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Abof SPRINT - Case PDF
Abof SPRINT - Case PDF
Abof SPRINT - Case PDF
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Contents
Indian Fashion e-commerce Landscape .................................................................................................. 3
About abof.com ...................................................................................................................................... 4
How is the abof different with respect to consumer experience? ......................................................... 4
Comparison with competitors ................................................................................................................ 7
Questions ................................................................................................................................................ 8
Appendix 1: List of Partner Brands on abof.com .................................................................................... 9
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Indian Fashion e-commerce Landscape
Back in 2014, Aditya Birla Group evaluated e-commerce space basis global and Indian experience. E-
Commerce market in India is expected to be about $70 billion by 2020, out of which online fashion
will contribute 30% of this market.
Some key facts related to the online fashion industry:
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About abof.com
abof got incorporated on 5th Nov 2014, the team inception happened in Feb 2015, the beta launch
had happened on 25th Sep 2015 and the final launch took place on 16th Oct 2015, thus, making abof
the fastest concept to launch fashion e-commerce company in India.
Our Vision: Build Indias most admired online fashion player that provides youth with unparalleled
personalized shopping experience using a curated set of branded merchandise
Product Categories:
Partner Brands abofs Own Brand
Mens top-wear Men Casual
Mens bottom-wear Womens Western-wear
Mens footwear Women Ethnic
Womens Western-wear Women Fusion
Womens ethnic Mens Footwear
Womens footwear Womens Footwear
Womens accessories Womens Accessories
The total number of partner brands on abof.com is only about 80 to 100. We have anchor brands for
each of our product categories and a few supporting brands so as to provide a curated set of
merchandise for our users. (Check Appendix 1 for the partner brands on abof.com)
2) Communication: abofs focus is always to constantly engage with millennials, largely the 18-25 yr
old fashionistas. abofs entire experience is built around them. abof has adopted a tone of voice
and visual language which we believe connects with the millennials. We speak their language at
all touchpoints our UX has consciously adopted lower case font which friendly, all our customer
communication is youthful and quirky and our customer centre folks speak in a next-door-boy
language.
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3) Collection: abof has a large, albeit curated, collection of clothes, shoes and accessories for men
and women. While the world follows 2 fashion seasons, at abof we have 12 seasons since we add
new set of collections every month which are completely different and trendsetting.
abof has chosen to be much more selective and curated in its choice of brands and merchandise.
The collections are largely built using a mix of abof branded merchandise (thats designed and
sourced by our in-house team) and relevant partner brands.
4) Pricing: abof believes that its target consumer has small wallets and a tight budget. Therefore, the
merchandise has been carefully priced to make it rather irresistible for this segment. Versus
competition, who typically are more discount-centric, abofs philosophy is more honest and
irresistible pricing
5) abof Experience Zone: abof took a bold step to reach out to its consumers though the brick and
mortar route with an objective to introduce them to the unlimited possibilities of the online
fashion world where they can lay hands on fresh styles, spot trends, browse through the latest
fashion content, try clothes virtually, save wish-list. Having experienced this in the zone,
customers can shop online at their convenience.
The experience zone was aimed at encouraging people to shop online and experience the richness
of the virtual world of abof.com with largely three main objectives. Firstly, the customers can take
a tour of the abof.com website which offers latest styles, personalized fashion content and style
tips. AEZ brings the experience of shopping online to consumers where visitors can browse the
highly curated collection through its own brand abof and selected products from handpicked
brands. Visitors can also browse through the Whats Hot section of the glam-led platform which
offers latest styles, personalized fashion content and style tips.
6) 3D Trial Room: In a pioneering effort that redefines the shopping experience of Indian online
fashion shoppers, abof.com introduced 3D trial room. The biggest challenge for the fashion
ecommerce players is their struggle to provide appropriate size recommendations for customers.
With 3D trial room, which is enabled for most of the womens apparel, abof.coms customers can
virtually try products by inputting just three basic body measurements. The tool allows users to
visualize the garment on a customized 3D avatar-type model and get the right size
recommendation. In addition, the tool also allows users to layer garments providing a complete
outfit view. The tool is extremely engaging as it allows women to try out various looks and
customers tend to purchase even higher priced products such as evening dresses more confidently
using this tool.
7) Visual Search: Consumers can search a fashion item with a picture instead of text which makes it
easier for users to search and buy items that they see in their everyday life. A pan-India survey
conducted by abof.com showed that a large section of online shoppers use others as an inspiration
of fashion. To them what is trending is what they see in store windows, or what is worn by
celebrities in movies and magazines, and even fashion icons in their colleges and social circles.
Todays millennials want fashion items lying in the closets of their fashion icons. Consumers use
these inspirations while shopping online and look for similar products. Research showed that users
found it frustrating to find items similar to what they were looking for. One of the major
hindrances on using browse option was the cumbersome process to look through mountains of
products available online. Text based search has two challenges - (i) brands do not have consistent
product description, and therefore normal search pulls up irrelevant data and inaccurate matches,
and (ii) users dont know the right words or phrases in fashion terminology to describe what they
like or are looking for.
Visual search aims to short-circuit the path from inspiration to commerce by providing an easy
way for users to find products they loved on others through a simple click. For most users, details
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of what they liked gets lost in transition and translation. Visual search bridges this gap and
significantly shortens the lead time to convert purchase intention into transaction.
8) abof communicates and engages in a youthful and quirky language which connect with its
customers.
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Comparison with competitors
Some of our key competitors include: Flipkart, Amazon, Snapdeal, Myntra, Jabong, Zovi, Yepme and
Limeroad. Given below is a comparison with some of the above mentioned companies in terms of
time to launch, scale at launch and growth rate:
We feel we are ahead of our competition across various domains, like, Financials, Customer
experience & Technology:
Financials: We have a healthy Gross Margin, a positive Contribution Margin and an overall healthy
Unit Economics which would lead us to a sustainable growth trajectory.
Customer: We are loved by our customers which is clearly indicated by a healthy NPS of 41, a
decent order frequency of 1.5 and an App rating of 4.0. We have been able to restrict customer
initiated returns to single digit percentage as compared to about 20% returns for peers.
Our brand strength vis--vis our competitors lies in offering highly differentiated customer experience
to Millennials. Few of our key features that enable us to offer differentiated customer experience are
as below:
Our Unique Selling proposition remains offering the best-in-class, curated, fashionable apparels &
accessories to Millennials, and at the same time, enriching their buying experience.
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Questions
The User Experience and merchandise has been appreciated by many consumers. Recent research
suggests that the Aided awareness is about 43% and the brand is seen as more of a fashion expert
than a discount site.
Abof plans to scale-up the business more aggressively and therefore would like ideas and
recommendations (backed by sound research, consumer insights) on the following dimensions:
1. Which differentiators of abof resonate with consumers and should be retained? Which ones dont
and can be removed?
2. Which new differentiators should be added? Why?
3. What novel/innovative marketing approach(es) can be adopted for rapidly scale up at low cost?
4. Suggest 3 ideas which can have a viral impact. Please present the details of implementation with
cost benefit analysis
Submission Format Power-point presentation (max 6 slides, including the cover slide)
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Appendix 1: List of Partner Brands on abof.com
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