Mumbai: As a lover of wearing heels, I also understand the pain that comes with it. A good brand fuses comfort with fashion, and furthermore understands that the consumer should not be deprived of either.
Thanks to changing preferences of GenZ and millennials, especially when it comes to fashion, the footwear space has evolved from being an essential, need-based industry to becoming an eminent part of the overall fashion and lifestyle market. In fact, today’s younger generations view footwear as an investment – a piece of fashion that blends comfort and style, helping them look and feel their best. Against this backdrop, Monrow Shoes, a homegrown women’s footwear brand best known for fusing fashion with comfort, is on a quest to offer customers fashionable, affordable, impeccable quality footwear that genuinely suits their sense of style.
Founded in 2016, Monrow Shoes, the brainchild of a true fashionista, Veena Ashiya, strives to take the Indian footwear industry to the next level by providing top-notch comfort that customers can rely on and which only differs in style and colour. With hustle, love, and care ingrained in the brand’s DNA, Monrow shoes offer a wide range of vegan super stylish and comfortable wedge and bock heels, boots, flats, accessories, etc.
Monrow shoes stands out for its unique amalgamation of fashion and comfort, along with its commitment to sustainability. As a fervent believer and supporter of conscious fashion, the brand embraces vegan-friendly and cruelty-free processes. From being focused on bold and carefree women who love fashion and cannot compromise on comfort to being a data and design-driven business owing to its unique algorithm, Monrow has snowballed since its inception. In the last five years, the brand has experienced tremendous growth and has been re-funded, which acted as the fuel in the jet for them.
Monrow’s philosophy is to design shoes that travel along as a “Yay” partner rather than being an “Ouchie” partner. Furthermore, Monrow Shoes aspires to dominate the Indian fashion footwear space by positioning itself as a new-age, comfort-focused brand for the millennial generation.
In a detailed chat with Indiantelevision.com, Monrow Shoes founder & CEO Veena Ashiya spills the beans with regard to the brand’s journey, its advertising and marketing strategies, retail expansion and more.
“To be successful, the first thing to do is fall in love with your work.” The adage aptly describes the life and work of a fashion aficionado-turned-entrepreneur, Veena Ashiya. At the company’s helm, Ashiya is responsible for overseeing the finance and marketing departments and fundraising.
With a distinguished academic background, Ashiya holds a master’s degree in fashion management from NIFT, Bengaluru. Prior to founding Monrow Shoes and Accessories, Ashiya has been associated with several globally renowned organisations, including Tommy Hilfiger and Versace. With over 15 years of corporate experience, she brings a vast knowledge base of the fashion and lifestyle industry to the platform. An optimist by nature, Ashiya has created a healthy, enriching, and agile work culture where the entire team believes in celebrating small wins.
Leveraging her sharp business acumen and extensive experience, Ashiya envisions Monrow to become the market leader in the fashion-comfort category by 2025. When she is not donning the entrepreneur hat, Ashiya loves travelling and meeting new people. A fitness enthusiast, she begins her day with her daily ritual of chanting and yoga. A firm believer in the transformative power of positive thoughts and vibes, Ashiya has started practising bio-productivity hacks like lighting soothing aroma candles, growing plants, installing swings, etc., at Monrow.
Edited excerpts:
On the reason for setting up a brand like Monrow Shoes, and the brand journey
Monrow was born on the streets of New York. This was when I was working for Versace and Tommy Hilfiger, while working there, I realized that the heels were very uncomfortable to wear, even though they were fashionable. That is what made me realize the need of having fashionable footwear that provides utmost comfort. Also, I have had a long steady dream of having a brand of my own and that was how I decided to start a fashion label of my own known as Monrow Shoes. Monrow shoes are perfect for women who love fashion and cannot compromise on comfort.
Monrow is a rising star in the women’s footwear industry, known for its stylish and comfortable vegan shoes. The brand has quickly gained a following, thanks to its unique USP and data-driven strategies that have led to the perfect Product-Market Fit. With an impressive 10x growth since its launch in 2019, Monrow Started with a seed of Rs 3.5 crore and has achieved a turnover of over Rs 40 crore, cementing its place as one of the most successful new-age brands in the space.
Through our tier II strategy, Monrow Shoes and Accessories has become the highest sales generator per square foot in modern offline retail options such as the Future group. We take pride in our 72 retail stores across multiple channels, including Shoppers Stop, RIL Centro, RIL trends, and V-Retail Centro.
On the market gap that you observed, and that you wish to cover through Monrow Shoes
Monrow has cracked the best product market fit and hence provides the most fashionable shoes that are also very comfortable. Monrow’s footwear is tested on 30,000 Indian women’s feet to provide the best fit and finesse. The brand is also committed to ethical and sustainable fashion, making it a leader in the movement toward a more responsible and conscious fashion industry. All the Monrow footwear are Vegan and the packaging too is sustainable. To analyze TAM (total addressable market), we researched and figured out that a woman on an average owns 19 pairs of shoes of which only three are sneakers hence a huge potential market for the fashionable and comfortable footwear brands like Monrow Shoes.
On the USP and differentiating factor?
Monrow brand stands tall with its USP’s – fashion and comfort and caters to women who love fashion but can’t compromise on comfort. Monrow’s footwear consists of four-layer sole pads, and the upper and lower soles are cushioned both ways. Recent collections include Office luxury, Y2K collection, Lounge leisure and which is very in line with international fashion, cool and quirky with higher heel height yet lightweight. The heel height is up to 4-4.5 inches yet it is very comfortable to feet. The office luxury collection has peep toe and closed shoes with block heels in hues like beige, maroon, and shades of black and grays to make it look classy yet experimental and suitable for both Gen Z and millennial women.
On competitors
In the footwear market, I consider Steve Madden, Cai, Bata, Crocs, Charles & Keith as our competitors.
On your TG
The two target audiences we cater to are largely genZ and millennial. The competition sets are quite different as Gen Z will be more inclined towards buying from online brands. Online brands are still at a very early stage. For a millennial the competition probably comes from retail like Bata which are traditional and also Charles and keith. Millennials also get influenced by brands which are digitally savvy and hence that is our winning edge .Gen Z and Millennial cosmo women of tier 1 and tier 2 cities of India are our major TG.
On the significant markets for Monrow Shoes in India, and international expansion
Along with successfully operating in tier I cities, tier II strategy has worked well for us as a brand, i.e, Monrow’s new stores in tier 2 cities have performed really well. Since our offline stores have increased a lot in the last few months, we will be looking forward to increasing our reach in tier II cities. This will create a compounding effect of offline on online and vice versa.
We have opened stores in Hyderabad, Delhi, Bhubaneshwar, Lucknow, Jaipur, etc. The spending will increase for all tier I, tier II, and tier III areas in the coming quarter.
We also plan on expanding in the Middle East.
On the challenges, opportunities, learnings, and lessons of running a D2C footwear brand
The challenges I have faced as a woman is that there is a stereotype in the society that solo founders/women cannot handle the business efficiently. There is also a stereotype in society that women cannot be good in finance, if a woman is doing a business then she can do only designing or marketing. I have faced these challenges from society but have overcome them all.
I think one of the failures, which I have particularly experienced, is trying to diversify the product portfolio of the brand too early. For example, while we are building a shoe brand, there is always a temptation to do bags and accessories but the bandwidth is not that much and building another sub-category takes time. We learnt from this that there is an appropriate time or stage of the brand where it should diversify. The appropriate time is when you have gained market leadership in the original category where you launched. Suppose, in the coming two years, we become the top player in the women’s footwear category in this price bracket, then it makes sense for us to probably diversify.
Sometimes we tend to prioritize speed of growth versus solid building blocks of business and whenever it tips more on either side, that’s where mistakes happen. Monrow is a VC funded company so we have to grow fast but we also have to remain sustainable. A lot of mistakes happen in between the longevity of the business and the speed of growing the business, especially when it comes to a brand because brand does require time. But at the same time, we live in an era where speed is actually possible. Sometimes prioritizing speed more can hurt the brand. The building blocks of the company like fundamental team operations also have to work simultaneously.
Success tips for Indian women entrepreneurs out there is that you should not be bound by the pressure and challenges that society throws at you. Three tips that I can share with you – First, own your ambition. Second, ask for support, equal rights & responsibilities, never shy away from asking if you believe in yourself. Last but not the least, share your access & achievements, it will give the society a new lens to look at and it might inspire many more women out there to do good and something for themselves.
On the benefits of buying direct-to-consumer versus traditional retail channels
D2C – Customer is the king, personalized touch to the customers through conversational commerce via social media messaging, WhatsApp and email marketing, etc. Biggest advantage is you get to know the occasions they are buying it for. You also get to know the age groups and their professions. You also get to know their buying patterns, based on what they prefer buying in summers and in winters, that helps you to create your merchandise accordingly.
On the kind of media mix you are looking at for Monrow Shoes
Monrow will still remain first when it comes to digital awareness. Some of the heavy impact will be driven by offline but mostly from heavy experiences. Examples of a concert or creative art installations in the form of offline points of conversation. We are following on-going D2C trends and those are working well for us.
1. Conversational Commerce.
2. Influencer marketing
3. Content marketing – regular analysis of content.
4. Celebrity marketing
5. PR marketing
On retail expansion – growth in online and offline
Monrow Shoes is a digital-first brand with our website being on the top along with our presence at marketplaces like Amazon, Myntra, Flipkart, Nykaa,Ajio, etc. Monrow’s online platform performs best with heels, while its offline platform performs best with flats, wedges, and kitten heels in black and nude colors. Interestingly, colors have been winning the way. Monrow’s ability to retain and expand its customer base has resulted in higher average order values (AOVs), a testament to the brand’s appeal to fashion-conscious women who value both style and comfort.
Monrow Shoes offers various types of footwear – kitten heels, block heels, wedges, flats boots and loafers. We have also introduced bright and pop-up colors along with metallic colors too. In 2023, we are looking for a 250 per cent growth and equally split between offline and online. We are doubling stores from existing 72 stores by March 2024.
On new collections
Lounge Leisure, Office Luxury, Pride capsule and sexy wedge collections.
On Monrow Shoes paving the way for fashion-forward-conscious consumers, as a D2C vegan footwear brand
Along with footwear, Monrow packages its footwear in sleeves that are made of cloth that helps you to carry your footwear while traveling and can be used to store other shoes as well. The boxes the brand uses are made of sustainable material and there is a jacket on it and it will be changed as per the collection keeping the main box packaging same in order to avoid wastage of paper hence standardizing the packaging as well as making it eco-friendly. Instead of leather footwear, all our footwear is made of vegan leather. It is equally beautiful and does not harm the environment that makes it a sustainable fashion.
On unlocking the power of predictive analytics to anticipate consumer preferences and stay ahead of the competition
Monrow has the best Product market fit by being a Data + Design-driven brand. Customer listening and analysis have been a part of Monrow since the beginning, the Monrow footwear were initially tested on 30,000 women feet to come up with the best fit. In today’s time, women can’t compromise on fashion nor on comfort and Monrow is catering to such women through its USP which is Fashion+Comfort.
On your vision and way forward for Monrow Shoes
The company’s goal is to be the most talked about D2C fashion brand of India. We are expecting more than 3x growth next year. And from a retail perspective, we have just opened our 50th store in Shoppers Stop, and the total store count is 72 currently. We plan on doubling our retail presence in 2024.
Monrow aspires to become the most talked about fashion brand of India along with becoming the incubator for the most ambitious women ever.
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