Tailor-Made Success: Local darzi jumps online bandwagon

The local darzi has got a new lease of life in these times of online shopping. Many of them don’t have to wait till the festive season to make money and get surplus orders. With the rise in online shopping, many e-commerce sites have roped in local tailors from third party vendors to meet the demand of picky customers as well as cut down on return of clothes and refunds.

They are being roped in by both online and offline retailers to meet a sales gap that’s caused every time ill-fitting clothes are returned. Start-ups like YourTailor, Urban Tailor, Fabstich, Tailor Store provide retailers and customers with easy alteration and stitching options. Such online companies are a godsend for tailors like Latha Patil who has been a tailor for 18 years and has now started earning a decent income.

Stitch in time saves online business

Online fashion retailer, Myntra started offering alteration services in Bengaluru three months ago. Integrated into the app, it’s a seamless experience for which the customer doesn’t have to go out anywhere. Their tailors pick and drop the clothes at the customer’s doorstep. The charges for alteration are Rs 50. Raymond, known best for its tailored suits, is developing an app that will connect customers with the tailors they want. In 700-800 Raymond shops, there are 5,000 tailors which the company wants to increase to 1,00,000. Sanjay Behl, CEO, Raymond points out that he wishes to build a community that will be an intermediary like an Uber or Ola. Even Aditya Birla Group’s Abof has started a service whereby tailors with portable sewing machines alter clothes as per the customer’s requirements.

Tailors rake in the moolah

Since it began a year ago, Urban Tailor, a start-up that provides tailoring services for women, has grown 40 per cent. It has 30 units, each with its own master tailor, designers, tailors, seamstress and others for cutting and alteration. Vasudevan T, Co-founder proudly states that the company gets 20-30 orders per day and has around 1,500 customers. For another similar start-up, FabStitich, the earning from tailoring can go up to Rs 30,000 per month. A major reason behind this is that Indians are becoming fashion conscious and do not want duplication of designs.

So for people like Latha Patil, this growing demand has been a boon. She now has her own, is earning more and eve plans to start her own tailoring classes. India’s online retail sector, as per Euromonitor International, is presently Rs 20,000 crores and is expected to reach more than Rs 70,000 crores by 2020.