ByIANSlife Features

September 11, 2019 (IANSlife) One of India’s oldest accessories brand is launching a new format which offers customers a never before experience. IANSlife spoke to Mr Dilip Kapur, Founder & Chairperson of Hidesign to understand the atelier experience. 

We have heard there are to be new store formats for Hidesign, please share some details with us.

DK: The Hidesign Atelier is our new store format which offers customised and personalised products. The exclusive format has been launched at the Hyderabad airport and will be launched at select locations across India. At the Hidesign Atelier, customers can completely customise from a wide selection of products such as card holders, wallets, bags, backpacks and briefcases. Choose from different leathers, colors, fittings and linings to create a unique bag which can then be personalised and sent anywhere in the world.

E-Commerce accounts for 25 per cent of your revenue; does that make you question the infrastructure costs against returns from retail stores?

DK: E-commerce is profitable and helps us reach to large audiences far beyond the presence of retail stores. Our physical stores allow our regular and loyal customers to enjoy the complete brand experience and engage with a wide variety of products, most of which have a unique design and story. The brand is built through the exclusive stores, while sales happen on many platforms: our stores, corporate sales, e- commerce and MBO’s

Do you believe social media influencers boost sales?

DK: The precise selection of social media influencers helps to promote and build a desire for a collection among the right set of customers.

You plan to expand to tier-2 cities; do you think it’s too late in the day to make this move as tier-2 has been a booming market for the past decade?

DK: Hidesign has been retailing in tier-2 cities for more than a decade. We are present in cities including Guwahati, Amritsar, Trivandrum, Pune, Ahmedabad, Kochi, Pondicherry, Coimbatore, Mangalore, Lucknow, Chandigarh, Ludhiana, Jammu, Indore, and Vadodara. Seeing a good response to our products being sold in large format stores and e-commerce has given us the confidence to look at tier-3 cities. We are now available in cities like Dimapur, Imphal, Kannur and will be looking at more in the future.  

Expected revenue for FY 2019-2020 is Rs 200 crore. How do you work some of that into your CSR programme?

DK: Hidesign has been a supporter of afforestation and recycling since inception. These values of ecology have been promoted extensively through programs such as The Green Story and The Art of Reuse. Hidesign consistently donates towards afforestation and has also been a supporter of heritage conservation in its hometown, Pondicherry. 

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Editing by Muskan Aggarwal and N. Lothungbeni Humtsoe