Schoolwear: Uniform Code

E-shop for school items at once!

School uniforms are an indispensable part of school years and arranging for it even a week before school reopened has given many a parent nightmare. Vendors have monopolized the system, leading parents to compromise on quality and price. Scoolwear.in was started by Ketan Zaveri and Amit Zaveri as promoters and founders and Dipen Uchil joined in as a member of the founding team. Hearing this call from parents, the trio created an online one stop e-shop for all school products. Thereon they have done two rounds of funding with SAV Ventures and promoters of Navneet Education. Our correspondent explores Schoolwear’s one-of-its-kind module.

How and when was the concept born?

Buying a school uniform has always been a daunting task for parents. In India, especially in Mumbai, there is always one vendor who has monopoly over the sale of school uniforms for a given school. The vendor has an upper hand in everything, from the cost to the quality and even on the availability of these uniforms. We felt we needed to change the system, and so we decided to explore e-commerce platforms for selling school uniforms and other school-related products. In 2014, the dream of many parents became our reality, and we created Schoolwear. One of the driving factors to start this venture was to help parents save time and not miss out on professional commitments, but also have their customized needs catered to at reasonable prices.

What were the challenges you faced as a startup?

For any startup, teething problems are bound to crop up. Schoolwear.in is not a market place, it’s an inventory-led model and hence managing inventory was a concern when we started. Cloth buying is an experiential process, which online platforms do not allow, and convincing customers to buy without feeling or physically looking at the clothes was the biggest challenge. When we started out, our key product was uniforms and we had to make sure that our estimates of demand were almost accurate. We didn't want to sit on heavy inventory. Apart from these company-specific challenges, we also stumbled into generic challenges that startups face: hiring, strategy planning, appropriate marketing tools, and the biggest and most important of them – recruiting an effective, passionate sales force.

On the customer end of things, we had to work at creating a psychological shift in consumers’ buying patterns. That was a massive obstacle for us. How do we convince a parent who is used to going to a store to buy his children’s uniforms to go online to not only trust that he will get the uniform but also products such as shoes, bags, other accessories, and learning aids delivered to his doorstep? Initially, we started with only school ware to test the market, and graduated to other products later. We want to ensure that this process is enjoyable, beneficial and trust worthy for parents.

Dipen Uchil

What plans do you have for the future?
We want to establish Schoolwear as a brand, and not only a successful company. We have commenced branding products under our own label. We started with branded uniforms, and now we have shoes, too. Going forward, we are looking at venturing into bags, other accessories, and in fact everything that a child would need at school. We are also looking at incorporating technology in a big way. We want to create a space in which we are able to cater to a child's back-to-school necessities and make it easy with the use of technology.

It's a competitive field, what gives your company the edge?

This segment is a disorganized space. When we started out, our initial target was to make school uniforms a brand. We wanted to make sure that all our products were premium in quality, comfort, and utility. We also wanted to make sure our pricing was below or at par with the current market scenario. Our business is generic with very few products to offer, but we have gone a step further and customized it as much as we can and now have a range of products to offer, all under one roof.

How different is your module from retail?

Convenience to our buyers and availability of products is our mission. We are an online store for school supplies. But we aren't shying away from going hybrid when necessary. We are a mix of brick ‘n’ mortar and tech, and that is what makes us different from our competition. A retail school supply store either sells from their stores or has counters in schools. But these are available only for a specific number of days and they are seasonal. But our module gives parents the flexibility to buy uniforms for children at their convenience, and yes, we are available 24/7. We not only have an online presence and a hybrid model but we also have a contact centre where parents could order uniforms over the phone if they not comfortable booking online.

From left: Amit Zaveri and Ketan Zaveri

What lessons about your struggle would you like to share with budding entrepreneurs? 

From our experience with Schoolwear, there are a few things we would like to share with fellow entrepreneurs:

Stick to the basics – at every point in your startup journey, there’s a need and an urge to attempt something new. But this doesn’t always give you the desired result, and in fact, it deviates from your and your company's model and vision. Another essential learning is that it is very important for every entrepreneur to believe in the product or service which they are offering. Until and unless you are sure and confident about the service and product you are offering, your customers and investors are not going to believe in it. We definitely believe that every entrepreneur should take as much time as needed to get this belief component in place – it is of utmost importance.  Every time you think that the product/service offered does not feel right, you need to go back to the drawing board and re-think or re-design your plan. Practice definitely makes perfect in start-ups. We tend to keep running behind USPs, but getting our basics right is critically important. You will arrive at your USPs, and they will work effectively for you have taken care of the basics and have built a solid foundation.

Even today after three years, we learn something new almost every day with my startup or about startups in general.

What kind of troubles have you faced while buying school uniform for your kids? Please share your story.