Abof.com focuses on fresh western fashion and full-price model

After establishing a strong offline presence in fashion business with Madura Fashion & Lifestyle and Pantaloons, acquired from the Future Group, Aditya Birla group did a thorough research before announcing its ecommerce venture Abof.com. The platform retails its in-house as well as clothing brands from other companies.

Fashion is worth Rs 1.87 lakh crore in India according to India Retail Report 2015. Google India says, every third shopping search in India is fashion related and queries in the category are growing at 66 percent year-on-year. At such a juncture, while some term Birla’s entry into the ecommerce market a bit late compared to existing ecommerce rivals, however others are of the opinion that their strong understanding of the fashion business and focus on fresh fashion at full-prices may help them race ahead in the game. With the launch of, abof.com, Aditya Birla, is eyeing a 15 per cent market share of the India’s online fashion industry by FY 2019-20. Recently, to help their customers ‘virtually’ try clothes before buying them the portal launched 3D trial rooms. Prashant Gupta, CEO, abof.com while speaking about the launch of the new portal says that both the portals’ roles are very different. While trendin.com is exclusively devoted to in-house brands, abof.com will have a wider focus and will work as a marketplace for labels from other brands, he adds.

After surveying demands and fashion preferences of almost 2,000 customers active online, the company found out that there is an opportunity for a company that can offer latest international fashion trends. So it subscribed to London-based WGSN - the world's leading fashion and consumer trend forecasting service to cater to the rising demand for global fashion styles.

Targeted at youth, the new online venture provides latest fashion styles, daily fashion dose and style tips along with curated collection of a mix of 100 handpicked brands from across the world apart from its own labels.