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e-Commerce venture Fashionandyou.com (F&Y), armed with a third round of funding of Rs 200 crore, will ramp up its customer management systems, supply chain, expand merchandise and increase marketing and advertising efforts.
Positioned as an ‘online luxury shopping club,' F&Y, which offers a slew of luxury brands at a discount, claims that its base of 30 lakh members is growing by two lakh a month, with ‘a very small churn.' Speaking to Business Line , Ms Pearl Uppal, Founder and CEO, F&Y, said, “Seventy five per cent of the transactions on F&Y are repeat purchases. That's a statement of loyalty and frequency of purchases on the site. Our efforts will be to serve our existing customer base to world class standards; and to increase the base. We will invest in scalability and also be strengthening the merchandise offering.”
Since its launch in 2010, F&Y has grown its merchandise to cover 10 categories among which apparel sells the most — from 10 per cent of the total in January 2010, it accounts for 36 per cent now. Given its model of building a community based on referrals, introduction of new categories spike sales in the first few months, explained Ms Uppal.
Most recently, F&Y launched a kids category in mid-November, and home fashion is to be introduced in early December.
At an average ticket size of Rs 2,000, F&Y currently claims to be doing 5,000 transactions a day. About five per cent of the traffic results in conversion — or buys from F&Y — explained the CEO.
To engage deeper with its member base, the Web site will launch a digital fashion magazine, besides fashion blogs, in a week.
Promotions
The brand will invest in several advertising and marketing initiatives, which will be led by the online medium. Till date, the company has used online largely, with selective use of radio. The core focus has been and will be on current members.
“This is a word-of-mouth and vitality business. We have over a million fans on Facebook. Yes, there are plans for television. So far we have not felt the need — at some point as our base expands, we will be on TV,” said Ms Uppal.
Around half its transactions come from the top eight cities (by population). F&Y is encouraged by the response from Tier 1 and 2 markets across India — from the likes of Jammu and Kashmir and Orissa, according to Ms Uppal.
She added, “The smaller cities would be key focus markets going forward. Over the last 20 months, we have set up the foundations of the company. Big growth is expected in the next phase, between 2012 and 2014.”
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