Zapyle is an online marketplace for Millennial women in India, who is constantly looking for fashion solutions that can take her through the day. The brand aims to educate the women on trending styles and has been attracting eyeballs for providing fashion options at affordable prices.
Zapyle was established by Rashi Gulati Menda in June, 2015 with four style-based filters including boho, trendy, classic and chic. It allows women to discover fashion for themselves depending on their personal style, inspired by celebrities, trends and street styles.
Targeted at Millennials in the age group of 18-30 years in Tier I, II, and III cities, the fashionable luxury clothes on Zapyle are priced from Rs 800 to under Rs 1 lakh.
In an exclusive interview, Rashi Menda talks about her new private label offering ISU and the future of Zapyle. Excerpts…
Please tell us in detail about your private label brand ISU?
ISU comes from a simple thought – ‘every customer desires to follow fashion that finally relates to their personality, both in terms of aspiration as well as reality’. With this brand, the key distinguishing factor is that we are striving to achieve and build emotional connect with the customer. And while we do chase trends, we are working towards building a label that will bridge the gap between fashion and occasions in the everyday life of a woman.
What was the reason behind introducing ISU?
We noticed that there was always a problem of sizing for Indian women. Indian body types are very different from rest of the world. It is very difficult for Indian women to find clothing that fits well without having to have them altered.
ISU aims to provide Indian women with a large variety of options that fit like a glove. We observed that there are mainly three kinds of body types; hourglass, pear and apple shape. ISU was formulated to make designs for these three main body types while keeping international quality of the products.
We saw three major problems that is quality, trends and sizing in the industry that customers were facing we formulated ISU. ISU is our first private label; it was created to solve these three major issues.
How much will a private label contribute to your overall revenue?
We are expecting 30 percent of our overall revenue from this private label. We plan on increasing the exposure of our private label on all platforms while keeping focus on the fact that we are also a marketplace.
What are the new innovations- technological and customer experience – that Zaplye is introducing?
We are working on creating a personalised experience for every user on Zapyle where, users lifestyle needs will be mapped with products that fit their preferences the best. For instance, a user is shopping for an occasion, summer vacation – we will understand her style preferences, how much she’s willing to pay and then show her only what she would really want to buy.
Any plans to go Omnichannel?
Yes, we are growing ISU to different channels. It is important for the UI and UX of an e-commerce website to be seamless since majority of the population start looking at a product on one device and end up making the purchase on another.
We have listed ISU on online platforms and are planning to go offline with large multi-brand stores as well.
Why do you prefer clicks over bricks?
Knowing that more than half of the Indian consumer is online there is a better opportunity to reach a larger audience. While reaching customers through offline stores is limited in scope, online reaches a larger audience.
At Zapyle we have identified our cohorts – which is the urban women who is informed, fashionable and looking for fashion with great fits. Online we have the opportunity to reach a large set of our audience.
What are your expansion plans?
As the Millennial crowd is always up to date, we want to provide them with the latest trends aside from great quality. In the next quarter, we plan to increase the catalog to 400 options, where we will be launching new styles every week. We want to capture the latest trends as fast as possible.
Where do you see Zapyle five years from now?
Zapyle plans to be a one-stop destination for trendy fashion solutions. We plan on providing more styles as well as shaping lifestyles. We are adding more categories such as footwear, bags, accessories and more apparel options giving women a platform that provides a 360-degree wardrobe solution.
