The online apparel retail and fashion segments in India having gathered steam in recent months, Textile manufacturer Arvind Limited on Tuesday announced its entry into the e-commerce space to keep pace with the increasing growth of online shopping. It has set up a subsidiary called Arvind Internet Limited (AIL), in Bangalore which will anchor all the company’s e-commerce initiatives to create a firm footing in the e-commerce space. The firm has a 50-member team at AIL.

It plans to launch Creyate, which is the first of its kind custom clothing brand, allows a consumer to create a garment on a three-dimensional (3D) visualisation engine. On the Creyate website, buyers can mix and match from several designs and patterns and create garments to suit their needs. The company said that this is the first among a series of online-retail initiatives that would be announced over the next year.

Kulin Lalbhai, executive director of Arvind Limited. Lalbhai who would be driving the e-commerce initiatives at Arvind Limited believes that e-commerce would be one of the major growth drivers for Arvind moving forward. Arvind has so far invested close to Rs 20 crore into building capacities for Creyate. The company would scale up investment going forward.

The entire manufacturing lifecycle of garments under the Creyate brand is automated, and based on technology that AIL has built internally. Garments for the new brand will be manufactured at two of Arvind Limited's existing units in Bangalore. The company expects Creyate to become a Rs 100-crore brand by next year and aims to achieve a Rs 1,000-crore plus business through e-commerce in three years.

Arvind Limited will also launch brick-and-mortar stores under the Creyate brand, which will allow buyers to customise their garments using the same 3-D technology inside stores. The company has so far launched Creyate stores in Bangalore and Ahmedabad and plans to expand to all major metro cities over the next year.

Creyate has plans of launching stores in 15 cities within the next year. Riding on Arvind group's supply chain prowess and manufacturing might, AIL is planning to take Creyate to global consumers next year starting with the US market, where online custom clothing is a large thriving market.

Arvind Limited is the manufacturer of garments under brands such as Flying Machine, Colt and Excalibur. The company also has retail brands such as Megamart, Next and Club America. Arvind Limited has licence for selling products of several global brands such as Arrow, Elle and US Polo Assn, and a joint venture in India with Tommy Hilfiger.

The online apparel retail and fashion recognized as a lucrative segment in India, Flipkart an Indian e-commerce giant has recently acquired Myntra to strengthen its presence.