Every woman wants to look different, she aspires to stand out and in the pursuit of same she goes to a tailor’s shop but much to her dismay often the tailor is not able to materialize her whims and even if he does so it comes at the cost of too much time money and effort so she settles for a readymade garment sacrificing her choices. The genesis of the product came from somewhere in between a tailor’s shop and online retail sites where every Indian women trades off either convenience or the joy of customization.

IDEA GENERATION: A.BRAIN STORMING

As a team we sat down and created a storm of ideas which brought forth many out of the box ideas and concepts.

B.FOCUSED GROUP

Fashion enthusiasts and people who love custom, be-spoke collection were interviewed and their opinions were taken into account while designing the product

C.ATTRIBUTE LISTING

Mode of delivery

Mode of payment

Delivery time

Design/Style

Packing Price Range

Care Labeling

Fabric Product Category

Manufacturing Facility

Fedex, Bluedart, First Flight courier services

Credit Card/Debit Card/Online payment

<7 days Forecast as per the season

Poly bags, Hangers

Price depends on the ordered garment

Labels stitched on garments

Knits Formal (Men/Women)

Sub-contraction

Cash-on delivery 8-10 days Market survey <1000 Separate manual for washing/ironing

Woven Ethnic (Men/Women)

Cheque/Demand Draft

10-15 days 1000-3000 Worsted Casuals (Men/Women)

<15 days 3000-10000 Intimates (Women)

>1000 Kidswear

STEP 2: IDEA SCREENING

In idea screening, the company screens most of the ideas to choose the best idea among them which is found most feasible. The company through this method drops the poor ideas as soon as possible. The reason behind this is that cost of production rises with each successive step of development. To avoid such unnecessary costs, the company reviews ideas on a set of criteria. The company answers the following questions:

1. Does the product meet a need? 2. Would it offer superior value? 3. Can it be distinctively advertised? 4. Does the company have the necessary know-how and capital?5. Will the new product develop the expected sales volume, sales growth, and profit?

The ideas are to be rated on the weighted scale. There is a fixed weight assigned to important factors for the product launch. These weights are assigned according to the level of importance. These factors are given scores. Finally, the weights and scores are multiplied to form an overall rating. The sum total of these scores must be above a particular benchmark score pre-decided by the company in order to consider the product for the launch. All products which do not achieve the bench mark score should be dropped.

SCREENING MATRICES OF DIFFERENT IDEAS

Initially, we analyze all ideas (product categories, in this case) to find out whether they make an offer of superior value and meet the need.

1) Men’s Formal

2) Men’s Casual

3) Women’s Formal

4) Women’s Casuals

5) Ethnic (Men)

6) Ethnic (Women)

7) Intimates (Women)

8) Kidswear

Factors Weight Score Total Casuals (Women) Product Demand 30 9 270 Profit Potential 25 9 225 Design 10 8 80 Scope of customization

10 7 70

Skilled Labor (Expertise of vendors)

10 7 70

Fabric availability 10 8 80

Production Period 5 8 40 Total Score 835

STEP 3:- PRODUCT CONCEPT

We offer customization and convenience for Indian Women. WHAT – “It talks about Product Market Integration”

CONCEPT OF VASTRA.COM

CUSTOMIZATION THAT WILL BE HOME-DELIVERED AND IS JUST A CLICK AWAY

Trading off between customization and convenience is every Indian woman’s pain-point when it comes to clothing. She wishes to be different, she wants to stand out from the crowd and it irks her when someone dresses exactly like her. So, in the pursuit of customizing her look she goes to a tailor shop with her choice of fabric and style. But somewhere in between after several rounds to a tailors shop she realizes that convenience has been traded off. She wishes for something that would deliver her dreams at her doorstep. We envision and strive to be that. We want to deliver that dream.

FEATURES

•Option to review prices •Booking orders online •Option to virtually create a look

ADVANTAGES

•Customzation •Convenience

BENEFITS

• A ready made look /garment would not be forced •No hassles of running to a tailors shop every now and then

VALUE Dreams delivered to doorstep at the strike of a click

FOR WHOM For urban Indian woman who aspires to look different and has her own fantasies but doesn’t have time to go through the hassles of a tailors shop. She is the woman who goes to malls and sites like myntra and wishes that the product should have had a certain aspect and returns disappointed. She could have gone to a tailors shop to fulfill her whims but communicating her idea to a tailor would have been a tough task and making several trips to his shop would have been another issue. So here we identify the pain point and jump in like a genie.

WHEN 24 x 7 Round the clock, Round the year We provide round the clock service. Customers can wake up in the middle of night with the idea of a look and they can log in to the site and book the order.They don’t have to wait for another day when they would be able to go to a tailors shop and see whether they can get the garment made or not.

WHERE The product aims to deliver its value in the Indian Subcontinent. We begin with urban metro cities and then we gradually expand our business in tier2 and tier 3 cities

STEP 4: MARKET STRATEGY

A.TARGET GROUP:-

DEFINE TARGET GROUP – Urban females aged 20-35 years (SECA1) from metro cities who aspires for customized clothing

Most of the urban females belonging to metro cities aged 20-35 crave for fashionable and trendy clothes which will bring them uniqueness and exclusivity. In order to this they desire for clothes of their own choice. As they don’t have enough time to go for tailoring they can go for online customization which gives them various options just in one click.

B.PROMOTION As we are in our introductory stage of the product life cycle we will go for full-scale marketing programme. Our main objective of promoting our product is to create awareness and interest of online shopping of customized clothing among the customers and encourage them for trial. In order to adopt this we will go for inbound marketing strategy do internet promotion by capture the social media sites , visit the best fashion institutes, fashion houses/design studios/buying houses/fashion boutiques of India for promotion and getting experts reviews about the product to the target customer we will do direct marketing by sending them catalogues, videos and CD’S and direct mail Promotional strategies:

1.INBOUND MARKETING ( lure women into shopping , pull them to your site ) Inbound marketing grabs the attention of the customers, by making the company easily accessible and draws them to the website by creating interesting contents.

Inbound Marketing Tools Blogs- Launching blogs and following fashion bloggers would give us a better isight for product improvement and promotion

Podcasts – episodic series of video and audio files which talk about trends and fashion Video

eBooks Enewsletters

2.OUTBOUND MARKETING ( Push strategy) It can be done by promoting our products through TV Advertising, spam and print ads and traditional advertising .Visiting the best fashion institutes, fashion houses/design studios/buying houses/fashion boutiques of India for promotion and getting experts reviews about the product.

C.DISTRIBUTION Distribution of the Product A well oiled procurement, warehousing and delivery system is pertinent for the success of such a venture. This ensures that deliveries occur within promised deadlines, which leads to greater customer satisfaction. We intend to engage local cloth and fabric suppliers as sub-vendors.

Warehousing (a) Location- Delhi-NCR, Mumbai, Kolkata, and Bangalore.

(b) Numbers- 2 each in Delhi and Mumbai, 1 each in Kolkata and Bengaluru

(c) Size- 8 x 8 x 10 foot room

(d) Functions- Storage, packaging, and safety of goods.

Inventory Management The intended average turnover time is 7 days. It will also depend on the demand, time of the year.The following are important to consider: (a) Raw Material- Fabric rolls, sewing threads, accessories such as buttons, zippers , laces, embellishments etc, dyes, machine spare parts.

(b) WIP

(c) Finished goods

(d) In transit goods

Transportation Mode- Road Network- Point-to-Point and Multiple Delivery points network Transporters- well to do third party courier services such as Fedex, Bluedart Insurance All our deliveries(freight) will be covered under notable insurance agencies such as National Insurance Company, The New India Assurance etc.

Distribution Challenges One of the biggest hurdles is the lack of quality infrastructure, creaky transport to support new businesses, therefore managing logistics & supply chain is a major cause of concern.

D. PRICING

INTRODUCTION Pricing is the art of translating the value of the product to the customer into monetary terms. Our product subsumes the benefits of both convenience and customization for the customer.

PRICING STRATEGY To monetize the benefits of a one stop convenience cum customization website for the customer, we -would follow a medium price-medium quality pricing strategy, i.e an Medium value strategy.

COST ESTIMATION (i) Variable Costs

(a) Direct Material- Fabrics rolls, sewing threads, accessories such as buttons, zippers , laces, embellishments etc, dyes.

(b) Direct Labour- Wages

(c) Overheads- Electricity, Grease, Oils.

(ii) Fixed Costs

(a) Machine Lease rent

(b) Land lease rent

(c) Interest Payments for long term loans

(d) Advertising

(e) Salaries

(f) Freight Insurance

For an e-commerce apparel website, inventory and distribution costs would eat up the maximum share in the cost pie. Actual Prices For each product price will be different dependent on the level of customization. Price Setting Method We would follow a Penetration Pricing that would involve setting a price far enough below the product’s economic value to attract and hold a large base of customers.

It is a strategy designed to produce sales volume, even at the expense of high margins

The Flipkart promotion model of launching ad-campaigns onto the television screen to catch viewer attention and clarify every doubt about online shopping that may have been in her mind did a world of good for the future venture by dispelling the fears and speculations of the Indian customer. The first set of television commercials launched in April, were aimed at educating consumers about the ease of shopping on Flipkart via guarantee of original products, cash-on-delivery and a 30-day replacement policy. Through the campaign, Flipkart targeted people who had kept away from online shopping. India is one of the fastest growing economies in the world. With increasing disposable incomes, higher internet penetration, and more number of working women, the firm can leverage these opportunities in its advantage.

MARKETING BUDGET Sales @ Rs 2000/unit 813000 Total units sold 406.5 Variable Costs Direct Materials Raw Materials @ 1000/unit 406500 Inventory @ 100/unit 40650 Direct Labour Wages @ 100/unit 40650 Overheads Electricity @ 10/unit 4065 Machine maintainence@ 25/unit 10162.5 Total Variable Costs 502027.5 Fixed Costs Interest payments @ 12% 120000 Warehouse Rent@3000 pm 36000 Machine lease payments @ 3000pm 36000 Advertising 100000 Freight Insurance 30000 Salaries 1000000 Total Fixed Costs 1322000 Total Costs(FC+VC) 1824027.5 Breakeven Point(units) 1728.104575

STEP 5:- BUSINESS ANALYSIS

Business Analysis 1. Estimating Sales As per the July 2012 Consumer and Shopper Insights (Mckinsey&Company) report, internet retail in India is worth $1355mn. Assume that the women garment portion in the metros forms 0.05% or $0.6775mn per year. We hope to garner atleast 2%(or $0.01355mn) market share in the 1st year of operations. Our sales should be approx. Rs 8.13 lakhs

2. Estimating Costs & Profits The product being in the introductory stage of its lifecycle means the sales would be very low initially and very high costs. Total costs(including Fixed & Variable costs) are assumed to be 1824027.5 Net Loss in the 1st year=10.1

STEP 6: PRODUCT DESIGN AND FEASIBILITY PROTOTYPE Prototype phase involved developing a working prototype for our product and testing it among a sample of Target Customers. Prototype will be test on two levels:

Alpha Testing will test the prototype within the company employees and record their feedback.

Beta testing will involve launch of Beta version of website and will be tested be a sample of Target users to analyze.

Prototype of product involves two main aspects to be considered- 1. User friendliness of the website a. Focus of this aspect would be assessing the level of compatibility that users attain with the web portal. It will cover following main issues- i. Are customers able to navigate and operate through various stages of designing their dress? ii. Amount of time user takes to get comfortable through the process of designing?

iii. Is the process to complex for user?

iv. Are their appropriate Help instructions available for users to refer?

v. User’s opinion about number of options given to them?

vi. User opinion about pricing of each selection? 2. Efficiency and effectiveness of operation and supply Chain a. Focus of this level is to perform entire operation and supply chain activities , deliver the product to customer within stipulated time and check the satisfaction level of customer. It will cover following points of assessment- i. Is our team able to complete the order within stipulated time limit? This involves ordering and procuring the assignment from the manufacturing contractors.

ii. Performing and assessing Fit test on test customers.

iii. Assessment of customer’s satisfaction with design of final product.

iv. Assessment of customer’s satisfaction with quality of fabric , materials and stitch of delivered product.

Depending upon Sample customer’s feedback required changes will be made in the product

STEP 7:- TEST MARKETING Under this procedure the product will officially be launched in only select cities. Extensive marketing and promotional activities will be conducted. User reaction and usage pattern of users will be then studied by our expert’s team. Feedback will be collected from users about various aspects of the product. Analysis of all this statistics along with sales data will provide us with an insight on pro’s and con’s about the product. Analysis will involve aspects such as pricing,

effectiveness of promotion media, short coming’s of final product and added capabilities that teat user’s desired for. Depending on this analysis a nationwide strategy can be devised for expansion of market.

STEP 8: COMMERCIALIZATION COMMERCIALIZATION: Commercialization is the process of introducing new product into the market. The actual launch of the product is the final stage of new product development. Commercialization incurs highest cost as most money have to be spent on promotion, advertising and other marketing efforts. The commercialization process:

WHEN: As we are launching a new product in the Indian market and entering first we will enjoy the “first mover advantage” because of negligible competition and we will get enough time create a hold in the minds of the customer as well as in the market. There are certain risks involved of not being accepted by the consumer, but in the introductory stage we have to take risk

WHERE: We are targeting only the urban females from metro cities who aspires. So, we first target only 3 or 4 major cities where the ratio of online buying is relatively more than other cities. After creating a hold over there we move to other cities.

TO WHOM: Urban females aged 20-35 years (SECA1) from metro cities who aspires for customized clothing.

HOW: We will market our product through billboards, hoardings, advertisement and various promotional activities like promoting on internet via social networking sites, blogs and emails and by online and offline campaigns.