How Bummer is Integrating Tech at Each Step to Achieve Rs 3 crore Monthly Revenue Targets

Two years since the inception of Bummer, the brand has witnessed that innerwear is no longer a forethought category. It is evident that comfort has become a key priority for people over the past year, and it will not go away anytime soon. At present, the cotton industry dominates the Indian innerwear market because, in order to manufacture comfortable underwear, cotton has always been a preferred fabric of choice for most brands.

Bummer was introduced with a vision to break the monotony of boring white underwear prevailing in the Indian innerwear market.

“During my learning pathways, I was inspired by the journey of one of the founders from Los Angeles who was trying to disrupt the innerwear market. From there, I’ve found that my passion always lies in the innerwear and apparel industry. Initially, I realized that it was a damp market battered with a lack of both innovative products and product awareness. In the modern world, millennials are fast gravitating towards underwear that is not just functional but has a fashion quotient that reflects their individuality. Keeping the same in mind, I’ve introduced products which will make consumers feel good inside as much as they do outside,” states Sulay Lavsi, Founder and CEO, Bummer.

“The products manufactured at Bummer are eco-friendly, ultra-soft, and breathable. They are developed with micro modal fibers extracted from Beechwood Trees to deliver the softest fabric known to humankind. As a responsible brand, we use 47 percent less water in manufacturing than a regular brand, reduce carbon footprints over cotton by 18 percent, and save 359 hours of energy resources over cotton. Hence, our product quality and manufacturing process make us stand out from the competition,” he further added.

With changing times, Indian consumers have become more fashion-conscious. Therefore, as a youth-centric brand, Bummer offers a wide range of comfy yet stylish products such as undies, bikinis, boy shorts, hipsters, boxers, trunks, briefs, pajamas, and more to cater to the needs and requirements of consumers.

“After receiving a lot of appreciation from our 40,000+ consumers, we strive to push our limits to do way better, for our consumers and for the planet. Therefore, in the near future, we plan to launch three prints to our existing loungewear collection, including McBum, Bricked, and Chevron, and introduce one new print across all categories. With all these efforts and learning, we are all geared to maintain our top position in the apparel and fashion industry,” he said.

Bummer claims to be the first brand to introduce Micromodal Pyjamas in India. They’re made from the same silky-soft fabric that its undies are made of.

“This was done keeping in mind that our consumers can wear the same garment on the outside now and be super comfortable. In terms of brand positioning, we also believe that we're the voice of the youth that differentiates from the previous generation and is looking at breaking taboos and getting out of their comfort zone. Which is why the bold prints and colors that represent the next-gen voice,” he asserted.

Betting Big on D2C

It is a complete D2C brand for now and is also available at various marketplaces.

“D2C enables us to be direct in touch with our customers. It also helps us explain our brand story in a concise manner. Since the majority of the market share is plagued with cotton underwear, explaining how micro-modal is a much premium fabric along with being sustainable is easier when speaking directly to the consumer. We do have plans to go omnichannel, but at a very later stage of our brand cycle,” asserted Lavsi.

“Even if we plan on going retail anytime in the future, it won't be just an over-the-counter gig. At Bummer, we’ll always do something experiential that ties into our overall brand narrative. Getting out of our comfort zone and breaking taboos is something that we resonate with,” he further added.

Technology: The Game-Changer

Since its launch, Bummer has upgraded its website twice after understanding consumer journeys and also optimizing the whole purchase experience along with speed and functionality.

“At Bummer, we use a lot of tools to try and integrate all our ops at one platform. Be it an omnichannel for customer support, analysis tools to understand how to plan inventory, software to understand our performance marketing impact, or just conducting mass surveys to understand print preferences. We’re also constantly working on reducing our inventory turnaround times and assessing sales data to depict what our consumers want beforehand. As far as tech is concerned for sales, we’re constantly on the lookout at improving and digitizing the purchase experience even further based on changes in market trends,” he stated.

Future Plans

The brand has raised two rounds of funding - $180K from Singapore’s Beenext and Rs 75 lakh from Shark Tank India’s latest season led by Aman Gupta, Co-Founder, and CMO at boAt Lifestyle, and Namita Thapar, CEO of Emcure Pharmaceuticals.

“After Shark Tank’s episode, we grew roughly 5X in terms of revenue and we kept up with the momentum with our marketing strategies, hence, we are still growing. We are targeting a Rs 3 crore monthly revenue by the end of this year,” he stated.

The brand is looking forward to raising more funds to build a solid team, plan inventory better, integrate tech at multiple levels to optimize overall operations, and further spending on marketing to reduce overall acquisition costs.

“Going ahead, we will be introducing one new print across all categories to strengthen our market position. We intend to foray into the global market to increase the brand presence. We’re looking at expanding further in the comfort wear segment because we truly believe that fashionable clothing shouldn't be uncomfortable to wear,” he concluded.