Online fashion brand Yepme will be India’s first home grown retailer to sell global fashion products in international markets. As a start, it has launched a new portal yepmeworld.com to target NRI customers which will also be a test marketing site to gauge international demand for Indian-made apparel and fashion.
Inspired by examples of Indian start-ups, Yepme founders want to make it a global fashion brand like H&M. Swedish based H&M is the second largest global clothing retailer, second to Inditex (parent company of Zara) and above US based clothing giant GAP Inc.
Bollywood actor, Farhan Akhtar has already been roped in to be the brand ambassador.
Currently, the global site offers ethnic Indian wear but is getting set to offer western fashion as well. In about four months, Yepme will be an international site where shoppers will be able to make purchases using their local currency.
The international ethnic wear market is around $2 billion (Rs 12,000 crore) in size with a few sites like Utsav Fashion, Exclusively and Indian Roots focused on this market. There is demand for Indian ethnic wear and sites selling these products have been popular globally.
Although it won’t be easy to crack into markets with established players like H&M, Zara and Marks & Spencer, Yepme has some advantages to work with like:
Sellers can aim for a global customer base with Yepme. In order to stand out, Yepme will have to offer a wider range of apparel in sync with latest trends and fashion. This would mean tie-ups with more vendors and suppliers. Although a seller may not be able to sell as a separate brand, his products may be able to sell as a separate collection under the Yepme brand.
After dwindling with her family business, into travel and hospitality, for more than 3 years, Pooja Vishant found her true love in writing. Happy-go-lucky and cheerful, she loves pink; so pink is the way to go if you want to get into her good books. The Associate Editor keeps track of even a leaf that has moved in the ecommerce world!
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