Bangalore-based e-tailer Zovi.com, which sells affordable apparel, accessories and footwear, plans to tap the Indian diaspora with its premium offerings. The single-brand online firm, which has investors such as Tiger Global and Saif Partners, says it will enter the international market, starting with the US this month, and then expand to the UK, West Asia and Australia by the year end.
The company, which manufactures and sells men’s and women’s lifestyle products at prices not exceeding ₹2,500, will go live with the premium offerings for its overseas consumers in a couple of weeks, with prices ranging from ₹3,000 to ₹30,000.
In a bid to fuel its expansion, Zovi is also looking to raise about $30 million (₹180 crore) from existing investors by November this year. New investors will also participate in the latest funding round, Manish Chopra, CEO of Zovi.com, told
The company will use the funds to scale up its manufacturing ability, build its supply chain and facilitate smooth international delivery.
Zovi, owned by Robemall Apparels Pvt Ltd, was founded in 2010 by Satish Mani, former senior vice-president (Technology) at Cleartrip, along with Kavindra Mishra and Sartaj Mehta.
Chopra, who joined the company from Microsoft in 2012 sensing the burgeoning growth opportunity of Indian e-commerce, said that he expects the international market to contribute about 20 per cent to the e-tailer’s overall revenues by 2017.
“We did an internal study and found that there is a huge demand for occasion--led ethnicwear from the Indian diaspora in the international market and there are not many players catering to the demand,” Chopra said, adding that it has tied up with DHL, FedEx and UPS for delivery.
Taking on private labelsWith the international venture, Zovi aims at becoming the largest Indian online brand. It does not compete with the likes of Flipkart, Jabong or Snapdeal but with private labels such as Myntra’s Roadster Yepme.
Chopra, however, added that India will remain the biggest focus market for Zovi as the branded apparel market is all set to double to $90 billion by 2020.
He said the company was already profitable at the operational level as it only focused on private labels, which is a high margin business.
Meanwhile, Ravi Adusumalli, Managing Partner, SAIF Partners, said that single-brand portals would grow at over 100 per cent over the next few years.
Adusumalli cited global examples Warby Parker and Justfab, which are already billion-dollar companies, and noted that Indian companies are not far behind.