From small crammed shops manned by clueless salesmen to sleek websites equipped with fitting experts, lingerie shopping has come a long way in India. While the awkwardness related to lingerie still persists, in the last couple of years women have grown more confident in experimenting and buying ‘intimate’ wear. This trend can be credited to online lingerie stores, to a great extent if not completely.
Buying online allow buyers to keep their purchase private and get it delivered discreetly; a key element that gives online lingerie stores an edge over physical stores. Other reasons besides privacy that has given boost to lingerie etail market are discounts, availability of international brands, a gamut of styles and multiple size options (from skinny to plus size) to choose from.
The players in this etail sector can be categorized into three.
Multi-category apparel players such as Jabong, Myntra, Flipkart, Fashionara, Amazon and Snapdeal. But women’s underclothing doesn’t get a complete focus here and is lost between other fast selling apparels and products.
Online platforms of private labels such as Lovable, PrettySecrets, Amante, Enamor, and Moodsofcloe. Preferable for women who are loyal to a particular brand. Prettysecrets and Moodsofcloe are doing well in this group due to their quirky, fun and bold collection.
Exclusive multi-brand online lingerie stores such Zivame, Straps and strings and The Darling Trap. Zivame seems to be the overall leader in the online lingerie market, including all the above mentioned sub-sections.
Richa Kar, Founder & CEO of Zivame shared with IndiaOnlineSeller, the inherent real challenges present in this product category. “Challenges lay at every point- First with the category itself – There is a lot of discomfort surrounding the lingerie as a category in India. The hushed or the suppressed nature of the category, has led to various myths and misconceptions getting attached to it,” said Kar.
She further added, “I was sure that Zivame.com was the solution to lingerie woes of thousands of Indian women. However, when I told someone about this, there was an awkward 10 second silence. Next step was incorporating the company, getting a payment gateway and renting an office space. The very nature of the category the business operates in saw challenges in each of these steps.”
When asked how the Zivame team tackled these challenges, Richa Kar said, “As a team our prime focus is to break open the category and make it more acceptable. We have resorted to a number of approaches both educative and consultative. For example, we have our fitting lounge, where women can experience a half an hour session with our fit experts and get themselves fitted. We also consult women on fit related issues over Skype and phone calls. It has been amazing to see how women have opened up over the months, discussing issues that had been buried for over years.”
In the recent times, quite a few advertisements of lingerie brands have come out. There is Enamor’s ‘Fabulous As I Am’ and Zivame’s ‘Explore Yourself’ among others. But in this category experiential marketing works better than traditional advertising. A mix of social media engagement, educative steps and assistance offered to pick the ‘right fit’ innerwear helps to reach out more people.
Like Richa Kar mentioned, “Apart from our consultative sessions, we aim at educating people about the category. Our product descriptions are very detailed and we also go to the extent of creating visual elements that help understand the functionality better. We have also launched a series of infomercials to educate our women about the category. Our aim is to approach the category differently as there is no prior benchmark in India for the same. For this, we need a team that thinks differently and works passionately.”
In fact experiential marketing via social media has managed to involve men too in the buying process.
“With the category present online now, they get to save the embarrassment, select in a private ambience, seek consultation if necessary and spend more time choosing what they want. Therefore, male customers form a growing segment in our business,” Kar said.
Physical stores have not succeeded in offering women a wide choice of products or an easy shopping experience. Priya Tambe, an online shopper said, “I am a plus-size top heavy woman. Finding a right bra was a nightmare. Most sales-reps of lingerie stores would say my size of innerwear doesn’t exist! And sadly I believed them. Only later when online stores came up did I got to know that right size bra for me always existed. The actual reason was regular stores didn’t stock it. ” This is where ecommerce comes to the rescue. Etailers not only offer a wide variety of products, but also new categories along with good discounts.
Based on an India Brand Equity Foundation report, the lingerie retail market is one of the key growth leaders. It is one of the fastest growing industry and expected to be worth Rs.30,000 crore by 2018. Many entrepreneurs and investors like Rehan Yar Khan, Orios Venture Partners, Kalaari Capital, Anupam Mittal, Ronnie Screwvala, Farooq Oomerbhoy have pumped money in this segment due to its potential. Earlier this year, in one of the Economic Times news report, Ronnie Screwvala had said, “Lingerie is an under-explored sector due to lack of organized retail. In this category there’s a need for anonymity from the core consumer and e-commerce will open up a strong latent demand.”
There is a definite scope and since the market of online lingerie is relatively new, there is ample space for new entrants. Identifying your niche within the lingerie segment is vital for new sellers. What is it that you wish to sell? Global brands, own brand, economical range, risque styles, luxurious wear, and so on. Logistics and supply chain management remains primary concern in this area, especially with returns involved. So work on your return policies well. With thin margins you can’t risk piling on unproductive expenditures. And keep a tab on all your social media pages to avoid things from taking a sleazy turn. Or else your brand image will take a hit.
Editor team is specialized in introducing the marketplace content targeting the Indian online sellers. They plan and coordinate to bring the appealing content for the small businesses on how to partner with the e-commerce sites like Amazon and Flipkart and strategies for improving their online business.
Leave a Comment
