Can These Former Myntra Execs Fix Fashion Quick Commerce With ZILO?

It’s just been over two years since we started getting fashion delivered to our doorstep at ultra-fast speeds. The buzz began with platforms like Myntra and was followed by a wave of new entrants such as Slikk, Blip, KNOT, and NEWME, who had but one thing in mind — to redefine the fashion ecommerce landscape. 

For a while, it felt like the next big wave in online retail was there to stay, but the momentum didn’t last long. 

One of the earliest startups in the space, Blip, shut down within months of its launch due to a capital crunch, raising critical questions about the long-term viability and operational sustainability of delivering fashion to doorsteps at ultra-fast speeds.

Undeterred, several players continue to raise capital and double down on the opportunity, while many founders, in awe of the space, are bravely venturing into this realm. 

A new entrant in the world of fashion quick commerce is ZILO, a venture by former Myntra and Flipkart executives, who believe that the business model is ailing — not because of challenges breeding from demand or product-market fit, but execution incompetencies.

“If somebody is saying they’ll sell all the unbranded products in the country and change the way customers shop just because they can deliver in 60 minutes, I am not going down that lane,” Bhavik Jhaveri, cofounder of ZILO told Inc42.

Instead, with online fashion marketplace ZILO launched in June this year, Jhaveri wants to baptise mass premium market consumers with the 60-minute model.

For this, the startup has partnered with over 80 brands, including Levi’s, Louis Philippe, United Colors of Benetton, Rare Rabbit, and Jack & Jones. 

The startup has already raised $4.5 Mn in a seed round co-led by Info Edge Ventures and Chiratae Ventures. The startup offers online convenience with an offline-like experience. This means — home trials and instant returns.

Speaking with Inc42, the founders said that people are currently obsessed with quick deliveries. However, he added, focussing too much on super-fast delivery (like in 30 or 60 minutes) is not sustainable without a strong, reliable backend to support it.

“This is a very execution-heavy business… 20X more complex than ecommerce. If executed correctly, there is enough margin and enough demand. Viability is not the question,” he added.

In a market where customers already know what they want and are loyal to specific brands ZILO is betting not just on speed, but on delivering quality, convenience, and operational excellence.

Replicating Myntra’s Success 

With leadership experience at Myntra and Flipkart, both cofounders have witnessed the evolution of Indian ecommerce up close. 

They are also adept at building and scaling fashion businesses — from operations and consumer behaviour to brand dynamics and the challenges of last-mile delivery in fashion retail.

Pal began his journey with Shoppers Stop and stayed there for a decade, gaining knowledge of the branded retail space. 

He later moved to Myntra, where he helped bring leading fashion brands into the ecommerce fold at a time when many were still sceptical about selling online. 

Most recently, he led the branded fashion business at Flipkart, managing large-scale P&L responsibilities and shaping the company’s premium fashion vertical.

Jhaveri, on the other hand, is a serial entrepreneur. His last venture, Pretr, was acquired by Myntra in 2017, after which he joined the company and spent the next 7-8 years leading the product. 

During his time at Myntra, he drove several key innovations, including the development of the marketplace business.

Of the many ecommerce players that depend heavily on dark stores or third-party warehouses, Myntra’s operations have impressed Jhaveri the most. Myntra primarily partners with brands, integrating their store inventory into its ecommerce system. 

“A significant portion of Myntra’s business runs on this omnichannel model, where orders are fulfilled straight from brand stores,” Jhaveri, who was involved in launching Myntra’s M-Now, said.

Working on M‑Now and seeing how Myntra fulfilled orders directly from brand stores made him look at the market differently. It wasn’t just about faster deliveries, but it was a smarter way to do fashion ecommerce — blending speed with better brand access and selection.

When he understood the rules of the game and joined forces with pal , who, too, worked at Myntra.

Together, they saw a broader opportunity to rethink how a fashion marketplace could work. They envisioned replicating Myntra but with a different DNA — more curated and more brand-aligned.

Diving Into The Mass Premium Market

With years of experience, strong operational expertise, and deep exposure to brand partnerships, all they needed was the conviction to execute their vision. 

Refraining from rushing to build a flawed product, they spent months on the ground doing research. Pal and Jhaveri started by visiting 100 stores across Bengaluru and spoke directly with store managers to understand why so many consumers still preferred offline shopping — even when the same products were often available online at better prices.

After laying out some critical data points, they landed on two key insights. First, in the organised fashion market, while the mass segment (with an average order value [AOV] of INR 600) has seen 77% online penetration, the mass premium segment (INR 1,000 AOV) remains largely offline, with 83% of purchases happening in physical stores. 

Second, the shopping behaviour of the affluent (roughly 25 Mn Indians) is fundamentally different. These users shop around 25 times a year, with an average ticket size of INR 2,000, and they shop with purpose. It’s usually for an occasion such as a party, a wedding, a work event, or a festival. But when they go online, especially on large ecommerce platforms, they’re hit with discovery fatigue. 

“Instead of feeling inspired, the shopper just gets lost. As a result, these consumers are moving away from horizontal marketplaces and returning to either offline stores or individual brand websites, just to get a better, more curated experience, even if it means compromising slightly on post-purchase convenience,” Jhaveri said.

This left the founders with a core thesis: to build a brand that targets mass premium, affluent consumers, offering them an offline-like experience with the speed and convenience of online minus the clutter. That idea became the foundation for ZILO — a full-stack, store-led fashion marketplace that aggregates brand-level inventory, limits selection to what’s actually relevant, and powers 60-minute delivery.

“It’s about creating a digitised mall experience where consumers can shop from trusted brands like Levi’s, Jack & Jones, Rare Rabbit and more, get just the right amount of curated options, and receive their order within the hour,” Jhaveri said, adding that Zilo is not trying to change what the customer buys — only where and how they buy it from.

What Lies Ahead For ZILO

The cofounders are very clear about ZILO’s positioning — they don’t see it as just a quick delivery player but as a modern, digital-first branded fashion retailer built for urban, affluent consumers. 

The founders are of the view that the moment fashion becomes just a last-minute option, it starts to feel commoditised — losing personal or emotional value and starts feeling like just another commodity like groceries or everyday items. 

“We are in the branded, mass premium space where what you wear matters. Yes, we offer 60-minute delivery, but that’s just one part of the experience. What really sets us apart is our selection, a curated mix of trusted brands, the kind you’d usually find in a mall,” Pal said.

Just a few weeks into launch, and the brand is already seeing solid traction — 35 to 40 orders a day with minimal marketing. 

With 80+ brands onboard and around 40,000 SKUs live, ZILO currently operates through a dark store model in Mumbai, which stocks its own inventory. 

The store services a 7-km radius with 60-minute delivery and fulfils the rest of the city with a 3-hour promise. However, the long-term goal is to build a hybrid supply chain that combines both dark store and brand-owned retail stores for direct fulfilment.

Its logistics is run through a dedicated delivery fleet managed by a third-party partner, but fully captive to ZILO. At present, ZILO is available only in Mumbai, but the team is taking a “win one city before scaling” approach. It plans to expand to Delhi or Bengaluru next, and reach 10 to 11 cities over the next two years.

The bigger vision for the founders is to become a complete fashion wardrobe destination — expanding beyond apparel into categories like jewellery and footwear, while also enabling consumers to shop entire looks curated by its AI-powered style planner. 

All in all, ZILO’s entry into the fashion quick commerce segment is a reminder to many that ultra-fast deliveries is just one side of the story, especially in the realm of fashion, where curated experiences, premium brands, and operational rigour make for the oft-ignored other half. 

However, the road that serves it all is not easy to travel. Capital-intensive logistics, high burn rates, and a reliance on premium consumer behaviour pose significant challenges. Interestingly, it seems that ZILO has it covered with Myntra-like omnichannel strengths that are in sync with a quick, more curated, customer-centric playbook. This raises the question — Is ZILO another Myntra in the making?

[Edited by Shishir Parasher]