As businesses try to find their foot back in the game again, post the pandemic, a lot has changed, in terms of purchase decision as well as the rules of the play. One such brand trying to get back in the groove is ethnic wear brand, Fabindia. The company upped its marketing spend 172% to Rs 23 crore in FY22 from just Rs 8.45 crore in FY21 (standalone) which was essentially a Covid year, shows data from Tofler, a business intelligence platform. The company claims that the increase in spend is as per its strategy which is completely defined by its users. “Over the last few years, as our customers moved channel choices so we moved with them. We widened and diversified our spends to include digital and our unique Loyalty program FabFamily which was launched in 2019. This helped us further personalise our communication and dialogue with our customers and augmented our brand and retail communication. During the last two years, our total marketing spend has substantially increased with particular emphasis on online,”a Fabindia spokesperson, told BrandWagon Online.
Interestingly, the company claims that in the last two years it has focussed on building its reach – offline and online, in order to better its service consumers. Perhaps the proof of the pudding is the fact that the brand’s revenue from operations have gradually begun to move up. According to regulatory filings, the company’s revenue from operation has risen 48.5% to Rs 959 crore in FY22 from Rs 659 crore in FY21. However, when compared to FY20, there is definitely a decline of 43%. “E-commerce website has also been enhanced to enable our customers to shop from the comfort of their homes making it a seamless singular experience across online and offline. We also opened a significant number of offline stores across the country which amplified our presence over the last two years. Further, we launched several new product lines such as NUindian, FabNu, among others and several new ranges in our Apparel and Home Collections and highlighting them was on our priority list,” the spokesperson, explained.
Known to be a premium high-street brand, of late Fabindia has been running several offers and discounts online. For the naysayers this move comes as a surprise in the pre-Covid era the brand would never run discount offers. As per the spokesperson, Fabindia continues to offer incentives and rewards to its customers through its loyalty program – short term promotional discounts on select lines, periodic categories discounts, among others. “This is a fairly standard retail practice. We amplified our communication proactively this year. This also allowed us to showcase to our newer customers the variety and experiences that we have to offer. The brand’s position as one of India’s most loved ‘Craft & Sustainability’ based retailers has only strengthened over the years as we reach out to more and more customers in newer cities . In fact, highlighting our periodic offers has helped us to new markets and to newer target audiences,” the spokesperson added.
Post pricing, comes distribution and Fabindia claims to have ramped up on that end too. “We are constantly exploring multiple markets to set up more offline stores and enhance our reach to new audiences even as we strengthen our digital offerings. We have already opened nine new stores in this fiscal – -some of which are Purulia in West Bengal , Raipur in Chhattisgarh, Bhopal in Madhya Pradesh and more on the way. This takes our retail presence to 358 stores across 127 cities in India. During 2022-23, alone we added 1,70,000 sq feet in store space across India. Our online sales continue to grow, with a healthy contribution share to the overall business and will continue to invest in this channel,” spokesperson said.
From what it seems the new strategy deployed by the brand has begun to work in its favour. Perhaps this is also a reason why the company claims to be getting ready for its next line of collection. “Our next Collection is Festive readying to be launched over the next few weeks which envisages exciting new ranges focussing on heritage , crafts and sustainability to our customers for the upcoming festive season,” the Fabindia spokesperson said.
Note: This is based on the standalone data of Fabindia and does not include its subsidiary businesses.