In the post-pandemic times, where most offline brands have embraced Digital to reach their consumers, needless to say, digital-first brands are leveraging tools like big data, analytics and AI to make the consumer experience as seamless as ever. According to Neha Kant, Founder, Clovia, to address the vast length and breadth of the country that the brand caters to, the only way is through advanced tech adaptation. She explains how, “Clovia was launched with the core vision of solving the problem and providing every Indian woman with lingerie of the right size. Considering the huge territory of the country, changing seasons and body types, the choices differ almost every 100 miles. We can accomplish what we do by being a 100% data-driven company.”
Simplifying customer care with technology
Clovia has built a rich user profiling model where over 150 million data points across 2.8 million users are processed every night. Kant notes, “Data is used to improve our product, supply-chain, distribution as well as post-purchase customer services. Clovia is accessible to customers not only through its website, on-call customer service, and app, but also through direct engagement via Whatsapp to make the overall experience smooth and effective, and time-efficient.”
The brand also has an AI chatbot, which is called Bra-Bot. It handles a host of issues like helping users to make a purchase, updating order and delivery status, guiding to policies, FAQs and sizing suggestions. Talking about how consumers are embracing the bot, Kant adds, “The response to the Bra-Bot has been exceptional with almost 2 lakh customers engaging with it within 30 days of launch. The Bot currently handles over 35% of customer queries automatically and the rest gets seamlessly passed on to a support executive. This leads to a frictionless purchase experience while ensuring the customer is not blocked by surges in call traffic or site footfalls.” Along with its AI-led tools, Clovia offers user-friendly tools like the Clovia Curve Fit test, dress to bra match and Bra Bro – a tool that helps men decide the right gift for the women in the lives, among others.
Diversification into newer categories
After enhancing consumer experience in the lingerie e-commerce segment, Clovia has recently ventured into the personal care range of products under Clovia Botaniqa. Sharing the genesis of the new range, Kant notes, “We went through thousands of data points shared by our customers to arrive at the top skin/hair/body changes, concerns and problems and then worked to come up with the best solutions. We rooted our formulations in Ayurveda and developed a personal care range that is completely safe with natural ingredients. The entire personal care range is dedicated to the needs of modern-day women and also new moms.” Clovia Botaniqa was launched early this year with products targeted at new moms and pregnant women.
To market the new personal care range, the brand has collaborated with tennis player, Sania Mirza. Talking about the insights and marketing strategy, Kant notes, “We collaborated with Sania Mirza as she isn’t just a celebrated tennis player but also a proud mother and this latest range is dedicated to new moms. In an experiential short video, Sania talked about how Clovia Botaniqa is an absolute skincare solution for pregnant women and new moms who face problems like stretch marks, acne, dry and darkening skin during and post pregnancy. We took the launch of Clovia Botaniqa as an opportunity to strengthen our social media presence and make a significant connection with the audience instantly. Apart from collaborating with Sania, we have also looped in over 1000 mom and lifestyle and beauty influencers for Clovia Botaniqa who are talking about our latest offerings.”
Beyond the new range, Clovia has collaborated with actress Adah Sharma for bralettes in the lingerie segment. Discussing the association with Sharma, Kant adds, “Clovia is all about bringing world-class products to Indian customers at the right price point. Not only focussing upon metros, we strongly believe in taking fashion to the tier 2 and tier 3 cities. We have associated with quite a few celebrities in the past and are looking forward to having more such strategic partnerships in the recent future.”
ABOUT THE BRAND
Clovia was launched by entrepreneur Neha Kant to change the way lingerie was sold and has since its launch in 2013 become a disruptor in the space with over 2 million customers. The brand has over the years expanded its product line to include lounge wear, shape wear, athleisure, maternity and personal care products.
PROFILE
Neha Kant, before donning the entrepreneurial hat, was pivotal in setting up and growing the e-commerce engines for the India Today Group and also had a short stint as the head of digital marketing for a leading Indian e-commerce venture. Kant’s launch of Clovia has made the brand a disruptor in the lingerie space with a growing consumer base of over 2 million.
Driving growth in tough times
In an earlier interaction with exchange4media, Kant had shared that education remains a key challenge for the lingerie category in India. Commenting on whether the challenge persists, she points out, “It has always been an uncomfortable experience for women to shop lingerie from physical stores. We realized that there exists a major gap in intimate wear for women in India. Upon deeper research, we found that the prevailing distribution channel restricts the flow of customer feedback and therefore, there was a lack of innovation and variety. However, the situation is not the same. Today, the customer is well aware of the recent trends and styles. We have been one of the key brands in the Indian direct-to-consumer space which is scaling profitably on the back of extensive use of technology in all its business areas.”
Post pandemic, Clovia has observed a great amount of traction with the need for personal comfort seeing a surge. Sharing growth insights, Kant adds “We have noticed a 100% growth in FY’20 over FY’19 in just six months. We observed a 9X scale in sleepwear and loungewear, a 6X scale in maternity lingerie and feeding nightwear, and a 2X scale in Clovia’s customer partnership programme. With improved gross margins and repeat business from existing customers, we achieved profitability post lockdown last year. The second wave didn’t impact the online business as logistics and e-commerce businesses didn’t face any halt during this challenging time.”
