With a literal explosion of e-commerce sites on the India Market – brands have had to resort to ingenious methods to achieve success and stay relevant in the minds of their audience.

Gradually brands are realizing that for people shopping isn’t a one-click activity, but rather a Journey of Exploration & Discovery, facilitated at every stage by Inspirations, Tips & People-who-matter. It’s the one thing that’s most personalised & very social, both at the same time, hence what if there was a platform which embodied & balanced these two aspects. We came across this extraordinary concept by SimplySizzl.in which did just that and combined ‘new technology’ along with ‘shopper psychology’.

According to Geetika Saigal, CEO & Co-Founder, “With SimplySizzl.in, Luxury’s just got cooler; Fashion’s changed to Styling, and Shopping’s going Social! We felt that users today had had enough of generic Amazon & eBay look-alike ecommerce portals and there really was no significant difference in the online shopping experience whether it was Trendy Lux Fashion & Lifestyle or Books or Groceries that one was looking for. So we wanted to create a platform which users would visit again & again because they ‘enjoy’ it. And for that we’ve got back to the drawing board to combine the basics of shopping. It’s about having the ‘right’ catalogue (and size doesn’t necessarily matter here!), ‘engaging’ with the shopper, and remembering that shopping is one of the most ‘social’ activities we all pursue.”

From the beginning Manu Sinha and Madhuri Arora (Co-Founders SimplySizzl.in) were also quite clear about their objective to design an in-built proprietary engagement platform that’s Interactive, Social & Rewarding, where users could tap into their own style personas to ‘create’ their own Looks. Users can also browse through ‘Street Looks’, a space showcasing all user looks created, in order to get inspiration from the community, everyday. Moreover, the portal’s own styling team shoots the latest & ever-green trends in their ‘LookBook’ section for those looking for glossy professionally styled looks.”

The ‘Create a Look’ combines 3 elements key to ‘User Engagement’:

1. It’s Interactive
The Create a Look tool lets users browse the entire catalogue and design Style Sets in the form of collages, by a simple Drag-n-Drop functionality. The sets can be based on any theme, trend or simply their mood that day! Moreover, the Tool Box, gives them options to Flip, Flop, move pictures Backward or Forward, Zoom in & out, Rotate, to help them express their creative bent of mind. Best of all, there are ready-made Fashion Templates based on chosen themes & trends, to help people start out.

2. It’s Social
Once created, each Street Look gets saved under the users name or Alias that she/he wants to go by, a Look Name & a Style Comment. The Look gets published in the Street Looks section on the site, but what’s really interesting is that the user can post the Look onto their Facebook page to share with her/his friends.

3. It’s Rewarding
The portal encourages users to engage via Creating, Sharing & Liking Looks. By sharing on their Facebook pages, their friends can visit their look on the site & ‘Like’ it. Moreover, any visitor to the site, can ‘Like’ any of the Street Looks created.
Meanwhile, SimplySizzl’s proprietary Loyalty Program, is built to reward engagement. With every engagement action, the user wins Sizzlseg. 100 Sizzls for creating a Look, another 100 Sizzls for Sharing on their Facebook page, 10 Sizzls for Liking any Look.
The program also rewards the most Liked & Popular looks, by keeping track of the popularity of each user ie. As the number of ‘Likes’ ticker for your look increases, you start to win even more Sizzls!
The program keeps track of the Sizzls in each users account, and upon hitting the minimum criteria, the Program automatically moves users to the next level. There are 4 different levels – Enthusiast, Fashionista, Trendsetter, Diva – and each level has higher benefits attached to them.
Another reason why at the onset itself this exciting concept is receiving tremendous response is its enjoyable game-like experience which takes engagement to a whole new level. Moreover, it also helps hi-end labels to be just that little bit more accessible to those with style-sense, desire & aspirations to move-up.
Not surprisingly a substantial slice of their target audience comprises of women and the younger age-group to whom this platform is highly appealing. In fact SimplySizzl.in is well aware of this fact that their audiences are the ones who have been instrumental in pioneering social commerce all over the world and they are the ones who will embrace this social technology and eventually help in creating a community of fashion lovers that everyone can follow/get inspired from.