All year round: Zellbury to end sales, offer goods at affordable prices

CEO seeks to create loyal customer base through economies of scale

KARACHI: With a wide array of clothes and other textile products available for consumers, it has become all the more challenging for brands to develop business strategies that could provide them an edge over competitors.

Keeping this in view, Zellbury - the makers of Kapray - has opted to offer reduced, real and affordable prices for its products around the year - instead of a seasonal sales drive - in a bid to create a loyal customer base and ensure goods sale on a mass scale.

Zellbury, a brainchild of the Al-Rahim Textiles Group, has found that there is a large number of people who wait for the announcement of sale to buy new fashion wearables at lower prices, but it deprives them of the latest fashion trends, Al-Rahim Textiles CEO Faisal Saya told The Express Tribune.

The brand is looking to offer a diverse range of products, which can cater to the need of an entire family - men, women, kids and even home.

“Pakistan has a large population which gives us the opportunity to target economies of scale,” remarked Saya. “Our idea is to offer shopping experience for the entire family at great affordable prices.”

He pointed out that the main strategy of the apparel market is to offer textile products at a discount, sometimes up to 75%, so that buyers, who cannot afford expensive goods, can purchase the leftover stock, which helps the companies to empty their stores for the next season.

Zellbury, however, notices that there is a gap as there are buyers who want to buy fashion clothes in all the four seasons without waiting for the sales drive, said the CEO.

He revealed that textile exporting companies produce 5% extra goods so that if any fault is found during quality check they can replace it as quality standards are very high in Western countries.

He said the leftover stock from exports is sold in domestic markets such as Zainab market. “How is it possible that a huge market is flooded with export leftovers that too for the entire year instead of a few days?”

“Looking at the situation, Zellbury has decided to introduce a brand, which people will buy at a price almost half of what at which others sell,” Saya said, adding that the starting price of a stitched Zellbury Kurti is Rs1,299.

He said their brand Kapray was also working well, however, that model was not sustainable as the consumers that came to shop were motivated by the sales promotion and not the brand itself.

Hence, he was of the view that through their new model, they can offer reduced real prices to the customers, who can then enjoy fashion clothes and the company can win brand loyalty for Zellbury.

Saya said they learnt this strategy from international brands as they supplied fabrics to various big brands in developed countries like the US, Germany, France and Australia to name a few.

Two years ago, the company opened four stores. Now, it has 34 stores in 20 cities and by next year it aims to take the number to 50 stores.

The brand has targeted even those cities where no other brand has entered, he said. For example, Zellbury opened its doors in Arifwala, which is in Sahiwal, Punjab and soon the outlet became a three-storey structure due to strong demand. The company is also looking to venture into beauty care and fragrances in the next phase.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 11^th, 2020.

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