Abof, sets the standards high for competitors.

India’s online retail market has got an interesting twist with one of the biggest conglomerates of the country, Aditya Birla venturing into the online marketplace with Abof. The e tailing firm launched in October 2015 has tapped into the market which, at the moment, is fiercely competitive. In positioning itself separately the platform has focused on fast fashion as is trending in India’s fashion scene. And Prashant Gupta, President, Aditya Birla Retail group's online arm points out the venture is focusing on quick turnaround of merchandise and its platform has become the fastest website in the country.

Smart strategy backed by strong supply chain

Abof has been firmly positioned as a brand that offers fast fashion. Hence, to keep up with the fast changing fashion trends, the website typically introduces 200- 300 new products every month. Analysing the sales pattern and customer preferences, the company updates its merchandise everyday. Gupta says they have a shorter cycle with vendors. Typically the cycle is six-nine months to make a product, but Abof is trying to make a product within six weeks. To facilitate this, Abof has created a strong network of vendors. And Gupta is not worried about competition as Abof has a clear strategy to make a unique position for offering convenient shopping experience. As he points out they won't be stocking say 20,000 shirts like other retailers as they are a fashion store and not a fashion warehouse.

Abof limits the brands to what it believes attracts buyers. It uses artificial intelligence and machine learning software to understand buyer behaviour. It offers services like free on the spot alteration, where a designer visits the customer and helps with the fitting. There is also a 3D trial room that allows users to visualise the garment on a customised avatar-type model and get the right size recommendations.

Increasing market presence by offering ‘customer experience’ Abof is less focused on discount game and believes in offering a complete customer experience and convenience. In fact this remains its core strength. It believes that eventually the segment of consumers in the market which are driven by convenience and experience will keep growing. Gupat says if the segment is about is 35 precent today, it will grow to 45 percent or even 65percent. As time progresses, and consumers come online, convenience and experience seeking consumers will grow. Gupta says consumers in a small city now know what's trending in global fashion world because they are living in a connected world and hence, it increases the aspiration level. Obviously that helps to enhance consumer experience.

Abof’s phenomenal growth story relies heavily on innovation and tech support In the 10 months since launch, Abof has doubled gross merchandise value to Rs 200 crores with about 2.5 lakh daily visitors. It has a 50,000 square feet warehouse in Bangalore and is opening another one in Delhi NCR. That pales in comparison with Amazon and Flipkart, both of which have more than 15 warehouses each. Innovation plays an important role as the firm is constantly adding new features and facilities. Also, they have introduced at-home alteration services in metros like Mumbai, Delhi and Pune.

Making shopping experience more convenient the website is using the best technology available. In fact, the website’s downloads in 1.7 seconds whereas others open in 3 seconds or more. Its working on artificial intelligence technology, which would be live in the next couple of months. This will make browsing much more targeted and faster. The strategy is expected to play out well as according to a recent Bain-Google study on e-commerce, 650 million people will be online in India by 2020 with about 20 percent of retail sales happening online.