Monrow Shoes is an Indian premium women’s footwear brand that designs shoes fusing fashion and comfort. Fit for hustling all day, Monrow’s shoes are made with vegan friendly materials, foamy footbeds and scientifically balanced heel points. Speaking to Fibre2Fashion, Monrow’s Founder & CEO Veena Ashiya talks about women’s footwear and the Indian market.
Tell us about the Indian footwear market, especially about women’s footwear.
Only one-third of the Indian footwear market is organised, while the rest of the business consists of unorganised players. Today’s women closely own 19 pairs of shoes, from which 3 are sneakers and others are fashionable footwear.
What factors have a major influence on women’s footwear?
Nowadays women have busy lifestyles, and while being on their feet most of the time, they prefer to opt for footwear that is comfortable while serving the purpose of being fashionable at the same time. It is therefore imperative for them to have footwear with these two qualities.
The main factors that have influence on women’s footwear are colour and the heels. Hence, Monrow continuously experiments with current trends and colours. Lazuli blue, pop pink, and malachite green are some of trending colours that we have used in our styles. We figured out that these colours are liked by Gen Z as well, so we included them to offer to our target market audience.
Which are your best performing categories online and offline?
Monrow’s online platform performs best with heels, while its offline platform performs best with flats, wedges heels, and kitten heels in black and nude colours and surprisingly colours have been winning the way.
How is the performance of Monrow online and offline?
Our website is our number 1 channel for sales and our major share also comes from the offline market. Shopper Stop is our best performing offline channel. Monrow has recently opened its 50th shop-in shop in Shoppers Stop and is aiming at opening 150 stores by 2023. Our customer retention rate is 30 per cent. AOV (average order volume) has been growing quarter-on-quarter. Emerging tier 2 cities strategy has worked well for us.
What are the top three consumer trends in Indian footwear?
The top three trends would be the platform heels that are mainly inspired from the Y2K trend, followed by strappy heels and vegan material. In our upcoming range, we have infused these trends in our Y2K collection. Since high heels are also in trend, our Y2K collection will feature high heels with 4-5 inches that makes it very comfortable and lightweight. The sole and the strap of the footwear has a cushioned padding which makes it more comfortable to wear. Furthermore, Morrow’s innovation is that all the high heels are extremely light weight, unlike typical high heels, which tend to be heavier as they get higher.
What new materials and innovations are you working on at Monrow?
At Monrow, we are currently working on the Y2K line, which is well suited for Generation Z along with Millennials. In the Y2K collection, the heel height is higher but at the same time the footwear is very comfortable. The styles are infused with pearls, shimmery straps, transparent straps and chunky styles that provide better grip and are very trendy. The insole is cushioned to make the footwear more comfortable. Apart from vegan PU leather, which is sustainable, we are also planning to use bamboo and banana ribbed fabric, and breathable flyknit material. In innovations, we are experimenting with the latest colours and trends. In colours, we are using lazuli blue, malachite green, oatmeal, orange, lavender, scarlet red, fuchsia pink and white.
What has been your growth story for the last two years? What is the target set for the next two?
Monrow has grown 10x since 2019, and more than 6x in a span of 2 years, from 2020 to 2022. This year we are growing at 3x. Our stores have increased from 23 to 50 in just a span of 6 months. The target set for the next year will be opening 150 stores in 2023 and growth more than 3x.
What are your plans with respect to online and offline expansion? What new categories do you plan to explore?
The key strategy for Monrow is 40 per cent online and 60 per cent retail presence. With respect to offline, besides Shoppers Stop, Monrow is available at Reliance Centro, Reliance Trends, and Centro. In terms of online, the label is available on e-commerce platforms like Myntra, Ajio, Amazon, Flipkart and Nykaa. New categories that we would like to explore are Live selling, which is a very new concept. Furthermore, we are all also exploring the D2C channel and collaborating with our in-house influencers for influencer marketing. In terms of the product categories, we are interested in exploring bags and accessories segments in the future.
Published on: 23/12/2022
DISCLAIMER: All views and opinions expressed in this column are solely of the interviewee, and they do not reflect in any way the opinion of Fibre2Fashion.com.
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