Indian fashion eCommerce platform Fynd plans to expand in Southeast Asia from April, which could include the Philippines.
It also plans to expand beyond clothing, footwear and accessories to childrenswear, decor and furnishing.
Fynd is run by Shopsense Technologies, which has among its investors Facebook executive Anand Chandrasekaran, Arvind Sports chief executive Rajiv Mehta and Snapdeal founders Kunal Bahl and Rohit Bansal. It offers same- or next-day delivery in 11 cities in India, and has tied up with about 250 brands. Its platform is both app- and webpage-based.
This month Fynd deployed an omni-channel in-store product, Fynd Store, that lets customers browse all products of a particular brand on screens inside the brand’s physical outlet. If a customer cannot find a product or a size at that outlet, it can be ordered and delivered via Fynd Store.
It is Fynd Store that the company plans to take to international markets.
In-store initially
Founded by Farooq Adam, Sreeraman MG and Harsh Shah, Fynd launched in 2012 as an in-store engagement provider, then branched out to an eCommerce platform before evolving into an omni-channel or online-to-offline retail firm.
“This model would work in the international market, primarily in the areas where the customer is brand conscious and is clear he wants a particular product, whether it be size or colour,” says Shah.
“Many times when customers shop and cannot find products in their size they settle for something that is one level lower in their liking hierarchy. Fynd is trying to solve this problem.”
The company’s strategy for international markets will be the opposite of what it did in India — it will first deploy its omni-channel Fynd Store product before launching its eCommerce Fynd app.
“In India we started with eCommerce then got into omni-channel. The reasoning was that with the retailer, sales is the holy grail. With eCommerce you can immediately show sales. With omni-channel you need to build it up – there’s the training in store and things like that.
“Internationally we’ll start with Fynd Store because we need to develop delivery infrastructure and then get on to Fynd app,” says Shah.