Aditya

Birla Group Corporate Czars

Content Partner

Indian Fashion e-commerce Landscape
Back in 2014, Aditya Birla Group evaluated e-commerce space basis global and Indian experience. ECommerce market in India is expected to be about $70 billion by 2020, out of which online fashion will
contribute 30% of this market.
Some key facts related to the online fashion industry:

Online apparel sales set to grow 4 times by 2020

Every third shopping search on Google is fashion-related
Google search queries on fashion are growing at 66 per cent year-on-year.
By 2020, internet user-base and smart phone penetration is expected to be 700 million

The Group could no longer ignore the potential of millennials shopping online and hence the decision
to make a greenfield, organic foray through abof.com. It is an online fashion store, offering shoppers
brands from both the Aditya Birla Group and other companies in addition to its Own Brand under the
name abof. abof.com was launched in September 2015. We are one of the fastest concept to launch
online company. Currently we are 4th largest pure-play ecommerce player in India (after Myntra,
Jabong and Voonik).
We are in the online business, wherein our products are displayed on our website along with the key
information / description. A customer accesses the product, chooses the ones suitable to her / his
requirements / tastes and places the order online, wherein she / he can either pay via Debit Card,
Credit Card, Online Wallets or opt for Cash On Delivery. Once the order is placed, the product is picked,
packed and shipped from our warehouse to the customer via our courier partners. The same gets
delivered as per the turn-around-time (depending on the delivery location).
In an industry known for deep discounts and wide range, we are trying to create a niche for ourselves
by creating a business model based on user experience, differentiation of features for customers and
curated merchandise range. Hence, customer acquisition at any cost in not the focus but getting
customers adopting sustainable modes is the key.

Key Business Challenge
How do we ensure that we remain differentiated with respect to our competitors?

About abof.com
abof got incorporated on 5th Nov 2014, the team inception happened in Feb 2015, the beta launch had
happened on 25th Sep 2015 and the final launch took place on 16th Oct 2015, thus, making abof the
fastest concept to launch fashion e-commerce company in India.
Our Vision: Build Indias most admired online fashion player that provides youth with unparalleled
personalized shopping experience using a curated set of branded merchandise

Product Categories:
External Brands

abof Own Brand

Mens top-wear

Men Casual

Mens bottom-wear

Womens Western-wear

Mens footwear

Women Ethnic

Womens Western-wear

Women Fusion

Womens ethnic

Mens Footwear

Womens footwear

Womens Footwear

Womens accessories

Womens Accessories

The total number of external brands on abof.com is only about 80 to 100. We have anchor brands for
each of our product categories and a few supporting brands so as to provide a curated set of
merchandise for our users. (Check Appendix 1 for the brands on abof.com)

How is the abof different with respect to consumer experience?

abof identified the following opportunities and has formed its complete consumer experience journey
around these. The highlighted ones being:
1) Exploration Phase: CYBORGIZATION - Concentration on social media (especially Facebook)
and gamification.
Browsing: creating new shopping moments via creating a new meaningful system. We deliver
personalized shoppable content to our customers based on their information, real-time
behavior and preferences. Our Whats Hot section is in fact the landing page of abof.com
which defines our commitment to inspiration and discovery based commerce. Our users are
encouraged to discover fashion through the Whats Hot section.
Built for fashion conscious millennials, who have a unique take on their personal style, abof
begins its engagement with its customers right from the start with a unique style quiz that
helps understand the persona of the consumer and the style preference. Based on this
information, abof customizes its Whats Hot section to deliver more accurate, relevant, and
personalized content that truly matters to them. abof has chosen to innovate in the

2)

3)

4)

5)

6)

presentation of user experience, design of the website and selection of

merchandize. This is presented as exciting dose of fashion content, style tips, trends and
fashion news, which combines the visually stunning picture-led approach of Instagram with
short and sweet Twitter-like shoppable stories.




Communication: abofs focus is always to constantly engage with millennials, largely the 18-25
yr old fashionistas. abofs entire experience is built around them. abof has adopted a tone of
voice and visual language which we believe connects with the millennials. We speak their
language at all touchpoints our UX has consciously adopted lower case font which friendly, all
our customer communication is youthful and quirky and our contact centre folks speak in a
next-door-boy language.

Collection: abof has a large, albeit curated, collection of clothes, shoes and accessories for men
and women. While the world follows 2 fashion seasons, at abof we have 12 seasons since we
add new set of collections every month which are completely different and trendsetting.
abof has chosen to be much more selective and curated in its choice of brands and
merchandise. The collections are largely built using a mix of abof branded merchandise (thats
designed and sourced by our in-house team) and relevant external brands.

Pricing: abof believes that its target consumer has small wallets and a tight budget. Therefore,
the merchandise has been carefully priced to make it rather irresistible for this segment.
Versus competition, who typically are more discount-centric, abofs philosophy is more
honest and irresistible pricing

abof Experience Zone: abof took a bold step to reach out to its consumers though the brick and
mortar route with an objective to introduce them to the unlimited possibilities of the online
fashion world where they can lay hands on fresh styles, spot trends, browse through the latest
fashion content, try clothes virtually, save wish-list. Having experienced this in the zone,
customers can shop online at their convenience.
The experience zone was aimed at encouraging people to shop online and experience the
richness of the virtual world of abof.com with largely three main objectives. Firstly, the
customers can take a tour of the abof.com website which offers latest styles, personalized
fashion content and style tips. AEZ brings the experience of shopping online to consumers
where visitors can browse the highly curated collection through its own brand abof and
selected products from handpicked brands. Visitors can also browse through the Whats Hot
section of the glam-led platform which offers latest styles, personalized fashion content and
style tips.

3D Trial Room: In a pioneering effort that redefines the shopping experience of Indian online
fashion shoppers, abof.com introduced 3D trial room. The biggest challenge for the fashion
ecommerce players is their struggle to provide appropriate size recommendations for
customers. With 3D trial room, which is enabled for most of the womens apparel, abof.coms
customers can virtually try products by inputting just three basic body measurements. The tool
allows users to visualize the garment on a customized 3D avatar-type model and get the right
size recommendation. In addition, the tool also allows users to layer garments providing a
complete outfit view. The tool is extremely engaging as it allows women to try out various
looks and customers tend to purchase even higher priced products such as evening dresses
more confidently using this tool.

7) Visual Search: Consumers can search a fashion item with a picture instead
of text which makes it easier for users to search and buy items that they see in their everyday
life. A pan-India survey conducted by abof.com showed that a large section of online shoppers
use others as an inspiration of fashion. To them what is trending is what they see in store
windows, or what is worn by celebrities in movies and magazines, and even fashion icons in
their colleges and social circles. Todays millennials want fashion items lying in the closets of
their fashion icons. Consumers use these inspirations while shopping online and look for
similar products.



8) Research showed that users found it frustrating to find items similar to what they were looking
for. One of the major hindrances on using browse option was the cumbersome process to look
through mountains of products available online. Text based search has two challenges - (i)
brands do not have consistent product description, and therefore normal search pulls up
irrelevant data and inaccurate matches, and (ii) users dont know the right words or phrases in
fashion terminology to describe what they like or are looking for.
Visual search aims to short-circuit the path from inspiration to commerce by providing an easy
way for users to find products they loved on others through a simple click. For most users,
details of what they liked gets lost in transition and translation. Visual search bridges this gap
and significantly shortens the lead time to convert purchase intention into transaction.

9) abof communicates and engages in a youthful and quirky language which connect with its
customers.

10) Post Purchase service:
a. One Click return
b. Multiple exchanges
c. No questions asked policy even for missing, defective and damaged returns

Comparison with competitors

Some of our key competitors include: Flipkart, Amazon, Snapdeal, Myntra, Jabong, Zovi, Yepme and
Limeroad. Given below is a comparison with some of the above mentioned companies in terms of time
to launch, scale at launch and growth rate:

Given below is a competitive benchmarking of user experience:
Features from consumer UX
perspective

Ajio

Cliq

NNNow

abof

Myntra

Jabong

Voonik

Limeroad

Visual Search

Shoppable looks

Virtual Trial Feature

Personalized Fashion Feed

Fashion content including

shoppable stories

Brand Landing Pages

Category Landing Pages

Customer Self Service Features

Expedited Delivery Options

Social Shopping Features

Site Performance

At-Home Alteration

Legend:

Feature mentioned does not exist on the website

Feature exists on the website but is not that strong

Feature mentioned is an area of strength on the website

We feel we are ahead of our competition across various domains, like, Financials, Customer experience
& Technology:

Financials: We have a healthy Gross Margin, a positive Contribution Margin and an overall
healthy Unit Economics which would lead us to a sustainable growth trajectory.
Customer: We are loved by our customers which is clearly indicated by a healthy NPS of 41, a
decent order frequency of 1.5 and an App rating of 4.0. We have been able to restrict customer
initiated returns to single digit percentage as compared to about 20% returns for peers.

Our brand strength vis--vis our competitors lies in offering highly differentiated customer experience
to Millennials. Few of our key features that enable us to offer differentiated customer experience are as
below:
Our Unique Selling proposition remains offering the best-in-class, curated, fashionable apparels &
accessories to Millennials, and at the same time, enriching their buying experience.

Questions

The User Experience and merchandise has been appreciated by many consumers. Recent research
suggests that the Aided awareness is about 43% and the brand is seen as more of a fashion expert
than a discount site.
Abof plans to scale-up the business more aggressively and therefore would like ideas and
recommendations (backed by sound research, consumer insights) on the following dimensions:
1. Which differentiators of abof resonate with consumers and should be retained? Which ones
dont and can be removed?
2. Which new differentiators should be added? Why?
3. What novel/innovative marketing approach(es) can be adopted for rapidly scale up at low
cost?

Appendix 1: List of External Brands on abof.com

Allen Solly

United Colors
Of Benetton

Rangmanch By
Pantaloons
Lee

Tokyo Talkies

Levis

Fame Forever
by Lifestyle

Urban Eagle
By Pantaloons

Highlander

Bare Denim By
Pantaloons
Vero Moda

Puma

Deal Jeans

Parx

Wildcraft

Jack and Jones

Buckaroo

Biba

Nineteen

Femella

109F

Ayaany

Killer

Bata

Code by
Lifestyle

Lavie

Status Quo

Knotty Derby

Rain and
Rainbow

Akkriti By
Pantaloons

Louis Philippe

Honey by
Pantaloons

Ajile By
Pantaloons

The Vanca
W

Pepe
Bossini

Ira Soleil

Adidas

Harpa

Locomotive

Ginger by
Lifestyle

Izabel London
by Pantaloons

Fusion Beats

Breakbounce

Only

Aurelia

Free Authority

Indianink

People

Shree

Style Quotient

Red Tape

Vishudh

Global Desi

Wear Your
Mind

Peter England

Folklore

Fila

Being Human

Gritstones

Melange By
Lifestyle

Wrangler

John Players

Proline Active

Reebok

Peter England
Casuals

Van Heusen
Woman
San Frissco

Basics

Span

Candie's By
Pantaloons

Kultprit

Annabelle By
Pantaloons

Wet Blue

Fabindia

Spykar

Indian Terrain

Lino Perros

Trishaa By
Pantaloons

E2O

Kappa

SF Jeans By
Pantaloons

Be for Bag

Pete

Foot-In

AND

Van Heusen

Yezdi

Power

La Briza

Skechers

Forca by
Lifestyle

Faballey

Weinbrenner

Go Colors

Bata - North
Star

Woodland

V Dot By Van
Heusen

Hush Puppies

Aradhyaa
Jewel Arts

Duke
Peter England
Jeans
Black Coffee

ID

Li Ning

Lee Cooper
Dexter

Linen Club
Studio

20Dresses

Catwalk

Fort Collins

Black Panther

Byford By
Pantaloons

LP Luxure

Noi

LP Louis
Philippe

Carlton
London

LP Sport by
Louis Philippe

Van Heusen
Sport

Beevee

John Players
Jeans

Johnny Bravo

Hush Puppies

Bata

Power

Tribal Zone

Inc 5

Solly Jeans Co
By Allen Solly

LP Jeans by
Louis Philippe

RICHARD
PARKER

Allen Solly
Sports