Demand for online lingerie stores boosting business

With the e-commerce market in India witnessing a boom even

in small towns, lingerie selling platforms have become hot favourites among consumers owing to the privacy, variety, brands and services offered. While women shoppers find online shopping for intimate apparels from the comfort of their homes easier because of the variety of styles and brands rather than going to brick-and-mortar retailers, who often stock only fast moving items, male consumers are finding it easy to shop for their partners since embarrassment factor is waved off. Websites are seeing equal share of men and women shopping for lingerie online and they have also witnessed almost 15-20 percent rise in sales.

Most of the lingerie selling websites offer exclusive services like size charts, filters and customization of shopping preferences, wide colour, styles, price and brand choice as well as easy online payment gateways and delivery system making online lingerie shopping an enjoyable affair. To cater to the rising number of shoppers, many entrepreneurs are jumping in to make lingerie shopping convenient for both men and women. Websites like LimeRoad.com, Myntra.com, Zivame.com are witnessing average billing size for the lingerie category going up to Rs 2,000 from Rs 200 a few years ago.

Online wedding lingerie portfolio is also gaining traction. And demand from smaller towns has given a boost to online lingerie portals. Several start-ups have also attracted venture capital investments. Moodsofcloe, for instance, got seed investment from Zurich-based Mountain Partners AG and Bangalore-based Zivame has received 10 million dollars (about Rs 62 crores) venture capital within just two years of its operation. Strapsandstrings is also eyeing funds and PrettySecrets has got angel funding from the Indian Angel Network, Harvard Angels and Orios Ventures. Regular fashion portals such as Jabong, Myntra, Yebhi and Fashionandyou have begun focusing on the lingerie segment now keeping the prospects in mind.