Uptownie is a homegrown womenswear brand with its roots in Kolkata, India. The company designs and manufactures clothes for Indian women, keeping in mind their preferences and sensibilities. As an online contemporary fashion label, its mission is to empower Indian women with the liberty to dress comfortably, fashionably and authentically. In an interview with Fibre2Fashion, Uptownie Founder Priyanka Agarwal talks about fast fashion and changing consumer preferences in India and how her label is able to compete with international high street brands.
How has Uptownie evolved as a brand and as a business since its inception?
Since the birth of Uptownie in 2015, we have refined our focus and now design unique styles that are not easily available elsewhere. We have strengthened our supply chain, so we are able to offer premium products at affordable prices. We have built a large network of suppliers so we can launch new styles very quickly–within 10 days from conception of the style to a website launch.
We have grown our Instagram community to 166k strong and still counting. We make cutting edge content that educates the customer while also being fun and true to brand. Our social media engagement is superior to most competitor brands, our reel views and comments are consistently high, and we have built brand recall and recognition in the minds of our target audience.
What are some of the challenges unique to homegrown brands in fast fashion in India?
One of the biggest pain points for homegrown brands is the presence of COD (cash on delivery) as a mode of payment. This often leads to parcels not being received by the customer due to lack of coordination between the customer and courier partner. This results in the parcel being returned back to us, thus forcing us to pay two-way logistics for an unsuccessful order.
Another pain point is the lack of customer awareness regarding placing returns online – despite creating an easy-to-use system, it remains a challenge to educate customers about how to go about placing a return and using store credit.
What are some of the growth drivers of this sector?
Changing customer behaviour – We see a greater adoption of westernwear across the country, outside the metros. Consumers from small towns are comfortable purchasing online (increasingly), and comfortable wearing westernwear. This is a big shift from even five years ago when the market was more heavily weighted towards the bigger cities.
Greater online adoption spurred by the pandemic – Due to COVID-19, e-commerce received a huge push, and consumers have become far more comfortable shopping online. This is a big benefit to the sector, and it is now increasingly possible for a brand to grow while being largely online.
Demand and trust in homegrown labels – Consumers are looking for alternatives to high street brands and given the greater trust in buying from homegrown labels, or even through Instagram, the sector has received a push.
How do you manage to compete with international high street brands?
We are able to compete on two parameters. The first is pricing. Our average order value (AOV) is currently in the range of ₹1,200-1,300 with an average selling price (ASP) in the range of ₹700-800 – this is far lower than the AOV of any international high street brand where the ASP of most products is above ₹1,200, and AOV in the range of ₹3,000-4,000. Thus, a large part of the market which find international high street brands affordable is a natural customer for us.
Secondly, we are designing for Indians, they are not. While our designers keep in mind the Indian consumer (warmer colours for Indian skin tones, silhouettes that are forgiving on the hips, slightly more modest cuts to cater to Indian sensibilities, length adjustments according to average Indian body height, prints with a slightly ethnic feel and brand language that the Indian consumer finds relatable), international high street brands that are serving a global audience are unable to make these tweaks. Due to these reasons, we are able to compete effectively, and do not see our sales hit during Zara’s biannual sale, for instance.
Which are your major markets in India?
Our leading markets are Maharashtra, Karnataka, NCR, West Bengal, but we deliver in every state across the country.
Which are your top performing categories?
Our top performing categories are tops, jumpsuits, and Indo-western collections.
Do you have your own manufacturing unit? If not, where are the products made?
Yes, we have our factory in Ganganagar, West Bengal. But we also work with contract labour.
What has been your growth story for the last two years? What is the target set for the next two?
We have grown exponentially, and sales have grown between 2-4x over the last two years. The target is 6-8x growth over the next two years with a greater share coming from our own website.
As a young brand what are your expectations from the upcoming Budget 2023-24?
More than the Budget, proper implementation of the Budget is important to us. Currently, while the law is supportive of us, and we are supposed to receive GST input credit since we pay a much higher tax rate on our input materials than our output sales which are taxed at 5 per cent, in actuality a large amount of working capital is blocked in the GST system. Due to this we are able to reinvest less in the business.
What is the brand strategy for Uptownie going forward?
1. Continue to create a strong community on Instagram, so that we have to depend less on meta advertisements which are increasingly more expensive. 2. Work with influencers in meaningful ways such as through capsule collections instead of single reel collaborations that are quickly forgotten and very expensive. 3. Use different advertising channels to achieve a better return on advertising spend (ROAS). It is important to use all social and communication channels in order to build a better and more targeted advertising mix. 4. Start creating an offline presence so customers have physical touchpoints. We hope to be present in 500 stores by the end of the calendar year 2023 so those customers who are uncomfortable purchasing online are still able to access our brand.
(Interviewer: Shilpi Panjabi)
Published on: 30/01/2023
DISCLAIMER: All views and opinions expressed in this column are solely of the interviewee, and they do not reflect in any way the opinion of Fibre2Fashion.com.
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