This Global Player is Making Competition Fierce for India's $40 billion Wedding Industry The ball is in the Indian wedding gifts companies' court as they will face competition from the biggest international rival

As technology is revolutionizing almost every sector with its advancement, the wedding industry is not far from its biggest transformation.

With growing opportunities in the market, an influx of foreign companies is breaking into the India's booming wedding market to woo customers and expand their business .

Amongst them, the globally well-known company, ZankYou's foray into the Indian market is expected to trigger an intense competition for the wedding gifts companies in the country.

Based out of Spain, Zank You is a premiere wedding registry and reference platform that currently operates in more than 20 countries. Marking the diversity and the innate craze of Indians with weddings of different sorts, the tech-enabled international wedding player, Zank You's aim is to revolutionize the way people give cash contributions to wedding couples through its recently introduced services like e-shagun in India.

The company has already tied up with over 3000+ vendors in India, and is working with some of the best wedding planners in India, that includes the likes of Vandana Mohan of The Wedding Design Company as well as celebrity makeup artist Namrata Soni.

BIZ Experiences India caught up with the co-founder of Zank You, Guillermo Fernandez Riba on his visit to India and talked about why the company chose India as its first Asian market and how the brand is looking to establish itself in the most diversified amongst industries in India.

One-stop-over for all Wedding Services

Witnessing the all-time boom in the Indian wedding market, the company saw how Indians are fascinated with doing creative things in their wedding ceremonies which is causing a huge change in the overall spending behaviour. "With Indians getting richer and spending more each year, the market here is recession proof. Therefore, we thought why not Indian market," said Riba.

He further added that the Indian wedding industry is growing by 20-30 per cent every year, which is a remarkable growth rate to expand business.

Zank You is a one-stop integrated wedding service platform, which enables a bridal couple to select everything from the wedding planner to wedding venue to invite guests for the functions in the wedding. One of their popular features amongst them is the wedding gift registry which allows a couple to post the gifts they want for their wedding. The invited guests are welcomed to make their choices from the list and can pay for them online.

Technology - A Big Differentiator

The brand has successfully launched itself in January 2018 in India along with the several tie-ups with e-commerce companies, wedding planners and thousands of vendors. The company claims that it is India's first ever tech-enabled wedding service platform.

When asked about the use of technology in business, Riba said, "Couples want more personalised weddings and they want to plan everything on their fingertips. That's what we offer through our app and website."

The brand offers a free wedding website to the bridal couples to design it in their own way. From photographers to caterers to make-up artists, it is providing solutions for everything that any bridal couple would want.

"Localizing' the way we Operate

The Spanish brand takes pride in manifesting that the brand which started a decade ago is now in 23 countries. It is also the market leader in the European and South American market. Riba explained how the "localizing' factor has had worked in favour of the company and how the same is high on agenda to connect with consumers in India as well.

"Whilst we may be a Spanish brand we are as local as it gets in the countries we operate in," said Riba.

"Each country has its own separate team of local nationals. In India, we have put in place a local on ground team," added Riba.

Talking about the company's rule to invest in different markets, Riba said the company wants to invest in the countries which deeply care for weddings, and categorically mentioned "India' as one of the biggest markets today..

"Not only is there a large financial investment, but a much larger emotional component there in India, which goes into it," he said.

Is Zank You the Next Disruptor?

In India, the brand is positioning itself as the first ever wedding company to give tailor made services to the bridal couples. While sharing the ultimate aim of the company, Riba talked about how the company wants to give global inspiration to couples in India plan bespoke weddings.

"Not only do we plan to bring greater ease and joy for the millennial couple whilst planning their weddings but we also aim to introduce services like e-shagun, wherein the guests can make on online gift contribution for the to-be married couple," he revealed.

Speaking about India's advancement in digital payment landscape, he added that India being a highly tech savvy country is not far behind to adopting this new concept of sending across the wedding gifts digitally.

Will this new tech-enabled platform be able to woo Indian consumers is yet to be seen. But the ball is definitely in the court of Indian wedding gifts companies who will face the competition from this global leader in the wedding industry.