Fashion discovery startup, SummerLabel today announced that it has nabbed funding of $150k from a cohort of seven high net-worth individuals. The fashion platform was launched early in February and will utilize these funds towards team expansion, technology, and product development. SummerLabel targets private label stores and expects to list up to 1,500 of them by December 2017.
Founded by two engineers from Chandigarh, Apaksh Gupta and Vanya Mishra, the mobile application is owned and operated by Abrax Retail Pvt. Ltd. Vanya has been crowned as Miss India pageant winner 2012 and holds prior knowledge of the field.
Based out of Gurgaon, SummerLabel attracts both online and offline private label stores onto the platform and assists them in gaining recognition. The company is also developing marketing software which will aid in marketing these lesser known brands and stores.
While other firms in the discovery segment are more focused towards styling or helping users shop that perfect attire, SummerLabel distinguishes itself by focusing on building their brand. It helps brands gain recognition by providing them with some much-needed marketing. Speaking of the present business model, SummerLabel Co-founder Apaksh Gupta said,
On SummerLabel, users can find stores near them, see pictures of what clothes they are selling, range of price they are selling at, read ratings and reviews given by other customers. On the other hand, we are a technology company that gives these fashion stores an online management tool that will help in marketing, building loyalty programs, among other features.
The company generates revenue by selling marketing tools and software services required to reach the end audience. Out of its brand-focused solutions, the most common one is influencer-based marketing. A social addict user can monetize via these stores to endorse the brand on Instagram, Facebook or other social networks.
These influencers can earn in the range of ₹10,000 to ₹3 lakh a month based on an average 50,000 to 60,000 followers generating 3,000-4,000 impressions. The company plans to increase these impressions by 50% depending on the interested investments by the brands. Defining the tools SummerLabel offers, Gupta added,
Apt and most relevant influencer and track the extent of brand engagement. The brands, otherwise, end up choosing someone based on gut and limited information, and even fail to measure the impact of such marketing.
The company stands in competition with already established platforms such as Tiger Global-backed Roposo and women fashion portal Wooplr. While Roposo has been able to accumulate $21 million in funding since its inception in 2014; Wooplr just recently raised $8 million in a series B round of funding led by Sistema Asia Fund.
However, these platforms make money through brand marketing campaigns featuring them on their apps and websites whereas the young venture unique market-centric software for brand popularity. The company is currently working towards software for loyalty programme and point of sale data analytics and plans to report revenues of ₹25-30 lakh by December 2017.
