In pre-owned clothing, India is still in its infancy
StylFlip is a revolution in the pre-owned clothing industry of India. This unique e-commerce site lists pre-owned fashion apparel and accessories. The pieces are only listed on StylFlip; the seller keeps the inventory till a buyer decides to buy. The pieces are collected from the seller once the buyer has purchased the piece online. Additionally, the sellers receive the money only once the buyer receives the product. Until such time as the buyers don't receive the product, the money is held in an escrow account. Zarik Nabi, owner of StylFlip discusses this relatively new concept in India in detail with Fibre2Fashion.com
What is the size of the pre-owned apparel market in India? What percentage of the total apparel market in India does it represent?
The opportunity in the sector is immense, primarily considering the fact that the industry is growing. More and more women are open to the idea of selling or buying pre-owned fashionables. Our internal estimates suggest the industry to be currently pegged at $400 million. This figure is slated to grow to $2 billion in 4-5 years. The focus is on organising the sector and ensuring that the end customer's needs are looked after.
Which age group uses your app? Kindly elaborate on the demographics.
Currently, over 90 per cent of users on the app are young women in the age group of 21-28. These women are social media savvy, and have a reasonably good social presence and activity on platforms like Instagram, Snapchat and Facebook.
What are your retailing and marketing strategies?
We are currently focusing on online and digital marketing, and building the brand through social media. In the next few months, we will be working on rolling out a few on-ground initiatives. An important area for us is to re-use fashion and also make a difference to the society at large. Hence, we have tied up with Milaap, a popular social causes' crowd funding platform. Users can donate proceeds from the sale of their item directly to our supported women's causes. So now you just don't get to look good, but feel good too.
How do you rate this growth in comparison to the growth of the industry overseas?
Globally, the pre-owned clothing market is estimated to be around $16 billion, growing at a steady 6 per cent CAGR. India is still in its infancy when it comes to pre-owned clothing, but we see this as one of the fastest growing segments in the near future.
What are the challenges facing this industry?
The industry is more or less unorganised. The biggest challenge is the taboo associated with wearing something that was previously owned. Having said that, we have been seeing that women are showing their reception to the sector. The survey we conducted prior to going live was another testament to the fact that younger women were very open to the idea of wearing pre-owned clothes, provided they are thoroughly checked and authenticated. We are trying to build a category where women get more comfortable selling or buying pre-owned fashion.
Any plans to get into brick-and-mortar?
Currently, our focus is to establish a brand which is one of the most preferred online marketplaces for selling and buying pre-owned fashion. Once we achieve our goal, we may consider feasible and alternative ways of expansion.
What are the pre-requisites to selling one's used clothing? How does it all work, including supply chain issues?
Every item sold on StylFlip needs to conform to the 'StylFlip Promise', and will not get the seal of approval should it be counterfeit, damaged, defective, unhygienic or misrepresented at the time of listing and/or pick-up from the seller. Buyers get a full refund in the event the product fails to adhere to the StylFlip Promise. The seller is banned from selling on the platform. The authenticity process is on point with a panel of in-house fashion experts, who painstakingly ensure that sellers are real people with genuine products to sell through a stringent quality control process that kicks in right from the time the item is picked up to it being delivered.
How many players are there in this industry as of now?
Only a few players have entered the pre-owned apparel and accessories category in the past few months. Everyone is still early on, and in a proof-of-concept stage. They are trying to tweak their business models. Nobody has made any headway yet. StylFlip is unique in that we give the seller what they have asked for in terms of price, and only collect the items once they are sold. So, users can rest assured that their items are not misused or mishandled while being listed.
Which brands rule your product range in apparel and accessories?
Currently, premium fashion brands that are not easily available such as Michael Kors, Massimo Dutti, Ann Taylor, ASOS, FCUK, New Look, River Island, Hollister, Next, Guess, etc, are popular. We also have listings from luxury brands like Versace, Louis Vuitton as well as other popular brands such as Zara, Mango and Aldo at up to 70 per cent of their retail prices.
How did this idea come about?
My fashion-forward wife is a compulsive shopper, and like any other woman her biggest pain point was having a closet full of nothing to wear. This got us thinking. We further went and surveyed close to three hundred young women. We quickly discovered that not only did they all have the same problem, but over 80 per cent were willing to buy and sell their pre-owned fashion items. Combining my tech knowledge and her fashion expertise together, we came up with the idea of launching a social platform dedicated to fashionable women, who want to make money while cleaning out their closets. The growth of retail-both offline and online-and the rapidly increasing spending power of women have resulted in overflowing closets filled with unused or barely-used items. StylFlip allows women to de-clutter closets, while making money to fund their next purchase. StylFlip hopes to revolutionise shopping by giving women across India an access to thousands of trendy, high fashion and luxury brands at a fraction of the cost. At the same time, the life of a fashion garment or accessory is also increased by reusing them.
Please share the current quarter highlights of StylFlip.
StylFlip, in a short span of four weeks, has been able to achieve over a thousand users with almost 40 per cent of them uploading at least one item to sell.
Who is your target audience?
Our users (flippers) are women who are fashion-forward, love to shop, and flaunt their individual and personal styles. They are typically younger and open to the idea of purchasing or selling pre-owned fashion.
How do you expect the next two fiscals to turn out for StylFlip?
Over the next two years, we hope to establish StylFlip as the destination for buying and selling pre-owned fashion across India. We plan to make it a multi-crore business with growth in excess of 150 per cent year-on-year. We hope to put together a world class team as well as invest in our technology platform, so as to introduce new and innovative features which take us a step closer to our vision of having users that get access to an infinite closet, irrespective of their location while they constantly rediscover their style.
