Mobile-first fashion brand Newme plans more stores in Hyderabad

Fashion brand Newme recently launched its largest store in Hyderabad at Sarath City Capital Mall at Gachibowli. Sumit Jasoria, co-founder and chief executive officer, Newme tells about the further plans in an interaction with B.Krishna MohanHere are the excerpts:PlansNewme is expanding its footprint in Telangana. We are planning more store launches this year. We have been keen to get a good place in the city. We were looking for a big store in the city. So, when we got the right mall partner, we decided to come to Hyderabad. Another three stores are being planned in Hyderabad. We are in advanced talks to open two stores in a few months.Other citiesRight now we’ll focus on Hyderabad. We are keen to open in other cities as well. But we are a data-first company, for that we need to make sure that our data is available for our customers. Only then will we open our store.Differentiating factorsFirst of all, we are building the company and the brand for young women of India, who we call Gen-Z. I don’t think any other brand is solving for Gen-Z the way we are solving for them. The stores and the designs are aesthetic and have a flavour of Gen-Z life in every single touch point, be it online or offline. We are a mobile-first company and have a mobile app. Our stores are designed for the young to make some content, click photos and so on.New designsWe are launching new designs every single week and that all has happened through technology and data. That separates us from the rest. I don’t think any other brand in India is launching new designs on a weekly basis. We follow a low-inventory model.Average spendThe average spend per person is around Rs 2,500 for now but we see customers buying more items as we launch more stores. We are seeing around 30-40 per cent repeat purchases from customers coming to our stores on a monthly basis. It will increase as we increase our marketing efforts. Stores get replenished every week and we have new customers coming to our stores. We have aspirations to be one of the few brands from India for the global market.SustainabilityAs we follow a low-inventory model, we produce less and therefore the wastage is also low. Our idea is that if we minimise wastage we can always control the costs. This also has an impact on the packaging segment. Right now, we cannot share the revenue numbers but I can tell they are in a few hundred crores now.