Lingerie has been a hush-hush topic and taboo among Indian women for decades until Zivame, the online lingerie retailer opened up its doors in 2011 to present a mind boggling array of intimate wear. The company literally got all female shoppers talking about the amazing product range and lesser-known facts about lingerie itself. The online store finally offered a space where women could fearlessly indulge in browsing, selecting and shopping for their lingerie. At their own pace.

According to Zivame, the offline lingerie experience for women was a quick, secretive five minutes visit to the store. These factors led to the birth of Zivame, with a vision to make high quality lingerie accessible to every woman that have refreshing designs, and a fit engineered perfectly for her body.

Hailing from Jamshedpur, Richa Kar, Founder & CEO, Zivame with an engineering degree from BITS, Pilani and MBA from NMIMS, came with a rich experience of 8 years - working across functions in SAP Retail Consulting & Spencer's store, where she learnt the facets of retail marketing, branding and operations. It was at SAP, consulting a global lingerie retailer, that the idea of an online lingerie portal was born. Richa saw the need to break open this category and realise its true potential in the Indian market.

With a shot span of four years, Zivame's exponential growth is a story by itself. Started in 2011, Zivame got all national lingerie brands to retail online for the first time, then in 2012 it brought five international brands to Indian customers. It crossed 1 million website visits in 2013, awarded the hottest start-up by Business World and added an all women customer relation team. In 2014, Zivame unveiled its TVC that said'BRA' on national television for the first time and joined the mobile app mania by launching India's first exclusive lingerie app.

In today's retail environment, the lines between online and offline are fading at a fast pace, where you've got to meet customers expectations through all formats. Zivame has moved beyond the realm of online shopping and taking the omni-channel retail route by launching mobile fitting lounges and also unveiling its first brick n mortar Lingerie Fit Lounge in Bangalore.

"We piloted the concept at our office first, where many women walked in and expressed their genuine concern surrounding the issues they were facing with their current lingerie. On interacting with customers on a daily basis, we realised that the issue was bigger than what it seemed. This probed us to take the next step and establish the Lingerie Fit Lounge at one of the most important locations in the city," shares Richa.

Designed by Restore Solutions, the Lingerie Fit Lounge is an experience zone that provides intensive fitting sessions with well-trained fit experts who will help women discover the right size and style of lingerie that suit their bodies. The lingerie fit lounge not only provides an environment where women can discuss lingerie openly, but will also educate and inform them about choices in their lingerie purchases going forward.

The store enhances the customer's experience by offering her a physical space dedicated to lingerie, without any social discomfort. "Purchasing intimate wear in a physical store has been an awkward and hurried experience for most women in India. This stems from the embarrassment of having to interact with male salespersons to discuss sizes and styles. There is also limited availability of sizes and styles as retailers stock only the fast moving sizes. Additionally, any sort of consultation on fit, size and style is hard to get from sales people as their priority is primarily to push sales. This creates a lot of inconvenience and a less than desirable experience of purchasing lingerie,"  informs Richa.

The store showcases all styles and sizes from in-house brands, Pen.ny and Couou. It also houses Zivame's latest launches, swimwear, nightwear, and a highly functional range of push-ups, plus size, minimisers and sports bras. "The lounge is surely a visual treat with close to 1000 unique pieces of lingerie displayed all around. A woman who walks in is bound to be surprised by the number of styles and sizes available," Richa says excitedly. The brand plans to open such stores across leading metros and Tier 1 cities in the country.

As a business, breaking the taboos and changing the mindset of the customers has been the biggest challenges for Zivame. "Taking the business online has helped elevate the category and make customers feel more secure while making their lingerie choices due to the private environment it offers. We realised that the most important task was to offer consultative services to educate women about the category. We resorted to various means such as face-to-face, online and phone consultation. It has been 4 years now, and we have seen a tremendous shift in the way the category is being perceived today," Richa explains.

On a concluding note, it would be interesting to see the brand's journey ahead. After all, Zivame's website confidently says that if we liked them today, it'll be even better tomorrow!