How Replay is Offering Omnichannel Experience to Customers
How Replay is Offering Omnichannel Experience to Customers

In 2019, Replay Jeans started its journey in India with Reliance Brands. Replay, known for its innovative flair, characteristic Italian design, and superb quality of its denim is a major player in international denim styling and production.

Being a lifestyle brand, Replay has a presence in 4 main categories - Denim, Jersey, Nylon, and Footwear. Denim contributes to half of the revenue of the brand and the rest half comes from other categories. At present, the brand has 5 EBOs spread across Mumbai and Delhi.  

“We also have a multi-brand presence and also shop-in-shops and we have recently launched our direct e-commerce. Along with this, we also have a presence on AJIO and Tata Cliq Luxury,” asserted Marta Sinigaglia, Member of the Board of Director, Licensing and Partnership Unit Director, Fashion Box Spa.

“We are expecting the D2C channel’s revenue to be more than the revenue from the largest offline flagship store. That's the starting benchmark that we put. For other D2C brands under the Reliance umbrella, in a period of six months, D2C channels crossed the flagship store revenues, and then it keeps increasing. So 10 percent is the target from the D2C channel to the overall revenue of Replay, and I think the first six months it should go between 5-8 percent. And then after that, it should at least be 10 percent of the total revenue,” added Manu Sharma, Business Head, Reliance Brands Limited (Replay Jeans). 

Betting Big on Sustainability

Over the years, Replay has built a loyal set of consumers by always sticking to its DNA which is authenticity and functionality.

“Back in 2010-11, we started being pioneers in our arena to work on sustainability. We started focusing on technologies. We invested in research and development partnering with the best-in-class denim manufacturer in order to deliver the most sustainable denim. So, since the beginning it was all about reactive sustainability because it was all about lesser water consumption and lesser chemicals,” asserted Marta Sinigaglia.

“It is not a marketing tool to engage with our consumers, instead it is our philosophy. So starting from treatments - instead of using water, we started with laser - to have the typical whiskers that you have in your denim in order to make them warm, we use vapor, and instead of using hazardous chemicals, we use eco enzymes. We introduced many such initiatives to make sure we produce the products sustainably,” she elaborated.

Marketing Strategy

The brand follows organic marketing strategies basis on the pillars of authenticity and transparency. It uses digital media like social media platforms - Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok – along with traditional methods to stay connected to its consumers. Despite using various mediums, the essence of our message remains the same.

“We were truly pioneers in embracing football with our products. 10 years ago when we launched Hyperflex, which is this hero product with the highest stretchability, we thought, we need to deliver the message clearly to our consumers. So we sponsored Barcelona Football Club and we shot a campaign video where Alessandra, the top model was a scientist testing the level of performance in terms of stretchability of our denim and the tester where players like Neymar, and Messi the star started player doing their movements kicking in the air in order to show how flexible our denim was,” she elaborated.

Autumn Winter Collection

Recently, the brand launched the Autumn Winter 2022 collection. The highlight of the collection remains Replay Hyperflex, an innovative product where the stretch denim experience attains smart new heights. Replay changes the rules of denim by stretching the limits of the manufacturing process, offering complete ease of motion, and great shape retention. The collection is a blend of contemporary and vintage designs enriched with attractive details. 

The AW’22 collection showcases a wide range of denim, casual wear, biker capsule styles, army capsule wear, footwear, and accessories for men and women keeping the fits slim and skinny. The collection is a mix of contemporary and vintage styles it is leading the way in denim innovation with enhanced 100 percent elasticity, super recovery, and superior comfort. Made from an innovative mix of special fibers, it provides three-dimensional flexibility in the threads running vertically, horizontally as well as obliquely. 

“Since 2010 we started developing jeans keeping in mental wellness, sustainability and craftmanship merged with our Replay DNA. We combined these key elements with a defined distribution strategy and an innovative marketing approach aimed to be very close to our end consumers.  In partnership with Reliance Brands Ltd., Replay has been successfully able to position itself in the Indian market, which is one of the fastest-growing and highly competitive markets in the world. The pinnacle of our denim collection is currently the Hyperflex Re-Used jeans which deliver a futuristic and innovative sustainable approach by blending reused cotton and recycled polyester. Throughout the production process of these jeans, we strive to reuse, recycle or recover wasted resources and that includes energy recovery. We are sure this revolutionary denim range along with the striking casuals offered by the brand, rooted in its classic, vintage styling will excite our discerning customers,” Marta Sinigaglia said.

Future Plans

Initially, the brand was launched in 2 big metro cities – Mumbai and Delhi – to set the model right, and then it started expanding.

“So, when we introduced the brand, we had envisaged opening 4-6 stores between these two cities. And now, when we find the right adjacencies in the third metro, we will be expanding the brand soon. I am always a strong believer that one of the biggest things in retail is getting the right space because then only like-minded customer walks into your store and is able to interact with the product,” asserted Sharma.

“We are hoping the e-commerce website will give us a bit of a heat map indicating which cities are accepting the brand the fastest, where we the getting orders from, etc. And those areas will become the next pitch. For example, if say my website tells me that Hyderabad is the big sought-after destination because a lot of orders are coming in from there, the next step is that I should also get the right space in the right mall,” he further added.

The brand is looking to explore a new format of the store to be carried forward to some of the newer cities like Hyderabad and Bangalore.

“However, we are already providing an omnichannel experience to the consumers. We don't send goods from our warehouse.  We have our omnichannel-enabled ecosystem. The same product is visible to somebody who's shopping from AJIO, Replay's own website, or at the store or somebody shopping from TataCliq. So we have a real-time integration for all our inventory across our stores. We don't quarantine stocks at the warehouse to service e-commerce channels. However, click-and-collect is currently under development,” he concluded.
 

Stay on top – Get the daily news from Indian Retailer in your inbox
Also Worth Reading