With 806 stores, Trent’s value fashion retail brand, Zudio’s recipe for growth has been one of aggressive store expansion. Be it Patna, Varanasi, Anand, Jallandhar or Pune, a Zudio store is kind of ubiquitous. While flagship, Westside, caters to a premium audience, Zudio thrills the masses with its affordable price-points (typically in the region of Rs 500-600) across categories such as apparels, footwear and now beauty. When Zudio entered the market in 2017, it already had lot of competition (from the likes of Reliance Trends, V-Mart and so on). It chose to follow the Westside model of building its own private brands, which has worked.

What sets Zudio apart from the rest? In a world where omni-channel is the name of the game, Zudio has chosen to retail only out of its physical stores. In fact, 5%-6% of Westside’s revenue comes out of online sales, but Zudio doesn’t have an online presence.  “It just simplifies the business,” says MD, P. Venkatesalu. “The cost of serving the online channel is significant and you need a different set of muscles to play that at scale.”

The Strategy

The omnichannel model is more suited for Westside, which caters to an aspirational audience, believes, Venkatesalu.  Being omnichannel requires digital marketing spends as well as investments in supply chain. The Trent MD feels that the Westside audience is more attuned to shopping online. More importantly, the value pricing of Zudio doesn’t make it viable for an omnichannel business model. “It works in Westside. It is pitched at a slightly more aspirational consumer set and I think omnichannel is more viable in the Westside ecosystem. It was a choice we made. We are not for or against any channel. We just make choices about what would work at a point in time for a brand,” he explains. He doesn’t rule out Zudio going the omnichannel way in the times to come.   

But the world shops fashion on Amazon or Flipkart at price points as low as Rs 300. Doesn’t Zudio run the risk of losing consumers? Venkatesalu says what is important is to be part of a consumer’s set of consideration. He says a consumer is seldom loyal to just one brand when it comes to shopping for fashion. He/she always prefers to try out multiple brands. “The centre of gravity may not be 20 but it will always be 3-5 brands. Are you in that consideration set is the question. If you are in the consideration set for enough of a critical mass of audience, then you are relevant at least at a point in time.”

It is important that the brand continuously evolves in order to stay relevant and remains in the consideration set of consumers. “The question is what do you do to keep yourself relevant on a continuous basis because the customer is evolving, the customer is not non-static and to that extent the brand needs to keep evolving. For instance, Westside of 2005 was very different from 2015 to what it is in 2025,” Venkatesalu further explains. 

While the Westside merchandise appeals to upwardly mobile Indians, in Zudio, the strategy has been to offer high quality fashion at mass price-points. “Great quality at those prices, the customer does resonate with it, especially if you do it consistently over long periods of time. The customer will judge you whether you are consistent or not. She instinctively learns that this is what the brand stands for and if the brand does not create too much dissonance from her expectation, you do then build some equity. So, it is a different picture. It is a different positioning.”

International Foray

The size of a Zudio store is around 8,000 sq.ft. to 12,000 sq.ft. unlike Westside which is in the region of 25,000-40,000 sq.ft. Trent has surprisingly used the Zudio brand to pilot its international foray in the UAE. Why Zudio, why not Westside in a more matured market like the UAE? “It is a tighter format. Now, it's much easier to play with a tighter footprint than a wider footprint. We are at no point saying that we are more bullish about Zudio than Westside,” he explains.

Venkatesalu claims that Trent’s overseas pilot with Zudio has been encouraging. “If you do the right things, the customer exists.”