NEW DELHI: Fashion-based social commerce platform Browzzin that soft-launched in India, is set to invest $5 million in the country cataloguing Indian and international labels and capitalising on the growing fashion influencer ecosystem.
Browzzin, co-founded by Harry Markl, former managing director of LVMH’s Private Equity arm L Catterton, sets the stage for fashion influencers in the country who can use the app to curate fashion looks and drive traffic for brands and marketplaces by letting users discover similar or featured brands while getting paid for it.
Markl finds the Indian market “interesting” in many ways. “One is, this whole influencer marketing in fashion may still be in an infant phase… it is more developed in the U.S. and Europe, but it has significant growth potential in India. Second, obviously, there is a huge digital population. Third, there are more upcoming Indian fashion brands that also help us localize our catalogue," he said.
The Browzzin catalogue will offer 3 million products in India, including both Indian and international fashion labels and high street brands. The catalogue is continuously updated for real-time availability.
Apart from tie-ups with large marketplaces such as Amazon, Flipkart, and Myntra it is also eyeing tie-ups with independent Indian brands, said Sumanto Das, country director, India for Browzzin. “We have identified a lot of brands especially more on the Indian ethnic wear side, which a lot of influencers promote and that is a big part of the overall fashion catalogue here,” he said.
Social commerce in India is set to touch $16-20 billion in gross merchandise value (GMV) in the next five years, according to a recent report by Bain & Company and Sequoia India. Over the next five years, Markl said Browzzin is hoping to drive gross value merchandise sales of over $400 million for partner brands and labels.
Since its launch, the app has registered more than 2,50,000 downloads and is targeting to reach more than 5 million users this year in India.
"The idea was always to democratize influencer marketing, so this means make everyone who is able to take fashion pictures or street styles—no matter if they have a million users or, like, 10,000 followers on Instagram, basically monetize their styles and reach,” said Markl.
The app essentially lets influencers upload their curated fashion looks from their phone or directly from Instagram. Browzzin's AI will scan partner brands and platforms for similar products. Browzzin will scrape through over 12 million products worldwide or 3 million products for India and show users similar products. Influencers in return get commissions from Browzzin on sale on of each product or even similar-looking products.
“Browzzin will use affiliate and social media marketing to help influencers generate income by sharing their curated tastes through the app where users can buy fashion from across the world,” it said.
Meanwhile, Browzinn also charges partner brands as it helps them drive sales. Markl argues that it is challenging for upcoming digital brands to drive traffic on their site in the most cost-efficient way.
“So, we drive traffic to their site and in return we basically collect the commissions,” he said.
Browzzin app, available on android and iOS, has roped in Anaita Shroff Adajania and influencer Masoom Minawala as part of its launch team. “Anaita joins as creative partner for Browzzin India. The platform is totally transparent and hence every content creator is provided with live statistics and all details on how much commission has been earned,” the company said in a statement.
Masoom will come on-board as a digital and influencer marketing advisor and will lead influencer marketing for the app.
Markl was also co-founder at Asia-focused fashion e-commerce portal Zalora—that was backed by Rocket Internet. Browzzin is co-founded by Zean Vo, former brand and creative manager for Zalora.
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