How is Wacoal Marrying Tech With the Brand to Offer the Perfect Fit?
How is Wacoal Marrying Tech With the Brand to Offer the Perfect Fit?

The intimate wear brand Wacoal was founded in 1946 in Japan. Embracing its philosophy to help women throughout the world to express their beauty, Wacoal launched its brand in Asia countries starting in the 1970s, in America in 1985, in Europe in 1990, and opened its first store in India in December 2015.

Till 2019, the brand had 12 points of sales including 10 exclusive brand outlets and 2 large format stores. Today, the brand has come a long way and has more than 100 points of sales.

“In 2019, we opened back to back 12 EBOs plus between 2019-2021, we opened 40+ LFS and now recently we have launched our new channel general trade with 50+ POS across the country,” stated Pooja Merani, Business Head, Wacoal India.

The focus of the brand is to provide the best fit to make women feel comfortable inside and confident outside.

Retail Strategy

Currently, the brand has the best customer loyalty rate of more than 60 percent and even in the online space including its own web store plus various marketplaces like Myntra, Nykaa, Nykaa Fashion, Ajio, Ajio Luxe, Amazon, Tata Cliq,  it has a customer loyalty rate of more than 70 percent.

“Our online to the offline mix is 15 percent which we are planning to take to 30 percent in the next financial year wherein omnichannel would play a vital role in optimum utilization of inventory across channels,” she stated.

“We focus mainly on our own web, but not ignore the other marketplaces such as Myntra, Nykaa, Nykaa Fashion, Ajio, Ajio Luxe, Amazon, Tata Cliq where other competitors’ are also present. Since our customer loyalty rate is exceptional we don’t believe in providing huge markdowns which add to brand dilution in the long run. For us, our product speaks for itself and that is the mantra for Wacoal to provide ‘The Best Fit’ for Women,” she further added.

Currently, the brand has no plans to explore the D2C model.

Product Innovations

Wacoal is all about science, technology, and innovation to provide the best and the most comfortable fit for women boosting their confidence.

“For example, we have the Travel Bra or the Feel Free Bra or the Sleeping Bra which are great instances of product uniqueness,” she stated.

Travel Bra represents an innovative lingerie product that is created to solve customers’ problems of wearing lingerie while traveling. The innovation of the sewing of the mold without wireframe makes the wearer comfortable and does not hurt, together with push-up breasts beautifully.

Feel Free represents an innovative free cut with special fabric production that does not make the edge roll and loose, together with the bonding technique, as well as the bottom molding technique for a close-fitting, smooth, and soft-touch and being comfortable in every movement. It is suitable for wearing with fitted outerwear.

The innovative seamless knitted fabric of the Sleeping Bra allows for keeping the bust in position by suppressing the bust movement while sleeping. Furthermore, a special knitting structure supports the bust from all sides while sleeping.

Tech Integration

Since its establishment in 1964, Wacoal’s Human Science Research Centre has conducted a variety of research focused on women’s bodies. Every year, the brand measures the physiques of approximately 1,000 women and girls between the ages of 4 and 69.

“We have been measuring over 100 women continuously or more than 30 years. For example for women in their 20s, we have designed products which will provide gentle shaping and lift whereas for women in her 40s we have designed products which will provide fuller appearance,” she asserted.

Leveraging Social Media

The brand is planning to leverage the presence of legacy old brand Wacoal in the Indian market by synergizing with a leading social media agency. The content would be focusing on women of today, the many aspects of her personality and the various roles she plays in curating her rounded, fulfilling life, and how lingerie has been designed to seamlessly flow with her, through her days and task.

“We are looking forward to enhancing the brand imagery, increasing awareness, driving sales, increasing website traffic, and promoting our products to our target audience with a data-driven clear-thinking, and loyalty-oriented approach,” she shared.

“To increase our customer acquisition across key platforms like Facebook and Instagram, we are adapting insights and learnings from recent trends, social listening, and engagement analysis which would enable us to develop content strategies and create assets that would differentiate Wacoal from its competitors,” she further added.

Content creators and influencers, who are the brand ambassadors for Wacoal, would be a key element in amplifying campaigns, increasing brand awareness, post interaction, and page engagement.

Future Plans

Wacoal has tripled its revenue in the last 2 years and now with the pandemic coming to an end, it is further looking at tripling these numbers in this financial year with the launch of its new channel - general trade - and targeting over Rs 100 crore.

“We are looking at opening another more than 100 POS this year which will take the total count to more than 200,” she concluded.

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