Brands, retailers turn to bespoke to woo customers

With rising number of consumers shopping online, offline retail majors are taking initiatives to retain them. While launching their own web portals, they are introducing customised or made-to-measure clothing technology, blending online experience with offline presence.

Further affecting the business of neighbourhood tailors, retailers and brands are now offering customers the opportunity to get a wide range of customised products like apparels, bags, shoes and accessories. Not only e-retailers but textile and apparel industry majors Madura Fashion & Lifestyle, Raymond, and Arvind, who have now logged on to the ecommerce wagon, are focusing on customised clothing with Myfit on trendin.com and Creyate, respectively.

Blend of online customization with offline retail

Online start-up by Arvind Group, Creyate, for instance aims to be an exclusive destination for people seeking personalised clothing options. The brand having a presence both online and offline offers customer a choice to choose from hundreds of clothing material to create his own personalised suiting and shirting. Its 3D visualisation software helps them create a garment by taking accurate measurements, which is then delivered at doorstep in next 12 days.

The products are 15-20 percent more expensive compared to competing brands. The company justifies the pricing by claiming that they are totally customised as per customer’s choice and not mass manufactured and marketed. A person can create over 100,000 variations on the Creyate website and then the designs are created in its automated factory based in Bangalore. Creyate plans to cater to men with shirts, suits, trousers; and shirts and denims for women. Just about six months old, the company aims to reach Rs 1,000 crores in revenue from e-commerce over next three years.

There are other initiatives offering customised solutions including Myfit by Madura Fashion and Lifestyle and Mumbai-based '16 stitches' that offers online personalization of shirts. While Van Heusen under the Madura stable offers Myfit concept that allows the customer to order apparel with specifications of his choice, with the right fit and size as well as collars, cuffs and pleats, founded by Punit Chokhani, 16 Stitches refers to the minimum number of stitches per inch it tries to provide for what it calls a good quality shirt.

Some websites exclusively design denims like Korra, where each pair of denim is made from scratch and marked with the tailor's signature and numbered to ensure traceability. Korra's denim cost a flat Rs 2,900 each. It’s another initiative called '11.11/eleven eleven' sells handmade, personalized khadi denims. Fashion conscious Indians don't shy away from shelling out Rs 25,000 for one of these with around 30-40 pairs ordered every month. And Ahmedabad-based DenimCraft allows customers to design garments to their style preferences and body shapes. It lets them choose from hundreds of style variations, including the type of fabric and designs for the back pockets as well as accessories and shoes.

Bespoke – Key to success

Neighbourhood tailors were once a favourite among Indians looking for perfectly fitting clothes. However, with the advent of readymade or ready-to-wear ensembles by leading apparel brands in variety of sizes from XS to XXL or even a size bigger, customers gradually shunned the tailors and moved towards branded ready-to-wear. Ecommerce companies further expanded the reach of readymade clothing to remote places, wooing those who still lacked exposure. Experts feel that the latest move by ecommerce platforms as well as offline brands and retailers would only lead to further innovation under this category.

Keeping the rising interest of customers in ecommerce in mind, textile and apparel major Raymond, catering to the men's wear segment, for example, has make an online foray with a full-fledged virtual platform called RaymondNext.com, that will also include mobile apps. The e-platform will display all of company's brands, including Raymond, Park Avenue, ColorPlus and Parx, and products spread across textile, apparel, home furnishing and personal care accessories apart from customized design and styling services.

Experts point out that the idea behind launching their own e-portal is to create a technologically advanced platform providing an offline store experience for online customers and to use its strong physical retail network across the country to deliver products directly at the shopper's doorstep.