Leaders

Marca Disati is a pioneering D2C brand with digital and offline platform that has been able to carve out a niche in this highly crowded market segment owing to the uniqueness and quality of their offerings. Starting from their designs to their customer-centric business operations, Marca Disati has been able to stand out from the rest in the industry and this uniqueness even runs down to the way in which how the company runs their operations. Amit Chand and Yukti Gupta are the Founders of this unique initiative and under their guidance, the company has been able to thrive and clock in impressive growth numbers. As business leaders, both Amit and Yukti wanted to create something unique and at the same time build a successful business model that has the potential to become a market leading brand. Yukti has also been able to set the right vision and identity for their company that prioritizes on offering best value for money products to their customers and this has been a primary catalyst behind the growth of Marca Disati.

In an exclusive interview with Women Entrepreneur, Yukti talks more about her professional journey and what helped her to create a successful business organization from scratch.

1. Can you talk more about your professional background?
I am a textile designer who graduated from NIFT (National Institute of Fashion Technology) and after my education; I worked in home furnishing for 15 years. During this time, I was able to travel a lot and this has helped me to see and understand the fashion scene in multiple countries. I co-founded Marca Disati with my husband who has the experience of working with companies like MAX retail. We saw a huge gap in the fashion market in India and that coupled with the huge growth potential that we see in this sector is what motivated us to establish the brand.  

2. Can you talk more about Marca Disati and what separates you from the rest of the competition?
We are a fashion driven company and what we offer is top-notch quality in our products at an affordable price. We are catering to an aspiring audience and we want to offer something unique for them and we wanted to add a breath of fresh air into the Indian fashion industry.

There is fierce competition in this space. We combine ingenuity with international styles, since we create and design every single product inhouse and bring it to the consumer at an affordable price and this has helped us to separate ourselves from the rest of the competition to an extent.

3. As an industry stalwart, what major changes did you see in this domain in the last couple of years?
The market is changing drastically and more people are getting into the digital realm which is a welcoming sign. The young generation wants to experiment, expand their boundaries and dress uniquely and this motivates us to come up with fun and quirky designs. It is interesting to notice the role of regional influences in fashion and how it impacts people’s dressing. Two people from different parts of the country may pick up same product but style it completely different from each other, which to me is an emergence of personal style. We have also seen an increase in the appetite of the people when it comes to consuming fashion in the country.

“The market is changing drastically and more people are getting into digital realm which is a welcoming sign”

4. What are the various products that you offer?
Casual wear for men and women is our forte and that includes shirts, t-shirts, sweatshirts, jackets, jeans and for women, we also offer dresses and shorts and a plus sized clothing line-Marca Bold. Apart from this, we also have a small collection of home that includes cushion coversand pillow covers. After the start of the pandemic, we have started offering different varieties of masks as well and selling them globally.

5. according to you, what are the factors that have helped you in your professional journey?
I am a designer by education and experience and both these have trained me to have an eye for detail which has helped me to have a fruitful professional journey. I also work on the various facets of our business operations and this has given me a holistic experience in the industry. I don’t easily accept “not possible” for an answer and love to dig deeper to find solutions. I am also open to try out new things and this mentality is crucial to develop your business. I am naturally curious to learn new things and improve myself so that helps me a lot as well.

6. How are you able to increase your brand visibility in the current highly competitive market realm and what are the future plans of the company?
We sell our product through our retail outlets and our own e-commerce website. We also sell through all marketplace platforms and are connected with our customers via different social mediaplatforms. All this has helped us to have the right balance of digital and physical presence in the market.  

Going forward, we want to operate in very niche categories and grow our business there as well (like out Plus size clothing for women, Marca Bold) We are also planning to launch a clothing brand for teenagers and in the post pandemic market and another plan of ours is to come up with men’s plus size clothing.