Says Lakshminarayanan, software development manager, Information Systems Division, ITC: ``We've tried to make it different from the existing apparel Websites of Banana Republic, Levi's, Gap etc. One of its unique features is Wardrobe Wizard, a fashion consultancy service.''

The Wardrobe Wizard seeks personal details like age, height, shopping habits, daily working activity etc., and based on these inputs it creates a fashion statement for the surfer. The Wizard's recommendations range from helping one to choose one's wardrobe in tune with the latest fashion trends to selecting embellishments of garments with special accessories.

To make the site photogenic and visually exciting, Wills Sport shot models in Sun City in South Africa with the help of its advertising agency Lintas. Designed to be a source of information for Wills Sport brand and not transaction, the site has around 200 pages with each page devoted to a product. The Information System Division has put in 15 mandays to create the site since May 5, 2000. The site also incorporates a mood-based browser for men and women: Leisure, Classic and Party. The user just has to select the mood, and the multimood catalogue provides specific shots of apparel. Also, one can reserve a fashion product online and collect it at Wills Sport store.Says Krishnan Chatterjee, brand manager, Lifestyle Retail Business: ``This Web platform allows us to tailor customised promotions. We will create different schemes around birthdays, anniversaries, festive occasions etc shortly.''

The Web strategy will be complemented on ground with fashion models like Dino Morea, Nafisa Joseph, Bipasha Basu, John Abraham, Nethra Raghuraman and Aditi Govitrikar offering fashion consultancy services-that is advising visitors on what to wear -- at Wills Sport stores.

A Rs 500-crore gameplan
The Rs 8,000 crore ITC hopes to secure a turnover of Rs 500 crore in the next five years from the Lifestyle Retailing Business division. Earlier it announced plans to set up a chain of 100 exclusive Wills Sport stores across the country in the next five years. The entire project entails an investment of Rs 250 crore, a part of which is expected to be raisedby franchisees.

Its first store in Delhi, which opened on July 15, already claims to have sold a record Rs 5 lakh on the first day and Rs 4.5 lakh on the second day. ``We're averaging Rs 1-1.5 lakh on weekdays and Rs 3.5 lakh on weekends,'' says a company source.

ITC's debut with the relaxed wear range is inspired by a major shift in corporate consumer preferences away from formal wear. ITC's research into the Rs 20,000-crore Indian apparel indicated that the Rs 1,200-crore branded relaxed wear segment is growing at a rate of 30 per cent per annum.