Zouk plans to open five exclusive brand outlets this year

Accessories brand Zouk plans to open five exclusive brand outlets this year in cities where it has a strong customer base. The brand recently opened its maiden brick-and-mortar store in Mumbai and also plans to expand into the US and Canada and bolster its direct to customer e-commerce store. 

“We have data from D2C site like where our customers base is, what is their purchase preference… which will be leveraging for choosing all the locations,” Zouk’s co-founder Pradeep Krishnakumar told the Press Trust of India. “We have certain hotspots with good, strong customers base, be [it] in Mumbai, Bengaluru, Pune, and Ahmedabad. These will be top focus areas we will be looking at.” 
 
By opening offline stores, Zouk plans to increase its brand visibility, reach new customers, and enable shoppers to see its products in person. In order to expand with an omni-channel strategy, the brand plans to continue to focus on driving traffic to its D2C website and further expand that internationally to reach South Asian diaspora abroad. 

“As a business, we have grown tremendously both on own D2C website… now about 60% of our business still comes from our D2C site, which is our own website channel… and expanding on marketplaces,” said Krishnakumar. “A lot of that will start playing out even more and more from here.”
 
Disha Singh and Pradeep Krishnakumar launched Zouk to use handicrafts to create modern products which are in demand with young Indians. The brand retails handbags, footwear, and accessories such as hair accessories and wallets among others.