Aditya Birla Group launches online fashion store abof.com

Indian multinational conglomerate Aditya Birla Group has launched its online one-stop fashion portal for apparel, footwear and accessories for men and women, abof.com that will provide a personalised shopping experience, the Group said in a press release.

It is expected to take on fashion e-tailers like Myntra and Jabong,



Announcing the launch of abof.com, Kumar Mangalam Birla, Chairman, Aditya Birla Group said, “The e-commerce sector is a sunrise sector from an investment point of view. While a lot has happened in the last couple of years, a lot more is yet to happen in this space. We plan to stay focused on seeding and growing specific businesses in areas where we have specific strengths which we can play upon extensively. We see fashion e-commerce as one such space. With abof.com, we aim to offer a wide but curated range of merchandise and a differentiated shopping experience that can compete with the best in the world. We see abof emerging as the most admired player in online fashion within the next three years.”

Birla said the Group is already India's largest fashion player through Madura Fashion and Pantaloons. “Therefore, it made sense to us to enter into fashion e-commerce to further strengthen our stronghold in the business of fashion in India. We see the potential to build another billion-dollar business of the Group in this space,” he added.

Built with a vision to become India's most admired online fashion brand and to provide a personalised shopping experience, abof has leveraged best-of-breed technologies. Its experience has been built as mobile first, and it works seamlessly across a wide range of devices including desktops.

The snappy and glam-led platform is targeted at millennials, the aim being to offer the latest styles, a daily dose of proprietary fashion content and style tips. The webstore provides the trendiest looks of the season from around the world through its curated collection of products handpicked from brands, and from its own brand 'abof', the release said.

“Today's millennial generation wants everything fast and personalised. Within fashion, we identified this as a white space that can be tapped into by a focused player,” said Prashant Gupta, President and Chief Executive Officer, abof.com. “Abof.com is a result of our quest to address this gap in the market. We are building India's most admired online fashion store and fashion brand, even as incumbents race towards becoming a fashion marketplace offering deeply discounted branded products,” he added.

Abof.com is equipped with India's first-of-its-kind 3D virtual trial room — a tool where customers can instantly view themselves in any product by inputting their basic body proportions. The tool allows one to layer various garments to check out looks. The webstore also uses a unique style quiz to understand customers' preference and shows only relevant personalised content. Abof has built an ecosystem of best-in-class partners across technology (IBM, Cognizant, Razorfish, Oracle), fashion brands, marketing and operations.