How CloudTailor is Using Tech to Deliver a Personalized Experience

The current ecosystem of personalized fashion is unreliable and filled with stories of hassle and inconvenience, and the idea was driven to address the challenge that customers have when it comes to their personalized fashion. 

Mahesh Patel along with his two founders, Sushmita Lakkakula and Rudra Pratap, were aware that the need for personalized fashion is a multi-billion dollar business and an age-old business which can have a spin of innovation. They just had to find a convenient way of replicating this process and making it digital and familiar simultaneously, which they did as they knew that it is a Rs 27,000 crore market that can be tapped into. 

In a nutshell, CloudTailor is a D2C platform that provides end-to-end fashion and tailoring solutions at your fingertips with access to fashion designers free of cost, doorstep measurements, and free lifetime alterations. Today, the brand caters to kids as well as specially-abled women and pregnant women to ensure it can truly deliver on our promise of making personalized fashion accessible to all women.

“The journey has been enriching, fulfilling, and unraveling all at the same time. Phygital was what I, along with my two founders, always believed in. Building low-cost, high-experience physical brand touch points spread across the country where the first interaction is with a qualified fashion designer was our vision all the while. All of this is tied down neatly by a rapidly scalable backend tech ERP fulfillment interface and our apps both for our staff and our customers,” explained Mahesh Patel, Co-Founder of CloudTailor.

Omnichannel Strategy

CloudTailor operators on the Phygital business model where omnichannel plays a crucial role. Its customers have access to the brand through different channels such as an app/website for digital orders, exclusive branded outlets as a physical touchpoint for interacting with the brand, and SiS - partnering with large format stores and providing tailoring services within the outlets. 

“We believe it is important to be present across the entire customer purchase cycle for discovery. Our Hub-and-Spoke business model allows us to cater to all orders seamlessly,” he said.

Marketing Strategy
 
The current domestic market is fragmented and unorganized when it comes to personalized fashion and tailoring services. Any woman today who wants to get anything stitched goes through a very tedious process that is inconvenient or expensive. 

“We are targeting women across the globe who are currently compromising with ready-made outfits in terms of fitting and that do not reflect their style of clothing be it ethnic, western, party, formals, or casuals. We provide tailoring services for all women’s wear which currently is missing as a service,” he stated.

“So, our current strategy is to increase brand awareness by educating the audience about the services we offer. This is being done through ATL, BTL, digital channels (social and performance marketing), and PR.  We plan to expand our footprint by opening exclusive branded outlets across the country which is a part of our phygital strategy,” he added explaining it further.

The brand is also looking forward to a strategic partnership with fashion retail chains where it provides a shop-in-shop model and a customer visiting these stores can avail CloudTailor services without having to look for an alternative solution. 

Technology: The Game Changer

Tech plays a very important role for the brand and one can easily say how tech is an integral part of its business model as it is the only tech-enabled personalized fashion brand in India. 

“Our Co-founder, Rudra Pratap comes with strong expertise and experience in tech, so every second, we think of how to solve existing pain points existing in a personalized fashion through technology. We have integrated an ERP that brings all aspects of the business under one roof, from customer, to designer, to master, to tailor, to delivery and with this, the customer can have a live update about their outfit status at their fingertips,” he asserted. 

Maintaining a Personal Touch with Consumers

The brand understands that most fashion consumption happens on social platforms. Its audience is present on these platforms and actively looks for new ideas and trends. Therefore, it is of paramount importance for it to be present during this search cycle to build consideration. 

“Apart from social commerce, we realize that customers' requirements, perceptions, and demands will always be the fulcrum for brand building, operations, and profitability. We have personally met over 500 customers from various age groups, demographics, and walks of life which has shaped our business values, delivery processes, ERP, mobile app, and scripts for the global customer support systems. We cannot miss out on our horizon with our customers, even for a minute in our lives,” he stated.

Future Plans

At present, the brand has a commitment of $1 million from its existing customer, and India Discovery Fund I, from 35North Ventures along with Mergerdomo, has led the seed fund. 

“We have also participated in CSOP through Tyke invest where we were oversubscribed by 380 percent with the participation of over 2,000 subscribers. We are in early discussion for our Pre-series A fund which will be utilized in the expansion of our branded outlets, increasing our brand awareness and tech enhancement,” he said. 

The brand is currently growing at 30 percent month on month and intends to grow much faster once its EBO and other new market operations launch. 

“While CloudTailor services orders across India, it has 8 fulfillment centers located in Hyderabad, Bengaluru, Delhi NCR, Pune, Patna, Ahmedabad, Siddhipet, Tirupati, and Kochi. Towards the end of the fiscal year, we plan to be present in every major city in the country,” he asserted.

Along with this, it is shipping to 7 countries across the globe, including the US, UK, Australia, Dubai, Canada, Singapore, and New Zealand and intends to have its exclusive branded outlets in the US, Canada, and Australia. 

“CloudTailor aims to be the one-stop shop for all things fashionable for women. In this journey, our immediate plan is to open 35 Exclusive Branded Outlets in India, US, UK, and Australia,” he concluded.