Co-founder of the e-commerce firm Indian Beautiful Art, Nitin Kapoor speaks to Nibedita Saha about his sustainable business model that can revolutionise the apparel industry the world over.
Q. Tell us about your Indian Beautiful Art (IBA) project. How did it come into being?
A. Indian Beautiful Art is a Delhi-based online seller in the e-commerce industry for Indian products globally. IBA was founded to bridge the global trade gap that Indian e-commerce platforms face. So we came up with the idea of e-commerce exports of Indian products internationally.
IBA started selling embellishments of garments, like trims and appliqués, which ultimately led to selling readymade clothes. Today, IBA sells in more than 10 international markets including India. It has shipped over 1 million products to over 136 countries, crossing the revenues of $5 million. We have 500,000 customers around the world.
Q. What is JIT/Textech technology and how does it help in achieving better and controlled utilisation of resources?
A. IBA implemented the “Just In Time” (JIT) Garments Manufacturing process in 2015. After a lot of changes and improvisations on the technology and manufacturing front, the company decided to call it Textech, a textile technology which helps to tackle the menace of stocking/inventory in garment manufacturing.
Our tagline is “We would change the way the world shops for garments”, with what we have achieved with Textech.
It is a fact that today the textile industry is the second most polluting in the world, after oil. IBA has developed the JIT process which helps to eliminate the need for warehousing for apparel, and garments can be manufactured from scratch within 48 hours of receiving the order, which the customer can place via real-life AR [augmented reality] images.
The clothes can even be tried for size by consumers using this technology. This effectively cuts the cost of photoshoot production and creates a single prototype for various patterns of the same garment. The colours and designs are changed directly, saving time, resources and labour. Second, the clothes are only manufactured once the customer has placed their order. Right from printing to dispatching the product, the order is produced just within 48 hours.
Q. What were the challenges you faced in developing and implementing the JIT/Textech technology?
A. Initially, we faced a lot of challenges. We were not able to create a high demand for garments, either due to individual prints or fabrics being out of stock; and this resulted in a pile-up of unsold inventory and outdated designs. Another challenge we faced was holding the inventory, safekeeping and diluting it at throwaway prices.
To convert these problems into opportunities, the management launched the JIT system for garment manufacturing. The objective is only to produce what is demanded by the market and control utilisation of natural resources along with no dumping of waste fabrics or garments.
With JIT, we can leverage on the garments by making them in-stock always and create new designs daily without having to stock the inventory. This has helped us as our business capital is not being blocked in unsold inventory.
Further, the process is commercially and socially viable too, as today fast fashion has a lot of unsold inventory which ultimately gets dumped in landfills and thus all the resources used to create the garments which eventually don’t get used by anyone also get wasted. So we make the garment after the customer placed the order.
Q. What sort of difficulties did you come across in trying to establish your startup, and how did you overcome those?
A. The challenge was that in the market, the vendors, compliance people, makers of government policies did not understand e-commerce as a business. So we had to face a lot of problems to complete our transactions as per the law. When we began, “startup” was not a buzzword at all, and leaving an MNC job at that time was still a taboo as compared to today, when people and parents are more supportive of such a move.
Q. How did you manage funding for your idea?
A. We started in a small 10×10 square feet room, with Rs 10,000 investment in the company. At this stage, we have a $5 Million run rate. With JIT in our business process already implemented, today, we have a virtual inventory worth Rs 1,000 crore, which can be developed within 48 hours after receiving the order, and via this, we are foreseeing a Rs 100 crore revenue run rate within 12-18 months. All the profits have flowed back into the business as it is not VC [venture capital] funded company yet. But we do plan to raise funds shortly and we can have the first-mover advantage with JIT.
Q. What kind of infrastructure does your company now have?
A. We have 300 people working in different departments like graphics, textiles, production, data management, IT development. We have imported high-tech machinery from Japan and Korea, which meets high standards of garment manufacturing with eco-friendly techniques and processes.
Q. Are there any expansion plans for the near future?
A. We plan to start an O2O (Online-to-Offline) model in garments, where the customer would be able to check the physical sample of the product at the physical store and then buy the colour or print of their preference by looking at the model image. This will give a sense of satisfaction to them as regards the material and size. And with our vast catalogue of colours and prints, we would be able to attract more and repeat customers for new designs.
Our business model is about giving lots of options to our customers. We create the product after the order is received, within 48 hours. This way it is a win-win situation for the customer, and for us as a manufacturer who wants to keep the volume of generated waste to a minimum and their brand value intact. We are under no pressure to liquidate old stock at throwaway prices.