July 9, 2014: As the customers become extremely choosy about their purchase of apparels in the Rs.13,700 crore online retail industry, India’s top fashion portals are busy inking deals with global and local apparel brands. Recently players like Myntra, Jabong etc. have signed deals with brands like ITC’s Wills Lifestyle and London based high street brand River Island. Myntra which was recently bought by India’s largest online retailer Flipkart would be offering Wills Lifestyle brand and would be introducing Harvard University Ivy league clothing line.
Recently Jabong also signed up a deal with Rohit Bal Collections, UK brand Dorothy Perkins and London based high street brand River Island. Arun Chandra Mohan, cofounder and chief executive at Jabong was quoted as saying “We are offering international brands an effective solution to address the India opportunity in a fast and efficient way.”
Companies like ITC are tying up with online retail stores so as to increase the reach among the target customers. Speaking about the tie up with Myntra, Atul Chand, divisional chief executive at ITCLifestyle Retailing said “With this association the collection will now be easily accessible to a larger consumer base including markets where the Wills Lifestyle stores are not present yet.”
Among the other brands which they would be selling are Scotch & Soda, the Dutch fashion brand, Japan inspired UK clothing brand Superdry, Mario Miranda and Music T Shirt Collection. These deals are part of a strategy by Flipkart which would be investing Rs.600 crore in the fashion business over next 18 months. Ganesh Subramanian, chief operating officer at Myntra was quoted as saying, “You will see double-digit growth of exclusive partnerships between now and Diwali.”
Brand are opting to sell through online retailers as these fashion retailers help grab customer attention and these brand tie ups also deliver significant revenue. Tying up exclusively with certain apparel brands also create strong differentiation. In the words of Ashutosh Lawania, Cofounder Myntra, “Everyone is trying to gain market share and in fashion (such partnerships) will help create differentiation.” Myntra which is exclusively a online fashion portal aims to earn a revenue of Rs.2,000 crore.
In the days to come, players like Jabong and Myntra would be looking for more tie ups as Brands find online sites to be more receptive to their demands. These tie ups not only helps the fashion portals to consolidate their portfolio but also bring in more visibility to the brands. As it helps both the fashion brands and online portals and as the business through online retail stores is expected to manifold, we can see more tie ups in the coming days.
