Women’s fashion brand FabAlley bets big on omni-channel retail, opens flagship store in Bengaluru

Noida-based High Street Essentials Pvt Ltd which owns and operates two women’s fashion brands FabAlley and Indya has launched its first exclusive brand outlet for FabAlley and seventh for Indya at Commercial Street, Bengaluru.

Keeping its offline momentum going, this store is spread across 2250 sq ft, the company’s largest outlet so far.

Since Bengaluru is a fashion-forward market and one of the top cities for FabAlley, the company saw it fit to spread its wings and open its second exclusive brand outlet.

Shivani Poddar and Tanvi Malik, quit their high-paying jobs in Titan Industries, Unilever and Avendus Capital, and started FabAlley in 2012 as an online brand for Western wear. In 2016 they launched the Indo-Western fusion wear brand called Indya.

Speaking on the launch of the new store, Tanvi Malik, co-founder, FabAlley said, “Through our offline strategy, we are focused on expanding our presence across the country, offering customers an engaging touch-and-feel experience. We plan to invest over six crore this financial year for our offline expansion. Our estimated offline revenue share is expected to go up to 30 per cent of the company’s total revenue by the end of FY19. We expect to launch 18 stores by December 2018, taking up our exclusive brand outlet total to 25 stores.”

The store will help young women get familiar with the brands and provide access to western wear as well as fusion wear at the same location. The idea is to give customers an experience before the purchase.

While a major chunk of the company’s revenue comes from its online channels (around 70 percent), offline sales from the six Indya stores and more than 70 shop-in-shops at Future Group’s Central are also picking up. HSE’s first exclusive Indya store was launched in Bengaluru in July 2017.

The company recently raised Rs 5 crore in venture debt from Trifecta Capital and plans to deploy these funds primarily for offline expansion.

Its offering include apparel and accessories with more than 3000 own-brand products in categories like clothing, bags and jewelry. It also features Curve – a Western Wear brand for plus-sized women. With in-house designers, the company believes it can create affordable fashion by having its own manufacturing facilities in Noida. Tanvi adds, “We sell from 70 retail points across the country. For FY 17-18, High Street Essentials has clocked a GMV of Rs 80 crore and all the three brands have an inimitable style signature and are attuned to the women of today.”

Most brands are taking the omni-channel route to cater to a larger customer base. This includes Myntra’s in-house apparel brand Roadster.

FabAlley’s competition in this space include players like VeroModa, and Allen Solly, among others. Indya competes with brands like Global Desi and W.