FabAlley boosts offline presence by partnering with Future Group

FabAlley, an online, women's fashion brand for today announced its tie-up with Central, a chain of multi-brand stores run by the Future Group. The first locations to have an offline FabAlley store would be the Central outlets in Gurgaon, Mumbai, Hyderabad and Patna.

The company said it would add cities like Bangalore, Pune, Noida and Chandigarh in the next few weeks. FabAlley had earlier opened a physical store in Delhi last June.

This follows a trend that has been established of online start-ups adding offline as a sort of additional experience medium, particularly for customers who fancy actually touching and seeing the products before purchase. Companies like Pepperfry and Lenskart, among others, have started exploring the offline route.

The FabAlley offline experience would basically be interactive shop-in-shops at Central outlets.

"Central has always been a one-stop destination for passionate shoppers across India and FabAlley is delighted to be associated with it," said Tanvi Malik, Co-founder of FabAlley, in a media release.

"Going offline is a big step towards introducing new customers to the style and fit of our clothes, while also showcasing new offerings to existing customers." Future Group's Central boasts more than 250 Indian and international brands including Nike, Allen Solly, Pepe Jeans, Vero Moda, Forever New, among others.

"The need for globally inspired fast fashion is quickly catching on with young fashion conscious women. To meet this demand, we are happy to partner with FabAlley and offer cutting edge styles and designs to our women customers, giving them a choice of the best in fast fashion inspired by global trends," said, Jitendranath Patri, Chief Marketing & Customer Loyalty, Central.

In the release, FabAlley said it plans to aggressively expand offline across the country "with 40-50 more shop-in-shops scheduled to launch in the next 6 - 8 months".