Indian fashion on e-platforms gain ground

It’s a win, win situation for ecommerce platforms retailing Indian

apparels and other items. For example, last June when Exclusively.in made its entry on the ecommerce platform in the US, to retail India-style clothing, art and home furnishing through flash sale, it struggled to execute the promising idea. The company found it time-consuming and unprofitable to constantly change the inventory at its New Delhi warehouse. But the founder and chief executive, Sunjay Guleria did not give up. Now he has infused fresh investments to re-launch Exclusivel.in mid-October with a focus on e-commerce without the flash sales concept, and also introduced SherSingh.com for buyers in India. Exclusively.in’s new inventory is mainly Indian clothing and accessories from up-coming as well as established designers such as Aneesh Agarwaal and Kavita Bhartia. SherSingh.com will have some of these upmarket items but will mostly sell Indian and western wear under its eponymous clothing line, created by designers formerly with Dolce & Gabbana and Ralph Lauren. The merchandise, priced from Rs 500 to Rs 2,000 will be shipped out of the same warehouse from which US deliveries are mailed.

The lead investor is Tiger Global Management while the MD of Google India, Rajan Anandan, actress Sushama Reddy and chairman of Eros Entertainment, Kishore Lulla has invested $16 million in the website. It’s a significant leap from the $4 million in capital that Guleria raised the first time around.

Almost the same week Exclusively.in announced its entry into India, another South Asian fashion company was launched by Meera Patel along with Sheena Patel and Amy Heller in the US. The site DevisCloset.com, gives customers the chance to rent outfits from high-end Indian designers like Ritu Kumar and Payal Singhal.

Then came BorrowitBindaas.com a company based in Orange County, California. It also rents out Indian clothes was launched in May. Run by twin-sisters Riddhi and Siddhi Khara, the site got 1,500 members within a month, and now has 7,000 members, though only 75 to 100 customers rent a dress in any given month.