Fashion is the ‘it’ word in online retail these days. This ecommerce category is certainly not at its saturation point as reports predict that fashion will dominate the ecommerce industry by 2020. Etailers Flipkart and Amazon are pro fashion and are counting on private labels in these segments to boost their ecommerce sales. Flipkart owns two of the largest fashion etailers in India – Myntra and Jabong, while Amazon has its very own Amazon Fashion and a fashion A-team to compete with Flipkart.
Online retailer Shopclues is somewhere on the same wavelength. The etailer is also counting on fashion to earn profits. But its approach is a bit different. The online marketplace will be concentrating on affordable fashion to make its money.
Looking for a fashion partner
Last month, Shopclues was all about non-branded fashion. It launched a marketing campaign focused on the same and expects high earnings from this maneuver. The ecommerce company is now looking for a fashion partner to make its platform an everyday destination for fashion, mentioned a top company official.
The company co-founder and CEO, Sanjay Sethi said, “We are looking at building our fashion category through acquisition as we are looking to position Shopclues as the everyday fashion destination. We are scouting for acquisitions in areas like analytics, mobility and applications also mainly to strengthen payment operations.”
Fashion category growth
The chief of business at Shopclues, Radhika Agarwal said, “Growth has been attained, even while improving the bottom-line, in an industry where the common practice is to erode profitability to drive GMV growth.”
The lifestyle category at Shopclues contributes to around 50% of its total orders. The category comprises of sub-categories like men’s and women’s clothing, accessories and footwear. From FY 2015-16 to FY 2016-17, the company claims its fashion GMV has doubled. The company has more than 2 lakh merchants under its fashion category alone and has a wide variety of almost 4 million products. These products are an assortment of craft-based, local and branded items.
Agarwal added, “We are focused on value and mid-price segments which today comprises 75% of the online fashion market. Today’s fashion consumer is seeking a variety that helps them be trendy every day.”
Around 80% of the fashion and lifestyle sellers on the platform are SMEs while the rest sell regional or mid-tier and normal brands. The etailer formed a partnership with the Ministry of Textile as well to promote cotton fabric. Approximately 70% of the fashion items purchased from the platform are cotton products.
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