Ishita Swarup, Co-founder and CEO, 99labels.com, says accessories as a category works best for online retail along with lingerie and unstitched kurtis.
Q. What is your assessment about the online retail industry in India?
In India, e-commerce is an industry worth Rs 48,000 crore today. E-tailing as a part of the e-commerce boom is pegged at a whopping Rs 5,300 crore by the year 2013. As of today the fashion and lifestyle categories constitute 20 percent of the e-tailing space.
Q. What have been the challenges so far?
Getting women to shop online was one of the challenges we faced initially as Internet was largely a male dominated segment. Another big challenge was creating the alliances and getting the first few brand partners on board for our flash sale/discount model.
Also, not everyone is comfortable sharing credit card information and making online payment; to counter this issue and develop trust with our buyers, we started cash on delivery (COD) payment option which has been a huge success. Almost, 60 percent of our daily transactions are paid through the COD mode.
Another major challenge that portals like ours face is streamlining the supply chain.
Q. Please share some of the unique insights about Indian customers shopping online?
Just like men, women have become equally net savvy, they are more particular about fit and detailing and also love splurging on expensive products and brands. Today 60 percent of our buyers are women. Women over 40 years are also increasingly shopping online.
Also, online shoppers are well aware of the brands and very particular about the quality of merchandise.
Shoppers from tier II and III cities also have a lot of spending power and aspire to own international brands, but fail to do so because of non-availability. Online shopping has helped fill this gap.
Smartphones have been starting to make a substantial percentage and usage will grow to about 13 percent in the coming years. The transition to start shopping using smartphones is around the corner.
Q. Do you think online retail works better for some categories than others?
Definitely, online retail works best for lingerie, unstitched kurtis, and accessories like handbags, jewellery, etc. Though we have a lot of apparel on sale but accessories remain the largest selling category on our portal.
Q. What are the top selling categories on your portal?
In apparels, our best sellers are sarees, unstitched kurtis, and lingerie. Apart from these, accessories also sell a lot. We also saw a spike in home furnishings and kids wear sales, which made us create them as a separate category.
Q. Any marketing initiatives for this year?
For us at 99labels the best marketing effort has been done by the members themselves through recommending their experience to others. This falls in line with our strong referral program which rewards the person in several ways for making the referral.
Besides this, we have started a loyalty club called Club99 for our regular members who shop for higher value. We are also looking at rolling out a series of mobile apps this year to maximize our presence in M-commerce, which is fast catching up.
The company has also taken its marketing efforts offline with events, radio spots, and print advertisements, all of which help reach out to an audience not having a constant online presence.
Q. Which brands sell more in metros or tier I and II cities?
We have a mix of national and international brands such as Diesel, Victoria’s Secret, DKNY, Gucci, Miss Sixty, and others among international labels and W, TarunTahiliani, Hidesign, Ritu Kumar, Anita Dongre, Art Karat, and many more under national brands.
Our buyer base from tier II and III cities buys brands such as Puma, W (kurtis), Adidas, etc, whereas people in metros buy more of international brands like Miss Sixty, DKNY, Diesel, Gucci, etc, and especially the ones which are not easily available in India.
Q. What is the sales ratio between metro cities and tier II and III towns?
So far, the sales ratio between metro cities and smaller towns has been 60 and 40 percent, respectively, but we’re seeing a blurring of the defined edges of the ratio as more people in tier II and III are gaining awareness and aspiring towards the products which have so far been perceived as ‘city’ brands.
Q Tell us about your future plans?
The company is currently growing at a rate of 20-30 percent month- on-month, but we are looking at 300 percent growth by 2013. A lot of national and international brand partnerships are also being planned.
Though we deliver pan India as of now, the focus towards international deliveries is getting sharper. We have not yet partnered with any international flash sales site but it is something which cannot be ruled out in the future.
