NEW YORK WHOLESALE

BANGALORE: Content writer Manjusha Gowda, 28, goes online only at work. Some days when things aren't going her way, the boss is grouchy or she has slipped more than once in her job, she decides to take a break for her favourite activity: shopping. If she walked out of the office and took a stroll down the closest high street or mall, her absence would raise more than a few eye-brows. Instead she logs on to her favourite online fashion sites and temporarily escapes into a world that is both encouraging and enriching. "I am not much of a walker," confesses Gowda. "If I take my car I'll spend half my allotted shopping time finding parking. Online shopping is the best escape when you can't leave your workstation for long. I don't do it everyday, sometimes I don't even do it for weeks at a stretch, then suddenly I am buying stuff three or four times a week. On an average I spend about Rs 5000 a month buying clothes and accessories online."

Geeta Iyer, 40, is a fairly regular online shopper at sites such as fashionandyou.com and is pretty vocal about the advantages of buying apparel and accessories online. "In many areas, especially accessories and footwear, I find that online offers are far better than what you find at highstreet stores," says Iyer. A couple of times, while buying footwear at branded stores, she has gone online and showed the store the prices being offered for similar fare - usually 15-20 % less than at their outlets. "Once they even reduced the price for me. Sometimes it's not just about shopping online , but being aware of prices, getting yourself the best deal," adds Iyer.

Fashion and lifestyle are the most searched for categories globally and India is no exception. It is one of the fastest growing segments in the e-commerce business, in India and in more mature markets abroad. In fact, experts say apparel is the largest-selling category in the online retail bouquet in the US and UK.

These factors have encouraged Indian entrepreneurs to set up e-commerce ventures focused on fashion, apparel and lifestyle products. Take the Gurgaon-based Jabong.com for instance. In the five months since its launch, the site is the most trafficked e-com site in India (as per Google.com traffic stats till June 1, 2012), beating superstars such as Flipkart.com. "We have seen increases in traffic and sales month on month since we launched. What's more, we have many repeat buyers, which to us is an indication that people have confidence in us and in shopping for clothes online," says Manu Jain, an ex-McKinsey executive who is one of the three co-founders of Jabong. He lists the reason for his site's positive performance: the biggest assortment under one virtual 'roof ' (Jabong lists products of more than 400 brands); ease of comparison - which helps you browse through thousands of products in no time and compare prices across brands; home delivery and a great return policy and reliable customer service.

Those reasons would apply equally to most reliable e-com sites in this category, for these factors are repeated almost word for word by Arun Sirdeshmukh, co-founder and CEO of the Bangalore based Fashionara.com, which launched three weeks ago but is being watched intently by others in the sector mainly because of Sirdeshmukh's provenance as an apparel retail veteran who has launched brands and companies such as Indus League and Reliance Trends.

"There has been a fundamental change in shopping patterns in terms of frequency and the shopping cycle and this is helping sites like ours. And I don't mean to sound patronizing, but women are more likely to go in for the impulse purchase and buy more often. They have the purchasing power, too, and online outlets give them another avenue to exercise that," says Sirdeshmukh. "Shopping is not a question of need anymore. It's like - why would I shop more? Because I can." He says women, especially, are attracted to shopping online because of factors like comfort and ease of comparison. At Fashionara, garments can be sorted by brand, fit, size, colour and price, while Jabong offers to show you the most popular items bought by other shoppers.

But first-time buyers always come back to the same question: what if the top or dress I see online doesn't look good on me? The e-com sites are addressing this with a lot of seriousness -- by making sure the displays on their sites are clear and can be magnified, by providing size charts and international sizing guides, and by putting in place customer-friendly return policies.

"Along with cash on delivery and card on delivery, our no-questionsasked returns policy is one of our biggest levers. If you don't like what you get, you can return it free and get your money back, unlike in the offline retail sector where you get in-store vouchers. This is a huge confidencebooster for buyers," says Jain from Jabong.

At Fashionara, returns are picked up free, and in case the company is unable to arrange for a pick up in your location, it credits Rs 100 to the user's store account towards courier charges. It is also developing better technology to increase confidence, such as high-tech virtual trial rooms. "There is a movement to standardize sizes across brands, and when that is achieved, it will be a huge boost for online fashion retail," says Sirdeshmukh.