ABOUT

India Fashion Forum (IFF) was launched in 2000 and is India’s largest retail intelligence
event. Every year, an exciting blend of Conference sessions, workshops and masterclasses,
zoned exhibitions and industry awards mark the IFF confluence of the biggest trends and
determinants of success in the business of fashion in India. The IFF conference provides
unparalleled opportunities for learning from international and Indian industry experts,
academicians, experienced professionals and analysts through a world-class mix of keynote
addresses, panel discussions, CEOs Roundtables, presentations, Knowledge Series sessions
and workshops. There are four different themed exhibition platforms:
 TrendView
 L Cube
 Customer Experience Forum
 India Brand show
This helps showcase the most market ahead fashion ingredients, design innovation,
technology, retail strategies and solutions to a mega congregation of leaders from the
business of fashion in India and worldwide.

IFF 2019 was held on 27th and 28th of March at Renaissance, Mumbai with the theme “The
Definitive Game- Plan for Powerful Fashion Retail”. IFF 2019 is not just a showcase for
brands, products and technologies but is equally powerful and dynamic convergence of
ideas and visions of industry icons, entrepreneurs and professionals in diverse fashion
manufacturing, branding and retailing functions. Innovation in fashion should be in every
element of the value chain, this is what separates winners from losers. At IFF 2019,
innovation in every aspect was discussed in never before granulated detail- from product to
technology.

IFF answers some of the existential question about fashion intelligence and every business
connected to fashion retail in India. From predicting the next disruptive technologies, to
projecting the future market trajectories and consumer behaviour, from unveiling next
generation ingredients and textile trends to implementing industry 4.0 in fashion
manufacturing, IFF is your access to the future of fashion business. It dives deep into each of
the 6-point innovation game plan and catalyze the journey from opportunities to
achievement for the fashion industry in India. They believe the millennial culture of zero-to-
minimal, brand-stickiness, if the brand isn’t doing anything right they switch to someone
who does it right.

VARIOUS 5 TRACKS COVERED IN THE DOCUMENT ARE:

 IFF Sessions
 Customer Experience (CX) Forum Sessions.
 Success stories
 Trusted Program
 SCAI Roundtable with malls and retailers
PARTNERS
 IFF SESSIONS

FASHION INTELLIGENCE- INSIGHTS ON FASHION AND LIFESTYLE BUSINESS

RENNAISSANCE HOSTEL, MUMBAI

27TH MARCH 2019
10AM – 11:30AM – @ GRAND BALL ROOM A&Z COMBINED
NIFT ALUMNI CONCLAVE

India Fashion Forum on its first day, 27th March 2019, started with the topic “Fashion
Intelligence – Insights on Fashion and Lifestyle Business”. It started at 10 am and the panel
consisted all NIFT Alumnis. They were – Shilpee Sharma, Head of Design and Style, Shoppers
Stop, Nikhil Chandra, Co-Founder, Prinik Lifestyle Retail, Manisha Agrawal, Head- Human
Resources, Puma India, Manjua Twari, CEO, Future Style Lab & Cover Story, Gaurav
Mahajan, President- Group Apparel, Raymond. And the invitees consisted of – Sanjeev
Mohanty, MD – South Asia, Middle East & North Africa, Levi’s, Jyotsna Shahi, Director
Sourcing – Myntra Fashions Brands, Myntra Designs, Atul Ujagar, Country Director, Nike
Indian Sub Continent, Nikhil Mohan, MD, Blackberys, Nagendra Pratap Singh, Director,
Creative Head, (Raymond and Colorplus), Raymond, Abhinav Zutshi, Chief Operating Officer-
Splash India, Raja Harbinder Singh, Country Manager, Carrefour Global Sourcing and Rohit
Aneja, Director, Marketing & Business Development, Paragon Apparels/Alcis.

In this conclave, they discussed the two tenets under which the world’s most successful
fashion companies operate, they are - 1) putting the customers first and 2) meeting their
demands in a fast and better way than anyone else. It also put across in the discussion the
‘6- point game plan’ for a powerful business in fashion.

The panel discussion started with a general discussion on the current fashion and lifestyle
scenario in India, particularly, and later slowly they touched upon these very crucial points.
They discussed almost everything and gave clarity - from retail’s point of view as well as
from a customer’s point of view. Let’s take a closer view.

1) First-mover advantage – The speakers elaborated upon how a fashion company

should always try to reduce it’s lead time in order to get a first-mover advantage
over it’s rival brands. When you are ahead in the production game from your rivals,
meaning that when their designs would still be in the production stage, your style
would’ve already been stacked on the racks of the store, you already gained yourself
an advantage. No doubt the entire panel was mentioning fast fashion. Cause the
reason why fast fashion came into existence was because it reduced the time of a
design from a mere sheet into an apparel hanging in a store and also for making the
high end runaway designs be available to the masses at affordable rates. Fast fashion
makes the entire process visible to the customers. The panel made the audience
understand some of the elements for leading the market for example - understand
your market, your customers, thoroughly since these customers are also fast
 followers and follow trends internationally, hence a company should strive to bring
them early to India.

2) Fashion today, not tomorrow – Since, everyone prefers to have shorter lead time,
now this allows the brands to offer products that customers want in real-time. Here
is exactly where forecasting come in! Forecasters and even retailers try to forecast
what customers ‘might’ buy months even years in advance.

3) Width over depth – Gone are the days when markets decided what we (customers)
wanted to buy, now we experience markets which are shaped according to the
tastes and preferences of the customers. Instead of producing more quantities per
style, fast fashion produces more styles. More width ensures there are more choices
for customers. Since, we have trends in fashion changing every week!

4) Customer research – This topic has a little technical aspect to it. Sales associates and
store managers are always encouraged to be at forefront with their customers. This
gives them information about their customers which allows them to sharpen their
product design strategies that in the end would meet their expectations. As one of
the speakers said that, manufacturers, producers come from the past, whereas a
customer comes from the future.

5) End-to-end tech – Companies investing in end-to-end digitization have stronger

bottom-lines that those who just deploy tech in the front-end. Technology should be
deep and apply thorough with the supply chain. Technology is inevitable and
embedded in us, it plays a very important role as it decides how we make our future
base. As it was rightly said that, fashion lives a 2nd life in technology.

6) Brand experience – The way times are changing, customers are very well informed
and want to know the vision and mission of the brand. Also, the new young
customers crave for experiential marketing, they don’t just want to wear a brand,
they want to experience it. And what exactly is a brand expected to do about it? Like
a speaker stated, a brand must have the ability to take risk. Especially, with a country
like India, where customers are not homogenous.
LUXURY FASHION IN INDIA

28TH MARCH, 2018

DAY 2
11:45am – 12:30pm

‘Luxury Fashion in India – Consumers Perspective’

Moderator – Rachana Singh, Business Consultant & Professor of Fashion Business –
Istituto Marangoni
Panel –
Sandeep Gonsalves, Co-founder, SS HOMME
Tina Tahiliani Parikh, Executive Director, Ensemble
Amit Pratihari, Director Retail, Forevermark India
Anjali Gaekwar, Country Head, Christian Louboutin
Maithili Ahluwalia, Founder, Bungalow 8
Samrat Zaveri, MD, Shaze Luxury Retail

The entire panel for this particular topic was very well informed. They were fully aware of
their walk and talk. The discussion had a speaker starting by stating that a luxury brand is
sub-segmented with 3 keywords – value, service and pampering. Since, the topic clearly
mentions our country, the customers being talked about were the most demanding ones,
and we also have to keep in mind that Indians are not at all homogenous. They are hard to
please since an Indian luxury consumer is well educated and aware. Here, personalization
and customization is the Key, which goes beyond an outfit or a pair of shoes and later makes
a customer loyal to it (even when they are no financial discounts).
The luxury customer wants to be treated well and do not want to be segregated in different
purchasing categories. Each segment has a different luxury approach and meaning to it.
Luxury is evolving in term of how it can become more customized to the customer since;
they always look for a story behind it. Luxury is very intimate and close to the customer, so
how would a luxury brand articulate the entire story/philosophy behind it and create an
experience.
In the middle of the discussion one of the speakers asked the audience – why is there not
even a single Indian luxury brand? It was simply answered – because everyone wants to
make business but no one wants to create a brand.
Also, a very ‘important drawback’ was talked about, which was that we don’t have the right
kind of infrastructure for placing luxury brands in India and hence, there is a lack of luxury
brands in India. And so the scaling up of the business in large formats is required. Balancing
the creativity aspect as well as the business aspect is what is to be aimed.
HOW DIGITAL TECHNOLOGY IS TRANSFORMING THE ENTIRE SUPPLY CHAIN

RENNAISSANCE HOSTEL, MUMBAI

27TH MARCH 2019
11:30AM – 11:40AM – @ GRAND BALL ROOM A&Z COMBINED
NIFT ALUMNI CONCLAVE

SESSION PRESENTED BY: JOSHUA LIN- VICE PRESIDENT SALES, INFOR NEXUS.

Joshua Lin has served to many global retailers to digitize and aid their suppliers with supply
chain finance including Columbia sportswear, Levi Strauss & co. and Deckers.

This presentation was very insightful and extremely relevant for fashion and lifestyle
companies to understand the need of strengthening their end-to-end supply chains to keep
up with customers demand and agility. The 7-minute session started with success stories for
brands like Nike and Puma who great efficient customer response by making efficient
changes in the supply chain.

PUMA is a global leader in performance and sport-style brands across six business units-
Team-sports, Running and Training, Golf, Motorsport, Fundamentals and sport-style and
accessories and licensing. It has a present revenue of $4 Billion. It faced business challenges
like manual payment processing for invoice and settlement, fragmented systems and time-
consuming supplier relationships, disparate connections between internal treasury, finance,
supply chain organizations resulted in inefficiency. They implemented solutions like procure
to pay automated invoicing, 3 way matching and settlements, early payment program and
supplier financing rewards. This resulted in decreased cost of capital and cost of goods sold,
suppliers have access to capital earlier to begin their orders, they were recognized for
sustainable supply chains, reduced operational cost through settlement and process
automation and also reduced supply chain risk.

Nike was established in 1964, is a $36 Billion leader in footwear and apparel based in
Beaverton, Oregoan with 73000 employees worldwide. It faced business challenges like
complex network of suppliers oversea, multiple brands and systems patched together to
manage orders, significant supplier risk related to access to capital for raw materials and
operations and reliance on SAP with limited invoice and ASN. They implemented solutions
like deep ERP Integration, Purchase to pay, invoice discounting, pack and ship and
transportation sourcing. This resulted in touchless straight through payment process,
standardized process across Nike brands, lower cost of goods and risk by ensuring suppliers
access to capital and reduced air transportation spend by $25 Million.

There can be improvement in working capital through extended payment terms, improve
suppliers’ access to capital, eliminate LCs, automated chargebacks and deductions and by
promoting social responsibility. There is a range of network of financial service providers like
HSBC, BNP Paribas, Santander, Bankia, Sampath Bank, Standard chartered, RTS, Hang /beng
Bank, MUFC, NDB Bank etc.
Earlier payment visibility included forecast, order, production, inspection, invoice approval,
shipment and inventory. It lasted for about 90-100 days. Now it has been reduced to 30-60
days. This has reduced the lead time. By doing this, it has increased customers value on GT
Nexus. Nike has achieved 99% touchless invoice processing, Levi’s achieved 15-30 days
payment term extension and Columbia increased scale 1-3x without adding resources.

INDUSTRY’S SOLUTION TO COLLABORATE WITH ALL PARTNERS

TRADING
PROCURE TO SUPPLY CHAIN DEDUCTION DYNAMIC
COMPANY FIRST SALE
PAY FINANCE MANAGEMENT DISCOUNTING
MODEL

THE URGENCY TO TRANSFORM

IMPROVE WORKING
DIGITIZE MITIGATE RISK
CAPITAL & COST SAVING
•Automate order through •Minimize supplier and •Capture Deductions
settlement Quality related risk •Extended Payment terms
•Elimate silos •Mitigate cost and •Deploy trading company
•Share visibility across geopolitical uncertainity and first sale
enterprise for better
customer service

SUPPLY CHAINS OF TODAY

DIGITISATION AND FUTURE OF FASHION/DECHIPHERING THE NEW CODES OF
FASHION BUSINESS

27TH MARCH, 2018

DAY 1
11:30am – 1:00pm

Moderator – B S Nagesh, Founder, TRAAIN

Panel:
Abhishek Ganguly, MD, PUMA India
Ashish Goel, Founder CEO, Urban Ladder
Mukul Bafana, CEO, Arvind Internet
Prakash Nedungadi, Group Head- Consumer Insights and Brand Development, Aditya Birla
Group
Sandeep Kataria, CEO, Bata India
Vasanth Kumar, MD, Lifestyle
Prahlad Kakkar

India’s fashion and lifestyle markets estimated at US$ 201 Billion in 2017 may well double in
the next five years. The opportunity id beyond doubt, but the achievement of this would
depend on India’s fashion companies mastering a few things. Physical and Digital retail are
converging and creating profound changes across the industry. The leaders discussed new
technologies, innovations, successful strategies, needs to stay at a pace for the future and
how to pivot e-commerce, social and brick and mortar strategies to deepen consumer
connections.

OPPORTUNITIES TO EXPAND IN NEWER MARKETS

27TH MARCH, 2018

DAY 1
1:00pm – 2:00pm

Moderator – Himanshu Chakrawarti, CEO Unlimited, Arvind Lifestyle Brands

Panel:
Sunil Nayak, CEO, Reliance Jewels
Lalit Agarwal, CMD, V Mart
Rahul Vira, CEO, Skechers South Asia
Anant Daga, MD, TCNS Clothing
Rajesh Seth, COO, FBB, Future Group
Anath Aiyer, Business Head- Easybuy, Landmark Group
Amit Chaudhary, Co-Founder, Lenskart

The dynamics of the fashion and lifestyle industry are changing dramatically, to succeed
amid the shifting tides, brands and retailers need to identify newer opportunities to expand
to increase their customer base.
The session had intelligence and insights from retailers expanding their base to tier 2 and
tier 3 cities.