On September 22, Ambience Mall launched a ‘Shoes and Bags Fest’ at its Vasant Kunj and Gurgaon locations. The event will run until October 15 and features pop-up shops and dedicated displays.

The event will feature promotional offers across shoes and bags in the mall, competitions, and pop-up shops in the malls to introduce new footwear and bag brands.

The mall will also hold a ‘Transform Your Shoes’ event with footwear expert Swati Modo. Customers are invited to bring along a pair of shoes and customise them at the mall with help from Modo. Large size shoe and bag sculptures have also been erected in the malls designed as a photo opportunity for shoppers.

India’s antitrust body CCI will examine the online and offline aspects of the Reliance-Future Group deal – separately and together – to ascertain their effect on competition, according to an official.

Reliance Retail Ventures., a unit of Reliance Industries , sought CCI’s approval for its Rs 24,713 crore acquisition of the online and offline businesses of the Future Group, which includes retail, wholesale, logistics and warehousing operations.

The first step for the competition watchdog in assessing the deal would be to define the relevant market. Experts said the CCI may not have a precedent. This is a first-of-its-kind deal where both offline and online businesses are being acquired, said Kanika Chaudhary Nayar, a partner at law firm Luthra & Luthra.

According to Karan Singh Chandhiok, a partner at Chandhiok & Mahajan, the CCI will determine whether the retail supply chain management includes logistics and warehousing.

Ratirup Retails has launched ‘Alabhya’, a bespoke clothing boutique for women’s ethnic fashion wear. The boutique caters to the women’s need for ready-to-stitch clothing materials. It provides a wide range of fabrics in various qualities, colors, concepts and themes.

Its handloom sarees include varieties in nylon, rayon, vscose, pure linen, chiffon, embroidery, digital prints, hand work and hand paints.

Besudes clothing material, the brand also offers high quality ethnic fashion jewellery, footwear as well as a wide range of perfumes from popular brands. Tee perfumes can be customized on request to match the customers requirements.

‘Alabhya’ has a 100 per cent franchisee model and aims to target Tier II and III cities. The franchisee cost ranges between Rs 20 to 40 lakh depending on the location, region and size of the store.

The ideal size of a ‘Alabhya’ franchise store is between 500 to 800 sq. ft. The brand focused on South India plans over 50 stores in the first year and over 200 stores in the next three years across India.

Join our community on Linkedin 

Flipkart has expanded the number of sellers on its platform and ramped up selection in the furniture category as it gears up to compete in the upcoming festive season.

Walmart-owned Flipkart has more than doubled the number of sellers in furniture category on the marketplace since last year to over 10,000 sellers across the country, and increased its selection to over 3.5 lakh products to meet consumers' evolving demand.

These sellers, including small and micro furniture manufacturers, have been onboarded from various furniture clusters across Churu, Ratangad, Sardharsheher in Rajasthan, Jabalpur, Indore in MP and Saharanpur in Bihar.

Himatsingka Seide, a India-based manufacturer, retailer and distributor of home textiles, reported 71.6 per cent revenue decline to Rs 183.29 crore in its first quarter (Q1) for fiscal 2021 ended on June 30, compared to Rs 644.55 crore in the same period previous year. EBITDA for Q1 FY21 was a loss of Rs 80.71 compared to profit of Rs 143.08 crore in Q1 FY20.

The group’s profit after tax registered a loss of 139.79 crore compared to profit of Rs 45.25 crore. Its manufacturing facilities at Hassan and Doddaballapur campuses along with distribution facilities in North America and Europe remained non-operational during April and most of May due to the lockdown. Plants commenced partial operations during the month of June. However, the operating conditions remained challenging due to supply chain disruptions and interruptions in work force availability.

For the upcoming quarter, group stated that its Q2 FY21 order book looks healthy under the circumstances, and H2 FY21 order pipeline is robust and Himatsingka remains focused to surpass pre-Covid-19 levels during H2 FY21.

Rahul Mishra presented an Impressionist inspired menswear and womenswear collection titled ‘The Lotus Pond’ as a digital showcase as part of India Couture Week.

Mishra’s latest couture collection, inspired by Impressionist artists including Monet, used a nature theme to explore the relationship between humans and the environment and promote a more eco-friendly approach. Mishra’s showcase took place of day two of the Fashion Design Council of India’s virtual edition of India Couture Week.

The collection was presented through a film and lookbook shot at the Tijara Fort-Palace and features traditional wear garments including lehengas, sherwanis, and sarees. Intricately embroidered natural scenes of ponds and vegetation evoke Impressionist paintings and 3D butterflies and flowers add a touch of whimsy.

Mishra was also asked by the Fédération de la Haute Couture et de la Mode to present a couture film as part of Paris Couture Week, which will feature digital showcases this season.

Flipkart Wholesale, the digital B2B marketplace of Flipkart Group, is expanding its operations into 12 new cities with the fashion category, the company said in a statement.

Ahead of the festive season, Flipkart Wholesale will now be operational in Ghaziabad, Faridabad, Mysore, Chandigarh Tricity, Meerut, Agra, Jaipur, Thane-Bhiwandi-Ulhasnagar, Greater Mumbai, Vasai-Virar-Mira-Bhayanadar, Thane (Kalyan-Dombivli), and Thane (Navi Mumbai).

Since the launch, the company has partnered with several leading brands and enabled ease of doing business digitally for SMBs and Kiranas by helping them leverage micro-market level B2B and B2C insights from the Flipkart ecosystem to better understand customer demands specific to their area so that they can buy and sell the right products.

By this year-end, Flipkart Wholesale also plans to expand into categories such as home & kitchen and grocery.

Reliance Industries (RIL) has approached the Competition Commission of India (CCI) to approve its deal with the Future Group (FEL). CCI was notified about the deal by Reliance Retail Ventures (RRVL), who proposed that the relevant markets for the fair trade regulator’s assessment of the deal should be tagged as ‘market for retail in India’ and ‘market for B2B sales in India’.

The manner in which the CCI evaluates the deal will set an example as the deal includes not only online and offline businesses but also covers a range of sectors including retail, wholesale, logistics and warehousing.

In August, RIL had announced a deal to acquire the Kishore Biyani-promoted Future Group on a slump sale basis for Rs 24,713 crore. The acquisition includes key brands like Big Bazaar, fbb, Foodhall, EasyDay, Nilgiris, Central and Brand Factory.

Further, within retail there is the organized (supermarkets, retail chains, e-commerce) and unorganized sector (locally run stores), which is segmented by products in terms of electronics, food, groceries, apparel etc.

As per Fashion Network, Entrepreneur Akshay Kumar has launched an apparel and accessories e-commerce site ‘The Black Lover’ to retail all-black products online. The Black Lover retails a range of black printed t-shirts among other products - The Black Lover.

The new store retails products under the brand name 'TBL apparels & merchandise' and product categories include menswear, womenswear, ethnic wear, homeware, and accessories. A customization service enables customers to personalize an outfit which will be styled by an in-house team and launched on our website on their birthday with their name and picture.

Products on the e-commerce store retail between Rs 99 ($1.35) and Rs 999. The brand has also launched an app which is available on Play Store and the App Store.