Abof sees style in trendy fashion with curation and technology

Abof, the online fashion retail arm owned by the Aditya Birla Group, has stated that its strategy is to curate the trendiest fashion by working with about 100-120 brands, and give rich expereince with 3D and Virtual Reality technologies.

“We focus on giving consumers a sharper collection which is in trend today, so they don’t have to think about it, they will just browse and discover fashion on our platform. Our strategy is that we will only work with about 100-120 brands,” Abof CEO and President Prashant Gupta told DH.

The online fashion retailer’s focus is on apparel, footwear and accessory brands for men and women. Besides having a minimum scale, certain size or certain positioning in the market, a brand should be different from label with certain consumer tracking and awareness.

“We have already handpicked for each of the categories the brands that we believe are the most relevant. We work very closely with our brand partners as we do the joint plans with them, as also joint marketing decisions. If you have 1,000 brand partners, you can never work collaboratively,” he said.

Gupta said that fashion is a business where innovation must happen frequently. “So every day has new thinking, new ideas, new evaluation. Keep pushing the boundaries and come up with new ideas as to how to do things differently,” Gupta said. The company, which began its operation in October last year, has witnessed a total visit of 2.20 million people, with an average individual purchase of Rs 1,500.

Abof has already witnessed one million downloads, and caters to 8,000 pincodes in the country. Abof introduced the 3D trial room experiment by asking three data points on height, waist and bust size, and looks at virtual reality as the next step. “So if you give those three pointers, then the entire body shape is constructed. The next evolution in technology arguably is that we will use the face of the consumer. And in that context obviously, VR will make it even more real,” he said.

On the technology front, he said that the company has a team of 30 members, which gives a Twitter meets Instagram experience. “The company website can be called as ‘Twitter meets Instagram’, because the Instagram feed is visual. The Abof website is the fastest loading site with 1.7 seconds.  The improved version of Abof has not only led to a great user experience, but has drastically improved the conversion rate of the website by over 60% and has witnessed an increase in page views by 21%. It also reduced bounce rate by 20%. Our tie-up with AWS and IBM has really given an edge in technology,” he claimed.

The company also introduced the refund with 24 hours and spot alteration in Bengaluru and Hyderabad have increased the credibility. “We will expand spot alteration in eight more top metros by the end of this year,” he said.

To compete with horizontal players in the market, the company is providing a discerning shopping experience. “One of the most differentiated things with us is the fact that we have Abof branded merchandise, which is only exclusive to us. And if you look at that merchandise, it’s actually very high on fashion quotient. When, globally, there was a trend of long line t-shirts for men, we were the first ones in the country to launch that on our platform under the Abof brand, and sold it within ten days,” he said.