Prêtture has gained growth of 3X
Prêtture-the revolutionary cloud solution is made for the fashion, lifestyle and home decor brands keeping their team and workflow in mind. Fibre2Fashion spoke to Vanchha Tiwari, Co- founder of Pretture, to delve into the brand’s background story, its achievements in the last 3 years since inception and important announcements in pipeline.
What was the motivation behind starting a smart ERP solution brand for the Fashion, Lifestyle & Home Decor businesses? Why the name Prêtture?
We honestly never thought of developing an ERP but were rather meeting our potential clients for our initial module which was meant for sentiment analysis. However, while doing our research across the cities, we met a lot of fashion labels, manufacturers and retailers and were in fact, surprised by how this industry is missing a smart ERP. Since we were technically very strong with Krishna Tiwari, our founder from IIT Bombay who leads as a CTO, Vanchha Tiwari, co-founder, a fashion enthusiast and a business analyst who leads as a business head as well as Kajal Jatakia who leads as a VP Engineering. So the best part we did was we didn't start with developing an ERP on its own because then it would have just ended up like already existing ERPs in the industry which are there since ages older than we are. The fact that each and every module of Pretture whether Order, Production, Inventory or Purchase was developed after a proper research and requirement analysis-- was the ultimate reason how it took the shape of a smart ERP.
Talking about the name, there is a logic behind the word, Prêtture is termed by two terms- Prêt and Couture where Pret means ready to wear and Couture means made to measure. But if you see from an overall perspective, the industry either comes under ready to wear or made to measure be it fashion apparel clothing, jewelry, accessories, or even home decor. So Prêtture is a perfect term that could coin any industry, or a product and the best part is that it is unique and catchy.
How has the pandemic impacted business? Has there been an uptick considering that since the pandemic struck, the world has moved online like never before?
The initial phase of the pandemic was very uncertain, plus with factories and warehouses closed, the production was on hold. As Prêtture initially would customise as per the brand's requirements, the initial set of clients like House of Masaba or Anamika Khanna and many others got the benefit of fully customised modules. However, over time, through our research, requirements and data analytics, we were able to jot down the industry's mandatory requirements. And as such, it was in our plan to launch a lighter version but considering the pandemic, we had to prepone the launch which turned out to be successful for us. We launched a standard, robust and affordable module i.e Prêtture Lite which is complete in itself with plug-n-play modules like orders, raw material tracking, production management, inventory, billing as well as barcoding. The module is standard, yet it provides a lot of customisation like, you can have your own set of production stages and you can get your own barcoding developed. As a result, now a lot of young brands are able to take advantage of Prêtture Lite along with established brands.
Also, Prêtture came forward with website integrations as businesses were moving online like never before and this certainly worked for us.
We also collaborated with FDCI during the pandemic last year to launch a virtual showroom for fashion and accessory brands that saw a huge success and was the country's first virtual event focused on the fashion brands and B2B buying houses.
What are some of Pretture’s achievements in the last 3 years since its inception? Where have you reached revenue and growth wise?
Prêtture, since its inception in 2018 has become the only Indian smart SaaS ERP dedicated to the fashion, lifestyle, home decor manufacturers and retailers. It is getting traction from both established organisations as well as young and upcoming brands. It's the only SaaS to call all the 3 international Woolmark winners from India namely Rahul Mishra, Suket Dhir and Bodice. We also called 6 out of 11 fashion brands listed on the Business of Fashion (BOF) 500 which is the global entity of entrepreneurs as well as brands revolutionising the fashion ecosystem. Another achievement for Pretture has been the quickest go live within 1.5 days at Daily Objects (India's coolest accessories brand funded by Ronnie Screwala) which is the fastest go live in the ERP domain. Since our recent pivot, Prêtture has gained a growth of 3X.
How extensive was your research about the fashion industry before you founded the brand?
The main foundation of Prêtture is its extensive research which was done for about 2.5 years, where the founders themselves went on the ground meeting the real people behind the brands working in manufacturing as well as retail. They went across swanky showrooms at Mehrauli or Juhu to factories and warehouses across Noida, Mumbai, Kolkata, Jaipur and met every stakeholder, be it store managers, merchandisers, inventory managers, production managers as well as account managers and brand managers. Everyone's perspective and needs were very different from the so-called software. Honestly, the ground reality was that the very term 'software' made many of them think that they weren't very tech savvy to use it plus there was a hype that it would be super complicated. To the founders' surprise, the existing ERP softwares were actually complicated with cluttered screens that made things look difficult to understand at the first go. The best part was that Prêtture got its shape based on the actual requirements of current times and people rather than developing a fixed pattern of ERP modules. The extensive research is the reason for Prêtture being the smartest SaaS ERP in fashion today that can be accessed on mobile as well as laptop/ desktop.
What are the challenges the fashion business faces in its day-to-day operations and how can they be simplified with your solution?
Fashion industry has a very distinct process of working as compared to the other industries. Every brand has different stockists, plus orders may come in from their own website, store, MBOs or any exhibitions they are a part of. Plus keeping a track of everything becomes very difficult as multiple orders are received at a time. Also when an order is received, one has to go back to the workshop/unit to check the availability of a particular piece and sometimes they might even not check the availability and order for the raw material required for production in bulk which results in wastage especially when there is raw material in stock already. For orders which are on priority often get delayed due to lack of real time tracking of the production cycle. All these activities create a mess at an unorganised fashion and lifestyle business.
Luckily, with Prêtture, all the processes can be simplified and taken care of at a click of a button. It can be accessed anywhere and anytime through an app as well as computers and the best part is it notifies proactively in case it predicts any delays that might happen at any production stage. As Pretture provides integration with the website platforms like Shopify, Wix as well as WooCommerce, tracking incoming orders from one's website and linking it with production and inventory becomes super easy. One can immediately check the available product inventory at any of its locations, plus threshold mapping of raw materials helps to keep a check of available versus shortfall material and can generate PO to the vendors directly. Prêtture is also integrated with Tally which syncs invoices, debit and credit notes, payment and returns from Prêtture. Thus, Prêtture helps in streamlining all the processes right from orders, raw material, production, barcoding, inventory, billing as well as accounts tracking through real-time permission driven data access.
How many designers/store managers/merchandisers/inventory managers etc are in your ambit today? What is the retention rate at Pretture?
Prêtture is currently serving 90+ brands across 13 cities in India and is helping not only the established manufacturer houses but also the emerging fashion labels across the country. There are 1000+ users who use Pretture daily to make their life easier.
Talking about the retention rate, it is 99 per cent. The very initial clients at Prêtture like Raw Mango, Rajesh Pratap Singh, House of Masaba etc shifted from their existing local server run ERP software to Pretture that is a cloud-based SaaS ERP and are with us all these years since 2018. The new automations, integrations as well as developments are helping us to continue and maintain relations with existing clients as they are getting new advancements in smarter way.
How big is your research team? What kind of improvisions are on the cards with respect to your solution based on customer feedback?
Our research team is a mix of CRM, operations as well as sales and development team as we take care of the customer feedback from every possible angle. Based on our clients’ current requirements, we are working on a lot of integrations which are in the pipeline for example multiple website integration or payment gateway integrations.
How cost-effective is your solution and how readily scalable?
Prêtture has helped brands save not just cost but time as well. Plenty of time is spent on tasks which have to be done multiple times a day like developing the line sheets, delivery challan, stock transfers or returns. Without a smart system in place, while operating these tasks, an end user feels like they are living in a pre-technology era but with Pretture, these activities are just at a click of a button away. Not just time, Prêtture also eliminates a lot of frustration that goes at the backend with the help of automation. Through auto tracking and proactive alerts, Prêtture helps in avoiding wastage of raw material and even access production. Before Prêtture, the brands used to either operate on excel sheets or other softwares which would require 1 person dedicated to do all the work and everyone would depend on that person even for single tasks like inventory data or challan generation or bill generation and return filing but now with Prêtture, everyone gets trained as per their profile. For e.g A merchandiser who is supposed to handle orders, will only see orders and nothing else on their mobiles. As Prêtture is permission driven, the technology blends with their workflow and role so that the entire team can work as they were working with their usual workflow with more added value and real time data. Also, as Prêtture is cloud based, the brands do not have to worry about expenses of maintaining their data storage or servers.
Prêtture has recently gone completely subscription based and with its plug-n-play modules, it is getting more love from the clients as they can choose from the modules based on their requirement and budget. As far as scalability is concerned, Prêtture is built using cutting edge technologies which helps to adapt and scale itself with the growing numbers.
What sets Pretture apart from similar cloud-based ERPs meant for the fashion business?
There are definitely a lot of systems in the industry but not specific to fashion as they are generic and open across industries. The way the fashion industry works is very different as compared to the other industries and way more complicated in terms of workflow, customisations, timelines, teams etc. We had to understand the challenges specific to this industry be it apparel, jewellery, accessories, footwear or even home decor. That's when a lot of reinventions had to be done by us and the best part was, features were developed based on the exact and real requirement analysis which we got to know while we were visiting factories, stores, warehouses and were meeting the real users in these organisations starting from brand managers, merchandisers, inventory or production managers as well as accounts managers or store managers. The on ground detailed research across cities is the reason why Prêtture is getting all the love as we were able to find out exactly what were every individual's pain points and struggles that they had to face throughout the day. Also, we had to break through their fear factor of running away from so called 'softwares' as according to the teams, earlier softwares were complicated in looks as well as operations. That's exactly what Prêtture broke where every individual has a different login specific to their everyday role so that they completely feel empowered while using it rather than struggling on how to operate the app/software.
What lies ahead of the road? Any important announcements in the pipeline?
With important integrations already done with Shopify, Woo-Commerce, Wix, Tally and Gmail, Pretture is currently coming up with the most important integration and the need of the hour which is WhatsApp integration. In the coming days, we will also be focusing on Instagram integration once it is out for the public. We are also concentrating on business expansions in terms of getting established as well as emerging brands through the various plug-n-play modules in this financial year.
