In the last 2 years, the fashion discovery space has seen the entry of many players but it is only starting this year that investors have started betting big on players like Red Polka, Roposo and Wooplr.
Players like Red Polka count on the knowledge of expert curators and designers. Red Polka can easily be credited with the most authentic fashion discovery portal. The company started with 3 designers and has signed up close to 150 designers in a year’s time. These designers have been carefully chosen, their products aesthetics carefully studied by curators at Red Polka before bringing them on board.
Brands like Paru’s Perceptions, Purkal, Tortus, Tar, Queen of Hearts and many more were showcased for the 1st time on Red Polka. The response they got encouraged them to expand their customer base and function like a professional design house.
A year ago, many designers’ brands, with which Red Polka works today, had a Facebook page of their brand and they used it to collect orders. That’s the only online presence these brands knew of while watching how quickly things were changing around them especially in the fashion e-commerce space.
Paru Mahtani of “Paru’s Perceptions” is the first brand, which signed up with Red Polka in Jan this year. Paru, a stay at home mother of two, has found happiness in making beautifully crafted handmade cards. She says, “The exposure my brand gets on Red Polka has increased traffic on my website.” That’s the reason; she decided to renew her relationship with Red Polka.
Many of the designers discovered by Red Polka have seen a clear impact in their sales and customer reach. Red Polka is their platform of choice to enhance their brand visibility to the right audience. Perhaps, that’s the reason, in spite of being the only e-comm marketplace in India where brands pay to register; a majority of our brands renewed their subscription in the previous quarter.
Nishita Toprani, owner and designer, “Little Pixie”, a brand that makes designer clothing for girls aged between 6 months to 7 years, found her calling in kids design segment, after working as a designer in an export house in Mumbai. She has studied fashion designing in Mumbai and also has a specialized degree from London College of Fashion. When she thought of starting her own label, she had a fear of the unknown as any entrepreneur. However, when she met Red Polka, she knew she has found the right partner. She says, “I am happy with the pace at which my brand is growing. It allows me to have a personal involvement in every aspect related to the business. I’m looking to expand our reach even outside India by starting to ship products abroad.” Nishita is currently working on expanding her clothing line to tween/pre-teen children as she feels there is a huge gap in that section of the market.
"Our business is not only about discovering such unique designers but also being able to add value to their business, help them grow and explore newer possibilities to increase their customer base. That’s why we are very particular about how we sign a brand. We look for aesthetic sense of designs send to us. We curate on the basis on trends of the season or sometimes a classic design that never goes out of fashion but we count on our designers’ aesthetic sense in a big way. For example, a sari is evergreen clothing but we showcase saris, which are little quirky and can be teamed with trendy accessories and blouses. At Red Polka we believe, details are in the design" concludes Vishakha Singh, founder of Red Polka.
By Vishakha Singh
Vishakha is the founder of Red Polka, an online fashion curation portal, which curates beautifully, crafted designs and showcase brands, their trendsetting products, and shares the unique stories behind them. A media professional, Vishakha is a shopper marketing behavior expert. She has worked with top media houses like The Times Group, Network18, and Times Now. Her last corporate stint was with Future Media.
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