Wednesday 23 July 2014

A little ad, a little glad...

Hello! This is a sort of record for ourselves, when we can afford real paid ads we might look back and say "look how quaint our first DIY ad was!" , or Not...
We might be a little embarrassed, actually.

But whatever,we are so proud, because here is our first ad going out in a print magazine...and we made it
all by ourselves, too! We just wanted to include you guys in our journey.

The magazine where it is appearing is a well read newsletter for marketing professionals and is run by a well known marketing consultant- Jessie Paul, of Paul Writer she's a Marketer par excellence, a friend/mentor of sorts, who has been encouraging us in many small ways!

So here is the ad!!




It's not much, but it's our FIRST ever ad- how cool is that?

Write to us and tell us if you like it, and if you have had experience working on your own startup's marketing and branding efforts!

Friday 18 July 2014

How much ca$h is $tashed in your clo$et?

It's no secret that Swapzaar is inspired by new-age fashion resale websites like Threadflip, ThredUp and The RealReal. We love these brilliant fashion resale brands which havae managed to carve a niche for themselves in such a short time. Fashion resale is a hot place to be in right now, it is predicted to grow at 16% every year!!

But what we are really, really, inspired by, is the power of the internet (and technology in general) in driving innovation across all businesses and domains of the fashion Industry. In Design, Supply Chain, Manufacturing and in Retail/ eCommerce- technology is actually creating more value and jobs than we could have imagined.
So cheers and more power to FashTech startups, we say!

But, more on all that later...

What we would like to mention is, how these new business models that are being created by the internet, are not just "interesting ideas", but are getting serious investment and high valuations. Which means that even hard-core Wall Street financier types see the potential in them, and firmly believe that innovative internet driven fashion business models are here to stay.
To quote Victor Hugo- " On résiste à l'invasion des armées; on ne résiste pas à l'invasion des idées."
Which means- Nothing is as powerful as an idea whose time has come.

Here is a detailed report from ThredUp on the US fashion resale market, with best practices and tips for it's customers. You might like to check it out, full of amazing insights including which brands have the most resale value!

Below is a fun infographic from Swapzaar, about how you could be sitting on a bunch of cash in your closet.
and why you really should consider a resale website like us, to monetize all your idle fashion stuff, only to make way for new stuff that you can enjoy.

We would love to have your fashionable items listed with us!
As the community grows, so will the fun- we promise.

Let us know why would or wouldn't consider making money off the completely brilliant stuff sitting idle
 in your wardrobe!!


Sources:
http://blogs.marketwatch.com/behindthestorefront/2014/07/01/online-clothing-resale-no-longer-just-the-privilege-of-luxury-goods-owners/
http://blogs.marketwatch.com/behindthestorefront/2014/06/27/how-the-fashion-and-technology-industries-are-competing-for-talent/
http://www.forbes.com/sites/lydiadishman/2014/04/11/online-resale-shop-thredup-takes-on-ebay-with-a-move-into-designer-labels/

Tuesday 1 July 2014

Swapzaar.com: India's First Dedicated, Fashion, Re-commerce Marketplace - Now Live

Are you a Swapaholic?
Swapzaar.com wants to know...

Many of us are guilty of shopping on impulse, buying clothes and accessories we 'think' we will wear and then stuffing our closet (till it is bursting) and never ending up using those things. For all good reasons naturally - you liked it at the time, did not fit as well as you thought it would, wore it once, now what? End result - the overstuffed closet and yet an urge to buy some more.

Here's a thought... make millions from your closet! OK - maybe not millions but there is now a dedicated, fashion market place that allows you to put up your gently used, pre-owned fashion items for sale. Swapzaar.com is the perfect cure for 'shopaholics'. Upload the items that you no longer use or need on this platform and earn 'buttons' or store-credits that you can either use to buy stuff you like from others in the network or hoard to en-cash later.

Start by registering on this unique website and earn a few buttons to get you started. Take cool pictures of your fashionable stuff that you want to off-load and put it up for sale. Write a description, put a price-tag and you're done. Well almost done... the thing is, swapzaar.com is a curated site; so you will have to wait for your item to get approved by the Swapzaar Team first. It goes live on the listing only if it is okay with the fashion police! Once someone buys it - you have it delivered and the buttons are yours to play with.

Right now swapzaar.com is running a launch promo - so you can win Rs 700 worth of online shopping vouchers by uploading 7 items on the platform. Go for it fashionistas. (details of the promo-contest are here)