Octave targets 15 per cent jump in sales this winter

Upcoming lifestyle brand, Octave, believes in bringing comfortable yet stylish clothes to its customers. So, far they have focused on casuals such as T-shirts, shorts, lowers and denims. With the recently introduced winter collection, Octave is looking at a jump of 15 per cent in sales as compared to last winter season. The category it hopes to make the most profit in is sweatshirts. Also, the brand, which had been low till now, will aggressively expand by opening more stores in the next five years.

In the upcoming winter season, Octave has focused on leather, PU, suede, flakes fabric and pique fleece. “We have used motif prints and stripes in our collection this time. Smart and fashionable accessories like zippers, buttons etc, have been added to the sweatshirts and jackets for an elegant and fashionable look. Neons and pastels will be the colours of the season. For fabrics, cotton, polyester cotton, linen, neps and flakes have been used,” says Abhishek Arora, Partner, Octave.

Octave will soon be introducing a women’s range such as jackets, sweatshirts, T-shirts, denims, track-suits etc under the brand name ‘Mettle’.

E-commerce is the way forward

Today, e-commerce is the backbone of retail selling. For a brand to ignore it is next to impossible. Arora believes most customers prefer shopping online and this segment of consumers are growing by the day. Octave is currently present on e-commerce websites like Amazon, Flipkart and Snapdeal. It entered online retail last year with a limited catalogue. But the response and large orders that it received has prompted it to expand its product range and styles this year. Octave will also try to reach out to other portals like Myntra, Koovs, and Limeroad.

Arora agrees that the contribution of online sales cannot be undermined because “It helps us reach out to locations that we are not physically present in. But online sale contributes very less to our revenues in comparison to our brick and mortar model. This is because unlike other brands we sell our products on MRP instead of huge discounts as offered by other brands. Hence, in terms of sale strategy it has not impacted us largely.”

Extending retail footprint across India

Octave is expanding its presence all over India. At the moment it is targeting all the metros, Tier I, Tier II cities and hill stations, especially in the North. Stores are coming up in Mumbai, Kanpur and Jalandhar. Talks are on to open stores in Lucknow, Kota, Varanasi, Pune etc. Octave is expanding both through the COCO and franchisee model. In addition, the brand is also looking at expanding to countries like Malaysia, Singapore, New Zealand and the UK.

The brand has 106 EBOs and nearly 500 MBOs in India. It also has collaboration with big multi-brand retailers like Shoppers Stop and Aditya Birla group. Internationally, it has 19 exclusive stores in the UAE.