by Competition has intensified since Myntra, one of India’s first fashion e-commerce players, which first launched in 2007, was acquired by retail giant Flipkart in 2014, followed by a majority investment by Walmart two years later.
In an exclusive interview with WWD, Nandita Sinha, Myntra’s chief executive officer, was quick to point out that differentiation and trendsetting have become crucial.
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“We have the largest premium customers in the country and that is constantly growing. We have 6 million customers who visit us 30 times a month, so we are like their Instagram, they come to us for inspiration – then they look for the products and make purchases. This adds to the large premium customer base we have built over the past few years, allowing us to build new brands and scale in this country. We’re adding new brands but we’re also adding Gen Z and younger customers, about 175 percent year-on-year customer growth,” she said, adding that the reach has expanded to more than 19,000 PIN codes All over the country.
The numbers are growing: 75 million new users visited Myntra for the first time last year; 55 million to 60 million users visited the platform each month in the past year; million views per day on average for Myntra Minis, the platform’s proprietary short video content format, according to company statistics.
Analysts see 2024 as a turning point for fashion retail in India, and competition is growing, with industrial groups Reliance Retail (ajio.com) and Tata Ltd. having deep pockets and aggressive growth plans. (tatacliq.com). Amazon India and Flipkart remain major players and Nykaa fashion is on the rise.
Sinha is clearly excited by consumers’ focus on, and hunger for, global brands, which remains undiminished.
UK retailer Next signed on to open branded stores in India and expand its omnichannel presence through Myntra late last month, with plans to open eight to 10 stores in major Indian cities, including New Delhi, Mumbai, and Bengaluru within the first few. years of operation, as well as an extensive online presence on the Myntra platform.
“With the successful growth trajectory of Next online in India, our first year of working together has resulted in establishing the right product, audience and price point in the country. With a strong playbook for exponentially developing global brand adoption, we look forward to unlocking the next phase of growth in the brand’s India scale-up journey,” said Sinha.
The joint venture with Spain’s Mango brand has worked well to open both physical stores and an e-commerce site and omnichannel segment, she said, with more than 110 physical stores across the country since 2017 when the omnichannel association began. The deal gave Myntra master franchise rights – meaning its B2B wholesale operation would manage the Mango stores in India through its network of third-party retailers.
Bollywood actress Kiara Advani for Mango.
The focus is on bringing in global brands – already including H&M, Levi’s, US Polo Assn., Tommy Hilfiger, Louis Philippe, Jack & Jones, Mango, Forever 21, Marks & Spencer, Nike, Puma, Crocs, and Fossil -. step up.
The market is far from satiated, explained Sinha. “With 30 international brands in 2016, this number has surpassed 400 leading international fashion, beauty and lifestyle brands, on our platform,” she said, adding that 50 brands will be launched this year..
“There are many opportunities to build brands in this country. The progress we’ve made with international brands has been a big step forward, not just for us but for Indian retail in general – we’re building on it strategically, with growing capabilities across formats. There’s a lot of room to grow – if you look at the overall fashion market, it’s a $100 billion market but only 40 percent of it is branded.
“As we go through this journey of growing brands, we have noticed that it is very important to have an online conversation first, which is then supported through omni and offline because the aspiration of international brands is spread across throughout the country. We were able to scale significantly when we got the online and online together, for example with Nautica, in the three years since we took the licensing. The same with FCUk, which we sent [this January] and it is growing almost 2.6 times as it was earlier, by bringing these two elements together,” she said.
There is also a geographical shift of consumers within India.
“If you look at Tier 2 cities [the second-largest after the metro cities of New Delhi, Mumbai and Bengaluru]they contribute almost 45 per cent of our aggregate business and that is a testament to the kind of demand that exists outside the capital cities, where it is easier to get quality retail footprint in,” said Sinha.
Analysts have confirmed her point. A study by real estate consultants CBRE South Asia earlier this year reported that both international and Indian brands were making inroads in smaller towns as they reached out to these ‘more informed’ consumers.
“The boom in e-commerce, tech-savvy consumer base, growing aspirations and boom in discretionary buying are defining retail growth in Tier-II cities,” said Anshuman Magazine, chairman and CEO , India, Southeast Asia, Middle East and Africa, by CBRE.
Fast-growing cities outside the retail strongholds of New Delhi, Mumbai and Bengaluru include Chandigarh, Jaipur, Indore, Mangaluru, Kochi, Lucknow, Patna, Ranchi, Guwahati, Bhubaneshwar, Visakhapatnam, Mysuru, Coimbatore and the state of Goa, with 14 of these cities have 29 million square feet of retail space from September 2023. Jaipur, Lucknow, and Chandigarh had retail stock between 3 million and 7 million square feet, CBRE said.
Then there is Maya.
Eyes from Myntra’s spring-summer collection.
Although the word itself means illusion, Maya is an AI-created influence that helps mix, match, select and plan style options, bringing in fun and technology – which Sinha described as a key part of the way to ones.
“We have leveraged generational AI in a very big way. Last year we launched a couple of AI-powered tools that were purely for help because fashion is a category that requires help and inspiration. We launched ‘myfashiongpt’ which provides the right set of suggestions, and ‘mystylist’ to help put things together to create a look. Maya adds to these assistance tools,” said Sinha.
While revenues continue to grow, so do losses. In the financial year ending March 31, 2023, Myntra’s revenue grew 25 percent to 43.75 billion rupees, or $525.09 million.
But net losses rose 31 percent year-on-year to 7.8 billion rupees ($93.90 million) in the 2022-23 financial year compared with the previous loss of 5.9 billion rupees ($71.72 million).
Sinha seems unfazed.
“We’ve grown about 2x e-commerce over the last two quarters and that’s something we’re continuing to do and even at that we’re continuing to tackle the growth of e-commerce in fashion so we’re very clear about our value proposition, about our customer. and we always see that we gain market share because of that,” she said.
“I think the other opportunity that everyone is talking about this year is the customer premium that’s happening. If you look at a recent Goldman Sachs report, 60 million rich Indians are going to become 100 million over the next three to four years. This was 35 million a few years back, so you can already see that growth is happening. This will continue to grow and drive the market, and has been a focus for us, helping us stay 2x ahead of the market.”
While Bollywood remains an obsession, social media influencers are driving trends, Sinha noted. Storytelling was a major source of inspiration, along with ‘social squads’.
Although Sinha modestly admits that she has had “a wonderful set of colleagues, mentors and family support”, she has no reason to believe that she is setting the stage for another kind of growth as well.
“I think we need more female leaders because everyone needs to see a role model of their own kind, so I hope that people who see me as a role model have the opportunity to create an environment and a journey, not just for me but for many others. people around you,” she said.
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