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Punekar creates online clothing portal for plus size people
Research involved Modi speaking to a lot of obese people to understand their problems with dressing. He then googled his way to the realisation that India has the third-largest population of obese people in the world.
Sushil Modi is not afraid of the word obese. “Every time my family would go shopping, we would come back disappointed, because there was either no choice for large-sized people, or there was simply nothing available, says the man, pointing to his girth to emphasize the point.
“This led to a psychological effect on my family members, as they ended up feeling depressed, having to go through this constant nightmare ,every time they wanted to buy clothes,” he adds.
In January this year, Modi launched www.xplusderniercri.com, an online market place for what he is not afraid to call “obese people”.
He says, “I wanted to create a platform where obese people could find all clothing under one roof. Right from casual to party wear, and even office clothes, night wear and under wear.”
A big market for the big people?
Sushil Modi was a HR consultant specialising in IT hiring before he went ‘big’ online, but it was his wife Sonal Modi, a PhD in Business Management from Pune university, who ensured the necessary R&D was in place before Modi set sail.
“She asked me to do intensive research before setting up the site. That is what I did for the better part of last year,” says Modi.
Primarily, that research involved Modi speaking to a lot of obese people to understand their problems with dressing. He then googled his way to the realisation that India has the third-largest population of obese people in the world.
“Obese people mostly had to depend on custom-made clothes. Inspite of this, it there was a problem, if people needed office wear like trousers, jackets and other formal wear, there weren’t enough tailors to do this. They were simply stuck with no option,” says Modi.
Chicken or the egg?
The next challenge in the process was manufacturers and retailers. “Customer footfall was going to define who signed with me,” says Modi.
“It was the toughest challenge of the lot. So, I decided to approach the vendors directly and ask them to showcase their products on my site. I frequently received questions such as, ‘how can we trust a new portal’? ‘You do not have financial backing, how do we trust you’?,” he says, adding, “Their concerns were rational, but I appealed to their need for growth. Most of these store owners were retailers and did not undertake marketing. In order to seal the deal I offered to undertake their online marketing as well as pick up and delivery.” They bit the bait. Modi currently has 12 retail stores on his site.
Delivery, delivery, delivery
Modi contacted a personal friend of his, the CEO of Ecom Express. “I used my relationship to strike a deal. I told him we were new and that we could not afford their courier rates. However, we stated we would not partner up with any other company. He agreed and now they are our logistics partner at very reasonable rates,” says Modi.
Customer acquisition
“Since we are a small company we cannot afford big marketing budgets. We do a lot of digital marketing. We do search engine optimisation (SEO), Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, the works. “So far we have gotten over 5,000 likes on Facebook since January this year and have 600 registered users. What you need to know is that all these people are our target customers, since we cater only to obese people. So the issue of sifting this cache does not exist.”
Is that enough? “No, not at all. We have to grow much more. I want to reach out to people in smaller towns. Currently, I spend about Rs 50,000 per month on marketing,” says Modi.
The money
So far Sushil has been using his savings to fund the business. “I’ve used Rs 20 lakh of my own money. From Rs 500 spent on buying stamp paper for the agreement with a vendor to developer charges, marketing, the expenses incurred are huge. As of now I have 10 people working for me. And my turnover is around Rs 30,000 – 40,000 per month. There is a long way to go.”
Sushil believes that if he spends Rs 5 lakh per month on marketing his business will vastly improve.
A calendar that stars obese people is also in the works. “By December, I will draft out a financial plan and then approach investors for Rs 1 crore,” Modi adds
More room for All
What about someone else starting a similar portal? “I am the only such portal in India. I already have quite a few established brands on my platform and customers whose numbers are not only growing, but are also doing repeat business with me. Quite clearly, I have the first-mover advantage which will be hard to beat,” Modi believes, adding that stores like All, online and offline, are a manufacturer’s domain. “It is owned by the Future group and has only their brand. Mine is an aggregator of several brands. It is a marketplace for all manufacturers. In fact, I aim to get All too on my platform.”
