BANGALORE, INDIA, March 21 (Bernama-BUSINESS WIRE) -- Faiza, a 23 year-old girl from Raipur, India, takes pride in showcasing her style. She draws fashion inspirations from influencers and friends. Given that there are limited fashion brand options for her in a tier 3 town, e-commerce platforms of her favorite brands are a godsend. Although she has 4 of the top 5 e-commerce apps, the looks that she gets inspired from are near impossible to convert into a complete ensemble. Where does she head to find answers?
Technology is one solution to this problem. Internet penetration in India is projected to hit 40% by 2020 & the number of women using smartphones is expected to be 100Mn during the same time. Today there are 22Mn monthly active Indian women users in the age group 16-30 on Facebook, 70% of whom use mobile phone as the primary device to access Facebook. From just 5Mn women smartphone users in 2015 to 100Mn in 2020 is an exponential journey that drives the ecosystem to exponentially innovate too.
Access to real-time content is the second solution. Avenues for content consumption have expanded due to a drop in cost of Internet usage and smartphones. Businesses like Reliance Jio, Netflix, and Facebook are now betting big on India. Instagram, Snapchat & Pinterest have expanded the imagination of the everyday fashion consumer leading to an increase in the demand for international brands & niche products.
Unlocking multi-million dollar market opportunities in the initial years of inception, fashion brands like H&M and Forever21 have validated the opportunity for fashion consumption. Urban women are influenced by these brands because the brands maintain a fast refresh rate and a steady flow of the latest trends. Fear of missing out (FOMO), a persistent pain for Millenials, ensures that they are constantly online and exploring the new and unique. The combined fast fashion market today in India is at $600Mn. With a projected growth path of 500%, this alone is a $3Bn industry. The demand is also opening up a market for specialized brands catering to specific segments – age groups, regions, designers, and more. Further, market projections indicate an opportunity for at least a 1000 long tail brands with $1Mn in turnover.
This is a combined market opportunity of $4Bn for the fast fashion segment.
An inundation of apps and an expanding range of traditional e-commerce platforms are confusing online shoppers. Discounting, and not fashion, leads the consumer conversation. While the big e-commerce players entered and scaled in India with aggressive growth strategies, many have hit plateaus in their growth and are finding it difficult to get to profitability. The premise that growth is the primary objective leads to the disillusion of both users and brands. Brands are left chasing thinning margins and expanding marketing costs.
Consumer disillusionment with the current e-commerce paradigm is driving the need for a platform that allows consumers to engage with fashion brands beyond just a sale. Conversations are becoming important for brand managers and businesses, especially with specialty long tail brands. Social commerce gives commerce a human voice. Rakuten founder and CEO Hiroshi Mikitani highlights this opportunity accurately in his book Marketplace 3.0, in which he states that the new generation of e-commerce will be driven by consumer behavior and intelligent search, and businesses will live or die on the degree to which they foster engagement and discover with their consumers.
Mogujie built one of China’s biggest fashion-focused e-commerce services, with 35 million active users, and stands out for its vision to connect quality sellers with quality users. It generates today $50Mn GMV monthly.Wooplr, a comparable social shopping platform in India, has 2 Million Indian women users. It converts 6% of its browsing users to transacting users, considerably higher than traditional e-commerce channels at 2%. The conversion gap confirms relevance and discovery for users. Wooplr’s approach of balancing content, community, and commerce, gives a holistic experience to the average shopper, likening to walking down a real world fashion high street.
Wooplr sees at least 50% of its orders coming from non-metro cities in India, suggesting that there is no dearth in demand for fashion from these cities. Thus enabling more women like Faiza to get access to the latest in fashion. Wooplr’s CEO, Arjun Zacharia, wants to take a leadership position in the social shopping space in India by 2020 reaching 100Mn smartphone using women across India.
Social is the new success mantra for online commerce in India, a $78bn market projected for 2020. Combining the value from content and community, plus the need for businesses to unlock the most relevant set of consumers for their brands is the ultimate opportunity. Wooplr is set to take leadership in a $4Bn market opportunity.
About WooplrWooplr is India’s largest fashion community & social shopping platform. The app is built on the concept that shopping is greatly influenced by more than just personal preferences, and aims to bring the social element back into the act of shopping. Each user can view a highly personalized feed of curated fashion products and looks, tailored to their personal taste. Wooplr received $5 million in Series-A funding from Helion Ventures in Jan 2015.
