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Josef Singson started an apparel brand called Roots in 2014. He partnered with Zalora in 2016 to sell products online. While sales increased 141% monthly, order cancellations and returns varied from 0-50%. The document discusses challenges and opportunities in the Philippine online fashion industry, including preferences for local platforms over global ones.

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Boosting Roots With Analytics Preview

Uploaded by

Cleofe Jane P. Casas

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Boosting Roots with Analytics

Josef Singson arrived home from the UnivSersity of Asia and the Pacific, where he was a fourth-year
student of the Master of Science in Management program. Upon putting down his bag, he opened his email
to read Zalora’si August 2016 performance report on the firm he had founded, Roots Est 2014. He was happy
to see the upward trend in sales but was disturbed about the accompanying report on order cancellations
and product returns.

The Beginning of Roots

Josef Singson started Roots Est 2014 as a school project for one of his entrepreneurship classes in
2014. He decided to implement the business plan he had written, establishing Roots with the help of two
friends. The three created a clothing brand to instill youth nationalism. The brand carried men’s and
women's apparel and accessories featuring minimalist designs and a comfortable fit.

Products
The firm stayed fashion-forward and fresh by tapping young aspiring designers to create the designs.
Since 2014, Roots had released six collections of T-shirts. Producing the T-shirts involved two stages. The
first stage was sourcing the plain T-shirts from a local supplier in Binondo.ii The majority of these T-shirts
were made of 100% cotton, polyester, or a cotton/polyester blend for versatility and comfort. The shirts

i Zalora
Philippines is the country’s leading online fashion store.
iiBinondo is a district in Manila often referred to as Manila’s Chinatown. It is the center of commerce and trade in Manila, where all
types of businesses owned and run by Filipino-Chinese are located.
Published by WDI Publishing, a division of the William Davidson Institute at the
University of Michigan.
© 2016 Brenda Quismorio. This case was written by Brenda Quismorio (Faculty Member)
at the University of Asia and the Pacific (Philippines). This case was prepared as the
basis for class discussion rather than to illustrate either effective or ineffective handling
of a situation. This publication is made possible by the generous support of the American
people through the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) under
the terms of Cooperative Agreement #AID-492-A13-00011. The contents do not
necessarily reflect the views of USAID or the United States Government.
Boosting Roots with Analytics

were also relatively inexpensive. The T-shirts usually came in three standard sizes: small, medium and large.
Occasionally, larger sizes such as XL and XXL were provided. The second stage was the manufacturing of
the final T-shirt by another local company in Binondo. All finished products were transported to Josef’s
residence in Alabang,iii where he kept his inventory. In addition to T-shirts, Roots added caps, shorts and
bags in 2016 (Figure 1). The manufacturing of these products followed the same process as the T-shirts.

Figure 1
Example of Root’s Products

Source: Roots Est. 2014 Brochure

Distribution
In June 2016, Roots consigned with Zalora Philippines to sell its products online.iv Zalora was an
online platform where merchants could sell their products to the public over the internet.1 An online buyer
selected the item(s) that he/she wanted to buy and placed them in a cart. The buyer then entered his/her
address and paid either via cash on delivery, online by credit card, or via Paypal.

Once the buyer completed a purchase transaction, Josef received a notification about it via the seller
center (online website). He packaged the order and printed the needed documents, such as invoices,
receipts, and delivery documents for pick up by a courier who brought the order to Zalora’s
warehouse/holding facility. From there, the order was sent to the customer. Zalora paid Roots Est 2014 on
a monthly basis.

Sales
Since partnering with Zalora, Roots was experiencing a 141% increase in average total monthly
sales.(Figure 2). Seasonality was evident in Roots’ monthly sales. The male apparel category contributed
65% of the total sales (Figure 3). The best selling items among male customers were T-shirts, while women
bought blouses and tunics the most (Figure 4 and Figure 5).

iii Alabang is a barangay in Muntinlupa City, located in the south of Manila.

iv For the Terms and Conditions see https://sellercenter.zalora.com.ph/conditions

2
Boosting Roots with Analytics

Figure 2
Roots Monthly Sales