We plan to open 100 stores in next one year:Pankaj Anand and Anil Arora

Being more than a decade old brand, how do you see ethnic wear market has been evolved especially when the market is flooded with premium international brands? How do you assess Indian ethic wear market in terms of numbers?

Living in 21st century with world developing and adopting corporate and western culture, one will think that market for ethnic wear will have been affected badly but surprisingly this is not the case. Intrusion of western market has only raised the demand for traditional ethnic fashion by an astounding rate. When it comes to India, we contribute largely to ethnic retailing market. Women ethnic wear is holding the largest share in traditional ethnic market estimating about Rs. 50,000 billion in 2010. Looking at increasing share of ethnic retail in Indian apparel market to an extent of 75% recently has just proved the fact that ‘Tradition never goes out of Fashion’.

Trends are changing now and then but for an Indian woman, traditional and ethnic wear never goes out of style. With the growth of some classic style like cigarette pants and palazzos, ethnic has became the choice of most of the college as well as office going girls.  70- 80% Masses go for ethnic and most of the young flock is under this category.

 

Kindly highlight the current foot-print of the brand? How you are looking to increase the foot-print?

We started from two stores in Delhi, but now we have access over the whole India by having more than 45 stores, and also looking for expansion in the southern and eastern region of the country.

Our main motto is to spread Sabhyata’s stores in the whole country and for that we are aiming to have maximum 150 stores in next 1year India. 

 

 How many SKUSs are placed in the each store of Sabhyata?

More than 150 designs per store – every month we come up with 50 new designs

 

Can you please give us details about the current category split in terms of products currently existing at your stores, and plans for category expansion (plans to add new category of products). 

 

Indo western

 

What is the price range for products at your stores? Which price band is the most popular with  customers?  Also, what kind of items sells the most at your stores?

Well, Sabhayta is known for its affordability. Our prices lie between Rs 499- Rs 1800 for both Kurties and skirts.

We almost get a positive response for all our items but yes our Kurtis and Skirts are the most favorable items among all the things. 

 

What is the location strategy for your stores – malls or high street?  Which locations do you prefer? Are you also looking at shop-in-shops?

High streets, as I mentioned above that is our main aim is become the most affordable ethnic brand in the market. Hence, we want our visibility in very local market, where everyone irrespective of their class can have an access to it.

 Yes, right now we are focusing in Kolkata for shop-in-shop outlets.

 

Kindly shed light on your store profile Typically, how much investment is involved in setting up each store? How do they differ from each other in terms of size, products offered, customer profile, etc?  Please tell us about the layout and design aspect of the stores and how the displays are organized.

All of our stores cover an area of approx 600-700 sq/km. Setting up a store is an expensive task all together, it requires more than 15 lacks of investment. For layout, the main color that we follow is white and yellow.

 

What are the typical retailer margins in this business? How much time does it take for a store selling these products to break even? How many of your total stores are profitable? What is your strategy for loss-making stores? 

Typical retailer margins- price is reasonable, the material offered is of good quality, high range of products, we are now focusing more on the college going students.  It takes a good amount of time to break even (4000 for kurtas)

 

 What is your expansion strategy to open more stores? Are you looking at other regions of India? Are you looking for franchise stores too?

100 stores in next 1year, shop-in-shops, retail stores, more expansion in e-commerce section. Yes we are expanding in southern and eastern regions of the country. Also, we are looking for franchises in all over India

 

How focussed are you on ecommerce and what is your ecommerce strategy?

 We already have our products available on platforms like Jabong and will start soon with Myntra and few are in pipeline.

 

What percentage of your revenues comes from ecommerce currently, and what revenue targets do you have from ecommerce over the next few years?

 More than 20-25% of revenue is generated from e-commerce. 

 

Are there any unique initiatives you have taken online (regarding social media, ecommerce, etc.)?

 We always run campaigns in our social media handles to involve more customers, recently in women’s day we ran a campaign on - sharing heroic stories of women around you who you think you’re your role model “#MyRoleModel”

 

How are you leveraging the online space to boost your revenues and customer connect? 

We do posts regarding new products, new launch stores, event live coverage by Sabhyata, group activities, customer engagement through group activities and comment engagement/queries, bloggers’ engagement .