How has India’s mentality towards lingerie changed since your launch?
While we do offer privacy in shopping, we want women to be comfortable. Quite unlike the Men’s brands that have film stars advertising for them, women still refrain from using the word ‘underwear’. However, the traditional mentality is changing, largely thanks to social media.
4. How different is your business model from a Flipkart or Snapdeal?
We work with select partners and in-house brands. As opposed to marketplaces, our focus is less on the number of brands or sellers on offer and more on the value we offer. This allows for the most relevant choices in terms of a woman’s body type. We also curate our assortment very closely.
5. Give me a scale of your operations.
We currently sell at least a bra every minute. Around 60% of our revenue is from the in-house brands, and Zivame is currently seeing 300% year-on-year growth in revenue. We ship nearly 10 lakh products a year today.
6. Do you have any plans to expand to Feminine Care? – Sanitary Pads, Female Condoms, Intimate Wash or Lubricants? These require the privacy quotient as well.
Not really. Our focus is strictly on lingerie as a category, and the need is much beyond the privacy quotient. The other
7. Just like Flipkart or Snapdeal, around 70% of your traffic is from the mobile. However, quite opposed to other e-commerce players, a mere 30% of your revenue is from Tier II and III cities. Why do you think that is?
While we are an e-commerce company after all, ours is very niche variant. Horizontals like Flipkart have done extensive mass advertising and regional campaigns that have increased their reach. While we do have a TVC, the lingerie category has not been marketed to the Tier II and Tier III cities crowd.
Our traffic is mainly from the top 6 cities currently. Once we figure out a way to reach out to a larger consumer base in Tier II and Tier III cities is when we can tap into that market. However, our revenue from these cities has jumped from 15% in the first two years to around 30% now.
8. Any plans of going app only?
None whatsoever. As a niche player we need diverse touch points to allow our customers the choice they deserve. In fact, we look to expand our consumer touch points. The devices play varied roles in the journey of a woman discovering herself inside out. Each platform has its unique touch. Desktop works best for images, mobile allows discretion, and the WAP site helps in quick discovery.
9. A lot of money is being put into Indian e-commerce without much sign of profitability. What do you say to that?
We’re creating a category that has been largely overlooked by retailers, investors and consumers. We believe ours is a fundamentally genuine business as there is a need that we are catering to. That would allow us to be in business and investors would continue to look at us with interest.
10. Could you throw more light on Mr.
*Giggles* No no, we’re not revealing any figuree. However, the kind of experience he has, even a half an hour interaction is a source of such wisdom. I’ve been very lucky to have had some insightful conversations that have helped us fix the way we run our company.
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