Flipkart-owned online fashions stores, Myntra and Jabong say they have lined up an investment plan of $300 million going forward, with a view to expand their market presence. This amount may get invested over the coming three years. According to an Economic Times report, the ultimate objective is to reach the $4 billion mark in terms of turnover and thus more than triple its last reported annual figure of $1.2 billion.
Some of the numbers being thrown around seem significant. One is that the combined entity of Myntra and Jabong, managed to add 500,000 new customers. This they say was a result of a sale program they ran on their sites titled ‘End of Reason Sale’, a mock on the end of season sale that shops conduct. Based on this, the company claims it is confident of notching up a market share of 50% in online fashion trade in the country, which is up around a third from the current 35% the two sites jointly hold.
In addition, there is the plan to launch 100 offline stores selling the private brands they have promoted online over the last few years. These private labels have received encouraging response from the customers and the offline or O2O foray is also with the purpose to improve the profitability in the business. The details of these efforts have been carried in these columns earlier. Myntra is confident it is close to making profits already and the next three years will see it posting clear profits, at least at the gross level. Some private labels like Roadster and HRX have already become profitable, on a standalone basis, according to reports.
Experts admit that Myntra and Jabong have been able to build a brand equity and are the preferred sites for buyers of fashion in India. The overall customer mindset on online buying, especially clothes and fashion are still to change completely. But all said and done, online fashion retail is bound to grow exponentially.