We have an almost 60% in-store conversion rate: Poojaa

What is your take on current sportswear market in India? How do you see this market will grow in next two years?

Sports market in India has seen a growing upward trend over the last couple of years. With the consistent growth in awareness and popularity around fitness coupled with the increased participation of women across age groups there has been a substantial increase in demand of both sports footwear and apparel across price bands. The global sports apparel market, as per a report by Allied Market Research, is expected to grow to $184 billion by 2020, with a CAGR of 4.3% during the forecast period of 2015- 2020. Although the North American market has traditionally been the largest consumer of sports apparel, as per the report, Asia-Pacific is slated to take that over to lead revenue generation by 2020.

There is expected to be a 70% rise in the income level by 2020 with over 100 million more youth entering the workforce as per a study titled ‘Retail transformation: Changing Your Performance Trajectory’ conducted by industry lobby Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) and consulting firm The Boston Consulting Group.

All these factors along with the expected growth in disposable personal income in India will help fuel the market growth for sports apparel industry

Kindly highlight the journey of your brand ‘Zeven’? Also, throw light on the brand’s association with various sports personalities?

Tennis star Mahesh Bhupathi and Hemchandra Javeri, founders of Zeven, started this journey with the vision of catalyzing a billion Indians to get out and play a sport. They strongly believe that India can be a sporting nation, if only all of us get sports back into our DNA. This vision led to the creation of Zeven, a sports brand with the mission of transforming sports in India. Zeven is an authentic performance sports brand.  Zeven wants to equip Indians not only with information on where and how to play but also provide the right product, apparel & footwear; of international quality, at affordable price points, exclusively designed and manufactured for Indian terrain, bodies and weather conditions. The team at Zeven has invested substantial time and funds in R&D to ensure right outcomes. A lot of effort has gone into choosing the latest technology to create the apparel range.

Zeven has signed up with some of the renowned sports stars like Rohan Bopanna, Shikhar Dhawan, Ravindra Jadeja, Saketh Myneni, Sumit Nagal, Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan, Purav Raja and Mithali Raj, who believe in Zeven’s philosophy of transforming sports in the country.

Kindly highlight your current footprint including online and offline? Is the brand also present via shop-in-shop model? How you are looking to expand your footprint? Are you looking for franchise model for brand expansion?

Zeven has an omni channel distribution strategy. Our product ranges are available via both offline and online channels. In the offline model,we are currently available via our exclusive store but will soon be available in LFS and shop-in-shop outlets. Zeven launched its first exclusive brand store in Bangalore, on Brigade road, with more lined up to be launched across different regions this year. With Zeven’s mission to get a billion Indians to take up sport and the positive response that we are getting from large numbers of consumers, we see a very encouraging future. Our product portfolio is also available via our own e-commerce portal www.shop.zevenworld.com and on popular marketplaces like Amazon, Flipkart, Snapdeal, Shopclues, Paytm to name a few. We are also in the process of signing up distributors and franchise to expedite our growth.

Mall vs high-street, what sort of locations would be of preference for further expansion?

Our choice of  store location is made on the basis of practical and business considerations. The location needs to be a good mix of footfall and a target group which is receptive to sports.

Presently, how many categories you are retailing, also highlight the total SKUs present in Bengaluru store?

The Zeven core is performance sports apparel, designed specifically for the Indian body type, weather conditions and terrain.  Our product line moves horizontally across product for men and women, for on pitch sports, as well as vertically by the level of maturity of the sport they are involved in. The product ranges available for on-pitch sport for men include Football, Cricket, Tennis, Running, and Gym.  And for women they include cricket and gym.We also have a large sport inspired and active lifestyle product range. We will continue to build on this and provide more options for our customers to pick from. We have very recently expanded the range for run and gym footwear, adding a vibrant range of colours for both men and women. All our styles are available at the store

What is the average number of  footfall and sales that you are getting on weekly basis? What is your starting and exiting price point?

Footfalls can be influenced by the day of the week to the season but what’s going well for us is the conversion rates. We have an almost 60% conversion rate which is very encouraging for a new brand competing against the existing international players. This is majorly because of the quality of our products which are available at reasonable price points. Our starting price point for apparel is Rs 245 for an RCB fan merchandise to Rs 1900 for a performance product – Apparel . On footwear our current range starts at Rs 2450 and to goes upto Rs3450.

Howare you looking to expand your categories? Which category would be on focus for further expansion?

Quality for us is utmost and cannot be compromised. Since we are launching products for performance sports, each of our collections undergoes various performance tests before it is released into the market. For us it’s not the number of collections that counts but what counts is the right product that performs as per expectations. Zeven will continue to strengthen its apparel and footwear portfolio in 2017.

Brands like Puma, Nike, Adidas are seen as the leader in sports category. Do you see them as your competition? How your offering are different from these brands?

Zeven is creating a whole new market for its products by meeting the unmet needs of a billion Indians. For too long, Indians have been given products by multinationals that are too expensive, not suited to Indian weather or terrain and certainly products that do not have the right offerings for womenor the local players have offered poor quality and styling. The Zeven core is performance sports apparel, designed specifically for the Indian body type, weather conditions and terrain.

Indian terrain, climate and infrastructure are quite different from that in the US or European countries from where the major sports brands originate. There is a gap between what the Indian players need and what they have and Zeven was able to identify this gap.

Has the brand raised  any sort of fund as of now? Or aiming to raise funds? If yes, what sort of investor would be of your interest?

Approximately Rs 50 – 60 croreshave already been invested, with substantial additional investments planned.

Kindly highlight your marketing strategies for brand promotion?

In terms of channel strategy, Zeven majorly focused on digital media last year. Zeven’s vision is to get a billion Indians to pick up sports again. For this, apartfrom a lot of motivation and inspiration, we also needed to reach a huge base fast and repeatedly.People had questions on where to play, how to play right and more. We brought all this together with the community portal – Zeven World. From brand ambassador stories to inspirational tales of glory in sport of everyday people, this portal carries it all. The portal still continues to evolve as we keep adding new and interesting features to it that help strength Zeven’s brand positioning as an authentic sports brand.

Producttoo was majorly promoted digitally via popular digital properties. 2017 will see a lot of on ground action as we now have our store open and will be opening more in different regions. Strategic associations with properties like RCB and signing up of brand ambassadors are all part of the overall marketing strategy that have helped the brand propel to where we are in under less than a year.

At last, kindly mention your growth plans? Any plan to foray international market?

We will continue to expand both our product portfolio and presence in India in 2017. India is a very diverse country and we want to create the right impact here before foraying out. Currently , we deliver to Approximately 11,000 pin codes across India.