Retail with a Quirky Twist – Commerce, the Chumbak Way

“I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.”

Robert Frost seldom finds his way into Business Journalism, but ever rarer to find is a retail startup that’s raised ‘merely millions’, but is still positive at a store level. It has a hybrid model, and has over 13 stores across 8 cities. It’s a retail startup like no other.

Enter Chumbak, an Indian quirky retail brand that’s set the benchmark for ‘not-so-conventional’ single brand retail models across the country. Its designs are a rage among Indian youth, and it’s expected to set foot on US soil soon.

Business Insider sat down with co-founder Shubhra Chadda to decode the magnetic appeal of brand Chumbak.

Labels like yours are presumed to be led by designers, not marketing professionals. How difficult is it for you?
I always had the Chumbak look in mind. I wanted it to be fun, contemporary and with an international feel.

The big challenge was to explain it to the few designers I met initially. There was no reference or benchmarks. However, once we got the first set of designs out, it became clearer.

The more you do something, the clearer you get about what you want.

How did you explain to designers what’s essentially their craft?
I had a list of what I didn’t want to see. I didn’t want miniature art forms, the Mughal style, or the traditional symbols of Indian culture. We had several briefing sessions.

However, once you find the right person and the wavelengths meet, it’s not a problem. It’s all about finding the right people to work with.

How do you ensure consistency in design?
It’s all about the kind of screening we put people through before we even hire them.

There are multiple levels of conversation, their portfolio, then we give them a test. We also do a culture test to see if the wavelengths match.

For designer labels it’s a one-man show. How’s the design culture at Chumbak?
First two years it was very much based on my vision.

Now as we have a team of 12-15 designers. Each season the designers come up with themes, colors and ideas.

It’s very much a team effort now .They pitch to us, and we sit down and discuss ideas. We choose the one we like the most.

It’s a very collaborative environment.

You’ll soon expand to the US. Would you ever tweak your designs to cater to local demand?
We’ve already evolved from the ‘in your face Indian’ to a more sophisticated design sensibility.

We’ve expanded from accessories and collectibles to other segments. You can’t be that loud in case of décor and apparels.

Also, Chumbak’s design is not just India-themed. It evolves with what the buyer wants and has an international sensibility attached.

Has your core target audience changed since launch?
We’ve expanded the target audience with the launch of home and décor. Now there are people up to 40 who’re comfortable buying from our brand. The core audience still remains 18-30.

Some fans complain prices have shot up because of your offline stores. Do you buy into that?
I can understand why they’re saying that, but the reason is very different.

We started off with fridge magnets and collectibles. Now we’ve expanded to the home and apparel segment. Prices have increased as the product range has expanded.