Founded during pandemic, Pune start-up for silk saris records 8-10 pc growth every month

In the process, MySilkLove has become one of the forces sustaining the Indian handloom weaver, whose livelihood was badly affected by the pandemic. Ghule, who bootstrapped the company with Rs 1 lakh of personal savings, allowed customers to place their orders for saris online as all shops had downed shutters, thus ensuring that the weavers begin to get work.

“The weavers get the opportunity to showcase their art. Now, they are not bothered about anything but creating good quality products as, everything else, from photo-shoots and merchandising to picking the product to delivering it to the end customer, is handled by our team,” she says.

Soon, MySilkLove will no longer be only about saris. The company is planning to increase its options on women’s wear, by offering kurtis, stoles and other designer clothing. “The plan is to become a one-stop destination for ethnic clothing for women. Recently, we launched salwar suits and lehengas,” says Ghule.

Customer relationships are among the focus areas of the start-up’s operations, which helped during the lockdowns when the delivery time of five-six days was stretched to eight to 10 days. “The lockdowns were challenging but, due to customer support, we overcame these. We pay highest attention to customer support and prioritise taking care of customer needs,” says the founder.

Almost 75 per cent of MySilkLove’s clientele are women, and most of the purchases come from the age group of 25 to 50. For salwar suits, the age group is 15 to 40. Apart from Pune, they have a customer base that is mostly in Delhi, Bengaluru, Mumbai and Hyderabad.

“Earlier, our target clientele was unable to find the right platform to buy saris, possibly due to lack of trust and traceability. Our aim was to redefine fashion while changing the lives of the artisans,” says Ghule.

MySilkLove plans to raise Rs 1 crore for expansion and marketing as they add more weavers to the website.

“We are a lean company and agile in making quick moves and business decisions. We have been responding to changing market situations as well as closely working and finding new delivery partners. We have been working on our sourcing strategy to add more weaves… to our website. During low-time or lockdown, we focus on design and sourcing,” says the founder.