"Vision to make Bent Chair a global brand"

Quirky is fun. Quirky appeals all and quirky sells. A teapot in the shape of a scooter or a Beagle dog sculpture to adorn your home décor- the collection at Bent Chair is not something you often see at stores. From luxury to anything-but-ordinary, the online home décor and furniture start-up has been conceptualizing, designing and manufacturing its products. In the wake of its summer-spring collection launch, Bent Chair founder Natasha Jain speaks to Indian Retailer. Excerpts

Tell us about your new Rocky Star Collection.

We have launched two lines –Maya and Anthropod- as part of our summer-spring collection and our products are unique in their own sense. The Maya collection is colourful, has depth and intricate patterns that our customers can relate to, while the Anthropod collection is bold and has a dreamy feel to it. We have tried to create interesting patterns on our products, all inspired and designed by Rocky.

Your products are quirky, fun and appeal the young audiences. How have you brought the brand balance with Rocky collection?

Rocky is indeed a bold designer and many have to be daring to wear his collection. However, his designs are as quirky as our products are, and we had a seamless integration. Since we had similar design aesthetics, we used certain tweaks and ensured our brand essence was seen in this collection as well.

A lot of new start-ups are jumping on the bandwagon with ‘quirky concepts’. How different are your products and how is the market for such quirky products?

Quirky will be the right word to define our products and most of our products are tech-driven, which our other counterparts may not be. Since most of our products are centered-around furniture, we have paid a lot of attention to detailing and precision. We have thought about how to bring skill to our products and are working towards making high-quality products. The market response is good and our vision is to make our brand a global brand.

Who are your target customers?

Any customer who has identified with our brand philosophy has been our main customer base and we have not categorized them as younger, older, working or non-working. Most often, with a certain category of products, customers either get it or they don’t. This goes with some fashion labels as well. Whether the customers are from India or overseas, it’s important they understand what we are trying to sell.

Although you are primarily an e-tailer, you have an offline store. How are you strengthening your omnichannel presence?

Creating a solid foundation with design and concept is extremely important for any brand and we have tried to achieve that. Touch and feel experience is important in the furniture market and since we are an affordable luxury brand, we wanted to connect with our customers. We are looking at massive footprint in the offline industry as well and we are planning to launch at least 12-13 offline stores pan-India this year. For our offline expansion, we have taken the franchise route and will further expand in a similar way.

Any new additions to product category this year?

We are planning to launch our own line of lights and metal products in the near future. Our vision is to create something every season and very often instead of waiting for several years to add more designs and categories.

What are your expansion plans?

Apart from our domestic store expansion, we are already present in China and we are looking at launching more stores there. Also, we are planning to enter Dubai market, but that’s too soon to talk about.