05 August 2022, Mumbai:

According to a RedSeer report, the size of the live commerce market in India is expected to reach a gross merchandise value of $4-5 billion by 2025.

The categories that are expected to contribute to this growth are beauty and personal care, and fashion.

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Nothing Phone (1) recently debuted on the ‘Flipkart Live’ platform. Around 3.8 lakh users logged in for the sale, with more than 3.19 lakh peak concurrent viewers.

Flipkart has been routinely experimenting with the live commerce section on its app. It engages with content creators to promote different products that make up its inventory.

Users can log in to the Flipkart app, go to the categories tab and click on the ‘Live’ button. When they do so, they are taken to a section where live stream sales are routinely hosted across various categories, like fashion, home furnishings, kitchen tools, beauty and makeup, and electronics.

Myntra (which is also owned by Flipkart) also has a play in the live commerce category. On Myntra’s app, there is a section titled M-Live Potential customers can access live videos by various influencers across various product categories.

At the heart of most live commerce ventures, is the fact that the influencers endorsing these products, are believable and viewed as a credible source of information when it comes to the categories they claim to be experts in.

Rohit Khanna, Co-founder, and COO, of Eleve Media, explains. live stream shopping combines the convenience of instant purchasing of a featured product and the real-time engagement of audience participation through a chat function or reaction buttons.

SowmyaIyer, founder and CEO, DViO Digital, adds, live commerce makes the best use of social media, e-commerce, and streaming technology, and enables real-time interaction.

Khanna points out, that live commerce can potentially make shopping exciting and immersive, allow users to interact with each other, build a community and have conversations, he adds.

PalkushRaiChawla, Director-Product Management, ShareChat&Moj, mentions, that the reason for the rising popularity of social media apps is because people want to watch relatable content.

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28 July 2022, Mumbai:

Kolkata-based garment maker Rupa and Company’s new seller business called RetailFZ is taking over Cloudtail’s home and kitchen business.

Cloudtail was the biggest seller on Amazon before shut by the etailer after acquiring a 100 per cent stake in Prione, as existing norms do not allow an entity running an online marketplace or its group companies to own equity in any seller on the platform or control its inventory.

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Besides home and kitchen, RetailEZ will also sell sports-related products like gym equipment, Agarwal said.

Cloudtail is moving its business to several new and existing seller firms after Amazon’s acquisition.

The transition has, however, not been smooth. Sales of fast-moving consumer goods have fallen significantly on Amazon India after brands including Nestle, Dabur and HUL could not issue credit to the new sellers over a lack of history in dealing with large business volumes and not having in place the required processes and technologies.

Amazon is assisting these new sellers in the transition by asking former Cloudtail employees to work with them temporarily.

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02 August 2022, Mumbai:

Democratizing fashion in India, the country’s largest and fastest growing apparel and accessories specialty chain of Reliance Retail, Trends, launched its second store in Angul, Odisha.

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By connecting with customers in India, Trends has become India’s favorite fashion shopping destination. The Angul store is modern and features good quality and relevant fashion merchandise for the consumers of the region at prices that are affordable.

Reliance Trends's store houses women’s wear, men’s wear, kids' wear, and fashion accessories, at delightful prices.

The 14,000 sq. ft. store has introduced a special inaugural offer for its customers, besides great relevant fashion and amazing prices.

As part of the special inaugural offer, customers can shop for Rs 3,499 and get an exciting gift at just Rs 199. They will also get coupons worth Rs3,000 absolutely free on purchase of Rs 2,999 from the store.

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08 July 2022, Mumbai:

Retail chain Shoppers Stop plans to expand retail spread by launching 12 new stores. Most upcoming stores will be located in the Tier-II and III cities.

The retailer will also focus on renovating current stores, thus increasing the total number of new and refurbished stores to over 50 per cent in FY23, as per the company’s latest annual report.

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Besides, the company will invest in private labels including celebrity endorsements. It will also invest in new-age technologies and, study customer behavior and preferences by supporting the data analytics project Jarvis.

Jarvis will help Shoppers Stop improve overall analytical capabilities and improve association with customers by using a propensity model and improving the use of behavioral data and preferences. This will also boost the company’s marketing strategies and product recommendations, leading to greater customer accretion.

Shoppers Stop’s revenue for the financial year ended on March 31, 2022 increased to Rs 3,111 crore while its store count increased to 88. In FY23, the retail company plans to launch 12 new stores, primarily in Tier II and III cities besides renovating existing stores.

Its omni-channel retail strategies will grow stronger as the company will replicate in-store browsing experiences in a wide range of categories and brands across channels, says Venu Nair, Managing Director and CEO

Besides, the KN Raheja Group firm will also boost investments in private labels Kashish, Life and Fratini. In FY12, the company’s 16 private labels formed 14 per cent of sales. Shoppers Stop also plans to amass a diverse and more powerful workforce by including employees from different backgrounds.

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02 August 2022, Mumbai:

Developers’ rush to build A-Grade malls in India has made available almost 10.15 million sq ft of mall space this year, as per an Anarock report.

India is expected to build approximately 15 malls across 12 Tier I, II, and III cities in 2022. Chennai will see the highest development with four malls sprawled over 2.55 million sq ft being developed in the city.

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A total of 5.1 million sq ft of new mall space will be provided to Ahmedabad, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Mumbai, Pune, and Ghaziabad in NCR. Some 2.5 million sq ft is devoted to Tier II and Tier III cities, such as Vadodara, Budaun, Indore, Nagpur, and Udaipur, according to the report.

In recent months, mall occupancy levels have returned to pre-pandemic highs across the country. New shopping malls are coming up and existing ones are looking for ways to expand, says Rohtas Goel, chairman, of Omaxe, whose retail project at Chandni Chowk is at the final stages of construction.

Tier II and III cities are experiencing rapid mall penetration. These cities have seen an increase of 91 percent in mall supply in the past year, according to a recent report.

There has been a significant rise in disposable income in these cities, as well as mobile internet penetration and support infrastructure.

Consumers in these cities have shown an apparent preference for branded products, which has led to rapid growth in organized retail, the report added.

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05 July 2022, Mumbai:

V-Mart Retail has expanded retail presence by opening 11 new stores in the April - June quarter of FY 2022-23. The company has opened four stores for its brand Unlimited in South India.

These include one store each in Telangana and Andhra Pradesh and two stores in Tamil Nadu.

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Additionally, the company has opened seven stores across rest of India, one each in Bihar, Madhya Pradesh and two each in Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh. With this, the company’s total number of stores now stands at 391.

Founded in 2002, V-Mart is a complete family retail store chain offering apparel, footwear and accessories for men, women and kids. The company has 17 years of experience in providing high-quality affordable fashion. Its retail network spans over 200 stores across 171 towns in 17 states.

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29 July 2022, Mumbai:

IKEA India plans to increase local sourcing and cut product prices to attract consumers amid rising prices.

SussanePulverer, CEO, IKEA India has increased the prices of some of its products while absorbing the inflation costs on other products.

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The retailer has stores spanning 300,000 to 400,000 square feet usually located on the outskirts of Mumbai. The Swedish retailer opened its fourth store in the country in the R city mall, Mumbai. This will be the third store in the city.

Reportedly, even after three stores in Mumbai, the retailer plans to continue with its expansion plans in the city. With the launch of the third store in Mumbai, IKEA will have five operational stores in the country. IKEA India on July 28 will launch its second city store in Mumbai after Worli.

The company also launched a large format store in Navi Mumbai in 2020.

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09 July 2022, Mumbai:

Mall developers’ rental income is expected to grow by 30 per cent Y-o-Y in 2022-23 and surpass 2019-20 levels by 4-6 per cent in the current financial year, as per a report by ratings agency ICRA.

Growth in the income will be driven by pent-up demand, high vaccination coverage and resumption of multiplexes, retail malls since August 2021.

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Recovery in rental incomes at 74 per cent in Q2 FY2922 and reaching 102 per cent of pre-COVID levels in H2FY2922. New vacant space totaled around 11 million sqft in FY2021 and FY2011 across six cities, says Anupama Reddy, Vice President & Sector Head, Corporate Ratings, ICRA.

However, the incremental space absorption was only around 4 million sqft during this period resulting in a significant increase in the vacancy levels to 23 per cent in 2021-22 from 18 per cent in 2019-20. With the normalcy in the trading values, the occupancy is expected to improve in FY2023, adds Reddy.

The debt-to-OPBDITA ratio is expected to ease to 6x-8x in 2022-23 from 8x-10x in 2021-22, with a significant rise in operating profit before depreciation, interest, tax and amortization supported by improved trading density and footfalls.

Debt service coverage ratio, which was less than 1x for two consecutive years is expected to improve to 1.10-1.15x in FY2023 with the improved rental recoveries.

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04 July 2022, Mumbai:

Business-to-business product development and production management platform for fashion brands and manufacturers Fashinza has expanded its team by appointing Sumit Saxena, President-Revenue and Strategy. As per a Fashion Network report, Saxena will lead Fashinza’s expansion in international markets with special focus on Europe and the UK.

Pawan Gupta, Co-Founder and CEO, Fashinza says, Saxena will help the company grow and expand business and streamline and execute its strategy. Saxena adds, a trillion-dollar industry with huge scope for technology, fashion aims to automate the way brands work today. Technology will enable brands and manufacturers to be more efficient leading to better management and visibility. Fashinza aims to revolutionize the way brands source.

Fashinza has over 250 manufacturers in India, Bangladesh, China, and Vietnam that serves over 200 brands across six countries, including the US, Canada, UAE, and India.

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