31 October 2023, Mumbai

Salt Attire, a women's workwear brand, proudly unveils two fresh retail destinations in Noida and Delhi.
These chic outlets are nestled within DLF Saket Mall, New Delhi, and DLF Mall of India, Noida. The Delhi store spans 700 sq. ft., while its Noida counterpart boasts 600 sq. ft.
Outlines

With these, Salt Attire now boasts six stores in its portfolio, featuring three in Mumbai and three in the Delhi-NCR region.
Salt Attire caters to modern women with a range of tailored-fit pants, anti-gaping shirts, lightweight skirts, and fuss-free tops.

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23 October 2023, Mumbai

French sporting goods brand Decathlon has expanded its presence in Chennai, unveiling a new store at Nexus Vijaya Mall.
The store offers a wide variety of sports clothing and equipment suitable for all ages and genders, encompassing categories such as outdoor, water, fitness, racket, team, cycling, running, walking, roller, and target sports.
With this addition, Decathlon now boasts eight retail outlets in Tamil Nadu, including five in Chennai.

Growth story
Decathlon's growth in India has seen the launch of large-format stores in Chennai's Marina Mall, Egattur, and Nexus Mall, Koramangala in Bengaluru.
Established in 1976 by French entrepreneur Michel Leclercq, the brand now operates over 2,080 stores across 56 countries and regions.
Decathlon arrived in India in 2009 as a cash-and-carry retailer, later gaining approval for single-brand retail in 2013. Today, it has over 100 stores in 19 states throughout the country.

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30 October 2023, Mumbai

All good things come to an end, and the end of free returns on both online and offline shopping is also looming on the horizon.

Customers have been conditioned to free returns, especially from e-commerce retailers who came in with a bang during the pandemic, but as these same retailers start to introduce a minimum return fee, shoppers may become more hesitant to send back purchases they made at their whim and fancy.

Findings

The US Census Bureau records show that in 2022, annual e-commerce spending in the US had reached the $1 trillion mark for the very first time since COVID-19 earlier, but that came with a price.

A huge figure, definitely, but many e-commerce giants such as Amazon. Flipkart and H&M have reported that almost 17 percent of online purchases were also returned last year, which cut down on overall profit margins.

All this is forcing them to now charge a minimum fee on every returned item based on product value and other factors, which serves as a balancing act between the retailers' need for profits and the record-return problems of the e-commerce industry.

Big fast fashion retailers start return fee trend
Unlike physical stores, customers often indulge in bracket buying multiple sizes with plans of only keeping the one that fit and also ‘wardrobing’ which is buying occasion-specific garments and wearing them once and then returning them as well as whimsical buying to be regretted later.

Many fashion retailers have already started the return fee trend with H&M and Zara charging customers around $2.40 to return online purchases and other US clothing retailers such as American Eagle charging $7, JC Penney $8, Saks Fifth Avenue $9.95 and TJ Maxx around $10.99 to return purchases.

Even the $100 billion-biggest fast fashion brand, Shein, also offering free returns for first-time buyers. Industry estimates have put even higher figures of retailers spending around $33 per return, which includes postage, packaging, depreciation of an item's value, labor and missed sales windows while the item is still not back in the warehouse, which is more than the return fee being charged.

Myntra leverages nominal fee
Myntra, as India’s second-largest fashion e-retailer, has also started imposing a convenience fee of Rs 10 on every order above Rs 1,000, which will however add to its daily order profit volume at minimum cost to the customer, although for orders below Rs 1,000, there is already a return fee of Rs 99.

Myntra in a pop-up message on its website says that a nominal fee for its world-class service in providing technical expertise, brand aggregation, and post-sales support. With 50 million monthly active users, this return fee will boost profits as well as be a mild deterrent to those who place low-value orders.

Nuanced picture

Earlier Myntra had a 30-day return window but shortened it to 14 days for most categories just like others in the Indian e-commerce industry, like Ajio, Amazon Fashion, Flipkart, and Nykaa Fashion, which have also reduced their timeline for returns as well as charging a minimum fee. In India, around 25-40 percent clothes sold online are returned, which is a third more than the return rate in the US.

Outlines

The end of free returns is a result of the recent economic slump, a lack of warehouse capacity to re-package mountains of returned goods, and a desire to discourage specific customers from ordering returns for most of what they buy.

The return rate for fashion segment in India is higher, as usually one in every four items is sent back as people are on a tighter budget than in Western countries.

With the circle of life dictating that all things must come to an end sometime, the end of free returns across all global online and offline platforms is in the offing sooner than expected.

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19 October 2023, Mumbai

Shoppers Stop's profit plunged 83.2% in the second quarter due to higher costs and lower demand, the company announced on Wednesday.

The department store faced a slump in sales as customers delayed buying clothes and other items for the holiday season.
Historic View

In India, the festive season, which started in September last year, usually contributes a large share of retailers' annual revenue as customers splurge on new outfits, accessories, and other products.

The 2023 festive season will kick off in late October.
Operating Leverage

Shoppers Stop said that its net profit for the quarter ended on September 30 was 27.3 million rupees, a sharp drop from the 162 million rupees it earned in the same quarter last year.
The company's revenue also declined by 3.5% to 9.34 billion rupees.
Shoppers Stop attributed the decline in profit to higher costs, including employee salaries and rent, as well as lower demand from customers.
The company said that it is expecting a rebound in sales in the third quarter as the holiday season begins.

State of affairs
Shoppers Stop's results are a reflection of the challenges facing the Indian retail industry.
The sector has been hit hard by the COVID-19 pandemic, which has led to a decline in consumer spending.
The rise of e-commerce has also put pressure on traditional retailers like Shoppers Stop.
The upcoming holiday & festive season is expected to provide a boost to sales, as the festive season is typically the busiest time of year for Indian retailers, as consumers spend heavily on new clothes, gifts, and other items.
The company's results are a reminder of the challenges facing the Indian retail industry.

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27 October 2023, Mumbai

V2 Retail, the family fashion and lifestyle business, has expanded its reach by opening new physical stores in Jamshedpur and Bhubaneswar, catering to the residents of Jharkhand and Odisha.
In Jamshedpur's Adityapur, the store boasts an extensive collection of over 5,000 affordable styles. Meanwhile, the Bhubaneswar store is situated in Budhanagar, Kalpana Square.
V2 Retail prides itself on its in-house brands, which include Herrlich, Godspeed, Glamora, and Honey Brats, all available in their stores.

Retail operation
With a presence in more than 90 Indian cities and a sprawling 11 lakh square feet of retail space, V2 Retail specializes in offering value-driven products for families. Their stores predominantly serve Tier 2 and 3 cities across 17 Indian states.
Formerly known as Vishal Megamart Limited or Vishal Retail, V2 Retail was established in 2001. It is currently under the ownership of a private equity consortium comprising Partners Group and Kedaara Capital.

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16 October 2023, Mumbai

Great festive season 2023 shopping has begun in all earnest in India. The country’s economic health was reinforced by a recent Reserve Bank of India study which highlighted consumer spending that accounts for 60 percent of GDP proving its forecast for economic growth of 6.5 percent this fiscal.

In this robust spending spree, e-commerce platforms are rubbing their hands in glee as projections show not only will the dynamic economy see a splurge during the festive season but also a stable spending pattern next year.
E-commerce sales graph rising and how
As per the Ministry of Commerce’s estimates, the e-commerce market is projected to expand to $350 billion by 2030 from an estimated $63 billion in 2023. Bengaluru-based consultancy firm that specializes in monitoring 100 Indian e-commerce platforms which contribute nearly 90 per cent of India’s e-commerce sales says between October and November this year, Indians will be spending almost $1 billion, a record sales and 20 per cent more than last year. Amazon, Flipkart, Myntra, Ajio, Nykaa, Meesho, and Snapdeal –are in it to win it thanks to the enormous orders pouring in and they are recording a 15 percent increase in order volumes compared to last year within the first days of their festive sale campaigns.
E-commerce platforms are elated as the fear of inflation and higher interest rates are not dampening Indian consumers' spirit.

This is not surprising at all as according to RBI, consumer confidence touched a four-year high in September riding on stabilizing inflation and improving employment conditions.
Big guns are breaking their own records
The Great Indian Festival of 2023 has so far been the most lucrative of Amazon India’s festive campaigns with Vice President Manish Tiwary stating that this year witnessed the biggest start. Similarly, Flipkart’s Vice President Arif Mohammed went on record to say the festive season started phenomenally with seven to ten times more orders than the pre-festive season for garments, furniture and furnishing, domestic appliances, and electronics.

Readiness

Both retailers hired over 200,000 temporary workers to meet the rush and added over 300,000 new sellers, according to company officials.
The leader of India’s fashion e-commerce, Online Myntra’s Big Fashion Festival, popularly known as BFF saw a winning streak in not only its core but also emerging categories.

When the sale opened on October 7, millions of customers were shopping on Myntra, with equal weightage from metros and non-metros for festive purchases, with 45 percent being Tier II and III cities and about 10 percent from smaller places. The biggest sales were of kurta sets, lehengas, co-ordinated sets, shirts, jeans, and T-shirts. Myntra’s BFF 2023 is expected to yield 8 million shoppers, an increase by 2 million from BFF 2022.
Meesho’s Mega Blockbuster Sale 2023 also recorded a hit and seems to have made deep inroads in the country with 70 percent orders from Tier II, III, and IV cities.
Boom-time for delivery service providers
In anticipation of the Tsunami of festive orders, most e-commerce firms upped their delivery outreach by organizing delivery solutions for more customers living in non-metro areas. Gurugram-based supply chain management agency Prozo’s CEO Ashwani Jakhar was amazed that within the first two days of Amazon’s “Great Indian Festival of 2023” campaign 80 percent of deliveries were from Tier II and III cities and small retailers saw a 35 percent increase in sales compared to the festive sale of 2022.

Jhakar feels the e-commerce boom is a blessing for the logistics sector, providing small entrepreneurs the incentive to grow their businesses and generate a large number of jobs for the local youth.

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