Leisure is an emerging trend in innerwear segment, says Clovia founder

Though in the industry, Clovia has just begun its journey, as a brand it is the fastest market that sells a bra every 5 seconds, across 950 cities. This growth explains the exponential rate at which the company is flourishing.

The company has also launched its latest collection of nightwear and briefs in association with The Emoji Company that consists of full-sleeve tops and pajama-sets with slogans and emoji icons to complement. There’s a range of matching panties available as well. To talk further on the company’s future business strategy, Neha Kant, founder and director, Clovia, spoke to us in an exclusive interview. Here are some of the excerpts from her responses:

What customer engagement strategies you think that can help you achieve your monthly and annual financial sale targets?

Clovia is a fit & feedback-centric brand. We focus on educating customers around their right size and fit basis their body types. We offer fit assistance at stores which is our unique proposition. Further, we are very feedback driven and design unique wardrobe solutions for our customers such as Saree Shapewear, Minimisers, Balconette necklines for summers. 

What challenges have you come across in the last few years?

Retail gets impacted by a lot of external factors quite out of your control such as weather, political unrest and lately, virus. Therefore, you are left with relatively fewer days to make the most impact. However, Clovia's unique merchandise mix that is refreshed frequently makes customers walk in every 6-8 weeks.

Take us through the journey as to how you established the brand, and how fulfilling it is to work in retail industry?

It is quite fulfilling to create a brand that is so loved by its customers. We receive about 1000 feedbacks daily, some bad but many good. When customers write to us about how Clovia has been able to contribute positively towards their life by letting them being more confident in their skin, it truly makes our day.

How has retail changed over the years since you started Clovia?

Retail is a fast changing field. Today, customers research quite a bit online before they walk into stores. While 80% of the business is driven by core, customers demand freshness too every 2nd month. We have also seen newer consumption patterns emerge such as sleepwear. Sleepwear earlier used to be a highly commoditized market but now customers have started to gravitate towards branded experience in sleepwear as well. Similar, at leisure has gained a lot of ground as we created a far-more wearable and affordable collections.

Do you think your competitors delivers success for their business that you currently don’t?

Clovia is the fastest growing intimate-wear brand in the country. We have taken a totally uncharted path which no other brand has followed in the past. Our design philosophy, retail strategy as well as customer experiences are all unique. As a result, we have achieved in short 4 years what most brands took 15 years. Today, we sell 1 bra every 5 seconds; across 950 cities. We have size, fit, colour, fabric preferences mapped for over 19000 pincodes in the county. This puts us in a favourable position to drive nation-wide expansion faster than any competitor.