Saris woos e-commerce players

With rising interest among online shoppers for traditional six yard saris, several entrepreneurs and existing e-commerce players offering a wide variety of collection. Fashion is a high margin category in offline as well as online retail and investors are eyeing margins up to 200 percent from sale of saris in the online segment compared to 60 percent for other categories like apparel, and consumer durables.

Recently, Arvind Sharma, ex-Chairman and CEO of Leo Burnett, quit his 25-year-old creative career to launch an online portal, Indiasarihouse.com, dedicated to Indian saris and fabrics. Last year, Karol Bagh Saree House, a 60-year-old brand, joined hands with Yash Raj Films to create India’s first Bollywood inspired fashion label called Diva’ni and it is planning to launch an exclusive portal soon. Sari retailer Nalli Silks, an iconic 86-year-old Chennai brand too opened its online platform to attract domestic and international audience. And a large number of e-commerce players such as Fashionandyou, Snapdeal, Limeroad, Flipkart and Jabong have been retailing a wide range of saris by partnering with designers and saree brands.

Limeroad, for instance has tied up with over 42 local weavers from across the country to sell saris such as Chanderi , Kantha , Dhakai, Kota, Ikat and Pochampalli. Experts point out that the sari business is a low-risk and high-margin business for online players compared to readymade apparels as there are no challenges related to sizing and maintaining inventories.