Crowdsourcing goes places: Fund this co and pre-order your personal lingerie collection

Aarohi Singh, 39, an artist and mother of two in Bengaluru is going to get richer by Rs. 10,000 a few months from now - but in kind, not cash as her lingerie collection will become sassier, worth every rupee spent.

Singh, with 199 other women, is part of a crowdfunding campaign initiated by 37-year-old Arpita Ganesh this January. Ganesh is launching her lingerie label - Buttercups-in September 2014, aided by money raised through this platform.

Cash for kind

Ganesh needs Rs 50 lakh to launch her label for which she requires a minimum of Rs 1,500 from 3,000 women. So far she has collected Rs 5 lakh. The investment amounts can range from Rs 1,500 to Rs 25,000. Buttercups will offer each investor products worth their investment in addition to a 10 percent lifetime discount on products.

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“I have funded kickstarter projects and realised it’s a great way to raise money for products that customers understand and not investors,” says Ganesh, Founder and CEO, Buttercups Clothing.

Ganesh failed to raise capital in 2011 when she was retailing international lingerie brands like Chantelle, Trinny and Sussanah, among others through her online store www.buttercups.in. “I did not the get money as I had less experience and clarity on what I wanted to do,” recalls Ganesh who devised an innovative business strategy with crowd funding.

Sneha Kohli, Co-founder, National Crowd Funding Association (NCFA), an organisation that promotes crowd funding in India says, “This model works best for projects. i.e. pre-sell your product to early adopters who believe in it. People get the actual product at a lesser cost and become part of something creative.”

More than money, Ganesh claims she is raising awareness among women on the techniques of choosing, wearing and caring for brassieres through her fitting service, something she has pursued since she stepped into this line in 2009 after a 10-year career in advertising. That year, Ganesh had opened a high-end boutique in Hyderabad as an exclusive retailer for international labels. Steep pricing and retail costs put her in losses, and she shifted business online in 2011.

She has no regrets, though. “It was good learning. I realised there’s a market. Women wear wrong brassieres. Of the 1,000 women I fit, only one wears the right size,” Ganesh says, explaining that this is because of inconsistency in sizes across Indian brands.

“She understands nuances of a woman’s body, knows what she talks about and is willing to listen,” says Singh who has had a fitting by Ganesh and now confidently wears clothes flattering her build instead of loose-fitting ones. A fitting session at Buttercups costs Rs 1,500.

In January 2013, Ganesh took a holistic approach to solving Indian woman’s dilemma with A Bra That Fits (ABTF), a mobile application available on Android and iPhone that teaches women how to measure themselves first, and then throws up concurrent sizes across popular brands. It has got 3,000 downloads so far.

Amit Gugani, Senior Vice-President, Fashion, at Technopak Advisors-a market research firm, attests to education as an area of opportunity to gain better market share. “Corporations are not doing enough to educate consumers. Some brands have sales staff to do this, but in most cases far more awareness is needed.”

Branding it

Ganesh has spread her knowhow to established brands too, as a consultant and to women through periodic workshops. With Buttercups, she wants to fill a crucial gap in the segment-sizes.

“There are 150 sizes available in the world, in India we get 30,” says Ganesh. She’s launching her brand with 58 sizes of brassieres from 28A-44G across a basic and season range. The former will have six styles in four colors each and the latter, a fancier one, has three styles in three colors each, both priced between Rs. 900 - Rs. 1000. Lace and seamless panties will be sold as packs of three for Rs. 500.

Ganesh is padding up inventory with complementary white label products- shapewear, strapless bras and accessories. Buttercups is designed by Ganesh but manufactured by Hong Kong-based Kin Wah Garment Factory.

Data from Technopak reveals that women’s inner wear market in India is estimated at Rs. 10,880 crore in 2013 and is growing at a CAGR of 15 percent. Interestingly, while men’s inner wear is dominated by mid brands, women’s tends to be dominated by economy and low brands mostly priced under Rs. 500. A handful of labels like La Senza, Triumph, Lovable, etc., occupy the super-premium segment or those priced over Rs. 500.

“If the product is right in terms of sizing and positioning backed by superior quality of materials and innovation, then pricing isn’t an issue,” affirms Gugnani, on the opportunity for niche high-end brands. Though initial barriers may be difficult to break since there is a high loyalty factor in this market, women are willing to experiment with newer, comfortable products, he adds.

Buttercups will be sold through Ganesh’s online store. She plans to raise Rs 1.5 crore from angel investors and if that does not materialize, she says she has got the backing of friends to the tune of Rs 60-70 lakh. For the year ended 2013-14, the revenues from the online store-consulting and fitting service-was Rs 20 lakh.

Jessica Puberitz, Founder of Textile Connections that consults Buttercups, says the big challenge now will be to create a team and bring the right people together, “who will bring in professional performance and enough heart blood to start a new brand.”??