Why should a 50-year-old retailer decide what a 25+ lady will wear?

Founded by Karan Behal, CEO - MTC Ecom, PrettySecrets.com is all set to take the industry by storm with his concept of portraying lingerie not as a mere necessity but as a part of lifestyle.

In a candid chat with Retailer Media, Karan spoke about breaking the monotony of standard black, white and nude colours, lingerie as a functional product and the growing need for style statement in this space. Also, he emphasised on why a 50-year-old man should decide what a 25 something lady will wear.
 

Tell us about the journey of Pretty Secrets so far. What are the challenges you face in online space?

Though our site prettysecrets.com contributes only 20 per cent of our total revenue, we also sell our brand through other portals and we are the largest brand selling online, while others are a market place. It is a brand vs. eCommerce play, but those who actually tend to buy Pretty Secrets buy on prettysecrets.com. There we control the entire experience and ensure that the packaging, delivery etc are up to the mark and we put in a disproportionate amount of time into that process.

Packaging is a problem. Even when we ship through Flipkart or Myntra, unfortunately we can’t control the final man delivery. So what we do is that we do the product level packaging better than offline brands because no offline brands are building packaging for online.

What was the experience like to enter this segment?

I have been in this segment for about 10 years, initially, we used to do offline. Pretty Secrets was the largest offline sleepwear brand for 7.5 years. We sold through 8 EBOs, 40 departmental stores and around 300 other selling points.

We launched Prettysecrets.com in 2012. Beyond that my family is into the business of manufacturing and distributing apparel for 32 years. It has never been difficult or odd being in this space because I have built my business from the ground arbitraries in the past decade in ladies’ nightwear, lingerie, shape wear, swimwear etc.

How has the consumer behaviour trends changed over the last couple of years; what are you doing to cater to them?

Around 10-11 years ago, Indian lingerie market was very different from what it is now. Sleepwear was hardly a category and bras and briefs were largely seen as a utility product available in black, white and nude colours which were low on quality and price with no brands. A decade ago when Triumph and Enamor just entered, Lovable was a well established brand. Till now, many new brands have entered, failed and shut down.

Now we have Enamor, Triumph, Amante, Bewitch, La Senza, a Dutch brand Hunkemöller which is about to be launched. What all these names have done is evolve the category very quickly from just a utility product shopped out of necessity to more of a fashionable intimate product. Earlier, women used to go to a shop and buy 4 bras in white which went on for the next 6 months. Now they are aware of their different needs as per their schedule and their outfit. For instance, an actiwear would be chosen for gyms, while convertible or stick on type is preferred for evening gowns or party wear dresses.

Things have changed a lot in case of night wear also. And online has helped a lot as exposure happens very quickly. Offline is a time taking process to gaze the market because first, the distribution happens locally, and second is the sizing issue. And offline, the purchasing decisions are not made by the consumers alone but guided by the 50-year-old man sitting at the shop – the local retailer.

So why let a 50-year-old man at shop decide what a 25-year-old lady would be wearing. eCommerce has cut that process and connected the consumer directly to the brand.

What percentage of your total consumers are male?

Our target group is any lady between the age of twenty to thirty-five. Generally, 20 per cent of the shipments are ordered by men which is quite dicey as many women place order or make payments under name of their husbands. Considering that, I can say that around 10 per cent of our orders are by men which is less than 1 per cent in case of offline shopping.

What mode of payment is most preferred by consumers at PrettySecrets.com?

It is away from COD. It was more COD when we started initially, but now probably 55 to 70 per cent of our orders are not COD. Maximum of it is paid through credit and debit cards and a nominal percentage is through net banking and wallet share.

What all category innovations have you incorporated at your portal?

How we are different from others is that lingerie for us is into 9-10 different verticals – bras, briefs, nightwear, shape wear, swimwear, stockings, now we are launching apparel line and actiwear. We are not positioned as essentially a night wear or exclusive wear brand, but are more of a global lingerie provider.We are launching all the category catalogues at single platform, which is an innovation. Recently, we have done a lot for technology in products. In India, when uptake of molded or under-wired lingerie is less, we are primarily doing those products. We have realised that lingerie is a functional product, so there is not so much we can do in product innovation, but whatever we can do within the norms, we are doing them.

In terms of services, what innovations have taken place at PrettySecrets.com?

At prettysecrets.com we spend a lot of time in packaging, customer service, chats etc. We are very flexible on returns and want more people to try out products. We do a lot of pop up shops at events, bridal collections, college events, gyms etc.The ticket size at out online platform is around Rs 1,500 and average product value is Rs 600 because we do not sell at a very low price point. Our range varies from Rs 300 to Rs 2,500.