At a time when Indian Garment Export industry is struggling due to cheaper competition from other Asian countries & falling demand from western markets, eShakti.com, an innovative home grown fashion brand, has bucked the trend and has emerged as saviour for hundreds of employees who lost their jobs or had to settle with poor earnings.
eShakti.com is a technology driven company that makes customised garments for women in several countries. The company collects the measurements through its website and mobile app, makes each garment to the given measurements and delivers at customers’ doorstep in 9-13 days. Not just that, eShakti on its app lets customers try various customisation options and displays them for the customer to compare and choose. Customers are delighted that they are empowered to choose the style (neck type, sleeve type, length) that will look good on them
eShakti believes that fashion is meant not just for models but for women of all shapes and sizes. eShakti not only delivers garments but confidence, pride and happiness through personalised fashion to women who don’t find much options in the stores.
While eShakti is doing all this for its customers in western markets, let’s now know what impact it is making for the community here in India.
In 2015, eShakti.com provided employment to around 700 workers across Delhi NCR. This number in 2019 has risen to around 2000. With an aim to maintain a similar growth in coming years, the company is recruiting and skilling more workers at a rapid pace. This has come as a big relief for tailors, cutters and other garment finishing employees who suffered because of dampening demand of Indian exports. Most of the employees belong to small villages & towns in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar. The impact of this employment is reaching to all these villages & towns and spreading smiles on thousands of faces in hinterland.
Major operations functions of the company moved into Noida Special Economic Zone (SEZ) in September 2018. Mr. Ashish Pradhan, COO of eShakti recalls his first meeting with the Development Commissioner, Dr. Lalit Singhal, “I requested an appointment with Dr. Singhal and I was given appointment for the same day. Dr. Singhal & his team were quite quick in understanding the model. In that meeting itself, the broad model was discussed. Amazed with the pace of this process, I was thinking whether I had just met the bureaucrats or the leadership team of an MNC.”
Company recognises that SEZ has been a big enabler of this growth. A secured Area, ready infrastructure, single window clearance and simplified procedures all due to Special Economic Zone have contributed in making all this happen. Considering the pace needed for e-commerce business, NSEZ authorities also simplified the clearance process to a great extent reducing the post-production timeline from 3 days to 1 day- Saving of 2 days!
Company informs that the NSEZ officials act more as facilitators not just as regulators. This snapshot exhibits how business friendly processes of NSEZ have helped the company and the ecosystem alike
eShakti management believes that by September-2023, within 5 years of commencing the operations in NSEZ, the company would be making annual exports to the tune of $ 100 Mn and would provide employment to about 10000 workers mostly from the nearby villages.
