Advise & Feedback regarding an apparel ecom site – to be launched

By Anil Nagpal on April 16, 2015 12 Comments / 2294 views

Dear Rodinhooders,

Am a fairly new entrant on this site… and am looking for some urgent feedback from the experts – hope you join in.

Have been working on an apparel ecommerce idea – reading up, meeting up, networking, connecting etc for the same – and in the midst of the foot-work was wanting to clear up a few doubts :

1) With so many apparel sites already doing so well – Jabong, Myntra, Fashion & you, Yepme… et al… is there space for starting off with one more ? Idea, of course, even if it starts out with/thru some niche segment will finally go on to straddle the whole spectrum of clothing – men, women, kids.

2) Bootstrapped as of right now – and not to be pitched in the near future for any VC’s or angel investors. But do have a start-up fund which will take care of the essentials. Obviously, not that deep-pocketed that it can be matched to any of the ad-spend power sites mentioned above. Should a brave venture out nonetheless, or will it be extremely foolish to?

3) Tie-ups for male clothing has been done (without in-house stocking), Female segment is proving more of a challenge since the style keeps changing every fortnight or so and no manufacturer is ready to take a risk – so more sources are being approached and breakthru is an eventuality – or a mix of various models will be done – some link-ups, some stocking, some samples storage, some made-to-order stuff etc. Question goes back to Q-1 – worth it spending so much time & energy in setting this up? And taking on the biggies?

Pros : Was a journalist (exposure to multiple mags), am a content & TV writer and the defacto funder, and fancy myself to be a quick learner… and while Jabong and Myntra are really good sites, do feel that Yepme’s and Fashion & You and some others can be matched to an extent… and eventually crossed over time.

And, yeah, it will be targetted at 18-35 age-group (yup, so are Myntra and Jabong) and might not have as powerful brands online as them – but will mostly exclusive (Lokhandwala-Linking Road) style jazy and funky clothing.

Better to stick to this plan – or pivot to another non-apparel idea.

Comments

Anil Nagpal

12 Comments

asha chaudhry April 17, 2015, 7:39 am

hi anil,

pls add your twitter handle at the end. will help us promote your post!
Sai Rodinhood Pothuri April 17, 2015, 8:06 am

Hi Anil

I am a Hand Bags Manufacturer and Exporter and with in India i sell my products on amazon, flipkart, snapdeal and few other sites other than myntra, jabong, yepme ( reason is they charge more commission percentage which will reflect in price )

Coming to your plan, my best suggestion is start some thing unique. all big players are spending too much, much more competition going on in market. so entering at this competition stage is not good at all.

I sell on amazon because its a brand, daily thousands of visitors, so i bet some one will see my product, might like it and buy it. if i display my product in your website, then what are the chances of getting my products sold out in a month. Its not about me and my product any apparel manufacturer wants sales, wants money so he displays his products in a platform where thousands can see, few hundreds like it, and finally few tens of customers buy the product.

From my end, this is my suggestion : work on a problem, find a solution, create app or what ever some thing which solves that problem. then market it.. at present take some time, save your money.

Thanks & Regards

Sai Pothuri.
vijay amin April 17, 2015, 9:05 am

Dear Sai,

R u a manufacturer of ladies handbags? If yes will you manufacturer for other brands?

One of my vendor who is into diamond jewellery, doing very well online & offline wants to introduce ladies hand bags, etc in his brand name. Already has more than 10 outlets in malls across india.

Kindly mail more details to vijayamin@gift365.in so that I can connect you directly with them
Sai Rodinhood Pothuri April 17, 2015, 9:58 am

Dear vijay

We manufacture eco friendly ladies fashion hand bags, for list of our products visit our store in amazon.in

Amazon Beautona

We export 100% but we do sell with in India through Online Portals. we are live on flipkart, snapdeal, craftsvilla and few other sites. But we sell most of our products on amazon.in

Do check out

Thanks & Regards

Sai Pothuri.
hemant April 17, 2015, 9:58 am

Hi anil,
I agree with pothuri. Its not a god idea to compete with giant players. If you are interested in rhis field, find some points which myntra and jabong are lacking and then ypu can go ahead.
Alok Rodinhood Kejriwal April 19, 2015, 1:07 pm

Sorry – this is the most confusing post I have read so far

WHY are you starting this?

WHAT is your insight? Is it a fashion sense? Is it a sourcing ability? Is it a distribution expertise? Is it a label exclusivity?
Anil Nagpal April 20, 2015, 2:41 pm

Thanks a ton Alok for your feedback… truly appreciate. It is a bit of insight… bit of fashion sense – friends with a few designers (having their own boutiques around Lokhandwala & few who have exposure to TV industry and tied up with them for this). And it is a mixture of a sourcing ability as well… apart from overview and research of Indian and International apparel sites. Label exclusivity is missing and so is distribution expertise. Should I keep working on this idea – keep developing abilities, networking – or build some bit of manufacturing backend (working on that over the weekend – and have met a few people with expertise in that line) or should I pivot.

Do send some criticism my way – for that will serve as guiding posts for future pathway to be decided. Thanks
Anil Nagpal April 20, 2015, 2:42 pm

Thanks a ton Sai for your feedback… will ponder deeper on this.
Anil Nagpal April 20, 2015, 2:43 pm

Hardly ever venture on Twitter Asha… and love the effort you’ll are putting on this site, and guiding needy souls.
Anil Nagpal April 20, 2015, 2:45 pm

Yeah Hemant, have found some points and products where Myntra and Jabong are lacking, but not sure that much will be enough. Though have some good stuff which can compete with other players. Still need some validation to my idea before jumping in.
Anil Nagpal April 20, 2015, 2:50 pm

Dear Sai,

Would it be better if I sign up with someone like 99yrs (have already met them but not too impressed) or one of their competitors… or go it alone and tie up with Snapdeal, Ebay, Amazon and others and try to validate my ideas – be it of differential scarves, funky jewellery, really great quality casual shirts (sourced from Indian Manufacturers who are not online but are wanting to get onboard thru me) thru these sites before jumping in full-fledged. Or work on a site exclusively for males since the tie-ups and sourcing exists on that side. Do advise.
Sai Rodinhood Pothuri April 20, 2015, 2:59 pm

Dear Anil

I suggest you rather than going with 99yrs, contact snapdeal,amazon and other e commerce sites. they will teach you a lot, you can learn a lot 🙂 finally you can have a clear picture of e commerce in india. based on that you can decide which way is better for you.

Thanks & Regards

Sai Pothuri.