10 Easy Mantras to Boost your Fashion startup!

Published in

HelloMeets

4 min readJan 31, 2018

HelloMeets had the pleasure of inviting Sheena Uppal, Founder of Rengé an online women’s wear label. This fashion house started in February 2016 so that all women can access sustainable, luxe and everyday clothing.

Sheena shared some tips & tricks on how to begin and build a fashion startup:

1. Know what your brand is about

Have a strong hold on understanding what your brand is.
Have the knowledge of the clothing line you are entering in be it Indian, Western or Indo-western.
Channel your brand accordingly and stick to its roots.

2. Pick your Style

Only 5 out of 10 people might understand what style you want to cater to, so you should stick to what you know best. Follow that instead of pleasing those who do not understand the brand. This will be good for the brand in later stages as your customers would have loyalty towards your brand and would love to wear those designs.

3. Understand your Target Audience

As a designer your first job should be to think as a customer.
Identify your target audience.
Create a profile of the customer you think would be interested in buying from you.
Create quality and consistency with your sourcing and style but on economic terms. Customers buying from you should expect the same level of quality from you everytime.

Sheena has visualised her target customer as a 28-year-old woman who has a job with a good disposable income.

4. Make your brand standout as compared to the other brands

The essence of your brand arrives from your USP. Understand that unique selling price of your brand and work accordingly.

Renge’s USP is in its price point. Their garments range from 4,000 up to 20,000 INR. In terms of price range, they place their brand parallel to Mango. They have created value in their garments. Sheena, initially did not think about making profits. She focused on making a Capsule Collection and marketed it in an exhibition which gave her brand a good face value.

So, she suggests the beginners in this field to start small and focus on quality and USP of the brand.

5. Expanding on social media

The key to marketing right on social media is to photograph it well.
Make a look book which is appealing to your audience.
Hire photographers and models to shoot the look book and have a variety of looks to avoid repetition.
Take inspiration from different websites to make your look appealing.

Sheena’s mantra to marketing is to flaunt her dresses worn by actresses on Renge’s instagram handle!

6. Get customers with the help of Influencers

Find Influencers and send them your brand look-book which has the photo-shoots of your garments, created around a story that your brand wants to portray.
Strike a barter system with the Influencers rather than paying them.

“Sheena was lucky enough to get her first break with the help of Miss Malini (fashion and celebrity blogger) as an Influencer!”

7. Good customer service experience

Customer service begins from your first customer.
Providing personal and exceptional service always has the customers returning to your brand. This is what makes your business successful and leaves you feeling priceless.
Sometimes, it’s possible that your customer does not get the delivery on time and he/she is unhappy and does not wish to buy back.

Sheena experienced something similar in her service once. So, she sent out a personalized gift card with 50% off on the next purchase to make the customer feel satisfied and happy with her brand. ”Such paybacks for your customers are necessary if you want to build a goodwill for your brand.”

8. Never overkill on the production

Sitting on dead stock is the start of a bad business.

Always start with a capsule collection which has 20–25 garments and market them well.

9. Investors

Find investors who are well aware of the industry and invest in fashion business startups.

10. Experience exhibitions

If you do not have a retail space, take part in exhibitions.
Choose the right type of exhibition for your brand to hit your target audience.
This is important because here your audience can actually touch and experience the feel of your garments.

Sheena suggested Dhoom Dhaam (Mumbai) and Pink Post Inc. (Delhi)

Sheena also shared some personal notes with us:

She believes in writing out personally to her customers.
And according to her the best way to know your brand’s success is through, ’word of mouth’.

“It is important to see a fall in your career to be able to visualize better and innovative ideas for your company’s future!”, Sheena Uppal, Founder at Renge.