Textile giants to rope in local tailors to give their fabric brands a boost through digital medium

With e-commerce emerging as the next big revenue generator, textile companies are roping in neighbourhood tailors to give their fabric brands a boost through the digital medium. Booking the services of your local tailor online will soon get easier.

Aditya Birla Group’s textile brand Grasim plans to introduce a neighbourhood tailor programme to improve the skills of about 50 tailors across localities in Delhi and then list their services as a digital offering through the company’s Web site.

Abhijit Ganguly, Brand Director, Grasim Bhiwani Textiles, said that they want to bridge the gap between our end-consumer and the tailor to bring their services online with a branded offering . It will be a new service from Grasim and in the first phase, they will be training and upgrading skills of 50 tailors across Delhi before going to other cities.

Timing the launch of its ‘Grasim’ authorised tailoring services with an eye on the forthcoming festival season, the company is treating its new venture as an investment in its brand, to induce sales for its viscose polyester fabrics.

Considering it is difficult to sell fabrics online, unlike readymade garments, tailoring services are expected to give a fillip to sales through the channel.

It is tough to have a pure fabric play in e-commerce. Tailoring is going to make their online venture more exciting as their consumers will be buying into a service.

Other major textile companies such as Grasim, Raymond and Siyaram are gearing up to push their fabric brands as a tailoring service by training and upgrading the skills of local tailors in cities across the country.

Siyaram Silk Mills is in the process of training neighbourhood tailors but the business is restricted to a few of its multi-brand and exclusive outlets.

According to Ramesh Poddar, Vice-Chairman and Managing Director, Siyaram Silk Mills, tailoring is a must to build brand and will be extended to the online space. They will be training tailors who will be made to expand capacity and appoint franchises.

Raymond is also getting ready to monetize its brand through the digital medium. Sanjay Behl, Chief Executive Officer, Lifestyle, Raymond said that this quarter, their e-tailing site will get launched and ‘made to measure’ business will be a part of the venture. There is going to be proposition for the ‘made to measure’ offering through concierge services, whereby customers can give their measurements online first and then have customised tailoring.