Started in 2015, Soch, has gained great popularity over the decade for its ethnic apparel range for women. Today, the brand is present with 100 EBOs across the country and 47 LFS at present, clocking a revenue of Rs 320 crore in the last fiscal, targeting to reach 425 crore in 2017-18. While dominantly present in the South & West market, the brand is now planning to strengthen its footprint across the country. We caught up with Vinay Chatlani, Cofounder and CEO, Soch to learn about the brand’s store roll out strategy and more.

Tell us about Soch’s journey so far & plan for the coming year.

We have always wanted to be a brand that focuses on fast fashion and more categories. There aren’t many brands that go across sarees, salwar kameez, kurtis, tunics, kurti suits, readymade blouses and bottoms. We were very strong in the south and west. Among our 100 EBOs, Karnataka has the highest number of stores with 21 in Bangalore itself. We see there is lot of growth in NCR and Kerala.

Vinay What kind of retail formats will you be focussing on?

We are looking at a lot of malls, since they are operational, we are waiting for the right space. In the MBO space, we are right now with Shoppers Stop and Central. There is still headroom here and we’ll partner with others too. We are also looking at Project Eve.

We have Mumbai, Pune, Chennai, Delhi, Gurgaon and Kolkata on the radar now. By March 2018, we should have 120-125 EBOs. The vision is to open about 30-40 new stores every year.

What challenges do you face in store build & fit-out?

We have been executing the store ourselves, where fixtures and materials are sourced directly. We have certain vendors like Pergo for flooring, Artlight for lighting and digital screens from LG and Samsung while the fixtures come from a mix of vendors and signages come from China. A lot of the vendors we work with supply pan india.

How important is visual merchandising strategy for Soch?

I think with apparel, visual representation is very important. We have seen that anything put at the back of cash till would sell 4-5 times more than other SKUs. Hence video cataloguing has worked well for us. Mannequins are something that are underrated in their ability to sell. If you see, we have a host of mannequins at some of our stores.

We now have VM team, to look at fresher ideas for shelf talkers, mannequins talkers, etc. We notice that people feel a little intimidated by the brand, as it was earlier associated only with occasion wear. Video walls with the price has really helped us break that barrier, and showcase our casual and everyday wear too. I think, at point of sale it is safe to put your price, which I would not do on outdoor, ATL because that will dilute the brand.

Tell us about the digital interfaces at your store.

At present, we have the store facing digital screen that shows videos of our extensive collection. Next phase is make it customer facing, and becomes a digital catalogue. Phase three would be connecting e-commerce stock to the store. Someone can order online and it can be delivered from any store. We have been doing video cataloging for two years now. We do 40-50 catalogues a year, of which 6-8 are for each product category.

Are you planning to enter the international market soon?

There have been numerous enquiries, but we wanted to get our franchisee model right in the country first and we have reached that stage. We will enter the international market this financial year, but don’t know which city will work out first. We are looking Middle East, South East Asia, Mauritius and Sri Lanka. We will look at US & Europe through the website.