Zivame's FY18 filings speak for its offline channel being better than offline

Originally an online lingerie retail channel Zivame’s latest financial reports show an improvement in the company’s financial performance after it adopted the omnichannel model.

The company’s revenue grew by almost 63 per cent, going up from Rs 52.9 crore in FY17 to Rs 86.6 crore in FY18. Further, while the expenses also increased by 8 per cent to Rs 126 crore, The losses still shrank by 44 per cent, and went down to Rs 32.1 crore from Rs 56.7 crore in the previous financial year.

This is a progress as compared to FY17, where the company’s revenue had taken a hit and the losses had widened.

As an attempt to regain lost grounds, the company had announced its omnichannel drive, and in March this year, it had claimed that the move had turned out to be fruitful. At that time, it had 26 offline stores and had plans to establish 100 stores by the end of FY19.

The omnichannel lingerie retail chain had claimed that post the second pivot the order value had gone up 1.2X and the conversion rate had doubled. This is clearly visible in the improved financial revenue and loss figures of the company.

Post this pivot, the company had also gone through managerial and investor-related changes where Kalaari Capital and IDG Ventures had made partial exits and new CEO Amisha Jain was appointed.

FY18 had been an eventful year for the company, and it turned out to be for the better. But a question that all this leads to is why did the company have to resort to omnichannel to save face.

One reason could be the product that the company deals with recalls a significant consciousness w.r.t. quality among the target audience and women are more comfortable buying a product that is assured in those terms. 

Going further, it would be interesting to see how long it takes for Zivame to achieve its offline store target, for which it had set aside Rs 30-40 crore, and how it further improves the company’s financials.