Using only cruelty-free materials has been our conscious decision
Baggit has established itself as a leading Indian brand renowned for its innovative, cruelty-free fashion accessories. With a commitment to sustainability and local craftsmanship, Baggit offers a diverse range of non-leather products, including handbags, wallets, and more. Proudly made in India, the brand blends traditional artistry with contemporary designs, ensuring high-quality, eco-friendly products that resonate with modern consumers. Speaking to Fibre2Fashion, MD & Chief Design Curator Nina Lekhi discusses cruelty-free handbags market.
The global handbag and accessories market is seeing a shift towards sustainable and vegan materials. How do you see this trend evolving?
Currently bio-degradable and completely sustainable materials are expensive and such products have premium pricing compared to fast-fashion products. The consumer segment willing to pay a premium price for such eco-friendly products is still small, even though the awareness is growing. Consumers will reach a tipping point soon, when they will seek few sustainable fashion products of classical designs that last many seasons rather than the current practice of seeking cheaper, trendier products that are discarded at the end of a season or two.
With the rise of fast fashion and affordable international brands entering the Indian market, how can homegrown handbag brands maintain their competitive edge?
Home-grown brands have to match foreign brands in terms of design, quality, variety and pricing at all times to attract and retain patronage. Also, the best form of defence as people say is offence. Indian brands need to treat the global marketplace as their market to gain scale and efficiency associated with a bigger business to survive and compete both domestically and globally. E-commerce is a leveller in the sense as it enables Indian brands to launch and compete in international markets more easily than ever.
The digital revolution has significantly changed the retail landscape. How crucial is omnichannel presence—integrating online, offline, and social commerce—for brands in the handbag industry?
Digital and social media communications have become the de facto choice for brand communications, given their ability to target sharper customer profiles with differentiated messages. The offline:online media spends has moved from 80:20 in the past to 20:80 in favour of online media now. While omni-channel is a nice concept, we at Baggit find that the current offline, online and quick commerce channels are good enough to meet 99 per cent of the customer needs without complicating with omni-channel designs.
Baggit has been a pioneer in cruelty-free, vegan handbags in India. What inspired you to start this brand, and how has the journey evolved over the years?
I am an accidental entrepreneur in the sense that Baggit was started as a way to take my mind of me failing my first year of college. I did not expect the brand to be this successful initially, but the journey that has seen many ups and downs has been utterly enjoyable.
What were some of the biggest challenges you faced in establishing Baggit as a household name in India’s handbag market?
Distribution is a critical need for building any successful fashion retail business. While the emergence of departmental store chains helped immensely in the initial years, the brand got recognised as a market leader only when we invested in exclusive brand outlets (EBOs). Absence of good malls / high street locations with reasonable rentals affected the profitability in the initial years. As the supply side of quality retail spaces increased and as we got more capable of understanding the dynamics of modern retail, there was no looking back for us.
Baggit is known for its unique designs and functionality. How does the brand strike a balance between aesthetics, sustainability, and practicality?
The consumer trends are gleaned from our various observations and interactions with our customers and non-customers at multi-brand outlets. There are global trend reports put out by agencies like WGSN that also inform our designers on what is happening outside India. The designers/salespeople are encouraged to at least spend two hours every week in travelling and meeting with customers to understand their expectations and the gaps that we need to fill.
Sustainability has been a strong pillar for Baggit. How do you ensure that your materials and manufacturing processes align with ethical and eco-friendly standards?
Using only cruelty-free materials has been our conscious decision. We have recently launched a new range under ‘Maatii’ brand that is either completely bio-degradable or uses recycled/up-cycled materials (cane; canvas, used denim/cloth; recycled tyre etc). Even synthetic materials that we use like PVC and PU are of a higher grade that are recyclable. We understand our responsibility to Mother Earth by focusing on sustainability in all our actions.
With increasing consumer awareness about sustainability, are there any new innovations in materials or design that Baggit is currently working on?
Under the ‘Maatii’ brand, we have also launched completely bio-degradable paper-mâché bags that can withstand the rigour of daily usage of ladies’ handbags. We have to learn a number of processes to treat paper-mâché to be strong and water-resistant. We are also working on synthetic fabric made out of disposable plastic straw as an alternative to PVC/PU. There are other alternatives like fabric from lotus etc that are very expensive at this stage, but under observation from us for usability in the future.
How has consumer behaviour evolved in the Indian accessories market, and how has Baggit adapted to these changes?
In recent years, we have seen consumer behaviour in fashion retail getting polarised between ‘value for money’ range and premium range. The mid-priced brands / products are being squeezed from both ends and they have to decide on adoption of either premium positioning or value for money positioning. Baggit will gravitate towards premium positioning, while the mass segment and the young customers looking for trendy fashion at affordable pricing will be served by an online-focused sub-brand.
Consumer preferences are evolving rapidly, with a focus on personalisation and functionality. How do you think handbag brands can cater to this demand while maintaining large-scale production?
Personalisation can be a layer added to a standard manufactured product at the point of shipping. Unless we are talking of luxury handbags (priced > ₹100,000), customers would not wait for days required for any meaningful customisation. However, simple customised gifting messages that can be added in packaging or value-added customised trinkets (from pre-selection) etc are great tools to personalise, especially for gifting purposes.
With growing competition from international and local brands, what strategies does Baggit use to maintain its unique positioning in the market?
Baggit is the most searched brand in the online world due to millions of customers having good experience in using the brand over the last four decades. Baggit has built a retail concept that is profitable, scalable and franchisable (with over 100 EBOs currently). Baggit plans to take its network of EBOs to 350 outlets in the next 4-5 years. Its versatile manufacturing competencies that can make products at varying price points and still be profitable is a competitive moat that brands that rely on building businesses on imported products will find difficult to beat.
Counterfeiting is a major concern in the accessories industry. What steps can brands take to protect their designs, maintain authenticity, and educate consumers about genuine products?
Counterfeiting is a problem for luxury brands where the intrinsic value of the product is a very small fraction of the final price paid by the customer (large part is for the intangible prestige value of the brand). We are careful in providing the maximum value to our customers that makes it unattractive for counterfeiters to engage with our brand.
Baggit has a strong presence in both offline and online retail. What role does e-commerce play in your brand strategy, and do you see more expansion in global markets?
The young customers in the 16-25 years of age and looking for trendy products at value for money prices are targeted online, while the offline will focus on more mature customers in the 25-49 years age group who have a higher disposable income and who enjoy the sensory experience of offline retail. The Baggit branded product is intended to be launched abroad in markets with higher Indian diaspora, taking advantage of internet reach and fulfilment capabilities of international e-commerce platforms.
D2C (Direct-to-Consumer) brands are booming. Do you see Baggit focusing more on its own online platform rather than third-party marketplaces?
There is a place for both D2C and third-party marketplaces in India. While third-party marketplaces bring huge traffic for various categories and can provide greater visibility and business to brands like Baggit, the brand equity is slightly compromised due to heavy focus on discounts as the primary driver of business on those platforms. The baggit.com site however focuses on presenting the latest collections, and in a way is the equivalent of an exclusive brand outlet in online space. There is a small section devoted to previous season merchandise that are sold at a discount catering to discount-seeking customers. While both D2C and third-party marketplaces will grow in line with increased share of online customers in the overall market, the relative importance of D2C will also increase over time.
What is your long-term vision for Baggit, and how do you see the brand evolving in the next five years?
The COVID-19 pandemic taught all nations to diversify their supply chains to avoid shocks that emanate from putting all sourcing in a single nation’s basket. This has opened up global markets to brands outside of China. Handbags as a category, being a labour-intensive, needing smaller quantities in greater variety, lends itself for being made in India competitively. Baggit sees itself as a responsible and successful global brand that happens to be based in India.
