Yuvraj Singh's YMC plans to open 4 offline stores across India

Celebrity cricketer Yuvraj Singh founded casual-wear brand YouWeCan (YWC) which is an online only brand till now, is charting offline route by launching 4 stores across Hyderabad, Varanasi, Delhi and Chandigarh putting an investment of Rs 30-45 lakh on each store, a top official from the brand informed.

Shazmeen Kara, Brand CEO, YouWeCan (YWC), said, "We plan to open 4 stores across Hyderabad, Varanasi, Delhi and Chandigarh.

Ultimately we plan to expand PAN India. We are in the process of finalizing locations in some of the Tier I and II cities. We aim to launch these stores in the second month of the third quarter i.e. we should be ready for a launch in the next 2-3 months from now."

The fashion brand which sells its merchandise on its website and on Jabong, feels physical stores will give a holistic approach to the brand to have both online and offline presence.

The brand says, even though Indian market is evolving, the core still remains old school and people prefer to "touch feel and try" their products before buying.

Kara added, "Thus, to capture this audience it is important to have this presence as it contributes a great deal to the business. We thought having a retail store for our brand is necessary as it is important for the people to be able to see the quality that we are providing in order to match their expectations from the brand."

She said YWC fashion label has clocked a top line of Rs 10 crore in the 2016-2017 financial year. As she said the marketing expenditures have been non-existent in its top line as sales were generated largely by social media campaigns.

Recently, YWC has also expanded its offering for kids, where Yuvraj Singh introduced the collection by gifting the first lot of the merchandise to cancer affected children at St Jude’s Cancer Centre, Hyderabad. The collection is now available online on Jabong and YWC’s official website.

Kara added, "Casual wear for kids in India is available only at a few brands and in order to bridge that gap Kids Wear by YWC was seen as crucial. The aim was to set up a home-grown brand that could provide good quality clothing for kids."