Revitalising ladies’ innerwear biz with a fitting approach

The company has plans to revitalise the ladies’ innerwear business by creating a fitting zones centric model, supported by online presence.

Speaking to this daily, Arpita Ganesh, the founder and CEO of the two plus years old company tells us, “The size of the innerwear market in India is about $2.5-3 mn or Rs 18,000 cr approximately. Of this, the Premium segment would be about 5-8% and it’s growing at a CAGR of 25-30 per cent. The company has been on an encouraging growth trajectory – we have grown more than 200% since we launched in September 2015.” The lingerie e-tailer currently has one fitting room in Bengaluru.

When asked about her plans to expand the online presence for the company, Arpita said, “Word of mouth gives us about 45% of new customers, the next being Google ads and FB ads and then comes social media. We launched on Amazon this year, but without our quiz (questionnaire), we feel we lose the essence of what we do at Buttercups. But, it’s too early to tell, so we will be on Amazon and as we see growth, we will explore more online avenues.”

The entrepreneur, who is vocal about her support for the ‘body-positive’ fashion movement in India, tells us that there is a long way to go, with respect to more brands doing their bit for the same. She says, “I think a lot of brands are working towards body positivity, and the best way to contribute to this movement is to change our mindset about what we perceive as beauty. The more we think of beauty as being one’s confidence and demeanour rather than looks, the way we portray our brands will change automatically.”

Arpita is keen on introducing her trial fitting room in Chennai as well and is working towards the same. She is also researching on the creation of a new line of innerwear for ladies with special post op requirements.