In the extremely promising online fashion jewellery sector,
Voylla aims to be an aspirational and a durable brand, which will stand for value, quality and irresistible choices. Company is India's leading fashion jewellery brand launched in May 2012 by husband -wife duo Jagrati Shringi and Vishwas Shringi; it is a start-up which has created a niche in the lifestyle segment with a strong omni-channel presence. Voylla retails through its website Voylla.com, app and via marketplaces like Flipkart, Amazon and Myntra and offline at select Central stores. The start-up had opened its first flagship store in Delhi in December 2015 and at present boasts of 70 physical stores all over the country. Voylla is in talks with MBOs like Pantaloons, Reliance, and aims to launch 200 stores by 2017. In October 2015, Voylla had raised $15 million from the private equity firm Peepul Capital and before that had raised two rounds of funds in 2012 and 2013 by Snow Leopard Technology Ventures.
In an interaction with BWDisrupt’s team, Vishwas Shringi- Co-founder & CEO, Voylla, shares details about the company’s growth and its future plans.
What are the expansion plans of Voylla in India and for international market? Ventured as an e-commerce channel, the brand expanded its offline presence with 90 stores this year. “The whole idea of going offline was to make designer jewellery accessible to customers and provide them with an effective personalized shopping experience. Customers can browse and select jewellery online or on app and find the nearest store to try and buy. After an exemplary expansion from that saw 90 stores from nought, including all formats of retail, EBO, MBO, LFS, SIS, in just one year, the company is well poised to foray into the international market now. Even with this scale Voylla’s business continues to grow at phenomenal pace of 400% year over year. This year, Voylla added quite a few feathers in its cap, with launch of Studio Voylla, Nia, Navrang and Dare. While Studio Voylla brings the rich heritage of Indian craftsmanship to women’s jewel-boxes, Dare gives a reason for men to get a treasure chest. Navrang recreates jewellery worn by the favourite actress of TV soaps for every fan, while Nia brings bling at throwaway prices. With these lines, Voylla has become the one and only destination for anything fashionable.
The current growth rate of fashion jewellery market and the future..Fashion Accessory as a market is steadily growing with a CAGR of 12% and is expected to reach $6Bn by 2019. Jewellery is the highest growing segment in this space. There is a steep increase in demand as customers are looking at fashion jewellery as means to make a statement. Increasing gold prices have further fuelled the trend. In addition to that, we as a country are getting more and more self-assured and there is a strong desire to embrace the culture, the colours, and the art. Not only women, even men are warming up to the idea of adding a jewel or two to their daily look.
How is Voylla different as compared to other players in the category?Design is our distinct differentiator. We at Voylla take immense pride in our collections and designs. Each of our piece tells a story, be it a story of ancient block print with our ajrakh collection, or of the Bhawai dancers from desert. Sometimes Lucknow’s architecture becomes our muse, and at times we draw inspiration from the minars of Hyderabad.
In addition to that, our razor sharp focus on quality remains and the pledge that each and every piece that comes out of house of Voylla will be completely allergy free, makes us stand tall in the cluttered environment that fashion jewellery earlier was.
The concept behind the launch of Voylla and growth so far with its Female Founder and Tech Head Jagrati ShringiIt started when we used to live in America and our colleagues and friends back there used to ask us to bring jewellery as a souvenir for them. It was then we realized that the jewellery market in India was fragmented. We wanted to traverse a territory yet unchartered because we saw a huge scope in the jewellery market that was growing rapidly. However, quality was a major concern as there was no consistency in the local artisans’ jewellery and people had a notion that imitation jewellery would cause allergic reactions on the body.
So we decided to create a platform for skilled craftsmen and talented designers to showcase their talent by emphasizing on high quality and innovative designs. Even the company’s name was coined by the same vision. It’s taken from the French word, ‘Voila!’ to suggest an appearance as if by magic. We would like to believe that whenever someone wears Voylla’s jewellery, it becomes a magical moment for them.
