Indian market is more inclined towards fashion aspect: Hersh Lilaramani
Indian market is more inclined towards fashion aspect: Hersh Lilaramani

Joining the stream of world retail brands launching their operations in India, Zakiz, US based, super premium leather clothing and accessory brand recently launched its online operations in India. Hersh Lilaramani, Founder and CEO of the company revealed to Indanretailer.com that it is aiming to widen its presence across all channels.
Q What inspired you to launch Zakiz’s online operations in India?
While selling on international portals, we saw that there was a steep demand for our products in India. It contributed to 25 percent of our annual sales. Leather clothing is no longer treated as mere winter apparel in Europe and America and the Indian youth is rapidly keeping pace with the global trends. From Hollywood to Bollywood, leather clothing is a must-have in every superstar’s closet. We see a huge opportunity in this niche segment in India, and therefore we decided to cover the Indian market.
Q Who are the channel partners you have tied-up with?
We are in process of inviting market place sellers across India to sell our products on Amazon, Flipkart, Snapdeal and Jabong. Currently we are exclusively available on eBay. We have tied up with Mirakle Courier services to distribute our services Pan India.
We accept all forms of payment through PayuMoney in India and via Paypal globally. For the first time we are offering COD to our customers in India.
Q What are the product offerings and the price strategy?
We have just entered the leather clothing market in the first phase with leather jackets being the spearhead. In total, we will be offering over 200 leather clothing products in 20 different categories, right from jackets to skirts, to trousers to blazers. We are also offering free be-spoke (customized sizing) service to all our customers in the first year. We aim to provide uncompromised quality, design and material to our customers in India.
As we know that India is a price sensitive market, our basic jacket in India starts from Rs 10,500 and goes up to Rs 30,000. All of our products are manufactured in India.
We target both men and women between the age brackets of 18-35 years.
Q While discounting game is still dominating the Indian online market place, what are your strategies to beat the heat?
We’ll mark up our services 200 percent and then offer them at 50 percent discount. That’s the Mother-in-law Discount!! and we do not believe in that! We do not compromise on our quality and our customers do not negotiate on the price.
Q Please tell us about your expansion plans of e-commerce operations?
We are currently supplying across 9366 pin codes, including 467 metros. Hence, soon we are aiming to be available at all market places in India. Therefore we are in the process of inviting the top market place sellers to sell our products on their online stores without holding any inventory
Q What will be your promotion and marketing activities?
As our brand serves to the niche segment of the society, the communication with our audience is very easy. We plan a 360 degree communication strategy, with emphasis being on digital marketing. Thus, we are in talks with couple of Bollywood stars and few sports personalities to be the face of our brand.  ATL activities will start from November.
Q Will you be launching the offline stores too?
Yes, we are in process of opening offline stores by mid 2017. But we are already in talks with leading high street retail brands across the country for our offline sales.
Q While Indian brands are evolving to the leather and accessories products how you see the competition ahead?
With due respect, we are not competing with the Indian brands, our competitors are global players like Bodaskins (UK) and Wilsons leather (USA) who have a global presence.  It will be difficult for Indian players to survive if they concentrate only on the Indian market.
Q According to you how is Indian market for leather and accessories products compared to that of US, UK and Australia?
The culture of leather clothing in the west is very old. Traditionally leather clothing has been a lifetime investment than mere fashion accessory. It is a bit different in India. Indian market is more inclined towards the fashion aspect & commercially it is brilliant for us as fashion keeps changing from time to time and hence the demand increases.

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