With 160 PoS located pan India, Kazo Fashion Limited, an India-based womenswear brand offering international fashion trends at affordable prices, is in pre-expansion mode. The brand aims to open 35 more pos to reach a figure of 200 PoS by the end of the current financial year. Currently, Kazo has 60 EBOs and 100 shop-in-shops.
Deepak Aggarwal, Director, Kazo says, “With an investment of Rs 100 crore, we want to reach the figure of 500 PoS in three years from now.”
Kazo is a premium high street western wear brand that has made its way into the center of the fashion industry within a short span of time. It constantly tries to push the envelope to bring the best and latest of fashion from around the globe.
The brand is a home to contemporary, chic fashion, which represents a mindset and an attitude, not an age. It is designed for the modern Indian woman who is confident, glamourous and sensual, who leads a sophisticated lifestyle.
The garments designed by the brand are phenomenally fashionable with a high wearability and practicality quotient. The main asset of the collections is that they are highly affordable, which means latest designer wear is accessible to all women, then be it office wear or occasion wear outfits.
The brand’s pricing strategy is pretty reasonable, making it affordable and available to a wide economic spectrum. The price range for an ‘easy day wear top’ starts from Rs 1290, while a cocktail dress can cost up to Rs 8000.
The Beginning
Kazo opened its first store in 2007 in Delhi. The brand completed 10 years since launch last year and is hoping to maintain the upward growth trajectory in the popularity chart among consumers. Recognizing a gap in the Indian market for affordable dressed up international fashion wear, Aggarwal created a homegrown contemporary fashion brand for women.
Under his proficient foresight, the brand has established stores in major fashion hubs and cities across India.
Aggarwal has used his aptitude of mastering all aspects of management, design, sales and marketing to position Kazo as a quality brand through creative designs and innovative marketing strategies.
Business Model
Kazo’s business model is focused on a basic retail model. In one line it can be described as ‘fashion from the runway to the store’.
“Kazo has been in the market for the last 10 years now. It’s a women’s western wear brand which is affordable fashion, coming straight off the runway to the market – that’s the USP of the brand. In this short period, Kazo has established itself as one of the best fashion retailers in India,” says Aggarwal.
So, what moves the mechanism of Kazo? The main factor behind the brand’s success is that its turnover time is really fast. The logistics involved are fast, and efficient – from the time a design / style hits the runway to the time it reaches Kazo’s store on ground is a paltry three months, and sometimes even less than that.
What differentiates the brand from its contemporaries – domestic and international – is the fact that the brand makes and effort to upgrade latest trends and styles and designs for its consumers.
“What we do differently is that we try to give a more upgraded trend to our consumers. We are not as basic as fast fashion brands. We are not available in bulk everywhere – we give exclusivity to our consumers,” explains Aggarwal.
A part of this exclusivity includes great in-store experience. The management focuses and invests a lot in training the frontend staff to ensure they understand how to deal with a consumer and convert her into a repeat customer. Special sessions are conducted to create good in-store experience, and they are also armed with information about the product, the style and design.
High Streets Vs Malls
The age-old conundrum for brands – do we open stores in malls or high streets, doesn’t seem to faze Deepak Aggarwal too much since he has built a very clear location strategy for Kazo, especially since the brand has a very deep and detailed expansion plan lined up.
“We have a full point strategy and we know where we are going to open the stores this year and why we are picking certain locations. Our marketing approach is also quite flexible. We don’t really have a preference – malls or high streets – it all depends on the opportunity. Right opportunity at the right place and it has to make business sense,” says Aggarwal.
Kazo is a product-centric brand. Currently, the brand is generating an increase in revenue up to 30 to 40 percent every year and they are also open to funding with the right partners. It is also recently working a lot on giving better in-store experiences to consumers.
