Zivame, the online lingerie store was founded back in 2011 by Richa Kar. Now it’s quite common here in India for a woman to experience the awkwardness of having to walk into a lingerie store and shop. To get herself to ask for a particular size bra or panty would mean quite a lot of discomfort. Even more so if it were a guy who is doing the sale. So often they end up buying fast than buying right just to escape from the sheer uneasiness. Zivame comes with an aim to let women uninhibitedly shop for intimate wear. Now if you were to ask me I’d say it’s brilliant. You’d too if you knew why I said that.
Let’s say, you want to buy a bra. But you are quite new to B-Cups and C-Cups terminology. Now you walk into a lingerie store and look around. A sales guy comes to you and asks you, “Madam, what’s your size?” - Don’t tell me you won’t find yourself blushing a bit at the embarassing experience. And you’d quite shyly tell him that you are looking for a 32 or something. And then he’ll ask you if it is B-Cup or C-cup now having never heard of either of them, you’d wonder what they are. And tell him the same. Now to analyse which better fits you he’ll start looking at you. Don’t blame him, it’s his job to put the customer with the best product. Nonetheless you’d be dead in your feet.
Or that you go to buy a panty. And you are looking to shift from regular to laced or a different designer wear. You look around to find what you like. But you will still be conscious that someone might be judging at your taste of panties. Who are they to judge? You’ll ask yourself that but still you’d find your comfort of shopping missing. But since you are determinant you’d still keep looking only to find that there are only so few designs and you like none of them.
Same goes good with shopwear, beachwear etc.
Now if you really ask we do not really have to feel this uncomfortable about shopping intimate wear. But we certainly do. Especially in India. Generations change, but this inhibition remains. Sadly! When will people realise that it’s just another piece of clothing, no one knows! Anyways I could go on about how open you’ve to be when you are buying stuff? But that’s not the point I am trying to make here. I am trying to tell you why Zivame does what it does. And if it doing it right. Given the facts and figures the company has published since its inception. I certainly would like to think so. That it found a gap and is filling it. Letting women shop for intimate wear without having to experience slightest discomfort was their motto and as it went on it helped women break norms and shop for intimate wear as if it were another piece of clothing. Cool, right! Fulfill a need, instead of creating one and then fulfilling it. It is a real problem solved for women. Now as they are moving forward they are also investing in offline stores and launching new categories under the private label. These are all different ideas. None that have been thought of before. Which is probably why Zivame is being the best at what it does.
They claim that their vision is to offer every woman the confidence, comfort and choice she deserves. Not a lot of companies try to make the lives of women better this way.
In their words:
Confidence is sexy and we want to help women find it, wear it and be it every day.
At Zivame,
We reinvent lingerie
We reimagine outerwear
We rethink design innovation
And spend hours creating every single piece
To make a woman feel beautiful in seconds.
There are also a lot of other features of Zivame that every woman customer of theirs loves. They’ll remain inclusive, they have products for every age and every body type and are developing more. Not just for the model looking sorts. They’ll continue to do good. And for this they always put the woman first. They’ll continue to innovate. They don’t bore you with outdated designs. They come with a new one every day, update their inventory to make the women look forward to their designs. They’ll impact women positively. They are in from creation to delivery. And they’ll stay true, by giving only the finest as they promise. And offering the best quality and service.
Digging in a bit deeper to how the company has started here’s what we found. You might have an idea but to execute it would mean investing money and efforts and taking a substantial risk no matter how much you believe in what you are building. When Richa Kar was put forth with such a situation she chose to jump right at it and get started. So in 2011 she took Rs.30 lakhs from family and friends who believe in her. All she had in her mind was to change the women shopped for lingerie in India. She initially had a degree in engineering. And true to its name she started engineering bras, that’s a lot of distance travelled. She always was sure the customer had to be put first, for what’s a business without customers. Customers come back only if you make them happy. And hence she started putting more and more focus, attention to details and on creating a delightful experience. This surely has worked out quite well for them. This dedication towards her vision is probably the reason why Zivame stands a favorite brand in India and across the world today. Richa has been featured in Fortune India’s list of ’40 under 40’ and CNBC’s list of ‘Young Business Women - 2016’
Richa says, “Every day my team and I are inspired to create superior products and an elevated experience. If you like Zivame today, it’ll be even better tomorrow.”
According to Richa Kar, "Women are not comfortable talking about bras! For most girls, the first bra buying experience consists of going to a lingerie store and having to deal with salesmen or women, who are rarely equipped with the knowledge to 'consult' on the right fit and style. He/she suggests a size that he/she deems fit, and in an uncomfortable environment where there is no scope to ask questions. Furthermore, she is not even sensitised to the possible problems she can face with the wrong fit and compromises lifelong."
If Zivame remains to do so, it will stand forever a favorite brand to the customer. I hope they do.
According to the timeline on their website, Zivame received its first order in March, 2011 from Indore. Must have been a proud moment for them. And 2011 is also when all lingerie retailers chose to come onboard on the same platform, that is Zivame.
In march 2012, Zivame has raised an $ 3 million in series A funding from venture capital firms IDG Ventures and Indo-US ventures. And when this happened they had around 12000 SKUs from domestic and International brands on their site. Brands include Jockey, Triumph, Amante, Enamor, Bw!tch, Inaya, Hanes, Hollywood Fashion Secrets, Lovable.
T C Meenakshisundaram, MD, IDG Ventrures India Advisors said, “The lingerie category lends itself extremely well to ecommerce and this category has many successful companies globally. We believe that Zivame will be able to extend its lead significantly with this capital raise.”
“Zivame is clearly differentiated in its offering. The focus on content and consultation is unique to the industry and it is exciting to have Zivame in our portfolio of companies,” added Vani Kola, managing partner, Indo US venture Partners.
“Today online platform enables users to shop without any inhibitions; our plan is to simplify the process of shopping with technology as an enabler. All our consumer touch-points should give a seamless and consistent experience of shopping,” said Karekar, CTO.
After all this happened then came the next success in July, when they shipped an order to Andaman Nicobar for the first time. Then by September 2012, they had 5 international brands on board. Which is quite for a company which operated only for less than 6 months by then.
In 2013 came another milestone when they reached 10 million website views in March. And not so surprisingly they were named the “hottest startup” by business world in April.
Then came the next funding Series B round for Zivame in December 2013. And the company owing to its success raised a neat $6 million in an investment round let by Ronnie Screwvala’s Unilazer Ventures. This investment mostly went into improving technology, personalisation, recommendation, visual merchandising and for marketing initiatives. By then they had around 2000 lingerie styles including bridal lingerie, plus size lingerie, everyday wear, shapewear, lounge wear, nightwear and swimwear from domestic and international brands. Their products range between Rs.200 to Rs.3000. Company then had 3000 different styles and 42 national and international brands. They also clocked 81 million registered users as of October 2013 and were adding 20,000 users on a monthly basis. They also had around 30,000 SKUs by April 2013.
By March 2014, they had 100+ bra sizes on their site. By July same year, they were selling a bra every minute. Wow. And in September, 2015 they launched their millionth lingerie. Proud moment.
In March 2015, Richa Kar was featured on Forbes. August 2015 they launched a mobile fitting lounge.
Zivame conducated a survey, involving 1,400 people, on the usage of bras among Indian women. The survey showed that four out of five Indian women do not know their right size and have been wearing wrong-sized bras all their lives. Women are also not aware of the life of a bra and 53 per cent were still using bras that were 'too old'. 82 per cent of women in India have never received professional help in finding the right bra, though all of them buy lingerie at least once in six months. Most women end up wearing a larger band size than the actual.
The lingerie brand launched launched a BTL campaign back then to reach out to women and teach them how to wear right size bras and what would happen if they didn’t do so. This was an on ground campaign named, “Fit is my Right”. They were purely focusing on helping women find their right size bras. They visited colleges, conducted workshops, free counselling and fitting sessions for students. They had a van for this, “Mobile Fitting Lounge”. This was a customised fitting van and had three trial rooms and bras of all sizes that were required for the fitting exercise. And there were three fitting experts to help find the right size. Awareness creation too! Cool move, Zivame! One way to tell they actually care about their customers.
Zivame by then was featuring over 5,000 lingerie styles, 50 brands and 100 sizes. It had offerings such as 'Try at Home', 'Fit Consultant', 'Discreet Packing' and others.
Then comes another funding round. Series C in September 2015. Online lingerie store Zivame, owned by Actoserba Active Wholesale Pvt. Ltd, raised Rs.250 crore in a series C funding round from Zodius Technology Fund and Khazanah Nasional Bhd, the investment holding arm of the government of Malaysia. Existing investors Unilazer Ventures, IDG Ventures India and Kalaari Capital also participated in this round. This was the biggest round raised by Indian lingerie stores by then.
In december 2015, Zivame launched its first store in Bangalore. Did you know that a woman’s body changes shape every six months, and, along with it, her bra size? The average number of times a woman needs to change her bra in a year is at least once in three months. In fact the kind of bra one wears can change the shape and look of one's body. Zivame’s this store was a way of teaching customers that.
In 2016, Zivame has discarded aggregation of brands in favour of becoming a private label business, a move that will help it earn higher margins and bolster its bottom line, said two people aware of the development. 60% of their sales were anyway coming from their own brand. Private label would mean higher margins too since they own it. For instance, private labels in fashion can fetch margins of 30-60%, which is almost double the margin on other brands. This though was a risky move to have become a single brand.
Zivame also planned to adopt the omni-channel strategy by launching offline stores through the franchisee model, which will essentially act as experience centres, said one of the two people cited above. The firm is offering franchises at Rs25-30 lakh for a 1,000 sq. ft store, this person added.
Zivame recorded total expenses of Rs 43.3 crore for investment in gro wing its private label and product design during FY 2015-16 according filings with the Registrar of Companies. The company reported 84% increase in net losses at Rs 54 crore for FY16 and 38% growth in its net sales at Rs 62.6 crore.
Among various things you could buy on Zivame are these. You can buy Bras online. Or shop for panties online. Or buy sets, sleepwear,shapewear, apparel, swim and beach wear or accessories. All these coupons and offers could be found on GoSavin. We keep this page up to date so as to reduce your trouble.
They are true to their word when they say, “We believe every BODY is beautiful!
Women shouldn’t have to ‘fit into’ anything, be it lingerie or life! We draw inspiration from every woman’s originality, and create styles that are a reflection of her unique body.
From 28A to 46H, we are Fit For All!
Come, join the millions of women in our community, and be a part of our Circle of Radiance!”
There is bra size calculator on Zivame website that you can checkout. It basically tells you how to measure your bra size before finalising your size and placing an order. Cool, right? There is also Fit my product and a blog of Zivame fit secrets. Be sure to check them out too. Because they are real awesome.
You can also find value packs on the website. And the company runs super good sales and throws super heavy discounts. Don’t miss them. Shop for trending products, check out fit for all sections, style stories.
And do not forget to stay tuned to GoSavin website page to be up to date and informed of these offers. For they won’t come again and again!
