How Zivame started
Zivame set out to make buying lingerie in India comfortable and private, at a time when the in-store experience made many women avoid it.
Richa Kar founded Zivame in 2011, addressing a category that was rarely discussed openly in Indian retail: buying lingerie, an experience that for many women involved discomfort, poor sizing guidance, and limited selection in physical stores.
The problem they saw
Lingerie shopping in Indian stores was often an uncomfortable experience, with limited privacy, awkward interactions, and sales staff or store layouts that made many women reluctant to browse freely or ask questions about fit. Sizing was inconsistent across brands, and there was little genuine guidance available to help women find what actually fit them well. Kar saw an opportunity to move this entire experience online, where customers could browse privately, access real information about sizing and fit, and order without the discomfort many associated with the in-store experience.
What they sold first
Zivame launched as an online lingerie retailer, offering a wide range of sizes and styles that were often not available in any single physical store, along with detailed sizing guides to help customers find the right fit without needing to try items on in a shop. Privacy and choice were the two pillars of the early proposition, addressing both the emotional discomfort and the practical difficulty of the category.
The decisions that mattered
Building genuinely useful sizing tools and guidance content was essential, since the biggest practical barrier to buying lingerie online was uncertainty about fit. Zivame invested in making this information clear and accessible, turning a potential weakness of online shopping into a point of confidence for customers.
The brand treated privacy as a core feature of the shopping experience, not just a side benefit, recognising that for many customers, the ability to browse and buy without any of the social discomfort of a physical store was itself a major reason to choose an online option.
Zivame also opened some physical stores over time, but the core of its business remained rooted in the online model that had defined the brand from the start, using stores to complement rather than replace the original proposition.
- 1Product choice
- 2How it is delivered
- How it is explained
What a small brand can take from this
Categories with an uncomfortable or awkward in-person experience can be genuinely improved by moving them online, if you solve the practical problems — like sizing — that made the physical experience necessary in the first place.
Solving the customer's actual anxiety, whether that is fit, privacy, or simply not knowing what to choose, matters more than replicating every feature of the traditional retail experience.
A sensitive or overlooked category, approached thoughtfully, can build fiercely loyal customers precisely because so few other options treated their needs seriously.
If your category needs a more thoughtful, private, or informed shopping experience, you can build that store with early access.
Varchas Stores is not affiliated with Zivame. This is an editorial story based on public reporting, written for founders who are starting out.