E-commerce focus on apparel brands as customized clothing is fast catching up

Customised, or made to order clothing, is fast catching up as consumers are looking for perfect fits and more personal preferences to reflect in their apparels they shop online. This has driven textile majors and apparel brands to start building their online business models around it. Textile major Arvind Ltd made an e-commerce foray in August 2014 with a new custom clothing brand called Creyate, following suit in September 2014 was Raymond offering its ‘made to measure’ concierge service under the RaymondNext.com initiative.

Aditya Birla Nuvo’s Madura Fashion & Lifestyle joined the bandwagon with its offering called ‘MYFIT’ particularly for men’s apparel under the Van Heusen brand. After running a pilot for couple of months, the company management has gone live with MYFIT (under the e-commerce offering www.trendin.com) contributing almost 10% of brand’s sales. Encouraged with the response, Van Heusen will soon extend MYFIT to women’s apparels as well.

According to industry experts, one in three consumers walks out of stores without shopping as they don’t find what they were looking for in terms of fit, size or design.

Vinay Bhopatkar, chief operating officer, Van Heusen stated that this understanding of the compromises that consumers make while buying readymade apparel is what inspired them to launch MYFIT. The team met more than 1,800 people across India to develop four new additional fits.
The solution was developed based on deep understanding of Indian body types.

Within two months of launch, the brand has been receiving 100 orders everyday under MYFIT of which 45% are in non-standard fits and 40% in non-standard sizes.

Additionally, almost 85% of the orders are with some level of customisation like with a French cuff, or a Chinese collar among others, said Bhopatkar.

Once the order is placed, the clothes (shirt/trouser) gets stitched according to specifications on the MYFIT line created specifically within the existing manufacturing unit. The same gets delivered to the customer’s address in seven to 10 days from the order date. However, the cost is 10-15% higher as compared with readymade garments and includes the cost of customization, logistics, etc.

The MYFIT offering is currently available across online and offline channels including over 250 exclusive brand stores following the omni-channel strategy, They would be soon introducing their ‘MYFIT concept store’ in the Bangalore market and then rolled out across key metros in addition to airports.