New Delhi: Gone are the days when Facebook was used merely as a tool to share personal details with people. Along with Instagram and other such media, Facebook is becoming a lucrative and cheap ground for advertising for young entrepreneurs.
The online platform has attracted young entrepreneurs mainly between 19 and 25 years of age to showcase their ideas besides their studies. "Online stores are really convenient to manage. Especially for me because I have my college and then side by side I have this apparel store," 19-year old Priya Anand, owner of Fashionista clothing store and fashion designing student of Fairfield Institute of Management and Technology, said.
"Pop is totally running on social media: Instagram and Facebook have boosted our sales and audience. I can't imagine Pop without social media," said Malvika Gupta, owner of Pop Fashion27 who recently completed her Masters in Advertising and Marketing. Designs, products and prices of jewellery and apparels are now widely displayed on Instagram and Facebook accounts.
Attractive pricing in comparison to the retail outlets has lead to a surge in sale and profits. Wink21, an online store set up in 2012 has posted profits in their previous two quarters. "We make a net-profit of 5-6 lakh during a normal season per month," Leena said. Tehmina Mariam from Be you Fashion said, "My initial investment was not much later I invested around 10,000. Turnover is 20 -30,000 each month." Amna Hasan from Blush said that the turnover entirely depends on the products we bring and the number of collection we upload in a month. She added that with the rise of e-commerce, the amount of time and money invested in an online venture the return is better and it's profitable for the person/team running it.
These e-stores witness an upsurge especially during the festive season. "We see upsurge during Christmas, new years and Valentines day. During this season there is intense competition. Hence, we introduce various offers- like contests, discounts and increase our engagement with our customers," Hasan said.
Apart from the conventional service provided to the customers, these business models have started providing value-added services to their customers for enhancing the shopping experience, Apoorva Vijaywargiya, a NIFT student, recently launched her online luxury fashion store and a styling and grooming consultancy called Sesame-The Style Studio on 9th July 2013. The store deals in apparels, accessories, footwear, bags for women. In addition she also provides grooming and styling consultation, which includes services such as personal shopper services and wardrobe consultation.
The trends have shown that such start-ups attract young customers, "Most of our customers are between the age group of 16-25 years and they like to indulge in the latest that's in trend...we have seen a shift from typical girly wear to classy vintage and high street fashion wear. Lot of neon, sequins quilted jackets and lace dresses were the hot sellers," said Vijaywargiya.
These businesses have also started partnering with global players. "Other than simply designing stuff some of them imports various stuff from their global sourcing partners in USA and UK," Sakshi Mehra, owner of Fayonizm said. "We get some stuff designed, some are from Jaipur, Gujarat and some pieces are from China, Indonesia etc." said Gupta of Pop Fashion27.
There are also stores which sell first copies of branded products at cheap prices. Mehra from Fayonizm said, "Not everybody has the means to import products directly from the foreign markets. We approach the local importers," Mehra also added that AAA copies - replica of the original luxury brands -are also available at her store and she sells them as per the demand.
This marks an emerging trend in the way businesses market themselves, as well as the pursuit of unconventional means of livelihood by the younger generation. "We were lucky enough to think of this idea when it was a fairly new concept. Providing the latest product and pricing them attractively is the key to complete," Hasan said.
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