01 July 2022, Mumbai:

The growing crowds at reputed brand stores in some of the biggest malls are a testimony of the booming apparel retail market in India. With demand reviving post lockdown, both domestic and overseas brands have registered a huge revenue increase this year. Zara’s revenues grew 61 per cent to Rs 1,815 crore while Marks & Spencer’s grew 6 per cent. Revenues of Aditya Birla Fashion and Retail surged 55 per cent to Rs 8,136.22 while Dollar Industries registered a 30.41 per cent rise in revenues to Rs 1,356.85 crore.

The results of these four eminent apparel retail brands are an indication of the ever-growing Indian apparel retail market currently worth $88 billion. Its growth can be attributed to varied reasons. According to Apparel Resources, prominent amongst these is the quick adaption of customers’ changing demands by both big and small retailers including ABFRL, Reliance Retail, Tata Trent, BoStreet, Bummer and Zummer. All these retailers have been successful in fulfilling the demands of the customers and creating value for them.

Understanding consumer psyche

The success of overseas fashion brands can also be attributed to their deep understanding of Indian consumption patterns, their color and design preferences, etc. An example of this is Wacoal, a Japanese luxury women lingerie brand, that is expanding its footprint in India with online and offline presence.

Home-grown brands like Silvertraq, Maati, Insom, Doodlage and Almo, are also expanding and creating a niche in segments such as women’s formalwear, casualwear, innerwear and activewear. Around 39 per cent of India’s fashion market is held by menswear and women’swear while 22 per cent is kidswear. Brands are catering to their special needs by exploring newer categories like fusionwear, athleisurewear and lingerie.

Retailers like ABFRL, Reliance Retail and Arvind Lifestyle Brands are expanding their product portfolio by adding domestic and international fashion brands and labels besides acquiring stakes in brands like Clovia, Zivame and Reebok, Looking to explore in India’s booming apparel market, many MNC brands are either taking the franchise route and setting up brick and mortar stores across the country or are setting up exclusive brand outlets like H&M that has set up 50 stores while Zara boasts of 21 stores and Uniqlo has six stores across the country.

Investments in e-commerce rise

Investments in e-commerce and omnichannel expansion are rising across the country. Focus on e-commerce grew 77 per cent between 2020 and 2021 with brands expanding to Tier-II, III cities, as per a report by India’s leading conversation media platform Bobble AI. The channel’s contribution in fashion retail is likely to grow from 12 per cent currently to 30 per cent in future, says Nandita Sinha, CEO, Myntra.

From March 2020-2021, Reliance Retail-owned Ajio’s revenues grew fourfold to $1.16 billion. The e-commerce company boasts of an exhaustive store network and a robust online-to-offline strategy. It has also improved customer services by launching a technology-based Quality Check Return Product in 2022 that enables stringent quality checks at the customers’ doorsteps before returning the shipment to Ajio. This has increased the resale ability of Ajio’s returned goods from 25 to 98 per cent.

Leading Danish clothing retailer Bestseller India has launched fashion brands like Jack & Jones, Vero Moda and Only online in collaboration with Trell. These collaborations also mark Bestseller India’s foray into social commerce. The fashion retailer currently owns 375 exclusive brand outlets besides being present in over 1,000 shop-in shops in multi-brand stores across the country.

Boosting growth with new stores

Store openings have given a boost to retailers’ growth in recent times. Reliance added 100 stores in Q4’22 to take its total store count to 600. Similarly, ABFRL-owned Pantaloons opened 18 stores during Q4 FY ’22, while Go Fashion expanded store count to 500 by adding 54 Exclusive Brand Outlets (EBOs) during the last quarter of FY ’22.

Companies across the supply chains are expanding their capacities. A leading premium brand from Australia, Forever New recently opened a new store in Ahmedabad. The brand already has 41 stores across metros in Delhi-NCR, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Pune, Chennai and other cities such as Chandigarh, Jaipur, Ludhiana and more. It aims to consolidate its retail network across the country with new store additions.

25 August 2022, Mumbai

As per latest notification issued by the Government of India, garments of hosiery products, sold in loose form, will henceforth not be covered under the provisions of the Legal Metrology (Packaged Commodities) Rules. The notification defines a loose garment as one sold loose or open at the point of sale in a manner that enables the consumer to inspect the products before buying.

Eliminate Inspector Harassment

For years, CMAI had been urging concerned ministries to stop including garments in the list of ‘packaged’ commodities, as this prevents consumers from examining them for communicated parameters before.

The government’s recent notification is expected to minimize and eliminate the inspector harassment faced by the industry, says Rajesh Masand, President, of CMAI. “By giving a precise description of what constitutes a loose garment, the government has addressed a long-standing grievance of the Industry, and will hopefully minimize and even eliminate the inspector harassment faced by the industry,” opines Masand. Sanjay K Jain, Vice President, FOHMA agrees and says, “The government’s accurate definition of a loose garment addresses a long-standing grievance of the industry. This will help minimize and even eliminate the curse of inspector harassment.”

Improve ‘Ease of Doing Business in the industry

Hailing the move Rahul Mehta, Chief Mentor, and Past President, of CMAI says, “The other crucial clarification included in the current notification is that the garment should be in a loose form as defined in the notification, at the point of purchase by the consumer – again issuing a clarification that goods being in a packed form for safety or hygiene consideration during storage and transit before it reaches the point of purchase will not be considered as ‘packed’.” The details required to be indicated on garments by manufacturers include MRP, internationally accepted size indicators, name of the manufacturer or marketer or importer, as well as contact details of consumer care, which will offer protection to the consumer.

The notification is a result of years of representations by the industry, in particular the CMAI (Clothing Manufacturers Association of India) and FOHMA (Federation of Hosiery Manufacturers Association). FOHMA says, this step will help improve ease of doing business in the garment and retail industry.

The Indian government plans to setup 75 textile hubs like Tiruppur to support textile exports, said Piyush Goyal, Union Minister of Textiles addressing a exporters’ meeting in Tiruppur. The meeting was organized by the Federation of Indian Export Organizations (FIEO) and Apparel Export Promotion Council.

The textile hubs will not just promote textile exports but also create huge employment opportunities, Goyal added. In 1985, Tiruppur exported garments worth Rs 15 crore annually. Growing at a CAGR of 23 per cent, exports have reached Rs 30,000 crore in 2021-22. Tiruppur’s garment industry employs four crore people across the textile value chain and its current size is Rs 10 lakh crore, Goyal stated.

Retailers in India, especially shopping malls, hope, the upcoming festival season will boost sales after the pandemic-induced slump.

The festive season in India starts on July 28 with festivals like Nagara Panchami, Raksha Bandhan, and Varamahalakshmi in August. The season continues till January, covering bigger festivals like Ganesh Chaturthi, Dusherra, Diwali, Christmas, New Year, and Makar Sankranti.

No restrictions to boost growth

This year’s festive season is expected to be different from the last two years as there are no COVID-19 restrictions and footfalls at both standalone retail outlets and shopping malls are expected to increase steadily.

Having recorded 26 percent growth in April and 24 percent in May, India’s retail sector growth dwindled to 14 percent in June-July because of the inauspicious month of ashada, month, says Kumar Rajagopalan, CEO, Retailers Association of India. The sector is expected to grow in a robust manner in the remaining period with the long festival season giving it a huge fillip, he adds.

Consumption resilience will drive growth despite a rise in commodity prices on an average of 10 percent, observes C Shika, Commissioner, Commercial Taxes. Consumption buoyancy has also led to revenues from commercial taxes increasing to Rs 28,456 crore in the first quarter against a target of Rs 19,118 crore. The growth in tax revenues is expected to get stronger in the festival season.

Malls’ footfalls to increase

Adding to the delight of both traders and the public, there are expected to be no further waves of COVID-19 and infections are likely to remain endemic with fewer hospitalizations. This will prevent traders from suffering from any further lockdowns and curfews.

The rapid rise in vaccination has placed the Indian retail industry in a better position compared to the last two years, opines M K Sudarshan, Chairman, COVID-19 Technical Advisory Committee. Retailers can look forward to a good festive season this year by adhering to all COVID-19-related norms, he adds.

With no drastic curbs required, shopping malls can anticipate big crowds during the upcoming season, says Uday Garudachar, Owner, of Garuda Mall. Footfalls at the mall have already reached 80 percent of pre-COVID levels and may exceed it in the next few months, he adds. In August's first week, the retailer aims to relaunch events held during festivals before the pandemic.

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