With first round of funding, fashion-focused private label StalkBuyLove targets profitability soon
Fashion focused e-commerce startups continue to grab the attention of global investors. Delhi-based digital fast fashion private label StalkBuyLove has raised an undisclosed amount of funding from a consortium of investors, including Mato Peric, former CEO, Rocket Internet and nine others. The company will use the funds to accelerate the growth and drive profitability.
“StalkBuyLove focuses on growing profitability and is built on vertically integrated just-in-time production, strong fashion and design competence. These qualities were the key in attracting the investor group and we are excited to have partnered with international e-commerce investors, who fully share our vision,” says Tushar Ahluwalia, Co-Founder of StalkBuyLove.com.
With an average discount rate of only five per cent, the platform claims to follow a different strategy than any other e-commerce company in India. It focuses on its customers’ needs and believes in the combination of art, craft, and science for the growth of the platform. The platform also claims its annual gross merchandise to be around USD 3.5 million.
Inspired by the proximity sourcing approach that Inditex (Zara) innovated, the platform combines strong fashion competence with proprietary, custom-made technologies for its unique sourcing and production strategy, which allows the company to own its entire value chain.
On the technology front, Tushar says that StalkBuyLove.com builds on its technology to manage and control the entire production processes in real-time, including the cutting and stitching of garments at scale by third-party production units. By optimizing its value chain, the company delivers extraordinarily high margins while providing its partner stitching units consistent and lucrative payouts.
“StalkBuyLove.com follows a unique strategy in the Indian fashion e-commerce sector that allows the company to generate margins that are off-market while always providing the latest trends to the rapidly growing segment of hip, young fashion lovers. I am particularly impressed by the scalable Just-in-Time supply structures as well as the strong brand recognition and customer loyalty that the founding team created while bootstrapping the company over the last years,” says former Global E-commerce CEO of Rocket Internet, Mato Peric, who also participated in this round.
Competition segment
Interestingly, StalkBuyLove doesn’t position itself as an e-commerce company. For them e-commerce primarily is a retail channel. It calls itself a product-centric fashion company.
The fashion-focused platform also denies competing with the likes of Jabong, Myntra, or Koovs as they are placed horizontally at the end of the value chain while it is placed vertically along the value chain. And it aspires to compete with H&M, Zara, Forever21, and Asos in their respective target markets.
(With inputs from Jai Vardhan)