Fast fashion online store Fab Alley to go offline

Many online stores are now going the brick-and-mortar way. The latest in the list is online fashion store for women, Fab Alley, which has started opening outlets four years after it was launched.

The step has been taken to get a bite of growing retail market. And this growth has already brought in international labels such as Zara, H&M and Gap. Shivani Poddar, Co-founder, Fab Alley, hopes to have her stores next to Vero Moda, Forever 21 and Zara. In the last four years, Fab Alley had managed a big and loyal following. This happened because it launches 300 new styles every month and takes out 250 to keep the collection fresh. Poddar is now looking at Rs 90 crores in revenues this financial year, 20 per cent of which will come from retail stores.

FirstCry was the first store that started the transition in 2011. Today, it has 170 stores. Others to have followed in its footsteps include Harpa, Yepme, Zivame and Clovia.

In order to keep the prices similar online and offline, most companies use technology. At Yepme, for instance, the same technology is used to manage inventory, pricing and supply chain for the products sold online and offline. Now, the company plans to have an outlet in each of 550 district headquarters and like Fab Alley, it plans to take one H&M and Marks & Spencer. In fact, the Yepme store in DLF’s Mall of India shares the wall with H&M.

Most owners admit that starting out online first has its advantage because it has a democratic environment, is not swayed by distribution and allows to collect feedback fast.