Shobitam's Aparna Thyagarajan on Scaling Ethnic Fashion Globally
13 Jul 2026
Indian Ethnic Wear, Delivered to Six Continents
At YourStory's MSME Sparks 2026, held June 26 at ITC Gardenia in Bengaluru, Aparna Thyagarajan — Co-founder and Chief Product Officer of Shobitam — delivered the opening keynote titled "Woven for the World: Taking Indian Traditions Global." Her core message: cultural specificity, not dilution, is what travels.
"India is no longer trying to blend in," Thyagarajan said, framing a shift in how Indian-origin brands are positioning themselves internationally — leaning into heritage rather than softening it for global audiences.
Inside Shobitam's Scale
Shobitam is described as the largest cross-border ethnic fashion platform serving the US and Canada. According to the report, the company:
- Ships to customers across all six continents, including remote markets like Fairbanks, Alaska, and Wellington, New Zealand
- Works with more than 75 partners
- Has collected over 13,000 five-star reviews
- Counts actor Vidya Balan as its global brand ambassador
- Offers a preset saree that customers can wear in under a minute — a product example of adapting traditional wear for modern convenience
The report does not specify how the 75+ partners are defined — whether designers, manufacturers, or retailers — nor does it detail Shobitam's founding year, funding history, revenue, team size, or headquarters location beyond its US and Canada focus.
The Tariff Reality
A key operational challenge raised in the keynote: the 50% US tariffs imposed last year. For a cross-border fashion business like Shobitam, this kind of trade-policy shift demands agility — such as setting up entities in lower-tariff jurisdictions or closely tracking regulatory changes. The report does not detail the specific steps Shobitam has taken beyond these general strategies.
The MSME Backdrop
Thyagarajan's keynote came at an event centered on India's MSME sector, which the report notes:
- Contributes close to 50% of India's exports
- Accounts for around 30% of India's GDP
- Supports roughly 33 crore livelihoods
This scale suggests a broader ecosystem in which India-linked, export-oriented brands operate — though the report draws no direct causal link between MSME data and Shobitam's own performance.
Why Founders Should Care
For founders building cross-border or culturally-rooted products, a few signals from this report are worth weighing carefully:
- Niche-to-global scaling looks plausible. Shobitam's six-continent reach and 75+ partner network suggest that culturally specific products can likely find distributed global demand rather than being confined to diaspora hubs alone.
- Trade policy risk is a real operating variable. The 50% US tariff mentioned in the report indicates that founders in cross-border retail should probably build contingency plans — such as jurisdictional flexibility — into their supply chain thinking from early on.
- Heritage-forward branding may be gaining traction. Thyagarajan's framing implies that leaning into authenticity, rather than adapting products to blend into foreign markets, could increasingly resonate with global consumers — though this remains a directional signal rather than confirmed market data.
- India's MSME scale may offer tailwinds. With MSMEs contributing near half of India's exports, founders building adjacent or supporting businesses may find a supportive, if indirect, economic backdrop.
What's Missing
The report leaves several gaps: Shobitam's funding history, exact partner definitions, team size, and the specific tariff-mitigation tactics it has adopted are all unaddressed. Founders looking to replicate this playbook will need more granular detail than what was shared on stage.