As modest wear’s foray into mainstream circles grows stronger year-on-year, so too does the sheer speed of changing consumer trends in modest fashion. According to research, a projected global market value of RM1.29 trillion by 2024 modest fashion is today no longer a niche novelty nor limited only to Muslim communities.
Driven by this evolving consumer base, brands big and small are working to not only merge modest fashion with modern design trends, but also to remain cost-effective as they race to keep up with the revolving door of what’s in and what’s out.
Embracing this growing diversity on local shores is ZUCCA, a propelling homegrown modest wear ahead of the game: as the first Malaysian brand to apply a real-time approach to modest fashion. ZUCCA sees a solution to this in real-time fashion. Leveraging social commerce algorithms, SEO keywords, and live customer feedback, the real-time approach allows brands to monitor customer insights and curate clothing based on current trends or behavioural patterns.
Elaborating on real-time fashion, Erica Yap, co-founder of ZUCCA shares: “Let’s say, there are two types of tops; one is a chequered long blouse and the other is a floral cotton blouse with a batik pattern. The magic of real-time fashion is that it helps us compare the sales and reviews between these two items to understand not just what they prefer, but why. It could be that more customers feel like the batik floral blouse for its retro vibes or comfier material! Once we zero in on that, we can then immediately start producing more of this design to respond instantly to what our customers want.”
With the ability to turn fashion trends into clothing collections in a matter of days, ZUCCA focuses on creating inclusive modest clothing that caters not only to the large demographic of modest women in Malaysia but the increasingly fashion-forward group amongst these women as well. As part of this business approach, ZUCCA also works actively to empower local small and medium manufacturers, collaborating with them to produce small ‘prototype’ batches to get initial feedback.
Founded in 2019, ZUCCA has established a strong brand presence on social media platforms, accumulating 300,000 followers on Facebook and Instagram, and another 200,000 followers on TikTok. Within the past two years, ZUCCA has achieved several milestones, growing its sales revenue by more than 400% in 12 months and successfully raising RM1.126 million in seed funding to facilitate market expansion.
Currently, ZUCCA is working on upping its entrepreneurial game in understanding the Malaysian market and aiming to penetrate Indonesia, Singapore and Brunei’s modest fashion market by 2023.
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