We believe in the power of images and videos: Vinay Chatlani, Soch Apparels

Soch has been a mega force in the traditional apparel industry over the years and has stood strong during the pandemic and its after-effects, which baffled the brick-and-mortar retailers.

Chief Executive Officer, Vinay Chatlani, comes from a family which has had a long line of retail owners. He named ‘Soch’ after his mother, Shobha Chatlani.

Vinay speaks to exchange4media at length on the company’s growth, international expansion plans and how it is withstanding the pandemic-induced inflation pressures.

Excerpts:

Do you have plans to go international?

We are yet to go international. There are plans but we and our partners are waiting to see the market uncertainty settle. . We already have a few places in mind.. We will be in a place to open 6-10 stores at once.

What were your marketing strategies over the years?

Going back 10 years, we started selling through physical lookbooks in our stores. People would browse through them and buy our products. We learnt fairly early that images really help. That’s something we have been using for a long time; the power of images, and then videos soon after. About 7 years ago is when we started putting screens on our stores and  a  lot of video content was being created.. That aligns perfectly when you are going online and you are advertising on social.

Are you looking to partner with different agencies for marketing and advertising?

No, actually. While we work with agencies, we are building an in-house team. Because the speed at which we need to churn out new collections, we’re planning to launch an in-house studio in a couple of weeks. While the agencies will still play a big role, the micro-content generation will happen in-house.

What are your plans to keep up with the online shopping trend?

We are on all major marketplaces. There are some smaller ones that we have to just integrate with. The focus now is on international marketplaces. Over the next six months, we’ll be looking predominantly at the Americas, Middle-East and South East Asia. These are the 3 regions that we will look to hit strong. Of course, our site delivers to over 100 countries. That will continue, but as far as marketplaces are concerned, Amazon.com is the first place we are going to launch. We will actually have merchandise kept in the U.S. just to service Amazon.com. We don’t have physical stores there yet. At the end of the day, there is so much business that happens solely through amazon.com in the U.S., so definitely with the casual wear at slightly lower price points, we want people to get next-day delivery as well. On Amazon.com, we will arrive in 2 months.

How is Soch dealing with the after-effects of the pandemic, such as inflation?

We took an equal beating (from the pandemic) to most fashion brands. We did, however, use that time to really assess our process and buying patterns. During a time when you don’t know when the next lockdown is, you don’t know when sales will take a hit, you need to be nimble on how much merchandise to get out there. Post that, with everything happening around the world, prices have gone up. Anything that puts pressure on our partners or manufacturers, directly impacts us. We have been working on margin improvement with more backward supply-chain integration. We are doing a lot of in-house design. What has happened is because of  costs going up,  we have chosen not to increase margin as then prices go up.  Somebrands that we have spoken to, are looking to increase their prices, while we are not going to be bumping our prices.

With the festive season coming up, do you think inflation is going to hamper customer demand?

On one hand, you have increased prices, which will impact disposable income considerably, but on the other hand, you have people that have not been shopping for a long time or celebrated festivals on a large scale. I think the economy in India is still in far better shape, so I don’t see much of a hesitance (for shopping). I won’t say it’s not going to affect us at all, but it’s still up to us to do an amazing job in the season.

What are the growth strategies for the next few years?

Further saturation of the physical stores in India will continue. It will be primarily driven by the franchise model. We are looking at entering the trade segment next year. There are brands that get up to 30-35% just through the trade space. Then there are large format stores, next year we will be looking at larger chains. Some of the larger chains took a little longer to settle on numbers, but they are back in good shape. That’s something we will look at for summer and not this festive season. International stores are being looked at. We’re looking at locations where there is already a demand for Soch’s online products. We are also bringing back the lookbooks that we used to have, but they’re coming back all digital now.  August is when we will be launching digital catalogues in our stores. Accessories and jewellery are also on the roadmap.