India’s largest omni-channel platform for kids Firstcry witnessed strong sales during the year with revenue jumping 66 percent to Rs 887 crore from Rs 535 crore it reported during FY19.

The e-seller also managed to narrow its net loss by 83 percent to Rs 163 crore ($22 million) for the fiscal year 2020, as against a net loss of Rs 933 crore it had reported in the last financial year.

Firstcry’s total expenses for the year also decreased 28 percent to Rs 1,050 crore, as against Rs 1,469 crore in FY19.

Launched in 2010, Firstcry has already earned the tag of being Asia’s largest online store and currently expanding offline to further strengthen its hold over the children’s wear market. It currently has over 400 stores across India.

The company is backed by Japanese investor Softbank and sells over 2 lakh unique products across 6,000 brands. It competes with Hopscotch along with other e-commerce giants including Flipkart and Amazon in the kids segment.

Experts at the dialogue on ‘Stimulus Packages for Sustainable and Inclusive Recover from COVID-19 Fallout in Bangladesh;, urged the government to roll out more stimulus packages to ensure a quick economic recovery from the impending second COVID-19 wave in Bangladesh.

The government has so far declared 21 stimulus packages worth around Tk 121,000 crore, which is 4.34 per cent of the GDP.

Of these, 14 involving Tk 33,603 crore are being financed from budget allocations, said Abdur Rouf Talukder, Senior Secretary, Finance Division, while making a keynote presentation. The remaining seven packages involving Tk 87,750 crore are being financed from the banking system, according to data from the finance ministry.

COVID-19 has seriously impacted Bangladesh’s economy like other countries, said Mercy Miyang Tembon, Country Director-Bangladesh and Bhutan, World Bank. The business slowdown stemming from the pandemic has had an adverse impact on both supply and demand sides But, the country's government has taken swift actions by way of declaring stimulus to reduce the negative impact.

However, the disbursement of stimulus packages for small and medium enterprises is sluggish as only 30 per cent of the fund was given till September, Tembon said. Given the uncertainties going forward, the government should be ready to expand the size of the stimulus packages, she added.

As per a RedSeer Consulting report, Flipkart Group, including Myntra, dominated as India’s online retailers clocked a 65 per cent jump in gross merchandise value (GMV) during festive season sales this year buoyed by pent-up demand and shopper worries on visiting retail stores during the pandemic.

The period, which stretched from mid-October to November, saw $8.3 billion in GMV, up from $5 billion last year, according to management consulting firm Redseer.

The Flipkart Group comprised 66 per cent of the overall GMV and Amazon the remainder.

This year’s festive sales also saw 88 per cent customer growth from last year, as close to 40 million shoppers from tier-2 and beyond cities tapped e-commerce platforms.

Overall, 88 million shoppers purchased goods on e-commerce platforms this festive season, with 55 per cent coming from Tier-II towns, and 45 per cent from metros and Tier-I cities.

This is sharply higher from last year’s 47 million shoppers. Factors like presale awareness, pent-up demand by customers, wide selection across categories, disruption of offline stores along with multiple credit and affordability features helped major e-commerce players drive growth this year.

According to a recent notification by the Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBIC), India has extended the anti-dumping duty (ADD) on imports of fully drawn or fully oriented yarn, spin drawn yarn or flat yarn (FDY) of polyester from China and Thailand till December 31. The duty was first imposed in October 2015 after the Directorate General of Trade Remedies (DGTR) had found that the imports were impairing the domestic industry.

The duty was then extended till November 30, last month, and now has been extended further by a month. FDY is used in making shoe upper fabrics, luggage/bag and curtain fabrics.

The Board added that DGTR, the designated authority, had sought for continuation of ADD after conducting a review of the same that was initiated in April this year.

As per a Fashion Network report, clothing brand Chidiyaa has launched a new menswear range featuring block printed shirts with playful motifs.

The range was launched with a collection titled ‘Out of Office’ featuring a range of smart-casual shirts.The collection is designed to “help one rejuvenate and unwind in style. Made from cotton, the line retails from Chidiyaa’s dedicated e-commerce store and all of the shorts in the collection retail at $50 (Rs 3,689).

Chidiyaa also recently launched its festive womenswear collection online. Featuring jewel tones and earthy block prints, the collection mixes traditional charm with a modern, paired-down aesthetic.

Chidiyaa, which means ‘house sparrow’, was launched by designer Deepanshu Ohlan in 2016. In addition to its e-commerce store, the brand opened a flagship store in New Delhi’s DLF Avenue in Saket in February this year. However, the store is currently not displayed on DLF’s website. The brand has also opened a store in Gurugram.

Unlike FY19, direct to consumer (D2C) fashion brand Bewakoof registered a 27 per cent growth in revenue from operations which increased to Rs 208.33 crore in FY20 from Rs 164.22 crore it earned in FY19.

Around 97.25 per cent i.e Rs 202.6 crore were earned through sales of products on its platform and the remaining Rs 5.73 crore were collected as membership, cash on delivery fees and sale of scrap material. Bewakoof had posted an annual profit of Rs 29.5 lakhs in FY19 but the increased run rate of expenses has caused the annual results to go back in red in FY20. Bewakoof’s annual consolidated losses for FY20 stood at Rs 28.26 crore and EBITDA margins slipped from 3.56 per cent in FY19 to -9.5% in FY20.

Bewakoof operates on an asset-light model and it could be noticed from its asset turnover ratio of 2.25X. It outsources most of the garment manufacturing work to job work contractors. It spent Rs 55.05 crore on such payments during FY20, growing by 21% from Rs 45.53 crore in FY19.

Expenses on purchase of stock in trade shot up 6X to Rs 9.83 crore while the cost of raw materials consumed has gone down by 2.5% from Rs 51.7 crores in FY19 to Rs 50.4 crore in FY20.

India’s cutting edge streetwear fashion brand Gully is now launching its high fashion platform Gully Evolve. This is the first ever platform where designers and celebrities can release their fashion collections giving access to the youth to buy clothes from their icons at fair prices. Streetwear is a huge trend internationally. International celebrity designed streetwear brands like Drew House which is co-designed by Justin Bieber is a tremendous rage in the US.

Gully Evolve is a result of Gully’s proprietary DSquare technology which enables it to co design, produce and sell high fashion at fair prices without compromising on the quality. The select designers get a chance to cater to the youth who otherwise can’t afford their collections. While the youth get a chance to wear clothing designed by their favourite celebrity icons, our platform ensures not only for the designer’s vision to come to life, but also that the clothes are durable with no compromise on quality. With men’s and women’s fits we also believe in body neutral and cater to larger sizes. All the collections are limited edition made in limited quantities and can all be paired with sneakers.

The Gully Evolve collection by KL Rahul features oversized styles of hoodies, tees, sweatshirts as well as loose joggers and long length shorts. Oversized is a huge trend in street wear and is also KL Rahul’s personal favourite trend.

As per an Economic Times report,Textile and apparels firm Raymond has approved raising of Rs 40 crore through private placement of non-convertible debentures.

The committee of directors has approved allotment of 400 secured listed rated redeemable non-convertible debentures (NCDs) of face value Rs 10,00,000 each at par, Raymond Ltd said in a regulatory filing.

The NCDs will have a coupon rate of 8.85 per cent The debentures are proposed to be listed on the Wholesale Debt Market segment of the National Stock Exchange of India .

Raymond is a diversified group with majority business interests in Textile & Apparel sectors as well as presence across diverse segments such as FMCG, Engineering and Prophylactics in national and international markets. Having enjoyed the patronage of over a billion consumers, Raymond as a brand has been consistently delivering world class quality products to its consumers since the past nine decades.

Women’s fashion exhibition Pink Almari held a ‘Wedding and Lifestyle Edit’ in Mumbai on November 24. The exhibition featured 13 women’s wear brands, four jewellery brands, and six other brands for a business to customer shopping fair. It showcased footwear and bags by Adaa Mumbai, fashion jewellery by Swati Hirawat, jewellery by Daga, and home textiles by Studio P among others.

Apparels exhibited were: unstitched suits by Raps Creations, ready-to-wear by Priya’s Collection, fusion wear by Om Creation, and traditional wear by Sumangal by Manju Ramrakhyani. Other participating clothing brands included Sid N Vani, Lukhnovi Kurties & Plazo, Nonas Exclusif, Krimson Style Studio, Nita Shah, Reya Purohit, Nisaa Creation, and Bobby’s Creations.

After deferring many of its Spring fashion events due to the pandemic, Organizer Marriage Mantra held two Pink Almari shopping events in Mumbai in June, followed by a Parineeti shopping fair and additional Pink Almari event in October. The organizer plans to slowly restart its events calendar following health and safety guidelines.