Co-founder & CEO
DotnDitto
A first-generation entrepreneur, Monika Chaudhary is the co-founder and CEO of Kids ethnicwear brand DotnDitto, which she launched in 2012. Chaudhary holds a masters in Computer Applications and has over a decade of consulting, sales and management experience with companies like IBM and GE.
In her previous assignment, she was DGM of Data Analytics with IBM from 2006 until 2011.
Starting out in 2012 with a two-people team, Chaudhary has grown DotnDitto by about 10 times in just over two years. “It’s thrilling to see this expansion and building Dotnditto as a well-recognised kids ethnic wear brand,” she says.
Having taken a leap of faith — and what some might refer to as a risky career move — Chaudhary’s overriding aim is to build DotnDitto into the leading kids fashion brand in India, through MBOs and the increasingly ubiquitous e-commerce model. The brand currently retails through FlipKart, Amazon, Snapdeal, Firstcry, Hopscotch and Paytm in the country.
“Being able to switch from a secured corporate job into a new arena and converting a small initiative into a profitable brand of kids ethnicwear in a short span of time is definitely my key professional achievement,” she states.
[“The future belongs to retailers who can harness the power of data analytics to not only increase their top line, but to also provide a rewarding customer experience.”]
“Being a mother of two young kids, I love to interact with other parents and kids to understand their choices. Being in retail gives me this chance to understand my potential customers and cater to their changing needs,” she says, referring to the motivation for launching DotnDitto. “It’s exciting to know when parents tell us that we have a very different collection and when we see a kid flaunting a DotnDitto dress on special occasions such as birthdays and festivals.”
Thanks to her rich previous exposure to technology, particularly in analytics, Chaudhary cannot but emphasise the importance of crunching numbers minutely, in order for retailers to succeed.
“To achieve full potential, Indian retailers must make optimal use of data analytics to get insights into consumer behaviour and preferences,” she notes. “It’s amazing to see the amount of behavioral and social data present today and the way retailers can use it to make impressions across stages of a customer’s lifecycle.”
“To outshine,” she points out, “retailers must invest in tools and technology to understand various ways in which a consumer engages with retailers across channels and use this understanding to create customised offer at various customer ‘touch’ points.” In Chaudhary’s view, the future belongs to retailers who can harness the power of data analytics to not only increase their top line, but to also provide a rewarding customer experience.
Going forward, Chaudhary is aiming to double the brand’s revenues this year by expanding both vertically and horizontally. “In addition to continuing our online expansion, we plan to expand our MBOs reach in South India, our biggest market. On the product side, we wish to introduce more styles to our Indo-western category and also bring in ethnic styles from different cultures in India. On the infrastructure side, considering the growing demand, we plan to add one more warehouse in Mumbai in 2015.”
