B2B e-commerce firm Indiamart Intermesh posted 29 per cent increase in its consolidated net profit at Rs 80 crore for the third quarter. The company had reported a net profit of Rs 62 crore in the year-ago period. Its revenue from operations stood at Rs 174 crore in the third quarter of 2020-21, up 5 per cent from Rs 165 crore in the corresponding period last fiscal. The company attributed this growth to marginal improvement in realisation of existing customers and increase in number of paying subscription suppliers.

The firm sees improvement in overall demand environment and business activity. With the emerging accelerated digitisation needs of businesses, the company is looking forward to kick-starting the New Year on an optimistic note.

The company said its consolidated deferred revenue declined from Rs 649 crore in the third quarter of FY20 to Rs 633 crore in the December quarter of FY21. On a sequential basis, net profit was higher by 15 per cent from Rs 70 crore, while revenue was higher by 6 per cent from Rs 163 crore in the September 2020 quarter.

Lifestyle brand Chumbak, has roped in actor Sara Ali Khan as its first celebrity brand ambassador. The partnership is expected to grow the business of the indigenous brand’s home decor and wrist watches categories. Khan has been signed over a medium term-contract and she will be promoting the brand’s products such as bed linen and table ware primarily on digital media. The partnership with Khan was to be announced in March 2020 but postponed due to the pandemic.

However, the company is happy with the new timing of the announcement since the proportion of sales of its home category grew from 25 to 70 per cent between the April-December period, despite stores being shut due to nationwide lockdown.

Due to Covid-19 outbreak, the brand’s home category has been doing exceedingly well compared to with other categories. With people spending more time at home the brand’s strategy fits in well with the new lifestyle of working women as they want to decorate their home spaces more now. With people curtailing travel plans and dining out due to the pandemic, young working population has more disposable income now.

The company, registered about 80 per cent recovery led by ecommerce. While Chumbak is aggressive on expanding product categories such as bed linen and dinner ware, partnerships and online presence this calendar year, the company is, however, on pause as far as expanding retail footprint is concerned. In fact, the company is downsizing a few stores where walk-ins are affected. Better locations with smaller stores is the brand’s new strategy. The brand expects full recovery by the first quarter ending June next fiscal.

Eyewear brand Carrera Eyewear organised its first cyclothon event in New Delhi. The brand had collaborated with with Dayal Opticals for the cyclothon and promoted fitness and the brand’s association with healthy living. The 26 km Cyclothon beginning and ending in the capital’s Khan Market, had cyclists traverse a route that passed through Connaught Place and Bangla Sahib Gurudwara, maintaining social distancing.

Carrera, which has been associated with sports since the brand’s inception in 1956, has been associated with numerous international sports events. The brand’s partner for the event, Dayal Opticals, is also associated with the sporting world. The event was designed to promote cycling to the masses as well and Carerra’s sports friendly eyewear.

Premium German footwear brand Birkenstock has partnered Seva Group to enter India market through its maiden retail store in the Megapolis. Seva Group, which is into automotive retail, entered consumer product retailing in 2012 with Element Retail. The first physical store of Birkenstock will come up in Bengaluru.

The Bengaluru store is the first of many the Seva Group plans to open in coming months. As a part of expansion plan, the group has entered into tie-ups with many other brands such as Apple, swimwear and swim-related accessories brand Speedo, fitness brand Asics, and among others. The group also has exclusive franchise license for Giant bicycles, which is the world's largest premium bicycle manufacturer.

Bestseller India unveiled its shop on wheels in Mumbai. The new pop-up shop on wheels is a fresh and innovative concept that aims to cater a comfortable and safer shopping experience to consumers satiated over a vast expanse. The pop-up store is introduced to fill the gap between the physical outlets and the online channel, providing a much inclusive shopping experience for its consumers.

The pop-up shops are on the move to create a new wave in fashion retail. The brand marketed by Bestseller in the country, will be introducing the truck with the plan to drive it around the country and give consumers an easy access to Bestseller’s clothes, irrespective of their geographical presence.

Traditional and fusion wear brand Ekaya has opened a new pop-up store at DLF Emporio Mall, New Delhi. The store open till March, 2021 offers a selection of the brand’s textiles, saris, handloom lehengas, and ready-to-wear garments. The spacious store has a domed ceiling and bright white walls.

One side of the store is dedicated to the brand’s signature Zari saris and the other to its ready-to-wear line. Pieces from Ekaya’s 2020 festive collection Gul, inspired by Ukranian folk motifs, are also displayed. Prior to the opening of the store, Ekaya held an installation in the mall’s main hall featuring a number of polls covered in different handloom weaves from Ekaya’s collection. The almost three month-long pop-up will introduce Ekaya to a new customer base in the capital.

In addition to its new pop-up shop, Ekaya retails from its dedicated e-commerce store and flagship stores in Delhi, Mumbai, Hyderabad, and Ahmedabad. The brand has also recently released a number of collaborative collections including a jewellery line with Misho featuring fabric scraps and a capsule clothing collection in partnership with designer Masaba Gupta of House of Masaba.

Flipkart launched SuperCoin Pay that customers can use across thousands of retail stores across the country as the company bets on its loyalty program to win and sustain user base. The e-commerce giant said it has partnered over 5,000 retail outlets including TimesPoints, Peter England, Cafe Coffee Day and Flying Machine across India to give customers greater value and choice to cash in on their Flipkart loyalty program, called SuperCoin Rewards. Flipkart customers earn these SuperCoins when they make purchases on the e-commerce platform.

While traditional loyalty programs have struggled to gain traction because they locked customers to their platform and made it difficult to convert reward points to cash Flipkart customers will be able to pay up to 100 per cent of the bill value through SuperCoins.

Its retail partners operate in a wide range of categories including fashion, grocery, food and beverages, travel, health and wellness. These retail partners will offer a QR code to make it easier for Flipkart customers to redeem their rewards points.

The move comes as most e-commerce firms in India aggressively partner with physical and digital stores across the country. Amazon, too, has broadened its offering in recent years to offer coupons and discounts that Amazon Pay customers can redeem when making purchases at Urban Company, Domino’s, BigBazaar, More, Oyo Rooms, Licious, BookMyShow, Swiggy, and RedBus, for instance.

Two industry associations representing apparel companies and distributors of fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) companies have written to the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi), urging the market regulator to review and approve Future Group's deal with Reliance Retail Ventures quickly.

In their letter, the Clothing Manufacturers Association of India (CMAI) and All India Consumer Products Distributors Federation (AICPDF) said the transaction approval has taken longer than expected and strained their finances completely. Together, they represent more than 5,000 small vendors and dealers. Even after the approval comes, it will take another 3-4 months to complete the transaction and for the industry to get their dues back. This delay will force many distributors and employees to take grave personal and financial steps.

Last year, the Future Group with a debt of nearly Rs 12,000 crore approached several investors after lenders exerted pressure and threatened to revoke promoter pledged shares. Reliance Retail Ventures, a unit of Reliance Industries, agreed to buy the retail assets of Future Group. As part of the deal, Reliance had also agreed to take vendor liabilities of Rs 6,300 crore.

Amazon, which owns a 49 per cent in Future Coupons, a Future Group holding company, objected to the deal and approached the arbitration court in Singapore. The US retailer asked Sebi to suspend its review of the deal and not grant it a no-objection certificate, since the transaction is under dispute in the Delhi High Court.

India Ratings and Research (Ind-Ra) in a report stated apparel prices are likely to remain soft in the second half of 2020-21 even as the segment is in a recovery mode. The apparel segment Wholesale Price Index recovered to pre-COVID-19 levels in November 2020, led by the festive and marriage season demand, said the report.

However, Ind-Ra continued to expect apparel prices will remain benign in the second half of 2020-21, leading to inventory liquidation. It also noted the demand for blended fabrics recovered in November 2020 and was 20 per cent higher from the same period of the previous year, led by the festive and marriage season demand.

Cotton knitted fabrics production increased for the fifth month in a row in November 2020, led by a surge in demand from the opening of retail stores and malls. Further, demand for cotton woven fabrics increased sequentially in November 2020 but it was 40 per cent lower year-on-year on the back of a lower demand for formals and school clothing.

Meanwhile, the report also stated fabric exports continue to recover in November 2020, although remaining 14 per cent lower year-on-year on value terms. However, export volumes surged by 14 per cent year-on-year in October 2020, it added.

Fabric players would likely remain weak for the second half of 2020-21, due to social distancing and the fear of a second-wave of the pandemic and emerging of a new coronavirus strain, it said.

On home textile, Ind-Ra the players will increase market share in terry towels and bed linens, led by supply chain diversification away from China. Home textiles players continued to witness a steady recovery over October-December 2020, led by consumers' willingness to pay for health and wellness across the US and EU territories, it said.