Visagar Polytex, a major retailer for women's ethnicwear in India, has introduced several retailing strategies to capture the market. Tilokchand Kothari, CMD of Visagar Polytex talks about the retailing strategies deployed by the company in an interview with Fibre2Fashion.com
What retail strategies do you plan to deploy in the coming years?
We refreshed our corporate identity recently, redesigned the logo, and standardised many aspects of the Vividha stores. This is to communicate the uniform values shared among Vividha stores. We look at ourselves as a value brand and target value-conscious customers who completely trust our pricing and shop confidently without a trace of doubt that they are going to be ripped off in terms of margins. We aim to build that type of trust among customers. We aim to build customer loyalty and customer engagement towards Vividha showrooms. Captive production helps us pass excellent value to customers. We plan to maximise our captive production capacities in the future. The product is important, and given the short life-cycle of the products we sell (as designs get outdated), it is vital to have a quicker product turnover that can be achieved by having proper inventory control systems in place. Our aim is to maximise the inventory turnover. We are going to launch advertising campaigns through TV, print and online media to highlight our Vividha brand. To increase our visibility further, we plan to be available at major multi-brand stores through shop-in-shops and kiosk outlets in the future.
What is the size of the retail market for women's ethnicwear in India? What is the percentage pie claimed by Visagar Polytex?
The retail market for ethnicwear is huge. In fact, the women's ethnicwear market easily exceeds Rs 50,000 crore. It is growing at a fantastic rate. By and large, it is a highly fragmented and unorganised sector. Being in this industry for nearly a decade, we constitute only a fraction of the pie when a huge opportunity lies ahead of us or for that matter for any organised player in this segment. Our retail presence is limited to Gujarat, Rajasthan, Kolkata and recently Mumbai. We plan to expand our presence across the length and breadth of the country in a phase-wise manner.
Is the women's ethnicwear market adversely affected by the westernwear market?
I would agree to an extent. But the ethnicwear market has been growing at a steady pace too. Ethnicwear is the preferred choice of clothing during functions, festivities and weddings.
How will the recent government decision of retaining the UPA FDI policy affect your sales?
Retaining the availability of FDI is a boon for both retailers as well as consumers. We don't expect any immediate changes in our sales pattern. May be in future when FDI actually comes for multi-brand ethnicwear retail outlets, we may see some competition which will be a win-win for us as well as customers. Our sector is largely unorganised as of now.
How has e-com impacted your business?
Although it can be said that e-com has effectively eliminated the need for going to retail outlets for purchasing products, ethnicwear can't just as easily be bought online. Just by checking the ethnicwear online, the customer is unaware of the touch-and-feel of the actual product.
We ourselves sell through these e-com platforms. At the same time, we also sell physically through our 14 Vividha showrooms. We have plans to expand our online portfolio as well as increase our Vividha outlets through franchises. Since we are present both online and offline, we have not been impacted as much by the onset of online retailing. At the same time, we are wary of the fact that we may witness a paradigm shift in consumer's buying habits, and we should be prepared whenever that happens.
How successful has your unique franchisee model involving women entrepreneurs remained?
The home based opportunity (HBO) model was launched recently. We have already received a healthy number of enquiries in this regard. There seems to be a keen interest among housewives and working women in this scheme. We predict mass participation for the same. We have kept initial investments at a reasonable level of Rs 25,000 along with refund, exchange facility as well as credit period so that there are minimum entry barriers and women are able to do business with ease. I am sure our unique partnership-style initiative will steadily catch on and create many success stories.
How do you see the tier-1 and tier-2 cities as a market for your products as compared to the metros?
Tier-1 and tier-2 cities are equally important markets as the metros. They can potentially witness as much footfalls and sales as their metropolitan counterparts.
Published on: 27/11/2015
DISCLAIMER: All views and opinions expressed in this column are solely of the interviewee, and they do not reflect in any way the opinion of Fibre2Fashion.com.
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