A PROJECT REPORT ON

"THE SOULED STORE"

A PROJECT SUBMITTED TO THE

UNIVERSITY OF MUMBAI

For partial completion of the degree of

Bachelor of Management Studies

Under the faculty of Management

By
Mr. Ayan Sayed

CLASS: TYBMS ELECTIVE: MARKETING Roll No:106

UNDER THE SUPERVISION OF

Ms. Sonal Jain

REENA MEHTA COLLEGE OF ARTS, COMMERCE, SCIENCE &

MANAGEMENT STUDIES
BHAYANDAR (WEST), THANE-401101.
ACADEMIC YEAR 2022-2023
 A PROJECT REPORT ON

" TheSouledStore "

A PROJECT SUBMITTED TO THE

UNIVERSITY OF MUMBAI

For partial completion of the degree of

Bachelor of Management Studies

Under the faculty of Management

By
Mr. Ayan Sayed

CLASS: TYBMS ELECTIVE: MARKETING Roll No:106

UNDER THE SUPERVISION OF

Ms. Sonal Jain

REENA MEHTA COLLEGE OF ARTS, COMMERCE, SCIENCE &

MANAGEMENT STUDIES
BHAYANDAR (WEST), THANE-401101.
ACADEMIC YEAR 2022-2023
 DECLARATION

I the undersigned Mr. Ayan Sayed here by, declare that the work embodied in
this project work titled “THESOULEDSTORE” forms my own contribution to
the research work carried out under the guidance of Ms. Sonal Jain is a result
of my own research work and has not been previously submitted to any other
University for any other Degree / Diploma to this or any other University.
Wherever reference has been made to previous works of others, it has been
clearly indicated as such and included in the bibliography.
I, here by further declare that all information of this document has been
obtained and presented in accordance with academic rules and ethical
conduct.

Mr. Ayan Sayed

Certified by
Ms. Sonal Jain
(Project Guide)
 CERTIFICATE

This is to certify that Mr. Ayan Sayed has worked and duly completed the
project work for the Degree of Bachelor of Management Studies under the
faculty of Management in the subject of MARKETING and the project is
entitled “THE SOULED STORE” under my supervision.

I further certify that my entire work has been done by the learner under my
guidance and that no part of it has been submitted previously for any degree
or diploma of any University.

It is their work and facts reported by his personal findings and investigations.

Principal Head of Department Project

guide
Dr. (Mrs.) Satinder Kaur Gujral Ms. Sonal Jain Ms. Sonal
Jain

Date-

Place-
 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

Sometimes words fall short to show gratitude, the same

happened with me during this project.

To list who all have helped me is difficult because they are so numerous and
depth is so enormous.

I would like to acknowledge the following as being idealistic channels and

fresh dimensions in the completion of this project.

I take this opportunity to thank the University of Mumbai for giving me chance
to do this project.

I would like to thank my Principal, Dr. (Mrs.) Satinder Kaur Gujral for providing
the necessary facilities required for completion of this project.

I take this opportunity to thank our Head of Department Ms. Sonal Jain, for
her moral support and guidance.

I would also like to express my sincere gratitude towards my project guide Ms.
Sonal Jain, whose guidance and care made the project successful.

I would like to thank my College Library, for having provided reference books
and magazines related to my project.

Lastly, I would like to thank each and every person who directly and indirectly
helped me in the completion of the project especially my Parents and Peers
who supported me throughout my project.
 INTRODUCTION

The Souled Store is an online store based in India that

offers a wide range of pop culture merchandise, including
t-shirts, hoodies, mobile covers, badges, posters, and
more. The store features designs inspired by popular
movies, TV shows, music, and sports. The Souled Store is
known for its quirky and creative designs that appeal to a
younger audience. The company also collaborates with
various brands and artists to create unique and exclusive
merchandise. The Souled Store has gained a significant
following Their goal is to give everyone something they'll
love, something they can use to express themselves, and,
simply put, something to put a smile on their face. So,
whether it's superheroes, TV shows, pop culture, music,
sports, or quirky, funny stuff you're looking for, They have
something for everyone. The Souled Store is planning to
grow its D2C business from Rs 200 crore to Rs 1,000 crore
in the next four years. The Mumbai-based company also
aims to strengthen its product portfolio on both licensed
merchandise and casual wear, build better brand
awareness and deepen its retail footprint across 15 cities
pan India The Souled Store employs 201 to 500
employees in India. Global headquarters for The Souled
Store is located in Mumbai,Maharashtra,India.
 Index
Chapter No. Topic Page No.
CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION 1
1.1 Introduction 1
1.2 FUN FACTS ABOUT “THE SOULED STORE” 2
1.3 HISTORY OF THE SOULED STORE 9
1.4 PRODUCTS OF THESOULEDSTORE 11
1.5 MARKETING STRATEGY FOR APPAREL AND FASHION 12
BRAND
1.6 EXPANSION AND GROWTH OF THE SOULED STORE 14
1.7 ABOUT FOUNDERS AND HOW THEY GROW THEIR 20
BUSINESS

1.8 25

2-Harsh Lal (Co-Founder of The Souled Store)

1.9 HOW THEY STARTED THEIR BUSINESS 27

1.10 ABOUT THE SOULED STORE’S BRAND AMBASSADORS 32

1.11 HARDIK PANDYA (BRAND AMBASSADOR) 34

1.12 SARA ALI KHAN (BRAND AMBASSADOR AND INVESTOR) 35

1.13 MORE ABOUT “THE SOULED STORE” 37

CHAPTER 2 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 41

2.1 HERE ARE SOME OF LATEST SOCIAL INITIATIVES BY 41
“THE SOULED STORE”
2.2 Q n A BY WARC AND SEE WHATS “THESOULEDSTORE’ 41
REPLIES.
2.3 ONE OF THE USP OF “THE SOULED STORE” 42
 FUN FACTS ABOUT “THE SOULED STORE”

The Souled Store is an Indian online store that offers a

wide range of officially licensed merchandise including t-
shirts, hoodies, phone cases, and accessories.

- The company was founded in 2013 by Four friends who

wanted to create a brand that represents their love for pop
culture and entertainment.

- The Souled Store has collaborated with popular brands

such as Marvel, DC Comics, Harry Potter, and Friends to
create exclusive merchandise collections.

- The souled store used to offers customized products

where customers can design their but unfortunately they
discontinued this scheme.

- The company has a strong social media presence with

over 1 million followers on Instagram, where they
showcase their latest merchandise and engage with their
customers.

- The Souled Store has a partnership with the non-profit

organization, GiveIndia, where they donate a portion of
their profits

- The Souled Store has a loyalty program called "Souled

Out Squad" where customers can earn points for
purchases and other activities, which can be redeemed for
discounts and exclusive merchandise.

- The company is committed to sustainability and uses

eco-friendly
 HISTORY OF THE SOULED STORE

The Souled Store was founded in 2013 by Four friends –

Harsh Lal, Aditya Sharma, Vedang Patel, and Rohin
Samtaney. The idea behind the store was to create a
brand that represents their love for pop culture and
entertainment. They started by selling t-shirts with quirky
designs and slogans that resonated with the Indian youth.

Initially, The Souled Store operated from a small office in

Mumbai and sold their products through their website and
social media channels. However, their popularity grew
rapidly

It is currently India’s biggest fan merchandise destination.

They are the official, licensed merchandisers for cartoons
(Scooby-Doo, Cartoon Network, etc.), TV shows
(F.R.I.E.N.D.S, The Big Bang Theory), big-budget movies
(Marvel, Harry Potter, Batman, Superman, etc.), and IPL
teams.
 PRODUCTS OF THESOULEDSTORE

The Souled Store offers a wide range of officially licensed

merchandise and customized products.
Here are some of the popular products available on the
store:

1. T-shirts: The Souled Store offers a wide range of t-shirts

with designs inspired by pop culture, movies, TV shows,
and music. The t-shirts are made of high-quality cotton
and are available in different sizes and colors.

2. Hoodies: The store also offers hoodies with designs

inspired by popular movies, TV shows, and music

Including-sweatshirts, joggers, shorts, boxers, flip flops,

backpacks, tote bags, laptop sleeves, mugs, coasters, and
badges. The store also has a dedicated section for kids
with t-shirts and accessories featuring popular characters
such as Captain America,Iron Man,Batman etc.
MARKETING STRATEGY FOR APPAREL AND
FASHION BRAND

This issue of Textile Progress provides a critical literature

review and reflection relating
to academic research in the field of fashion marketing.

As the topic has not been

reviewed before in Textile Progress, the paper takes the
concepts of marketing and
fashion in turn, exploring the literature from its origins
to the present day and then
considers how and why these two concepts have
become merged to form a discrete
academic research theme.

The exploration of marketing includes a discussion of

the origins of the marketing
concept which emerged in the 1950s alongside the growth
in mass consumerism.
and explains
paper discusses
how research
the ubiquitous
in ‘marketing mix’ theory
The
marketing shifted its focus in the 1980s and 1990s as
new paradigms developed and
their applicability to the marketing concept were debated.

The concept of fashion is considered in terms of the

context of historical research on
fashion, for example from the sociological or
psychological perspective, and how the
concept of fashion can be considered both academically
and commercially.

The review then goes on to evaluate the concept of

fashion marketing as a discrete area
for academic research, arguing that it has distinct
theoretical perspectives from those
of pure ‘marketing’ or ‘fashion’ theory, and culminating
in a review of contemporary
research in the field of fashion marketing, specifically that
relating to fast fashion and
‘digital’ fashion marketing.
Keywords: marketing; fashion marketing; fashion; fast
fashion; digital fashion;
 EXPANSION AND GROWTH OF THE SOULED
STORE

THE SOULED STORE, an Indian lifestyle brand, has raised

Rs 135 crore ($16 million) in a funding round led by
Xponentia Capital, with participation from Elevation
Capital and RPSG Capital.

The funds will be used to expand into new product

categories and launch over 100 stores across India within
the next two years. The investment will also allow the
company to buy back 100 per cent of vested employee
options, benefiting around 30 employees.

The Souled Store said to have an annualised revenue of

over Rs 450 crore gross merchandise value (GMV) and
has raised Rs 85 crore to date. Founded in 2013 by
Vedang Patel, Aditya Sharma, Rohin Samtaney and Harsh
Lal,

The Souled Store began as a fan merchandise brand and

now generates almost half of its revenue from non-fan
merchandise.

Currently, 70 per cent of revenue comes from the

company's app or website, 15 per cent from offline stores,
and 15 per cent from online marketplaces.

The brand plans to deepen its presence in tier II and III

cities through new offline stores. “Our design first thinking,
high product quality and deep understanding of the youth
have helped us become a truly distinguished brand, and
we plan to capitalise our high brand equity to grow current
categories and foray into other lifestyle products.

We are also expanding our offline presence and intend to

create destination stores that would excite our customers.

The Souled Store further aims to reach Rs 1500 crore in

revenue over the next three years and then go public,” said
Vedang Patel, chief executive officer of The Souled Store.

“Xponentia seeks to work with entrepreneurial teams that

are setting new standards to disrupt their markets and
create high-growth business models.

The Souled Store has established a distinctive brand and

is in the process of creating a large community that
identifies and relates with its casual wear products.

We look forward to supporting Vedang and his team as

The Souled Store continues to innovate and delight its
customers,” added PR Srinivasan, managing partner of
Xponentia Capital Partners.
 ABOUT FOUNDERS AND HOW THEY GROW
THEIR BUSINESS

1-Vedang patel (CEO and Co-founder of The

Souled Store)

Hey Pushstarters! I am Vedang Patel, co-founder and

executive director of The Souled Store.

Hi! That’s me sporting our funky products!

I did my graduation in mechanical engineering from Sardar
Patel College of Engineering. Being an automobile enthusiast,
I took part in many national level competitions which revolved
around making cars.

After passing out, I worked as a financial analyst for two years,

and that’s when I met the other two co-founders of The Souled
Store.

I cleared CAT and got admission calls from

three IIMs.
It was just after admission that I realized that life was getting
monotonous and I stopped enjoying the world of finance
overall. This was when my entrepreneurial journey began.

What’s the deal with The Souled Store?

The Souled Store is an e-commerce website

that sells the most insane merchandise
along themes like pop culture, TV shows,
superheroes, music, sports etc.
We create and curate stunning designs and print them on all
sorts of equally stunning products- from t-shirts to phone
covers to backpacks to boxers to really long boxers and many,
many more!
The Souled Store

Our products are designed specifically to spread happiness,

right down to the bottom of your ‘soul’.

The Souled Store was born out of the idea of

loving what you do — “Following your soul.”
You can visit the website and discover a wide range of
products categorized according to your favorite theme, artist,
and genre.
Our Products!

T-shirts are our core product comprising of

almost half our sales.

What motivated you to start The Souled Store

and how did you validate your idea?

When I was pursuing finance, I realized that I wasn’t really

enjoying my job.

I did not like to go to my office, and I hated

Mondays. I soon realized that there are too
many Mondays in life to keep on hating.
I was craving to do something which I would continue love
doing for the next 30–40 years.

I was fond of star wars and pop culture in general and would
always look for their official fan merchandise. But, back in
2014, these items were either available at high price or as a
fake.

A simple t-shirt would cost around Rs. 1800.

These items were costly as they were

shipped abroad for the required prints and
watermarks, and then shipped back to India.
Thus me and my co-founders thought of solving this
inefficiency and came up with the idea of selling licensed
merchandise in India at much cheaper rates than they were
available.

The idea validation took some time or to be precise; it took a

few months.

We pooled in money and spent Rs. 25k to get the website done
by a service company. It was a basic e-commerce website, and
once it was up, we sold around 100 t-shirts within the first
week.

The reviews and responses of our first 100

customers helped us in validating the idea.

What all went into building the initial product?

When we decided to start The Souled Store,

all three of us pooled in Rs. 175k each for
the company and Rs 25k each for daily
expenses.
It was all the money that we had saved during our job as
financial analysts. We started from the cabin of a friend’s
office. We had just one room and a cupboard where we
stacked our first lot of t-shirts.
Initially we had no clue of designing or
coding. We were just young minds with ideas.
We spent Rs. 25k to get our basic e-commerce website done
by a service company and I learned graphic designing in a day.
We did all the work from designing t-shirts to taking calls from
customers.

We outsourced the manufacturing part as it was a capital-

intensive job which we couldn’t afford at the initial stage.

T-shirts were the first lot of products which

got sold through our website.

How did you get your initial buyers?

We sold around 100 t-shirts to our friends and family members

in the first week of launching our website. But the growth after
that was pretty slow.

I remember, we came down to just 5 t-shirts

in the second week and 10 in the next.
This was the time when we started doing ads on FB,
Instagram and Google and improved SEO of our website to
gain visibility.

We also consistently posted content on our

social media handles around trending topics
that our audience could relate to.

Meme we used for selling inception tees

As our products were always in line with the

trend, we got good conversion through
content marketing.
We also did a lot of engaging contests and competitions to
grow our following on Instagram and FB.

One of the many contests that we ran:

Contest we ran in 2014

We spread awareness about our brand in a

few offline events like The Lil Flea too.

This was our stall at The Lil Flea in 2015!

Apart from this, we also ran online internship

programs for students to penetrate The
Souled Store inside colleges.
These programs were not made for the sole purpose of hiring
interns but to help us reach the students who would love our
products.

The big break came when we collaborated with famous artists

and made official merchandise for them. We have worked
with AIB, Kenny Sebastian, Kanan Gill and many others till now.

Influencer marketing is a powerful tool. Use

it right, and you can grow like anything.

What is your business model and how have

you grown your revenue?

Our basic business model is all about being

different from other similar products in the
market.
A few strategies which have helped us grow our revenue:

 We have to secure licenses for selling certain

merchandises. We guarantee to make the
merchandise catchy and more wearable and thus
acquire the licenses for cheap.

 We design around the theme which is trending. Every

logo or quote or character is placed on the product
with a lot of passion.

We cover almost everything which is

trending.

 We monitor the conversion rates on our website and

the ads to check the performance of a particular
design. Accordingly, we optimize our designs to give
people what they want.

 Our efforts of making The Souled Store as a one-stop

solution for getting all fan merchandise has helped us
grow our revenues.

 Our other strategy is, focusing on the Indian content.

This is visible in our recent collaborations with AIB,
Kenny Sebastian, and Kolkata Knight Riders. People
love to wear merchandise of celebrities they follow.

Bollywood merchandise is also a big hit, and

we are growing with them.
The Souled Store is profitable and clocking 3 crore monthly
recurring revenue.

What are your future goals and how do you

plan to achieve them?

We aim to make The Souled Store a one-stop destination for

everything that is quirky, trendy and related to pop-culture. We
also look forward to moving over to more of Indian content like
Indian shows, musicians, and artists.

Our last step would be going offline and

having stores across various cities in India!
We don’t have any particular strategy in mind as of now for the
same but we are constantly making progress in terms of
expanding our product range, collaborations and increasing
the domain of topics around which we design.

These will take us ahead and help us achieve our goals

somewhere down the line.

The biggest challenges you have faced till

now and how did you cope with them?

Acquiring licenses is a big challenge as we need to purchase

them at the right price and also ensure that they are not fake.

It still happens that we give months to acquire a particular

license and sometimes, it just doesn’t come through. This is
always a big blow for us but we keep trying and never give up.

Also, onboarding any company for selling their official

merchandise takes time.

It took us a year of consistent effort to

onboard AIB.
There is also the constant challenge of being up to date with
all the latest trends.

Apart from this, securing government licenses for doing

business online is not easy due to corruption(bribery) that is
involved. All the accounting processes like filing income tax
returns, GST management, and compliances are a tough task
to manage, and they come as a challenge for us every time.

What is your advice to Pushstarters starting

out?
 Choosing the right partners is essential. Your partner
may not have the same thinking process as you do
but he must question all the decisions that you take
 so that it leads to better outcome.

You need to have all different kinds of views

on the table.

 You need to have determination and motivation.

Remember that you would face failures, but you need
to keep on trying hard till the time you achieve what
you want.
 2-Harsh Lal (Co-Founder of The Souled
Store)

Harsh Lal is the Co-Founder of The Souled Store, an online

store that sells quirky-pop culture merchandise. It is
India’s biggest brand for official, licensed merchandise.
From Marvel to Harry Potter to Liverpool FC, and now their
original merchandise - they have it all. And guess what?

Just yesterday they closed $10 million in funding from

Elevation Capital!

It has been an absolute privilege to have the opportunity to

interact with Harsh. Here’s the tea:

Passionately Curious

Growing up, Harsh had no plan. He was always fascinated

by a variety of different things and was never sure of one
specific thing he wanted to do. A science student in
school, who then studied law, did internships in journalism
and advertising, and ALSO spent half a year as a tattoo-
artist! Harsh tried to spend his college days filling his life
with experiences.

He feels it is important for younger people to experiment.

It helps you build a broader perspective, something which
is especially important for an entrepreneur.

The Origin Story

Harsh and his friend-cum-Co-founders, were all huge fans

of movies, TV shows, comics, and sports. As fans, their
thirst for affordable good quality official merchandise, a
medium for expressing their fandom essentially, always
remained unsatiated. This thirst is what led to the genesis
of the idea of The Souled Store.

Back in 2013, when they started, the online apparel space

was not as crowded as today. It was a different world. We
Indians were skeptical of buying clothes online. The idea
seemed far-fetched to us. A company trying to make a
dent in this space would have to tackle psychological
barriers of payment security, product quality, and delivery
service quality.

The founding team picked the right battles at the right

time, worked hard, never gave up, and today they are a
homegrown behemoth in the apparel space :)

Monetizing Fandom

The Souled Store has worked with 150+ license partners

over their 8 year journey. While licensing continues to be
an important part of their overall roadmap, Harsh says that
their vision is to become the No.1 Apparel Brand in the
casual wear space.

Something that goes beyond just the pop-culture space.

Something that is aspirational. Like what Nike did for
sports-wear and Raymonds did for formal-wear.

Today, 80% of The Souled Store’s original wear comes

from repeat customers. While the licensing play helps with
user acquisition, what this says is that the customers stay
for the quality. They stay because they love the experience
and the brand.

Currently, 60% of the TSS’ revenue comes from licensed

products and 40% comes from their original design. Harsh
and the team see this number flipping over to 70% original
design over the next few years.
Gliding through a Pandemic

The Souled Store is one of the only few online apparel

companies that actually grew during the pandemic. And
profitably so.

Harsh credits this feat to having a strong brand that is

loved by an extremely sticky customer base who stuck
with them during this tough phase and an agile time that
was quick to respond to never seen before circumstances.
And, the numbers speak for themselves.

99% right is 100% wrong

“At The Souled Store, there is no room to half-ass

things. Good enough is never good enough.”

Harsh and the team at TSS are a tribe of perfectionists.

This comes off very strongly in the quality of their
products, the ingenuity of their designs, their creative
packaging, and even the striking quality of the colours they
use.
Giving up is never the answer

“Everything is figure-out-able. As you scale, problems

don't disappear, they simply change. Your mindset is key
in tackling them and moving on.”

The life of a start-up founder is a roller-coaster. Things

change every day. There are good days, and then there are
bad days. Harsh says it is important to believe in yourself.
One should work hard, take ownership and have a solution
-oriented approach. In the startup world, the problems
never end, whether it is the 0:1 phase or the 1:1mn phase.
They just change. A strong mindset is the key.

A thing of the soul

Loving what you do and following your soul is the

philosophy that lies at the heart of The Souled Store. It is
what Harsh and his partners started with, and something
they still strive towards every day. Life is short. So spend it
doing something you like :)
His favourite superheroes :)

Harsh is an eclectic guy. His favourite is the Mortal

Kombat universe. We tip our hats to you.
 HOW THEY STARTED THEIR BUSINESS

What happens when you bring together four engineers, a

passion for entrepreneurship and a whole lot of conviction
in one’s own abilities?

The strength to follow what your soul truly desires! That in

its very basic essence is the story of The Souled Store, an
online marketplace that is providing independent artists a
platform to showcase and monetize their creativity.

Aiming to support those with a passion for creative

designs and unique products, the website ‘crowdsources’
its designs and pays a royalty to the creator for each
product sold with that design.

The model has allowed them to market not only a wide

variety of products such as graphic tees, backpacks,
coasters, tote bags, stationary and more, but also an
inherent sense of idiosyncrasy and individuality that is
attached to each.

This is in line with the ventures’ aim to ‘create a

community for like-minded people to express themselves
through their work,’ rather than being just another e-
commerce venture selling apparel.

This focus, along with being picky about the brand image
that they want to project, is what the founders believe will
set them apart from competition. “It’s a pretty crowded
market that we operate in. We aren’t just competing with
online brands like bewakoof.com or wyo.in, but also the
likes of Myntra, Jabong, and Flipkart etc. We’re particular
about our brand image for which we put in a lot of thought
to design selection.

For example, we don’t do designs just because we think

they’d sell and prefer to keep away from general crass
humor,” says Vedang Patel one of the co-founders of The
Souled Store. The other co-founders are Rohin Samtaney
and Aditya Sharma, who were also financial analysts at
the same firm as Vedang, and equally dissatisfied with
their jobs.

“During conversations, we realized that all of us wanted to

do more than just be a cog in someone else’s wheel, and
figured that if we had to take any risk in life, now was the
time,” says Vedang of their beginnings.

Leveraging their knowledge from their financial

backgrounds, the three put in Rs. 1.75 lakhs each (from
personal savings) to set up a business with strong
fundamentals and a cash cycle that requires no working
capital.

This has allowed them to grow organically from a

business that was started with a total inventory of 200 t-
shirts running out of a small cabin, to a business with an
inventory of 20,000 t-shirts that is run out of a couple of
offices in Bombay.

Financially, the team believes they have the potential to

grow 50% month on month without any additional capital
inflow.

A positive growth like this can’t be a purely numbers game

and while the team insists their success lies in the
simplicity of their business, we see some of their other
unique moves that include partnering with music festivals
such as the Bacardi NH7 Weekender,

The Enchanted Valley Carnival (EVC), artist management

agencies such as Krunk and Mixtape, comedy acts such
as AIB (All India Bakchod), music bands which include the
likes of Pentagram, Scribe, Indus Creed, Providence,
Gutslit, Madboy/ Mink and many more, to become the
'sole' avenue for authentic merchandise for fans, followers,
influencers alike.

By bringing schools/universities on board as well, they’re

also attracting a legion of students/ alumni to buy alma
mater merchandise turning them into returning customers.
Of course, there is a regular ‘Make your Tee’ feature as
well allowing for personalization.

This seems to be a lot of activity for a startup that still

hasn't raised any external funding.

When quizzed on their plans to scale up, they quip

excitedly, “Our aim in the next three years is to offer an
extensive range of products and we aim to introduce new
products every two-three months and display artwork with
unexplored themes.

As our focus has always been on the artist, we plan to

have 1000+ artists from around the world by 2017.

We’ll also start international shipping soon, and there are

also plans to set up a few brick and mortar stores in all
major cities to help consolidate our brand presence in
India.” With such aggressive expansion plans in place, the
team is also keeping a check on their obstacles,

“Our greatest bottleneck is getting new designs. To

overcome this, we are in the process of creating a
stronger in-house design team and contacting more
artists (including international artists) for our platform,”
says Vedang.

But the team seems unfazed by hurdles, having already

faced many of them along the way. Extrapolates Vedang,
“Name an obstacle and we’ve faced it.

The first challenge is still the social stigma attached to

quitting your job, and having people tell you repeatedly
that it's a bad decision. In fact, they’d probably wait for
your business to go through a rough patch to say, I told
you so.

There’s also a lack of professionalism/business ethics

that one doesn’t expect if you’ve not been exposed to it.
We’ve faced delays, bad quality of products and some
fraudulence along the way. The way around it has been to
just be better planned ourselves and always have a buffer
and a contingency plan.

” Fortunately for them, their efforts seem to be not for

nothing. The online apparel industry which stood at $0.5
billion of sales in 2014 is projected to grow to $2.5 billion
by 2017, and they’re fully aware of the potential this
throws up for them.

"We wish to partake in this growth story and our products,

although curated, do appeal to a wide audience in terms of
pricing and designs.

We aim to be a brand that is associated with today’s youth.

A brand whose design and feel is premium yet whose
products are affordable.

" Ask them about how their entrepreneurial journey has

been so far and they assert that none of them has ever felt
the urge to turn back and retrace to the conventional nine
to five.

It’s also the advice they share for those wanting to start
off the beaten path, “We don't claim that the struggle is
done and dusted with, but we're proud of having stayed
afloat when things got rough, and sometimes holding on
is the key.

It may be the most clichéd piece of advice, but the

sentiment of not giving up, keeping at it, and letting things
just fall into place is something we fully endorse.

It’s always worth taking a chance for if you believe that it’s
worth it. If it doesn’t work out, you’ll learn something from
it.”

ABOUT THE SOULED STORE’S BRAND

AMBASSADORS

1-HARDIK PANDYA (BRAND AMBASSADOR)

The Souled Store collaborates with cricketer Hardik Pandya - The Souled Store

With this association, the brand aims to tap the

cricketer’s fan base across India and expects
strong sales of this new collection during the
upcoming edition of the Indian Premier League.

Commenting on the collaboration, Hardik

Pandya in a statement said, “My personal style
is very relaxed.

Comfort comes first for me, and The Souled

Store’s collections epitomize comfort, style and
a whole lot more! I feel that they have
something for every mood! Their streetwear
range is so hip and fashionable! I am very
pleased to partner with them for this stunning
collaboration.”

Vedang Patel, co-founder of The Souled Store

added, “Hardik Pandya is not only a renowned
name in cricket but he is also a fashion icon in
his own right. We feel that his impressive fan
base, along with our brand's ever-growing
prominence in the pop-culture space, will result
in a winning partnership.”

The new collection will be available on the

brand’s website and retail in Maharashtra.

The Souled Store claims to be India’s largest

online merchandising platform with licenses
like Disney, Warner Bros, WWE, IPL, and
Viacom18, among others, and currently has five
offline stores.
 2-SARA ALI KHAN (BRAND AMBASSADOR AND
INVESTOR)

Actor Sara Ali Khan has joined pop-culture brand, The

Souled Store , as an equity partner. In 2013, Four
youngsters from Mumbai, Harsh Lal, Vedang Patel, Rohin
Samtaney, and Aditya Sharma, turned their love for Star
Wars into an online marketplace for pop culture
merchandise.

The brand claims to be India’s largest fan merchandise

destination with licences including Disney, Warner Bros,
WWE, IPL teams, EPL Teams, and Viacom18.

The startup was bootstrapped for the first five years and
received seed funding from RP-SG Ventures in November
2018.
Since then, the company has grown over 4X by focusing
on data, customer insights, and feedback, and keeping
customer satisfaction on top of everything else. Get
connected to The Souled Store Last year, it raised Rs 75
crore in Series B funding led by Elevation Capital.

“I love being part of brands that I can relate with. With The
Souled Store’s massive popularity, growing brand equity,
and my love for all things pop-culture,

I knew this was a perfect fit for me as an investor. Also,

investing was always on my mind, I was just waiting for
the right opportunity.

I am glad I am finally doing this with The Souled Store,”

Sara Ali Khan tells HerStory. Joining The Souled Store as
an investor at an undisclosed amount, Sara says she is a
firm believer in originality and “comfort being important as
fashion, I see the brand a perfect fit”.

Get connected to The Souled Store “I also believe the

apparel and fashion industry is growing exponentially, and
it was the right time for me to join in the bandwagon.

I hope to continue spreading the pop-culture wave along

with TSS,” she adds. Her own personal style is a mix of the
simple and quirky. “My wardrobe will have tones of breezy
cotton kurtas or athleisure, in neon or colour-block, comfy
dresses, crop tops, and shorts.

I don't really like to adhere to fashion rules or anything, I

just like to have fun in whatever that I am wearing. TSS’s
collection is exactly that, their product ranges are very
similar to my choices, and you will definitely see me more
in those.
Wait for it,” she says. Sara also believes women’s fashion
is ever evolving, with new styles and trends emerging
every second day.

“Today’s women love to experiment and create their own

ensembles. They test mixing and matching their attires,
and create new looks. I also think, women today opt for
clothes that make them feel comfortable and relaxed,” she
adds. She is currently obsessed with The Souled Store’s
Supima collection that is not only 100 percent cotton,

“but also much stronger and durable.” ALSO READ How

The Souled Store survived and revived amidst the
lockdown to touch one lakh orders a month Reflecting the
brand image Speaking on Sara joining the brand as an
investor, Rohin Samtaney, Co-founder,

The Souled Store, says, “We are ecstatic to welcome Sara

on board. She has definitely upped the ante when it comes
to her love for fashion and styling. Her quirky and
experimentative styling best reflects our brand image; we
couldn’t have found a better investor and partner.

We expect this collaboration will lead to great things

together.” He elaborates, “We’ve seen the demand for our
women’s wear collection grow 2x since last year -
(103,807 in 2020 to 213,561 in 2021).

Given this demand, we began to create more categories

of apparel for women, including activewear and innerwear,
more recently. We have doubled down on our female
collaborations with Sara as the lead.

Today’s woman is trend-savvy. So we curate trend-based

collections, right from oversized fits to tie-dyes, and even
co-ord sets.” He also points out that they make sure to
include pockets wherever they can, which is something
women really appreciate about the brand.
Over the last six months,

The Souled Store has leveraged the reach of OTT stars

Aisha Ahmed, Mithila Palkar, Barkha Singh, and Ahsaas
Channa to highlight various categories across women's
wear.

This has given it better visibility with OTT customers and

is also the brand’s major step into influencer marketing.

It has also worked with 100+ influencers from the beauty,

fashion, and travel space to amplify its womenswear
range across social media.

The future will see The Souled Store opening its first-ever
retail and experience space in Bengaluru, spanning 5,000
sq ft. “This is a huge deal for us and a step closer to our
goal of reaching more customers across the country.

We will also be launching new categories of products for

both men and women. We have a new range of active
wear that’s just been launched,” Rohin adds.

MORE ABOUT “THE SOULED STORE”

The Souled Store is planning to grow its D2C
business from Rs 200 crore to Rs 1,000 crore in the next
four years.

The Mumbai-based company also aims to strengthen its

product portfolio on both licensed merchandise and
casual wear, build better brand awareness and deepen its
retail footprint across 15 cities pan India.

In line with its growth plans, the youth casual wear brand
has recently raised Rs 75 crore in Series B funding led by
Elevation Capital.

The investment round has also seen participation from

angel investors Sahil Barua (Co-Founder & CEO, Delhivery),
Gunjan Soni (CEO, Zalora; Ex-CMO, Jabong), Revant Bhate
(Co-Founder & CEO, Mosaic Wellness), Ramakant Sharma
(Founder & COO, Livspace), Ashish Goel (Founder & CEO,
Urban Ladder), Rohit Kapoor (CEO, INSEA at OYO),
Mukund Kulashekaran (SVP of Business, Urban Company),
and Varun Duggirala (Co-Founder, The Glitch).

Vedang Patel, Co-founder, and CEO, The Souled Store,

said, “We are super excited to be partnering with a highly
reputed fund like Elevation Capital that believes in this
vision.

Their vast experience in backing and helping scale some

of the biggest start-ups in India makes them the perfect
partner for us.

The focus going forward will be to introduce a variety of

new product categories, enhance our customer reach, and
expand our offline presence pan India to fulfill our aim of
crossing Rs 1,000 crore GMV by 2025.”

Commenting on the funding, Deepak Gaur, Partner,

Elevation Capital, stated, “The Souled Store has
successfully capitalized on India’s pop culture, which has
led to its unique positioning. We were thoroughly
impressed by the kind of scale that the company has built-
in a capital-efficient manner.

This growth is a consequence of the company’s relentless

focus on customer experience to drive loyalty & data-
driven merchandising to manage inventory and keep
operations lean.

We are super excited to partner with the team in the

journey ahead of building The Souled Store into India’s
most loved D2C casual-wear brand.”
Founded in 2013 by Vedang Patel, Aditya Sharma, Rohin
Samtaney, and Harsh Lal, The Souled Store was one of the
first brands to bring in licensed merchandise and is
currently India’s largest fan merchandise destination with
licenses including Disney, Warner Bros, WWE, IPL teams,
EPL Teams and Viacom18.

The company designs, manufactures, and retails a wide

range of apparel products with designs ranging from pop-
culture themes like superheroes (Marvel and DC
universes), movies (Star Wars, Harry Potter), TV shows
(Friends, Game of Thrones), and cartoons (Looney Tunes,
Tom & Jerry), and has partnered with 150+ franchisees.

“The Souled Store was started with the idea of doing what
you love, from the soul. That’s what sets us apart, the
people behind the scenes love what they do, and that
shows in our work.

From day 1, our aim has been to create a truly homegrown

brand that focuses on three important aspects, great
products, unique designs, and outstanding service.

This is what has also led to the high-repeating cult-like

customer base that we have built.

Today, we’ve become the one-stop destination for all

things pop culture in the country,” Patel informed.

The company was bootstrapped for the first five years and
received seed funding from RP-SG Ventures in November
2018.

Since then, the company has grown over 4X by focusing

on data, customer insights, and feedback, and keeping
customer satisfaction above all else.

Everything from designing to the fit of the product is

constructed using an algorithmic-driven approach, making
sure customers receive an unmatched experience.

This attention to the product along with strong company

culture is the reason The Souled Store grew even during
the pandemic and that too profitably, something unheard
of in the apparel space.

The Souled Store has become India’s one-stop destination

for pop culture merchandise with over 3 million registered
users and is on track to do a Rs 500 crore GMV next year.

HERE ARE SOME OF LATEST SOCIAL INITIATIVES BY

“THE SOULED STORE”
 We at The Souled Store have always believed in
giving back to the society. As we keep growing and
expanding, so does our commitment to creating a
positive impact.
HERE ARE SOME OF OUR LATEST SOCIAL
INITIATIVES

COVID19: RAISING FUNDS TO PROVIDE OXYGEN

CAMPAIGN: SAVE THEIR SOUL

Help provide oxygen to people affected with Covid-19

crisis.
PROVIDING STRAYS WITH A BETTER LIFE
CAMPAIGN: PAUSE FOR PAWS

Summer heat gets harsh for stray animals, especially

during a pandemic and lockdown. Hence, we at The
Souled Store have joined hands with Welfare of Stray
Dogs (WSD) to launch #PauseForPaws - to raise funds
for giving strays a better life and providing them access
to clean drinking water.
RAISING FINGERS TO RAISE FUNDS
CAMPAIGN: SAVE THEIR SOULS
IMPACT

5500+ t-shirts sold

Over Rs. 5 lacs raised
The population of wildlife has declined by 60% over the
last 40 years. Additionally, nearly 40% of all wildlife
species are heading towards extinction by 2050. In
collaboration with Wildlife SOS, we launched a limited-
edition range of t-shirts which highlight some
endangered wildlife species. Every t-shirt sold helped
fund the conservation of endangered Indian animals.
SUPPORTING THE UNDERPRIVILEGED
CAMPAIGN: FEED THE SOUL
IMPACT

Raised over Rs. 1,18,800

Helped feed over 1190 people

In collaboration with Feeding India, we launched this
initiative to provide food to underprivileged families
during the COVID-19 pandemic. As a thank you to every
person who contributed to the cause, we gave them
100 reward points each.
JOINING THE FIGHT AGAINST COVID-19
CAMPAIGN: THE RESPONSIBLE MASK
IMPACT

Distributed 1,000 masks amongst frontline workers

Contributed Rs. 2,38,472 to the PM CARES fund

The Responsible Masks were launched during the
COVID-19 pandemic to stop the spread of COVID-19. All
profits from the sale of these masks were donated to
the PM CARES fund to join the fight against the global
pandemic.
HELPING STRAY DOGS FIND A HOME
CAMPAIGN: SUPERHERO DOG RAINCOATS
IMPACT

Rehomed 500+ strays

In July 2019, we tied up with World For All – a Mumbai
based NGO that works with the rescue, adoption,
sterilization, and awareness of stray animals to launch
superhero dog raincoats for our furry friends. All
proceeds, including our costs, went towards the cause
of rehabilitating stray dogs.
GIVE BACK TO THE LESS FORTUNATE
CAMPAIGN: DRESS FOR CHANGE
IMPACT

Donated over 100 kgs of old clothes

In association with Goonj, we wanted to shed light on
how each one of us can do our bit to help someone out.
Thus, in February 2020, we set up collection centres at
our offices and stores to collect old clothes or money.
All the received materials were sent to Goonj, who then
distributed them to those in need.
CHANGE THE STATUS QUO OF PERIOD POVERTY
CAMPAIGN: ROSES ARE RED
IMPACT

Empowered over 1000 girls with a safe and happy

menstrual experience
To do our bit for women empowerment and menstrual
hygiene, we collaborated with GiveHer5 for this
campaign. In March 2018, we launched a range of t-
shirts and badges which contained 12 ‘Roses Are Red’
poems centred around feminism. Every t-shirt sold
covered the price of one woman’s annual requirement
of sanitary napkins. This initiative was supported by
celebrities and social influencers including Dia Mirza,
Rahul Bose, Tanmay Bhat, Kim Sharma, Aranya Johar,
Alicia Souza and Miss Malini.
CELEBRATE THE SPIRIT OF MUMBAI
CAMPAIGN: BEAUTIFICATION OF MUMBAI CENTRAL
RAILWAY STATION
IMPACT

Painted murals across 3-4 FOBs and stairs

During Daan Utsav “The joy of giving week” 2018, we
joined hands with Mumbai First to bring colours to the
Mumbai Central Railway Station. After obtaining
necessary permissions from the railway authorities,
around 300 volunteers came together in the wee hours
of the night to paint the station. The designs revolve
around Mumbai’s culture, its food and is a celebration
of Mumbai’s spirit.
 Q n A BY WARC AND SEE WHATS “THESOULEDSTORE’
REPLIES.

WARC: In 2013, when e-commerce was taking off in this

country, was it strictly word of mouth and online
communications only?

We started with an initial investment of barely about 5.5

lakh to 6 lakh rupees (one lakh is 100,000). With that initial
investment, we grew to about 30 crore (one crore is 10
million) in the next four to five years, which is when we
received our first round of funding.

One of the major reasons we managed to grow is

essentially because our company's philosophy is by the
fan, for the fan, of the fan. Therefore, we were able to do a
much better job at licensing than a lot of other people.
When we started in 2013, e-commerce was at a very
nascent stage.

Today, pretty much everyone has a smartphone with

cheap data. Everyone is streaming content. When we
started, data and internet penetration were heading to the
next level, so the timing helped.

Also, when we started, the decision to go online was

because offline was a much bigger challenge as it was
more expensive. We also knew that online was going to
grow quicker. Sitting in a small Mumbai garage, four or
five people targeted every single person in the country.

You can’t do that from the biggest, most fancy offline

store. We had a clear idea – online sales was the way to
go because we were bootstrapped.

Our first licence was The Big Bang Theory. The Big Bang
Theory was a bit of a gamble for us because it wasn't as
popular back in 2013 as it is today.

But we are fans and one of the things that we did really
well is design the products very differently so that fans
could appreciate this.

This is what even the licensors appreciated. We got a lot

of positive word of mouth. We then found our second
licence, which was F.R.I.E.N.D.S. Again, it was great timing
because, at that point in time, F.R.I.E.N.D.S was just about
becoming popular again.

These things definitely helped us initially. As and when we

started proving to the licensors that we can take the
brands and do justice to them, more licensors started
getting in touch with us and we slowly grew a licensing
portfolio.

Today, we sell merchandise of more than 150 characters

and licences on our website. That is the kind of journey we
have had over the last seven or eight years. Online was
always going to be the growth driver for us.

Sitting in a small office in a garage reaching every single

corner of the country, you could only do that online.

But ironically, now in the last two years, we have opened a

couple of offline stores. A part of our future journey is also
to open about 30 to 40 offline stores.

We have managed to ensure that every offline store of

ours is profitable including pre-lockdown and post-
lockdown, which is not something a lot of brands have
managed to do.

WARC: The pandemic, the lockdown and the economic

impact were unforeseen. What was your immediate
reaction to them? Was there a sense that a major
rethinking of marketing strategy was required?

We were as badly hit as anyone else and it was completely

unforeseen as a brand that is essentially selling non-
essential items.

One of the biggest concerns for us was the uncertainty.

We were not able to ship products and in such a situation,
it didn’t make sense for us to spend money on marketing.

Offices were shut, our production was shut. Everything

was at a complete standstill. The only thing that we were
able to do is to take orders and tell customers once the
lockdown is lifted, we will start delivering.

We never burnt money as a brand to acquire customers.

Our repeat rate, even post-lockdown, is over 110%, which
means if 100 people buy today, 110 will organically come
back in 12 months, even if I switch off my marketing to
completely zero.

This means that the company can sustain without

spending initial money on marketing purely on repeats.

We have been able to achieve this with very strong

practices, keeping a tight eye on the budget. We did two or
three things differently when the lockdown hit.

All of us took some time to understand what was going on.

It was completely new territory – offices were shut, people
were working from home.

We have our in-house manufacturing unit for T-shirts and

apparels.
The first thing that we did was recalibrate the machines to
start making face masks, which was an essential item.
While it was a difficult time for us and a lot of other
companies, we also realised that there were probably a lot
of people out there for whom it was a lot tougher.

The first thing we did after we converted our

manufacturing unit to make face mask was donate a lot of
masks to the police and essential workers because we
saw there was a massive shortage of masks back in
March-April. Today,

Everyone is wearing a mask and there are several

companies selling it but it was not this easily available
back in March-April last year.

The second thing we did was being very transparent with

our customers. We didn't know when we could ship out
products because of the lockdown and restrictions. We
told the customers if they supported us and placed their
orders, we could offer them a discount because we cannot
ship but the moment we have clarity, we would start.

We were actually overwhelmed with the response we got

from our loyal customers who were willing to wait for
those one, two or even three months.

Normally, people are a lot more impatient online. You

place an order today, you expect it to be delivered
tomorrow, otherwise you cancel it. Transparency, both
internally with our team as to what the company was
going through and what the situation was, and with the
customers, really helped.
The third thing that really did wonders for The Souled
Store was the entire work from home concept.

The kind of product that we sell, which is essentially

casual wear, is something everybody is getting into, a sort
of a comfort zone. You want T-shirts, you want shorts, you
want slippers, you want trousers that are comfortable to
wear at home, you get it here.

Some people have also started wearing these outside. You

see a lot fewer people wearing shirts and formal attire,
and more wearing casuals. The moment we could start
our shipping and operations around June or July, we
actually saw a tremendous increase in orders.

The last five months have been the strongest ever in the
history of The Souled Store. All of us are very grateful for
our team members who have supported us.

They understood what the company was going through,

they understood that we had to make certain decisions
that were difficult. We are proud of the fact that we were
able to come out of the whole lockdown without having to
let go of a single person because of financial reasons.

WARC: Did you use this opportunity to expand your reach

to beyond your regular customers?

The mentality has changed. With an online brand, people

want to know if the product they buy is going to be the
same as they see online – they want to touch and feel the
product.

That is also one of the reasons why we started our offline

stores. We launched our first offline store after six years
of being an established online brand.

We already had a steady set of customers that trusted the

brand, who were shopping from us online but there were a
lot of new customers too.

Knowing that the brand has an offline store offered a

sense of comfort. Coming back to the change in habits.
One of my favourite examples is the fact that my mother
is regularly watching the shows on Hotstar, Amazon and
Netflix.

That is something I wouldn't have expected ever. From

that to ordering groceries from Big Basket. I forced her to
download the app, I taught her how to use it and she now
extensively uses Big Basket.

She doesn't go to the nearby store to buy groceries. The

fact that someone like her, who probably never thought of
buying groceries online, is now comfortable to do so
embodies the fact that people are now shifting online.

There is a lot more comfort in shopping online and we

have seen how it has helped us in our most successful
months.

So we are growing aggressively online. Our product,

casual wear, is what people want. These factors have
helped us grow and going forward, we are planning to
expand into a lot more categories in comfort wear.

The kind of sales (dip) we have seen offline with our

stores being shut for three to four months has been more
than offset by the fact that the total online audience has
increased tremendously over the last six to 12 months,
with so many people now being comfortable shopping on
an app.

So while it has been a tough time, there have definitely

been some positives for us as a brand and we are
confident that this mindset is not going to change.

WARC: The fact that people are staying at home and

watching more OTT content would also help a brand like
yours. People watching reruns of their favourite shows
and then coming across a F.R.I.E.N.D.S. T-shirt on The
Souled Store would work in your favour.

Not just restricted to the lockdown but over the last three
or four years, we have seen contribution of Tier II and Tier
III cities to our overall revenue increasing 40-45% to close
to 60%.

One of the biggest reasons behind this is internet

penetration. Marvel is one of the most popular franchises
in the world.

Now if you ask most people, including me, about Thanos a

few years ago, we wouldn’t know about it.

Now, even someone in a Tier II or III city has watched the

Marvel movies, knows who Thanos is and has a Thanos T-
shirt. Superheroes, TV shows, cricket etc are no more an
urban phenomenon. Internet penetration has helped us
widen your base.

Also like you've mentioned, there are a lot more people

sitting at home and consuming content. There is certainly
stronger demand for movie and TV show merchandise.

The rise of OTT, in general, has definitely benefited us over

the last couple of years.

WARC: You are betting big on e-commerce. Your physical

stores went through a tough time but the online rise
compensated for it. What's the future? Are you are looking
at an omnichannel play here?

One thing we are very clear about is that online is always

going to expand at a significantly faster rate than offline
simply because it cuts across geographies.

Online is always going to contribute to a significant

percentage of our overall revenue as well. There are a
couple of things that we want our offline stores to solve.
First, to add a bit of tangibility as far as the customers are
concerned.

If I have to sum up our offline strategy in one sentence, for

us our offline stores are essentially to add significant
brand value and tangibility while ensuring they are
profitable.

We never had the mindset or option to burn money to

grow because we were bootstrapped for the first five
years. That's one of the reasons we managed to
successfully and profitably grow even in the last year.

We are essentially looking at opening 35-40 offline stores

pan-India in the next three to four years. For us, as long as
our offline stores are making money, it’s a great branding
opportunity.

More importantly, when people enter the store, we have

over 70% conversion at our offline stores, which is
unheard of in the offline industry. Our average offline order
value is more than one and a half times that of online.

When you enter the store, the whole human experience,

the conversation essentially is something that will always
happen offline and will be very difficult to replicate online.

If we are able to grow our offline stores profitably and if

we can have 40-50 across the country, it will be great for a
brand like ours.

That's why we still want to go ahead with our offline

strategy. Coupled with the fact that rentals have gone
down to some extent because of the pandemic, it is a
good time for us to grow aggressively.

WARC: You keep saying how you were bootstrapped and

didn't spend much money on marketing but then you
choose the leafiest locations in Mumbai to open your
physical stores like Bandra and Colaba. No compromises
there.

That is a very interesting observation. We first opened an

offline store in May 2019 when we were about to complete
six years of online presence as a brand. We did not have
any offline experience.

How do you open a store? How do you choose a location?

What rent made sense? Is it going to last a year or would
we have to shut it down in six months? There were lots of
questions and uncertainty.

We had one simple philosophy in mind. We were going to

open one store to begin with and see how it goes. We
were going to give ourselves the best chance, choose the
best location with the best branding and the highest
possible footfall.

A lot of people come to Bandra to shop. There are a

couple of colleges in the neighbourhood. The 18-, 20-, 21-
year olds regularly frequent the area. Yes, the store is on
the main road and the location is premium and therefore
there is a premium attached to the rent as well.

But we were very clear about one thing – if we were not

able to succeed at a location like this, then we would not
succeed offline.

If you can open your store on Linking Road in Bandra with

that kind of rental and run the store profitably, you are a hit!
You would either go bang or bust, there was no in-between.

But if you're going to choose a location with lower rentals,

that is not going to receive a lot of footfall and not take
care of your branding issues, when the store doesn't do
well, you will never know the answer to the question of
location issues or if The Souled Store offline concept
makes sense.

With a high-risk option like Linking Road, Bandra, if we

succeed or fail, we will know the exact reason behind it.
From first month, our Bandra store was profitable. We
recovered our entire capex in the first six months of
operations.

This gave us the confidence to open a second offline store

in January 2020 at Viviana Mall, Thane. We were going to
open our third store in Colaba in April 2020.
The plan was to coincide with the Indian Premier League
because we are also official partners of Mumbai Indians
and the home team would play at the Wankhede, 10
minutes away from where the store would be.

Unfortunately, the launch got delayed to August 2020. But

I am happy to announce our fourth offline store is coming
up by April or May.

WARC: The year that went by, was it a revelation of sorts?

Are strategies changing?

One thing all startups can probably relate to is the fact

that at any point in time, there are 10,000 things
happening.

Your attention is diverted #, everything is going in multiple

directions and it becomes difficult to see the bigger
picture. In March, April and May, and to some extent June,

we were forced to reassess a lot of things, to not just

understand where we were but also where we want to be
in terms of design, strategies, offline expansion and how
we want to take this business ahead.

Even hiring. As a startup, one of the most crucial things is

hiring the right team. We reassessed things as basic as
improving our interview process, hiring more people in
senior roles to help grow the company. We got a lot more
time to think and reassess the processes.

How do we improve our inventory systems? How do we

make it leaner? How do we make sure we are not stuck
with dead inventory?

How do we improve our in-house manufacturing because

we are one of the few e-commerce brands that
successfully manufactures ourselves? Our in-house
manufacturing contributes to over 50% of our total orders.

There were a lot of these things we were forced to think

about. We were not in the office, not meeting the same
people, not doing meetings, not travelling.

It actually helped us gain lot of time. It gave us a lot more

time to think about the bigger picture.

To be very honest, if this pandemic hadn't happened, I

don't think we would be able to take out that time from our
lives. It was a blessing in disguise.

WARC: Delivery is now a critical component of not just

service product fulfilment but also a major brand
touchpoint with consumers.

However, the marketing function does not have much of a

control over this last mile. How are you navigating this to
ensure that consumer experiences are consistent and
positive? There are two parts – there is operation pre-
delivery and then there is shipping. Most e-commerce
players do not have in-house shipping.

You rely on third-party courier services to make sure that

products reach on time, are not damaged in transit, etc. If
you are buying a T-shirt, a non-essential item, more often
than not, the customer is okay waiting for a couple of days
to get it.
The brand must be very clear saying when a T-shirt is
shipped and when the order will reach the customer.
Transparency in communication is very important. Since
our entire operation is based out of Mumbai, we moved
from one shift, which is essentially an eight-hour shift, to
three shifts. This basically meant we were able to pack
and ship out orders a lot faster.

If you live in Mumbai, more often than not, you will get
your orders within 24 hours. One of the reasons we also
want to expand to 35-40 stores (offline) across the
country is that each of them can essentially work as a mini
-warehouse.

If you are in Delhi and order a product from The Souled

Store, if the product is available in our Delhi offline store,
we can even commit to same-day delivery.

And our eventual goal is, based on your location and

neighbourhood, we deliver a T-shirt within two to four
hours. You order a T-shirt online and get it within four
hours, it is a great customer experience.

You are then very likely to come back. We have essentially

tripled the number of shifts to pack orders faster. We have
also spoken to our delivery partners to make sure they
come thrice a day to our warehouse.

If you order a product before 2pm, we can ship it out the

same day. If you ordered post-2pm, we now work with the
delivery team such that it has a second shift late in the
evening and the product will reach you by tomorrow
morning or afternoon.

This is something we have successfully done with our

Mumbai warehouses. But through our offline stores and
through warehouses outside Mumbai, we are planning to
offer this facility across all major metros where most of
our audience is.

Yes, there are certain things that are not within our control
because we are relying on a third-party delivery partner.

We are essentially making our back end and our ops much
stronger to effectively work with the delivery partner and
make sure customers get their products as soon as
possible.

WARC: Do you think the Indian consumer is largely going

to stay online now that he has realised the convenience of
shopping from home?

As a marketer, what have been your key learnings about e-

commerce in India? What is e-commerce 2.0 to you?
Online shopping has increased significantly, obviously. I
definitely see this as being a mindset change and not a
temporary one.

Hopefully, with the vaccine coming out right now, by the

end of the year, I am hoping that every last one of our
population will be vaccinated. I am also hoping that there
is no second or third wave in the country.

The pandemic has brought about a massive mindset

change. For example, even after the vaccine and when
everything is okay, I am 100% sure that I will have a bottle
of sanitiser on me. People who are shopping online, even
though the vaccine has come out, I don't think they would
want to enter crowded areas.

This mindset change over a longer period of time is great

for online brands like us. What is the biggest learning? I
think it's the wrong perception that discounts are needed
for sales in the online and e-commerce space. A lot of
people believe if you want to grow as an online brand or in
the e-commerce space, it’s just easier to sell with
discounts.

I personally don't see the consumer as discount-seeking

or sale-seeking; they are more value-driven. If you are able
to convince the consumer that you are providing a quality
product at an affordable price that is going to be long-
lasting, the customer will be smart enough to value that
over a cheap T-shirt that will go bad in three to four
months.

We are a discount-less brand. What we are confirming to

customers is great quality and great value for the price
they are paying. We have managed to establish that. We
see this with the increasing sales and repeats.

WARC: What advice do you have for fellow marketers

looking to further develop their own e-commerce
marketing strategies? Customers are seeking value and
not discounts. Your discounts and offers are gimmicks
that will help you in the short run. Your offers are definitely
going to give you a spike in sales for that day or week or
that month but at least for us, it was never a long-term
strategy.

Instead of trying to win your customers over with the

cheapest product possible, try giving them the best quality,
the best service at an affordable price. You will derive
much longer-term value from them.

They will not be married to your price but to your quality.

This also means if tomorrow, someone else is
undercutting or selling a T-shirt at 10-20-30% less than you,
your customers will still stick with you because they trust
your quality.

If your only USP is that you are cheaper than the next
brand, at some point in time, someone is going to come
with bigger funding and undercut you.

This learning has only become stronger in the last 12

months for us. It is harder work and takes a lot more effort.

But it gives us strength over a longer period. You are

definitely more likely to succeed focusing on this than
short-term gains, gimmicks and discounts.

ONE OF THE USP OF “THE SOULED STORE”

Fabric name Supima Cotton

Extra-long staple (ELS) cotton,

Fabric also known as
Pima cotton

Long-fiber Gossypium
Fabric composition
barbadense cotton
Fabric possible thread count
200-300
variations

Fabric breathabilityn Very breathable

Moisture-wicking abilities High

Heat retention abilities Low

Stretchability (give) Medium

Prone to pilling/bubbling Very low

Country where fabric was first

USA
produced

Biggest exporting/producing
USA
country today

Recommended washing
Warm or cool
temperatures

Commonly used in Clothing and sheets

19_ EXC Supima Solid Cotton Fabric

What Is Supima Cotton Fabric?

Supima cotton is a high-quality type of cotton that is made
from Gossypium barbadense . It is considered to be one of
the softest and strongest forms of cotton in the world, and
the methods of production and certification that are used
for Supima cotton are different than those used for Pima
cotton.
The cotton fibers that are derived from the Gossypium
barbadense plant are considered to the extra-long staple
(ELS) cotton, which means that they measure at least 34
millimeters in length. For comparison, most types of
cotton fibers are 20 millimeters long or less, and this extra
length makes Gossypium barbadense cotton fibers more
tensile and easier to form into high-quality yarn.

Gossypium barbadense is naturally occurring in a variety

of tropical and subtropical areas, and fabric made from
this cotton fiber has been produced in South America and
the West Indies for thousands of years. The Gossypium
barbadense plant is easy to identify by its bright yellow
flowers, and it grows in the form of a low tree.
While Supima and Pima cotton fabrics are different
products, both types of cotton are derived from fibers of
the Gossypium barbadense tree, and fabrics made from
this type of cotton are commonly used in high-end
consumer textiles. Other upscale textiles can only be
washed in cold water, but Supima and Pima cotton can be
washed in warm water, and they can even be tumble dried.
Supima Cotton Lawn – White

One of the qualities of Supima cotton that customers love

the best is this fabric's resistance to pilling. Pills are balls
of tangled cotton fibers that appear on most cotton
products as they age, and they start to appear on most
cotton products after about ten washes.
However, it's possible to own a Supima cotton garment or
household textile product for years and never notice any
pilling whatsoever. In general, Supima has the greatest
longevity of all of the different kinds of cotton; it's easy to
find garments made from this substance that are decades
old with no significant visible signs of wear and tear.
All genuine Supima cotton has been certified by
the American Supima Association (ASA) . This association
consists of a group of farmers and textile manufacturers
who have banded together to retain the incredibly high
quality for which Pima cotton was originally known. The
ASA only exists within the United States, which means that
it's only possible to buy true Supima fabric in the USA.
Buy high-quality, low-priced supima fabric here. If you are
UK based, you can buy it here.
How Is Supima Cotton Fabric Made?
While most cotton producers choose to use as much
automation as possible in their manufacturing processes,
many aspects of Supima cotton production are still done
by hand. Even if they use automated processes,
most Gossypium barbadense cotton producers begin the
manufacturing process by handpicking cotton seeds.
These seeds are then stripped of their fibers, and the fibers
are compressed into bales. Next, the bales are transported
to a large-scale production facility, they are opened, and
the fibers are transferred to a mixing machine.
After the Gossypium barbadense fibers are mixed, they are
carded, which is the process by which these fibers are
formed into a web of rope-like strands. Carding can be
done either by hand or with a machine, but most producers
perform the next step, combing, with automated
processes.
Flint and Tinder Supima Air Knit Tee

Combing removes impurities from the cotton strands, and

the strands are then loaded onto spools called bobbins.
Next, the strands are spun into yarn, and they are then
ready to be woven into fabric.
Most Supima cotton producers to their best to use non-
toxic, sustainable, and organic processes to grow their
crops. When you're creating a luxury product with a name
to protect, it makes sense to exert the effort necessary to
do things the right way, which is another reason why
consumers prefer Supima cotton to Pima cotton or other
upscale forms of this textile.
Shop a wide variety of supima fabrics here for US and rest
of world here and here if you are UK based.
How Is Supima Cotton Fabric Used?

This type of cotton is generally used to make high-end

consumer garments and household textiles such as
sheets. Even though it is highly tensile, costs prohibit the
use of Supima in commercial settings.
Examples of popular Supima garments include T-shirts,
dress shirts, underwear, nightgowns, and pajamas. This
type of cotton is so soft that it is often used as a
substitute for silk; practically any type of garment or
accessory that is commonly made from silk can also be
made from Supima cotton. Even if they don't completely
substitute Supima for silk, many manufacturers choose to
mix these two luxury fabrics together.
Where Is Supima Cotton Fabric
Produced?
All Supima cotton is grown in the United States. There is a
network of farms throughout the southern half of the USA
that grow this type of cotton, and every one of these farms
is a member of the ASA. Most of these farms are in
California, but there are also a few Supima producers in
Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas.
The cultivation of Supima cotton in the United States
began as a collaboration between the USDA and
representatives of the Pima Indian tribe in the early 1900s.
The Pima Indians have ancestrally grown Pima cotton, and
the USDA sought to revitalize production of Gossypium
barbadense in the United States.
In the 18th and 19th centuries, production of Gossypium
barbadense cotton was relatively common on the barrier
islands on the coast of Georgia and North Carolina.
Planters originally brought this strain of cotton to the
United States from Bermuda and other tropical islands,
and some American Gossypium barbadense made its way
north from South America.
Gossypium barbadense cotton became incredibly popular
in the United States and abroad, but the widespread use of
the cotton gin dissuaded the continued production of this
niche crop. The USDA's pilot Gossypium
barbadense program, however, was a rousing success, and
production of Pima cotton quickly picked up steam in
Arizona.
Pima cotton became so popular, in fact, that some
unscrupulous companies started labeling their products as
Pima cotton even though they contained long-staple (LS)
or short-staple (SS) cotton. Pima cotton farmers in Arizona
and elsewhere in the United States began to fear that their
products would start to lose value in a market swamped
with counterfeits, and they decided to form an organization
to protect their ability to market genuine Pima cotton
domestically and abroad.
Chico's Women's Supima Cotton Side-Button Bateau-Neck Top

Supima cotton is the same thing as Pima cotton, but

consumers can rest assured that they're getting the real
thing when their cotton is labeled "Supima." This term,
which is a portmanteau of "superior" and "Pima," is only
given to cotton that has been grown in accordance with
the ASA's guidelines. No Supima is grown or manufactured
anywhere aside from the United States, and the ASA has
no intentions of expanding.
How Much Does Supima Cotton
Fabric Cost?
Supima cotton is one of the most expensive forms of
cotton in the world. There are a number of factors that
contribute to this high price; for starters, the quality of true
Pima cotton is greater than almost every other type of
cotton, which means that it naturally commands a higher
price on the open market.
However, Supima cotton is even more expensive than
Pima cotton. Keep in mind that when you buy cotton fabric
that is labeled "Pima cotton," it's hard to tell whether or not
you're getting the real thing. Unless you were there during
the manufacturing process and counted the length of the
cotton fibers that were being spun into yarn, it's hard to
verify whether the Pima you're buying is the real thing.
Chico's Women's Supima Cotton Side-Button Bateau-Neck Top2

All Supima cotton, however, has been vetted and certified

by the ASA, and consumers are willing to pay a premium
for this assurance. Nothing's worse than buying one thing
and getting something else entirely, which helps explain
the enduring success of the ASA.
In general, Supima cotton costs about three times as
much as normal cotton. Whether you're buying bulk fabric
or finished garments, you'll pay significantly more for the
privilege of knowing that your Pima is genuine. This type of
cotton costs about twice as much as organic cotton, and
it's about 75 percent more expensive than Pima cotton.
What Different Types of Supima
Cotton Fabric Are There?

There is only one type of cotton that can truly be called

"Supima." All Supima cotton has been grown under the
auspices of the ASA, which means that any other type of
cotton cannot be considered Supima even if it is highly
similar to the products that are certified by this
organization.
However, there are a couple of kinds of cotton that are
similar to Supima, and it's important to learn more about
these cotton varieties to ensure that you select the best
type of cotton available. Some examples of these similar
cotton types include:

 Other forms of Gossypium barbadense : There are a

couple of other types of Gossypium barbadense cotton
that you should be aware of as you pick the right type of
cotton for your needs. We've already covered the
difference between Supima and Pima cotton, but it's
important to keep these distinctions in mind as you select
cotton fabric for your application.

While it's highly unlikely that you'll ever encounter this type
of cotton, sea island cotton is another form of Gossypium
barbadense . This name was given to the type
of Gossypium barbadense cotton that was grown by
Westerners in the West Indies and on the American barrier
islands, and while it's no longer in production, it's
important to remember that sea island cotton and Supima
cotton are technically different.

 Egyptian cotton: Some consumers believe that Egyptian

cotton and Pima cotton are the same things, but this is a
 mistaken impression. Most Egyptian cotton is, in fact,
made with LS cotton, which is significantly less luxurious
than ELS cotton. While some forms of Egyptian cotton,
such as Giza 45, may actually outstrip Supima cotton in
fiber length and quality, most types of Egyptian cotton are
significantly inferior to Pima.

As with Pima cotton, many manufacturers label their fabric

as Egyptian cotton when it's actually made from SS cotton
fibers. Technically, the term "Egyptian cotton" simply refers
to cotton that has been produced in Egypt.

How Does Supima Cotton Fabric

Impact the Environment?
Supima cotton is one of the least environmentally
impactful forms of cotton. Production of this type of
cotton is relatively minimal; Pima cotton only makes up
five percent of the USA's total cotton production, and not
all American-made Pima cotton is Supima.
Therefore, by merit of scale alone, it would be impossible
for Supima cotton to be as environmentally destructive as
other types of textiles. However, the ASA also has strict
guidelines for Supima production that prevent growers
from employing any dangerous or toxic practices during
the manufacturing process.
Chico's Women's Supima Cotton Side-Button Bateau-Neck Top3

The fact that all Supima cotton is grown in the USA is

another reason why production of this type of cotton
doesn't negatively impact the environment to a great
degree. While these rules aren't perfect, the USDA, EPA,
and other U.S. government organizations have laid down a
series of regulations that prevent American companies
from using environmentally hazardous production
processes. If Supima cotton were manufactured in China,
India, or Indonesia, for instance, it's much more likely that
production of this type of cotton would represent an
environmental hazard.
Supima Cotton Certifications
Available

All Supima fabric cotton has been certified as genuine by

the ASA. If a Supima cotton product does not bear the
ASA's seal of approval, it is not genuine Supima, and it is
most likely Pima cotton or an LS cotton variety such as
Egyptian cotton.
In addition, some Supima cotton may be certified as
organic by the USDA. It is not necessary to have organic
certification for a Supima product to be accepted by the
ASA, but this agricultural association's strict standards
make organic cultivation processes the preferred choice of
farmers who grow this luxury cotton product.
 Bibliography:-

1-www.thesouledstore.com

2-www.sewport.com

3-www.warc.com