LimeRoad banks on exclusive content

Online fashion retailer LimeRoad.com, which specializes in women's products, announced on Tuesday (May 6) both the launch of its android mobile application and that it had received Series B funding of $15 million from investors led by Tiger Global. Existing investors Lightspeed and Tiger Global also participated in the round, taking the total amount of funding in LimeRoad to $20 million. The start-up plans to use the funds to enhance its user interface and work on its mobile platform, social media marketing and increase hiring.

Roughly a year into fashion retailing, LimeRoad.com has a total of 150,000 products and looks on the site. Suchi Mukherjee, Founder and CEO of LimeRoad, says one of the strongest differentiators for the company vis--vis competitors like Myntra and Jabong is that about 50 to 90 per cent of the products and user generated looks are unique. "We rely heavily on user-generated content and exclusive tie-ups with vendors to command exclusivity," she says. Mukherjee was formerly Managing Director at UK's largest classifieds company Gumtree before starting LimeRoad in late 2012 with Prashant Malik. "People (called scrapbookers) are posting what clothes work together," she adds.

LimeRoad is a women- products-only managed marketplace with a zero inventory model. This means the company does not buy any inventory from vendors who number over 500 and are a mix of large brands and small retailers such as Dastakar or Cotton Curo in Jaipur. While LimeRoad does not mention the total number of orders on the site every day, the company claims to have doubled the number of orders on the site from last December to April this year with very little marketing.  Close competitor Myntra.com executes 15000- 20000 orders per day across all categories,   30 per cent of which are from women.   The company has about  280 brands catering exclusively to women only products.