AgTalk | It takes years for a business to take off: Zovi's Manish Chopra

I am a product of the Gen X and convenience spells out to me bold and clear as the first priority in my life. So with this criteria in mind I look for everything around me in terms of convenience whether it is fashion, food, education or job and now this has been carried on to shopping. Since convenience is CONVENIENCE for me, shopping according to me brings in the pain of dressing up, going to the nearest mall and then a whole lot of wastage of money and TIME.  Shopping is indeed a recreational activity for me but then sometimes it can be EXPENSIVE and too much of a pain with the wastage of so much of energy. So again I need convenience. But thanks to the idea of e-commerce I have a whole lot of websites to choose and shop from at the convenience of sitting back at home or being on the move. There is an explosion of websites in the market that caters to my need and it apparently satisfies all my needs whether be it apparels, accessories, shoes and blah blah of shopping. Wow so I can browse through the entire day and shop at my leisure and now ZOVI.COM has added on to a whole new pleasure in my busy stressed life.

Zovi.com brings men’s fashion line, women’s line, home furnishing, kidswear and an increasing number of fashion products such as: shoes, socks, bags, belts, ties and jewellery. From formal to casual wear, sportswear to accessories, ZOVI.com offers a wide variety of products for the value conscious consumer. Zovi.com recently announced its merger with Inkfruit - India’s first and largest co-creation based online lifestyle brand operating across the categories of apparel, accessories, footwear and home décor. , thus bringing in India’s 2 leading online fashion private label brands.

Adgully decided to know more about Zovi and Inkfruit’s association and their plans ahead and who better to talk to than the CEO of Zovi-Manish Chopra.

Adgully (AG): What synergy will the merger of Zovi and Inkfruit bring about?

Manish Chopra (MC): Zovi and Inkfruit had the same mission of becoming India’s largest online budget fashion brand. There is a huge opportunity to grow in the market and our mission is the same so there is a clear synergy of achieving a goal together. Our customer base is complementary we are focused on the younger generation as our target group about an age that spans over 15-24. We are also testing the kids’ line in the age span of 4-12, but our bigger focus is 22-45 so now with this spectrum we will be able to cater to a spectrum of people. The catalogue and our customer base was very complementary so were our strengths and so this merger made sense to do. Therefore, we decided to come together and become substantially the largest business.

AG: Will Inkfruit become a part of Zovi’s entity or will it remain a different entity altogether?

MC: The strategy we have decided with, to go forward into the market is that we will have zovi as the platform to take the market. Inkfruit as a brand and product will continue to be the same so will be its catalogue. We will invest behind Inkfruit as a brand but we will make Zovi as the core platform and direct customers to come and shop there.

AG: Will the leadership of Zovi remain intact or will it change?

MC: We are a team of 3-4 co-founders in Zovi. They were two co-founders in Inkfruit. The new Zovi team will be expanded and have 5 co-founders. Kashyap, Dalal and Avneet are joining the team as co-founders of Zovi and they will help in the growing of overall business of Zovi+Inkfruit.

AG: Will there be a disconnection in terms of growth strategy?

MC: No not at all! Why will that be? We will continue to position our products to the different audience out there and our appeal to the younger audience is going to be slightly different from the older audience. For the latter it has to be an appeal for an ethnic kind of product and the appeal for the former is completely different. That’s the way apparels are sold and in our mind there is no confusion about that. We want Zovi to be best in Asia and that’s where our core strategy is and the synergy has come into place in trying to build multiple businesses and platforms which makes more sense in the growing market of today.

AG: Are there any specific trends that will come into existence in 2013?

MC: The key big trends as I observe will be in mobile and therefore we have invested in mobile apps. We have already launched the app for Windows and Android, and are soon going to launch the app for I phone. Fundamentally, mobile is going to be big and the next big trend will be in video and engagement. The social engagement with video and pictures will increase and the entire phenomena is going to become bigger and bigger. Both this will help us because it will bring down the pain in buying. It will also help in peer reviews and validation.

The mobile makes it much easier and expands the time when people shop. People are now looking at more experimentation around e-commerce. According to the report of the Google and Excel partners, the growth in the market is 40% or so which is a big number but a small amount of growth. I am expecting a larger growth this year.

Google in its report have turned out with the survey that last year people searched more for consumer electronics and this year it will be apparels and fashion so there is a hell lot of excitement for apparel and fashion and we will definitely see a growth this year in this area.

AG: What are the challenges in the e-domain and specifically for zovi.com?

MC: A challenge that e-commerce faces is in the area of payment. Cash on delivery helps but it is still not being able to convert surfers into buyers and this is indeed a great challenge for us. The second big challenge is in the areas of growth. There isn’t much an access and availability of internet in India and that is why we are concentrating on smart phones which are still a small part of the relatively huge market available out there to be tapped. Smart phones market has to grow and more internet able devices made available for e-commerce to flourish in the country.

AG: What are your plans for Zovi.com in 2013?

MC: We are completely focused on driving the merger and integrating the large customer base that we have got. We have recently launched the new website and have got great reviews about it. This website is touch friendly and works smoothly on Ipad, mobile phones or windows based touch computers. Its speed is amazing and is the fastest e-commerce website in the country.

AG: The more you advertise the more recall factor. What is your view on it?

MC: The FMCG brands advertise the maximum because they have to ensure that their product is consumed every day. Parle-G over the last 30 years is a brand which has become synonymous to biscuits. Coming to e-commerce, before flipkart and other websites if we did advertise people who came to knew zovi.com was only through display ads and that also to the selected few who used the internet. They might have come to know through search or through our mails but that did not convert people into buyers. When we advertised on television it created a buzz in the minds and brought about a recall factor of the ads seen on the internet.

Our fundamental approach was to keep our name short so that people would remember us by the short name. Moreover we worked out a recall factor through our packaging system and saved our money on ads. People got their merchandise packed in good wrapped boxes as if it was a gift for them so the next time they decided to go e-shopping the box brought about a recall value and made them look out for something new in Zovi to shop.

Your brand has to be there in the market, well recognized and respected and eventually you might become a part of the larger people’s lives and then shopping at your site becomes a habit for them. We do have customers who shop at our website every month or 20 times a year. My belief is that in a market like this we will need to advertise to reach out to the audience.

AG: Is Zovi.com going to be associated with events or become sponsors for events or programmes?

MC: We have associated ourselves for television with news agency and Zovi is a sponsor of the Lakme India Fashion Week. The first show is going to be around the clothes for Gen Next and we have named it the Zovi Gen Next Fashion show where six upcoming designers will showcase their designs and this association will be continued over the website with their selected line of clothes retailed in the market. Moreover the entire association with Inkfruit brings about the local designs and allows us to promote upcoming talents and their designs and we would like to continue with this venture.

Adgully (AG) What new facilities is Zovi.com going to bring for its customers?

MC: We are constantly adding on to our facilities. We have brought zovi eye, zovi livefeed. Zovieye allows you to stand in front of the camera of your laptop and measure whether a garment will fit you or not and zovi livefeed gives you an update about what your friends are shopping constantly. We always try to bring in innovation and we have done this in how to select your size, launched touch friendly website as mentioned earlier.

AG: What according to you is the USP that will make me come to Zovi.com for shopping?

MC: The best of International fashion at affordable prices since we have eliminated the entire retail chain.

AG: What investments does Zovi have at the moment?

MC: We have just announced the 10 million investments of Tiger Global and Saif Partners.

AG: What is your message for the new breed of entrepreneurs?

MC: Be a differentiator in what your product is giving to the consumer and be very long term oriented for it really takes years for a business to take off. | By Rabab Rupawala [rabab(at)adgully.com]