How Has The Covid-19 Pandemic Affected Beyoung, The Fastest Growing Startup?

Under the coronavirus pandemic and lockdown, one of the markets that saw little revenue was fashion e-commerce. Here’s how Beyoung, an e-commerce startup, has managed to survive, expand, and grow.

The COVID-19 pandemic appears to have a significant effect on the world economy, but several companies have shown the ability to persevere in the face of difficulties. Beyoung, a business-to-consumer (B2C) fashion brand, has proven its ability to get back on track.

Beyoung is a youth-oriented online fashion brand founded in 2018 by Mr. Shivam Soni. The startup made approximately Rs 36 crore in revenue in FY20. When the national lockdown was declared in March 2020, however, it saw its revenues drop to null.

“As fashion fell under the non-essential category, we came down to zero revenue and there was no guarantee when things would open up,” says Mr. Shivam, CEO of Beyoung. As a result, the company continued to consider how it could prosper and succeed in these difficult times. One thing this startup knew for sure was that the lockout controls would not be lifted anytime soon.

Customer satisfaction is essential – Beyoung received customers returned to its website, but there was a difference: customers were waiting for something more. As a result, the startup agreed to concentrate on clothing that was needed during the lockdown. It also launched other merchandise such as comfortable boxers and smart polo T-shirts, which were in high demand during the early days of the pandemic and because of the growing market for such apparel for “Work from Home” purposes.

Adapting a new approach – As a result, Beyoung took a close look at its business strategy and devised new ways to emerge stronger from the crisis. It began to recruit talent from the local areas.  Customer behavior, and how it changed as a result of the pandemic, was critical for Beyoung. “We saw a lot of change towards online and knew it would be sustainable, we agreed to make long-term investments.”  He further said.” Mr. Soni says.   This included boxers, newly printed t-shirts, smart polo t-shirts, and other clothing items that were in high demand during the lockdown.

Beyoung is now on much more solid footing, as traffic on its platform has returned to pre-COVID-19 peaks, and the startup has begun to see the benefits of its improvements. Despite the presence of powerful online fashion brands such as Myntra, Amazon, and Ajio, Beyoung has been able to thrive in this industry for more than two and a half years now. This, according to the founder, is due to the startup’s online differentiation.

Beyoung learned a lot through the pandemic, according to the founder, and all of the improvements it brought about such as exporting production, increasing merchandises, and learning customer behaviors may not have been possible on regular days.