Chennai-based ethnic wear retailer Cbazaar to focus on domestic market

After almost two decades of focusing on the overseas market, Cbazaar is turning its focus back to the Indian market. The company is entering other categories such as work wear and is looking to raise capital for expansion. In 1999, the Chennai-based e-commerce platform started the gifting business targeting NRI’s, who wanted to send gifts to India, and later moved into Indian ethnic wear.

The company now sells custom-made Indian ethnic wear online and exports to over 150 countries. The US, Europe, the UK and Canada are its biggest markets, with India in the fourth place. Cbazaar has a team of 130 that includes fashion designers, technology experts, and marketing and customer support. The plan is to open 100 experience stores in India and the US through the franchise model. These will be store-in-store and standalone formats, with in-house designers. Customers can walk-in, choose a design and take designers’ help to customise them.

The company already has two experience stores in Chennai and New Jersey and more such stores will be opened in Tamil Nadu. The venture lost money during the e-commerce boom when it offered deep-discounts and increased marketing cost since 2012. It turned profitable again in fiscal 2018 by cutting down on marketing costs and discounting and downsized the team.