Cinnamon Closet is a women’s western wear brand that has been steadily growing since its inception in 2017, catering to the evolving customer needs of new-age women
New Delhi: The brainchild of Vinita Choudhary, Cinnamon Closet is a purely bootstrapped women’s western wear brand, which positions itself as a premium brand in the category. The brand, by catering to the evolving needs of its customers and by standing up to the market trends has achieved 100% growth in its revenues last year.
The brand has introduced very innovative products in the Western wear category that stand out in terms of ť t and design, since the start. The brand entered the market to reinvent the workwear category, which was not very pronounced during 2017-18.
“We had started the brand with a focus on workwear for women professionals. However, we have expanded our category to cater to a wider audience now. We are now creating smart casuals to suit the everyday needs of women who prefer timeless and elegant clothing,” Vinita explains.
She continues, “We believe in the uniqueness & quality over trends. We have been very innovative in terms of the type of products we introduce to our customers. We have created Western tops and dresses with Indian fabrics and design sensibilities. As we have kept our offerings timeless and elegant, our customers love to shop with us throughout the year avoiding decision fatigue to a great extent.”
Market focus
Initially, the brand’s focus was oũ in sales through exhibitions and their store in Bengaluru.
During this time the brand was not focussing much on online sales. However, COVID changed a lot of equations, and with time the brand not only began to shift focus to online sales, but it also started innovating the idea of smart casuals and bringing more everyday basics to its customers.
“We are always inspired by the love and feedback our customers receive. As a brand, we love creating beautiful products and innovating keeping customers’ interests in mind – we feel really blessed that we can create such great value in our customers’ lives. This has inspired us to keep creating valuable and unique products and stay on the growth path,” Vinita highlights.
In 2019, it opened its first store in Inorbit Mall, Bengaluru. As the store started doing well, they were severely hit twice by the lockdown in subsequent years. As the mall couldn’t survive during the lockdown, they had to close the store after the mall ceased its operations and decided to wind up. “However, we had created a good customer base from our oũ in store. We used this customer base to grow online. We shifted our complete operations online and we have been growing steadily on our website ever since,”
Vinita adds.
Customer on focus
With customer interest and need in mind and at the centre of every decision the brand takes, for marketing, Cinnamon Closet has adopted a lean approach to advertising on Facebook and Instagram.
“As we had also operated oũ ine, we have been blessed to get new customers with word-of-mouth marketing more than any other paid advertising channel,” Vinita humbly notes.
Further, for ease of product movements across India and to make logistics a smooth sail, the brand has partnered with third-party shipping companies and warehouse operations.
Challenges are working with third-party solutions, but they can all be managed
with the help of the trained internal team. That’s what the brand solidiť es every passing day, to create agile processes for better customer reach.
Refusing to follow trends and rather reinvent and work around the idea of comfort, Cinnamon Closet wants to present a balanced outlook in terms of its designs, stitches, cuts, and the kinds of collections it brings to the front. offering value to the customers is on top of the team’s mind and they deliver it by using the right designs, fabrics, and techniques.
