Soumajit Bhowmik: Our Corporate Office Is Based in Bangalore Since This Is the City With Most Talent in Terms of Tech and Is the Hub of the Start-up Ecosystem in India

Soumajit Bhowmik of Styched.

Tell us about yourself?

Hustler, Marketer, Ecommerce and Fashion professional, Father to a smaller female version of myself. IIT Kharagour 2006 graduate. I have been the head of marketing for Jabong, the Rocket Internet Ecommerce Company, where my team was instrumental in making the company gross profitable.

I was also the Head of Ecommerce for Capillary Technologies where some of the partner fashion brands were able to grow 30% month on month in Revenue. Senior diploma holder in Fine Arts, licensed DJ, Jack of all trades, hopefully master of some!

What lessons has being an entrepreneur taught you? 

Patience – especially when dealing with various kinds of professionals and individuals. Also, it taught me that building a team is the most important thing in business.

You cannot build an empire alone. Everyone tells an entrepreneur to be optimistic and focussed and keep hustling at what you are doing, but I think someone also needs to tell startup founders to know when to call it a day and move on.

If something doesn’t work for the first few years, chances are high it might never work, and it makes sense not to waste more time trying to fix a broken machine. There are so many emotions involved in the startup journey, that it’s easier said than done, but one needs to be practical as well.

If you could go back in time to when you first started your business, what piece of advice would you give yourself?

I would go back to the days of my first startup, which failed, and tell me one thing – Build the team. I was just out of college then and wanted to take on everything by myself. Failed miserably. Thankfully, the startup was merged into a larger entity.

For my second startup, I think we ticked off most of the boxes, but we were penny wise pound foolish. Never invested in the larger vision. Kept going for the smaller wins.

A lot of entrepreneurs find it difficult to balance their work and personal lives. How have you found that?

I have not really found that. I am a workaholic and I thrive being buried in work. But I do find time for my daughter, and make sure that we spend quality time no matter how less the time is.

My family has been kind enough to accept me the way I am, and I ensure I am there when they need me – whether it is medical checkup for my father, or Parents Teacher meeting for my kid, or a family get together.

I honestly believe the whole notion of work life balance has been blown out of proportion. Just do what you feel like doing at the moment.

Might mean 100% work and nothing else, might even mean a sabbatical from work for weeks. In order to maintain balance, lot of people lose the quality factor – they dont contribute to their potential at work, neither are they completely stress free at home.

Give us a bit of an insight into the influences behind the company?

Fashion industry is plagued with costs. 15% of fabric used while manufacturing gets wasted due to the traditional approach towards apparel manufacturing.

More than 25% apparel manufactured, never gets sold and is wasted, ending up in landfills. 25-35% of ecommerce shipments gets returned as undeliverables (RTO).

These, along with warehousing, adds to the effective MRP of products. At the same time, the traditional way in which the fashion industry operates is not at all sustainable.

Our mission is to democratize fashion globally by providing affordable fashion to the masses. We launch new styles every week offering them at a quarter of the price of other brands.

We do this while making sure that we remain sustainable, with Zero wastage, Zero warehouse, Zero inventory in our supply chain and production.

What do you think is your magic sauce? What sets you apart from the competitors?

We are revolutionizing the way fashion ecommerce industry works. We are a production on demand brand, with a patented production on demand technology. This means all our products are made to order and we remain a Zero Inventory, Zero Warehouse Brand.

Our mission is to democratize fashion globally by providing affordable fashion to the masses. Our patented production on demand technology allows us to launch new styles every week offering them at a quarter of the price of other brands without having the need to invest in stocks up front.

Our unique equation based algorithm of pattern block creation and apparel manufacturing makes us extremely scalable, keeps Fabric wastage down to almost zero, while our state of art Return Management and Order tracking system keeps our return low and helps in re-using of fabric through reverse breakdown of patterns.

We have built an uber-like app for tailors which allows them to pick up jobworks available, choose how much of their time they can invest in this and earn money out of it. Current network of tailors has been built through referrals and word of mouth.

We are now planning to roll out this app at a larger scale by tying up with State Governments. We also want to build multiple fulfilment centers across the country to scale ops and mitigate risk.

This gig working tailor network enables the fragmented tailoring ecosystem to become self employed, with larger participation from women workforce, who can now earn as much as they choose to.

How have you found sales so far? Do you have any lessons you could pass on to other founders in the same market as you just starting out?

We are currently operating at approximately 27,000 orders per month. It is important to understand the Target Audience.

Channels and marketing should be built around your TG, not the other way round. Startups are extremely focussed on optimising Social Media Ads, Search engine ads, etc, but sometimes your audience are not buying from product discovery through those channels as much as others are and hence your CAC goes for a toss. Keep talking to customers and understand their purchase behavior and habits.

What is the biggest challenge you have faced so far in your business, and how did you overcome it?

The biggest challenge has been to unify the fragmented tailoring ecosystem in the country. Traditionally, tailors either work full time at a factory or boutique or open up their own shop and take up work from customer walk-ins.

Our idea of an uber-ised app for tailors is very new and requires a strong effort for adoption. However, once the tailors come on board, we get a lot of other tailors through his network and word of mouth.

The plan over the next 12 months is to roll out this app on a larger scale across different cities in India. For this, we have been in talks with several State Governments.

What do you consider are the main strengths of operating your business in India and the specific state you are in over other states in India?

We are a D2C brand and we cater to orders across the country. Our corporate office is based in Bangalore since this is the city with most talent in terms of tech and is the hub of the start-up ecosystem in India.

Our production centers are spread across cities – Bangalore, Delhi, Ghaziabad, Chennai. The area depends on local conditions and the tailor ecosystem present there.

What (if any) are some weaknesses of operating your business within India and your state?

The biggest challenge has been to unify the fragmented tailoring ecosystem in the country. Traditionally, tailors either work full time at a factory or boutique or open up their own shop and take up work from customer walk-ins.

Our idea of an uber-ised app for tailors is very new and requires a strong effort for adoption. However, once the tailors come on board, we get a lot of other tailors through his network and word of mouth.

The plan over the next 12 months is to roll out this app on a larger scale across different cities in India. For this, we have been in talks with several State Governments.

If you could operate your business in another state in India rather than the State you are in, which state would it be and why?

Ours is a D2C online brand and we do not have any specific restriction or criteria to choose a city to operate from. We are currently headquartered in Bangalore.

India has an incredibly diverse population. How has the affected your consumer base and business?

We have always seen the diversity in India’s population as a strength. India is a mix of cosmopolitan cities and tier 2, 3, 4, 5 cities, towns and villages. The difference is largely in purchasing power.

However, over the last decade we have seen a shift in consumer behaviours even in the smaller cities and towns. With rising internet penetration more and more of today’s youth are accustomed to and actually prefer shopping online.

We operate in the affordable price segment, and over 70% of our orders come from non-metro cities. There is a difference in fashion preferences in every region. For example, in the southern part of India, people tend to avoid black colored clothes.

Winters are non-existent in some of the states and hence winter wear does not work in those states.

But at the same time, several places in India are cold throughout the year and winter wear does extremely well in those places. We have over 10,000 unique products on our website, and there is always something that the customer will like.

Infrastructure is really important to businesses. How have you seen India’s infrastructure improve recently? Do you see new opportunities opening up?

Yes, as mentioned above the internet penetration in India has grown rampantly over the last decade. Forecasts suggest that by the end of 2022 India will have 840 million internet users compared to 357 million in 2017. This is a massive opportunity for online focused businesses.

What do you want to accomplish in the next 5 years with your business?

We want to establish Styched as the go to brand for affordable fashion globally. We already have a presence in India and UAE. Over the next 5 years we want to expand to other geographies in SEA, Europe and Americas.

And finally, if people want to get involved and learn more about your business, how should they do that?

This does not apply to us.

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