Is IPO on the Cards for Omnichannel Kids Wear Brand MiniKlub?

Nowadays, parents across the globe have started spending more on their kids and want their kids to carry the latest fashion and branded apparel. This trend of spending more on kids is more prevalent in Tier I and II cities. Furthermore, increasing retail expansion and internet retailing are also contributing to the growth of the kids' wear market in the country. Increasing westernization, the rising number of nuclear families, and growing purchasing power are other reasons that are aggressively influencing consumers and thereby positively impacting the nation’s kidswear market. People are now more aware of international brands due to ads on television or the internet, and consequently, are purchasing kids' apparel from brands offering the latest fashion trends and designs.
 
India is one of the largest contributors in the apparel retail sector and a hub for kids apparel and fashion retailers as well on a global scale. The Indian kid's wear market is categorized based on gender, category, season, sector, distribution channel, and competition. Based on distribution channels, the market is categorized into multi-brand retail outlets, online, exclusive stores, supermarkets, hypermarkets, and others.  

“The Indian kid’s apparel market reached a value of $16.4 billion in 2020. Going forward, it will grow at a CAGR of 14.5 percent during 2021-2026,” as per IMARC group’s report. 
 
Many major players in the kid's wear segment lack in terms of affordability and availability. There are lots of budget-friendly brands out there in the market but when the consumer is about to settle on the price point, they have to set aside the comfort of their kid which is the last thing for a parent to even consider.
 
Since 2013, Miniklub has been solving these sorts of issues and making a name for itself in the market. Anjana Pasi, Founder, and Director, MiniKlub shared, “Miniklub like everything in life started as an idea – an inspirational thought in the minds of two individuals – who dreamt big without fear of the future. With experience and knowledge under our belts, it was taking the leap of ‘thinking it to actually doing it’.”

 
“Understanding of products, the material used, design and getting it done from the right manufacture became the key. We as a brand have a good understanding of manufacturing as our core business is manufacturing for international babywear brands. Just imagine the background of a strong manufacturing unit with all the international standards coming together with the Indian product and design team, this became our USP and that’s why mothers in India trust us when they pick up a product at our stores for their babies/ minis,” she added.  
 
Retail and Marketing Strategy
Miniklub always believed in simplicity, be it a product or the approach towards retailing or marketing the brand.

“We started operations with our presence in multi-brand outlets, within short span product started flying out of the shelves and this gave us a lot of confidence and pushed us to reach out all the MBOs across India and within no time we had built a reach of 650 multiple brand outlets. We continued with this format for almost 5 years and learned the know-how of retail and launched 6 exclusive outlets and 4 hospital stores in 2018. We never looked back since then, today we have EBOs in 26 cities with 46 stores across India,” she asserted.
 
Omnichannel Strategy
The omnichannel approach is a must for every brand in order to grow and grab a bigger portion of the market. It enables brands to reach consumers at every touchpoint of the buying experience, whether it is online or offline. This holistic approach goes beyond optimizing each sales channel individually, focusing instead on ensuring consumers have a unified experience in-store, on the website, on social media, in online marketplaces, and anywhere else they encounter the brand.
 
“We started our omnichannel journey from 2018, as we cater to new mothers it made us start offering our products through our own e-commerce platform. We launched it along without our offline stores. We started learning the know-how of different channels and how customers tend to shop in different channels and partnered with third-party solution providers to offer the entire range of products available with us across different touch-points to our customers in our offline stores. Customers in offline stores can see the range available across different stores in the city and shop. We have just scratched the surface and have a long way to go,” she added.

 
Product Portfolio
Being the kid's specific brand, Miniklub offers a vast variety of apparel and accessories for kids and parents. 

Elaborating the product portfolio further, she stated, “We specialize in 0-2 years as this is our major forte but have extended our range offering to 8 years – the product lines range from affordable essentials which are predominantly functionality driven – to baby fashion which focuses on outerwear with novelty for extra cuteness – finishing at kids wear – which is quirky, trendy and perfectly curate for that age group that’s full of fun. Footwear and fashion accessories are provided to compliment the ensemble along with soft and hard lines of nursery and feeding which finishes off the ‘one-stop’ destination for all kids.

READ MORE: Miniklub Expands Retail Presence, Achieves Nine Stores Milestone in Bangalore

Future Plans
With a growth rate of 13 percent year-on-year, Miniklub is a self-funded company since its inception with a goal to cater to the major populace across the globe.

“We are very optimistic as a team and with the strong product, we are already getting set to grow rapidly across India through multi-brand outlets and departmental stores, exclusive branded stores in key markets. We are looking at opening 100 stores by 2024. When it comes to online we are betting heavily on our platform miniklub.in and continue growing on other leading e-commerce marketplaces.  In coming 2–3 years we are looking to target IPO to infuse funds to grow the business further,” she concluded.