admin Building a brand from the ground-up is a mammoth task. The climb is much more arduous for women entrepreneurs who are seeking to establish their stronghold in an inherently male-dominated and competitive industrial market space. Apart from industrial biases, annihilating social constraints is equally important. The inspirational success story of Zivame Co-founder and CEO Richa Kar is a tale of defying not just one bias but tackling multiple roadblocks to achieve greatness.
Apart from fighting against the institutional biases that circumscribe women aspiring to assume entrepreneurial roles, Richa had to simultaneously counter the taboo around lingerie shopping in the Indian society. However, owing to her deterministic outlook, strong will power, and ardent passion for success, Richa was able to craft Zivame into the top e-retailers of lingerie in the country. Today, the brand stands as an industry stalwart and its success has inspired the initiation of many such similar endeavors. Let us take a look at the inspirational journey of this young entrepreneur:
Early Days
Before envisioning her career path as an entrepreneur, Richa completed her graduation in engineering from BITS Pilani in 2002. In 2007, Richa pursued a Master’s Degree from the Narsee Monji Institute of Management Studies. She gained insightful retail experience working for SAP Retail and Spencers.
During her days of working as a retail consultant at SAP, Richa had the opportunity of closely associating with Limited- the owner of the world renowned lingerie brand, Victoria’s Secret. She noted that the revenue generated by the brand constantly exceeded its projected growth numbers. It was then that Richa also cognized the conspicuous lacuna in the Indian retail market that could be filled by such an ingenious brand.
Challenges along the Path
As Richa studied the demographic and analyzed the market, the tabooed nature of the subject became clear. The clear discomfort around the topic of buying lingerie was palpable among most women she spoke to. Even her own mother was uncomfortable when talking about the issue. This is when Richa ideated Zivame as a one-of-a-kind online retail brand that would simultaneously make the endeavor of buying lingerie online easier as well as dispel the taboo around the topic.
The name of the brand itself is symbolic of the essence it seeks to communicate. ‘Zivame’ is a word derived from the Hebrew language and it translates into ‘radiance’. However, the journey since then has been quite arduous, especially in the early days of establishing the venture. Richa conducted in-depth market research to uncover that branded innerwear market had tremendous potential, once it was made easily accessible to women. She also visited malls and local shops and observed that women felt shy when they have to buy lingerie in-person.
But building a venture to bring this vision to fruition needed capital investments as well as social education. Moreover, the taboo around the subject made it difficult to talk about the venture openly. Richa has often remarked that her own mother was scandalized when she pitched this idea to her. She felt uncomfortable and embarrassed that her daughter would want to venture into this as an entrepreneur. Her skepticism also derived from the fact that people around would be unwilling to accept this as a respectable venture. Moreover, Richa also had to tackle issues with finding office and warehouse spaces on rent, as because of the existing taboo she could not reveal the true nature of the venture. She would often resort to calling it an online clothing business in the hopes of securing a rentable office space.
A Silver Lining
However, Richa was finally able to secure the capital needed to start the enterprise by gathering funds from family and friends and then pitching the idea to top investors like DG Ventures, Unilazer Ventures, and Kalaari Capital. Finally, Richa launched Zivame in 2011 as an online one-stop lingerie destination for women. After an intense uphill climb, Zivame was able to establish itself as a formidable lingerie brand recording a yearly growth of mammoth proportions.
Source of Inspiration
Lingerie is an extremely potent and indispensable part of every women’s life and thus it should be treated with respect, believes Richa. Moreover, the mindset of people around innerwear must change. She believes that shame and taboo around the issue of lingerie shopping must be dispelled in order to make the experience of buying this necessary item of clothing seem more liberating rather than an embarrassment of social mandates. Richa’s story is one that inspires women who are trying to make inroads into the male-dominated retail market as well as those who are trying to stand up against social issues and voice the call of discarding social taboos.
Today, Zivame has grown into a well-recognized platform among Indian women. With over 50 different lingerie brands and an ever-expanding clientele, Zivame has persistently recorded high sales and growth numbers over its decade-long market trajectory. The brand has revolutionized the space of online lingerie shopping by offering women with opportunities to find their perfect fit on the website itself. While customers can choose from a large stockpile of sizes and designs, they can also find their absolute fit with the in-built ‘size finder’ button on the website. The story of Richa Kar is one that inspires every woman by stroking both their entrepreneurial zeal as well as their liberation-warranting spirits. Zivame has also recently ventured into the domain of establishing physical stores in select locations around the country.
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