No doubt the COVID-19 pandemic accelerated shift towards a digital world and social media platforms like Instagram became a go-to-business for many netizens especially young people without hassles and tension of heavy investment.
Vitsievono, similarly harnessed the power of the Internet to start selling few used clothes from her closet in Bangalore through an Instagram handle by the name ‘Fresh Pick with Love’ in August, 2020.
"In the beginning, I did not give much importance as I simply planned to sell some of my used clothes," Vitsi narrates as then she had no idea it would become the main source of her income today. "As I sold off some few items, I started sourcing few clothes from the city (Bangalore) itself and kept posting on Instagram," she adds.
The circle was small then with family, friends and few acquaintances from her hometown and city making few hundred followers. One technique, she followed would be not to stock too many pieces of the same item but curating it in a minimalist way of keeping it neat at the same time stylish.
An advantage for her, was, she posed with the items for sale while pairing it with other dress that best matched the item, be it a top or skirt and other apparels like shoes and bags to go with. This distinctive styling technique would often make the sale easy on the other end.
Vitsi, posited that she would sell at a not too expensive prices.
From being the model of the page, to handling order and shipping and maintaining accounts, the little but consistent step from the inception gave her the liberty and opportunity to own the business and at the same time expand it to other platforms both online and offline.
Today, the page has grown with followers over 35,000 on Instagram. However, to cater to the growing demands, she later tied up with Oyela, an online site to sell, buy and discover various fashion apparels. Through the website which has not been over a year old, she notched sales over 8000 items till date. On Oyela, she sells with same discounts and sale prices as on Instagram and store.
Over that, Vitsi who has been settled in Bangalore for few years now and knows the city and the markets well, began to understand her customer's choices and taste. She said she felt the need to open a store in the city too. This demanded her to travel to other cities and even abroad to bring items for sale.
Recently, a reel of the store was shared over 30 thousand times and had over a million plays. "This was unbelievable as the reel invited overwhelming response and we had more and more customers visiting the store,” Vitsi shares, adding that it had both customers from Northeast and the city.
To maintain the business, along with her partner, she employs two other people to take care of the business.
The store is located at Kamanahalli, Bangalore and available at www.oyela.in/fresh_pick_with_love and their Instagram page ‘Fresh Pick with Love.’