Indian Fashion industry is taking a revolution as mobile marketing and online subscribers are boosting the online retail market: Abhishek Rawal and Vishi Porwal

If you have a great business idea, then sky is the limit for you. It takes no rocket science in establishing yourself in the fashion retail industry. All you need to do is read common consumer behaviour so as to pave your way inside the closet of your consumer and ultimately his heart. Of course, there are countless challenges before a start-up, but the young guns of India are taking over the market with flying colours. Abhishek Rawal and Vishi Porwal, founders of Indian Threads, are weaving new designs for the next generation at a very reasonable price. Talking to Indianretailer.com, they expressed that they wanted to fill the gap between overpriced brands and low-quality labels, and thus launched Indian Threads.

An Indore based start-up, Indian Threads has stores in Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra and Rajasthan and within a short span of time; both Rawal and Porwal are getting orders from the global markets. Recently, they have sold their goods in USA, Atlanta and receiving high demand from countries like UAE and in Pakistan.

What motivated you to start Indian Threads?
Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s idea of ‘Make in India’ motivated us to transform this into a global venture. It is easy to work effectively and efficiently to achieve our goals under the national campaign.

What challenges did you face at an initial stage? How did you overcome those?
Being the manufacturers of soft consumer goods, the key challenge was to reduce time taken in the long term production market cycle -- right from the basic idea of conceptualising the product to presenting it as a finished product in the market – it takes around two-four months. We have triumphed over these challenges by speeding the process of producing and delivering the finished products in a span of 20-25 days. Moreover, in order to make this brand popular, we are planning to add more soft goods categories and ultimately increase the reach of the brand.

What is your take on the fashion industry?
Today’s idea of clothing is quiet versatile. People from different walks of life prefer wearing different attires on different occasions. In fact, world has become a unique diverse place, representing various cultures yet making the fashion industry universal. From street wear to men's wear, in this time and age, there is an outfit for every moment. To describe the fashion industry, we have come with a tagline “Style for every story”.

What was the rationale behind launching men fashion brand?
One day, Vishi and I were shopping for shirts; on one side, we found that the top brands had great design, fit, fabric, and style but these were heavy on the pocket and on the other side, there were smaller brands, which were cheap but were not great in other aspects. We realised that it is time to fill the gap between over priced brands and low-quality labels, and thus we launched Indian Threads.

Since you are successfully running your business in both online and offline market, how different is the consumer behaviour in the two markets?
Online and offline consumer’s behaviour is completely different, hence our business module for both the markets had to be different. Convincing customers online is a tedious task, but putting out a creative strategy and out-of-the-box campaign can easily convert the viewers into a potential customers.

Currently, fashion industry has more than a 50 per cent share of the B2C e-commerce market, which is likely to come up with online retail as it is gaining prominence. We believe that the online retail sector is here to stay. This confidence comes from the much better eco-system that prevails in terms of consumer acceptance and the infrastructure to deliver. And, there are successful examples like Myntra, Jabong and Koovs, where online shopping has permeated across socio-economic strata.

Indian Fashion industry is taking a revolution as mobile marketing and online subscribers are boosting the online retail market. It would indeed help Indian Threads grow too.

How much revenue do you generate on a weekly basis? What is your average bill?
We are making Rs 5, 00,000 weekly and 50,000 average incomes in offline market, while, in online industry it is around Rs 70,000 weekly and 1500 average incomes.

Are you planning to expand your business?
We would soon be launching different product type in near future, including: Indian Threads T-Shirts, men’s bottom wears, ethnic wears, suits, blazers and accessories. Moreover, we aim to open our own stores across India in next 5 years. And, we want to expand this Indian brand to different countries.

How do you manage funding?
We are a bootstrap company. We got few investing proposals from a few investors, but we are not signing the deal until and unless we find the perfect investor to join our team. We are not just looking for the numbers who can back us, but there are many other things to look for before we make him/her a part of our company.

Can you please give a piece of advice for aspiring entrepreneurs?
Entrepreneurs must focus on sales to keep on going. If they have to survive and grow, they should focus on running the business and not running after the outside investments. In short, they should focus on profits, watch their cash like a hawk, and implement a business model that generates money quickly. If it is possible, then they should also cut their personal expenses.