Fashion’s spiraling fast, breakneck almost, propelled by the wheels of social media. The immediacy of ‘see now, buy now’ is in vogue, having been adopted by international heavyweights like Tom Ford and Burberry.
This year, what the brands showed on the catwalk stalked its way directly to their retail standpoints. With images of the shows filtering consistently onto social media and it still being far too early in the day for copycats to emerge with cheap replicas, the brands quickly sought to cash in on the runway hype.
It made business sense although the strategy did require significant marketing acumen and the production capacity to create and recreate looks according to demand.
One wouldn’t have expected the concept to filter quite so quickly to Pakistan’s developing fashion landscape but it was implemented, with considerable success, at the recent Daraz Fashion Week in Karachi.
The online marketplace, Daraz, can be slated as one of the veritable pioneers of e-commerce in Pakistan, having launched some four odd years ago. Catering to the major cities as well as smaller regions dotted all about the country, it quickly gained popularity for e-retailing apparel and electronics. But while it featured a smattering of textile hotshots and high-street labels amongst its vendors, it hadn’t hitherto associated quite so evidently with high fashion’s exclusive veneer.
Hence, the need for a fashion week, where Daraz integrated with seven A-list designer brands to create capsule collections priced below an affordable Rs15,000. Clothes by Generation, Deepak Perwani, Zara Shahjahan, Feeha Jamshed, Amir Adnan, Tena Durrani and Hamza Bokhari traipsed down the catwalk for the benefit of select media, were uploaded in real-time onto the Daraz website and a four-day long online fashion week ensued.
Slick, cost-effective, with a wide, all-pervasive reach, DFW highlights the future of retail — fashion and otherwise — for the world
Jonathan Doerr, Co-CEO at Daraz, elaborates, “The fashion week generated major mileage for us, of course. It was featured on social media accounts across the country. Also, it emphasised our strength as a platform for fashion. With some very prestigious designer names on-board, visits to our website increased immediately following the event. Simultaneously, designers were able to realise the business potential to be gained, should they choose to align with us on a more permanent basis.”
Jonathan speaks with an intrinsic understanding of the online marketplace. Hailing from Germany, he has been a key player in establishing the Jumia Nigeria retail-centric Internet portal. Now, alongside Co-CEO, Bjarke Mikkelsen, he has placed his faith in Pakistan. Incidentally, Daraz is also a venture of the Jumia group. “There are 200 million people in Pakistan and more and more of them are connected to the Internet via their smart phones,” he says. “A lot of them have already understood the convenience of online shopping and we’re winning many more over on a daily basis.”
Efficiency, according to Jonathan, is the business’ greatest edge. “We deliver promptly and the product can be checked before payment. We also have a seven-day return policy.”
Similarly, Daraz’s transparency in business arrangements is appreciable, where it is ensured that earnings from online sales are transferred to the website’s online vendors within a period of 30 days. “Deepak Perwani called me the other day and told me that the fashion week had been incredibly successful for him,” smiles Jonathan.
Aside from Deepak, another major earner at DFW has been Generation, the high-street brand well-known for its urban-chic vibe and affordable prices. With its extensive reach across the country and phenomenal pricing, one can understand precisely what has attracted online customers. The designer wear itself, though, was not exactly cutting-edge but even this was a well-thought-out feature of the event. Out-of-the-box fashion looks good on the runway but is hardly wearable. DFW, meanwhile, sought to tread down the high-street with clothes that could be purchased — and worn — as is.
“We have our top-sellers but generally, all the designers have been selling quite well,” observes Jonathan. “Some stock is already sold out while the remainder is available in limited quantities. This is how we wanted it to be; we wanted to have enough stock to continue selling over the next few weeks. These brands may be easily available in Pakistan’s major cities but they are not accessible to customers in smaller regions. We’ve managed to solve that problem.”
Settled into a steady growth within Pakistan, Daraz has also extended to operations within Myanmar and Bangladesh that are little more than a year old. “The Pakistani market is strongest right now and we think that is has a lot of promise,” says Jonathan. “We have an in-house Western wear label Jade that brings in sales and even vendors selling Eastern ready-to-wear replenish stock very regularly. The visitors to our site are constantly increasing, aided by the online advertisements that we place on mainstream webpages, a strong Instagram presence and occasional announcements in print.”
Despite its relative stronghold within the local cyberspace, does Daraz feel threatened by the other contenders aiming for a slice of the same pie – a growing number of multi-label e-stores and individual designer web-stores? “No, it’s great that more people are coming in,” asserts Jonathan. “Individual designer stores will always have their allure but people visit us because it is like going to the mall. They can specifically drift through collections by brands that they like and, in the process, they may just end up making purchases from a label that they chance upon.”
“Additionally, online selling, whether by a multi-label or an individual designer, requires quality control and competence that not everyone can manage. There may be many options across the board but there’ll always be the one Amazon – that’s us!”
And in solidifying its standing as the country’s most visible online retail standpoint, Daraz has presented a new cyber avenue for fashion with DFW. Slick, cost-effective, with a wide, all-pervasive reach, it highlights the future of retail — fashion and otherwise — for the world.
Article via: dawn
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