'Size 36 is never really a 36'

It all began on a shopping expedition a few years ago, when twins Anuj and Anup Ramachandra were left tired and terribly disappointed after a futile search for a perfect fit in Bangalore. The obvious anger and frustration however led to something extremely productive and soon enough, the twins and their mother, Girija were on their way to starting one of the country’s first exclusive online ‘fitted’ clothing stores for men, www.peprismine.com — a store that promised the right fit. DNA speaks to Anuj Ramachandra about the story since then and their hopes for the future…

Peprismine has been up and functioning for a year now, how have the responses been and what does the website really focus on?
We’re still promising the best fit, like we always did and we do have a loyal set of customers who come back to us, knowing fully well that we offer prices and quality like nowhere else. Our online store offers customers unique sizes that are not often seen in most retail outlets. Also, we’re aware of the fact that sizes have no real measure to equate them by and hence a 36inch might not be a 36inch — meaning the same size can differ vastly across brands.

Why do you claim to have quality above the rest, especially in a market that’s driven by brands?
We do lose out on the fact that we’re not a ‘label’… but we make up for it in quality. We encourage customers who know their fabrics, and anyone who does will automatically be overwhelmed by the fact that we only deal with Egyptian Giza fabric at such affordable prices.

You’ve mentioned the affordable prices quite a few times, how affordable are you really?
Putting it simply, our clothes start as cheap as Rs899 and even the Egyptian fabric clothes are all priced around Rs2,000. Our idea is to make good quality and fitting clothes accessible to the regular Indian shopper with good taste.

How are you so confident about finding a right fit, especially when you are an online store, with no real interaction with the customer?
We’ve developed a really smart algorithm that asks customers to fill in six very important details. Once the details have been received, the algorithm works out the best fit for the customer. We have almost ten such pre-determined fits and so far, we haven’t had any unhappy customers.

So, what happens if a customer is not happy with the fit or the product?
We’ve also put a system in place to deal with such situations. If a customer is unhappy with the article of clothing, then we’ve worked out an understanding with the courier service, which allows the customer to send back the faulty piece for free, after which we recalculate the customer’s best fit and send him a new product. This also works because we offer the customer payment on delivery option, thus easing out the whole process.

In an era where online shopping is just catching on, how are you confident of doing well in such markets?
Indians have alwaysbeen worried about online shopping and they have every reason to not trust several of the credit payment options. We have thus given shoppers the option of payment on delivery and looking at the responses we’ve received for the last one year, we’re confident of substantial growth in the years to come. Online shopping is definitely here and our safe bet is that it’s here to stay.