Fast-fashion app Sorabel starts expansion beyond Indonesia

After five years of growth in its home market of Indonesia and raising US$27 million from investors – including Gobi Partners and Convergence Ventures – since launch, one shopping app has just started to expand overseas.

Fast-fashion app Sorabel – formerly known as Sale Stock – is now quietly testing a store in the Philippines under the name Yabel, CEO Jeffrey Yuwono tells Tech in Asia.

The startup, he adds, wants to serve people who have and don’t have disposable income as well as offer them decent fashion choices in their neighborhoods.

Photo credit: Sharon Garcia

“One of the things common to the Philippines and Indonesia is large populations and low retail penetration rates,” he explains. “The average Filipino, like the average Indonesian, doesn’t have access to modern retail and nice things. It’s an access problem.”

While Jakarta and Manila are known for their huge malls where people stay all day, other cities tend to lack good shopping options, with many reliant on street markets that sell knock-offs and no-name, questionably made products.

Vietnam and Cambodia are “interesting” candidates for further expansion, though Yuwono sees “developing markets in general” as prime targets for the ecommerce startup, which does things differently from most marketplaces like Zalora. Sorabel actually designs its own clothes, and they make up the bulk of its sales.

Asos-style

In that respect, Sorabel is a lot like Asos, the US$2 billion startup that has challenged fast-fashion retailers like H&M and Zara with its app.

Indeed, Yuwono name-checks Asos several times during his interview, saying the companies have similar economics and approach to affordable fashion.

Right now, nearly 80% of Sorabel’s sales come from its own apparel lines.

Asos has become something of a cult hit in Europe, thanks to the way it rapidly converts what’s worn on the catwalks of Paris or the red carpets of Hollywood into price-friendly gear for the masses.

And it’s also been pilloried for some of its outlandish clobber, prompting the Buzzfeed listicle 23 Times Asos Went Too Far and a parody Instagram account that simply posts actual Asos product photos alongside snarky captions.

Sorabel has 20 designers among its 800 staff, who have created 4,000 products for its private-label clothing lines. Along with third-party brands, the site has 10,000 items for Indonesian shoppers.

Make trumpet sleeves great again

Zinging Zalora

Risky rebranding

Ecommerce newcomer