24 November 2022, Mumbai:

Trends has opened a store in Orissa. The 6400 sqft store boasts of modern looks and an ambience featuring an exciting range of good quality and fashion merchandise that is relevant to the consumers of the region and at prices that are affordable and seen as high value for money.

Trends offers trendy women’s wear, men’s wear, children’s wear and fashion accessories. Apparel and accessories specialty chain Trends is a part of Reliance Retail. Trends is democratizing fashion in India by strengthening its reach and connecting with consumers in India right from metros, mini metros to Tier I and II towns and beyond.

For the second quarter Reliance Retail’s gross revenue rose by 42 per cent. Ebitda rose by 51 per cent during the quarter. Net profit for the quarter increased by 36 per cent compared to the same quarter a year prior. Cash profit increased by 45 per cent. The quarter saw Reliance Retail open a total of 795 stores across India for its numerous fashion, beauty, and lifestyle brands. This brought the business’ store total to 16,617.The second quarter also saw Reliance Retail become the first Indian retailer with over 50 million sqft of retail space.

Latest Textile News

 05 December 2022, Mumbai

Shoppers Stop plans to open a value format. The aim is to attract consumers to opt for lower-priced brands. The store size would be between 7000 sqft to 8000 sqft and the first of these stores would open in the next three months.

Shoppers Stop is foraying into the mass-priced segment after three decades of selling premium apparel and lifestyle merchandise.

India’s consumption structure has been skewed in the past over a narrow base of richer consumers accounting for a large chunk of the overall market. However, as the economy is broadening across many more cities and the impact is reaching further down the income ladder, the opportunity for value formats and value brands is expanding.

The value format segment is growing and during Covid consumption increased in Tier II cities. These cities also have grade-A malls now, offering retailers quality space.

Shoppers Stop’s competitors have demonstrated mixed success in the mass segment, and servicing this segment needs merchandising agility to respond to varying customer preferences across markets as well as the financial ability to sustain and scale. In the diversity of India’s market, scale alone isn’t enough to guarantee success.

Shoppers Stop may open the first few of its value-format stores in Tier II cities before taking them to metro cities.

Latest Textile News

 29 November 2022, Mumbai

Reliance Retail will open a Swadesh store in New Delhi.

Swadesh is an artifact, gift, and accessories brand. The store will retail products that focus on traditional craft techniques such as handloom, clothing, textiles, handicrafts, and food items. Reliance Retail aims to work closely with artisans for its new venture. The business plans to open subsequent retail outlets in other central locations.

While handloom purchase has gone up more than 100 percent in the last decade it is developing itself in terms of product innovation. Handloom has taken over bling and people prefer handloom outfits even for their own weddings.

Several Indian states promote their traditional and indigenous textiles on national and international platforms. India has 16 million handloom weavers. The country’s rich heritage of handloom differentiates it from the rest of the fashion world. India celebrates National Handloom Day on August 7.

While the textile industry is the second largest polluter in the world, the handloom weaver has the smallest environmental footprint.

On the other hand, in terms of fashion, handicraft is the greatest form of luxury because it is handmade and has limited pieces. Designer Ritu Kumar for one is known for blending age-old crafts with a contemporary vocabulary.

Latest Textile News

22 November 2022, Mumbai:

KH House of Khaddar (KHHK) has opened a store in Chennai. The brand sees huge potential for growth and plans to further expand its retail presence in the next year.Additionally, KHHK plans to enter global markets, with the Middle East being the next overseas location. The brand already retails in various locations in the United States of America.

KH House of Khaddar was launched in 2021 by actor Kamal Haasan with designer Amritha Ram. Earlier this year, the brand launched its website to sell its products in India and the store in Chennai is its offline venture. Amritha Ram is an Indian fashion costume designer, television host and entrepreneur, who has worked on Tamil and Telugu language films.

The idea behind House of Khaddar is to create a clothing line that flaunts khadi as a textile and promotes sustainability. House of Khaddar aims at showcasing the fabric in a chic, cool and modern avatar that will appeal to the youth of the nation. The label also aims at uplifting and bettering the lives of handloom weavers in India.The brand wants people to understand the concepts of inclusivity and fluidity since these are increasingly important conversations, given the current environment.

Latest Textile News

 05 December 2022, Mumbai

India’s retail sector is expected to offer a plethora of possibilities and opportunities over the next ten years. So say industry experts and CEOs.

The world’s eyes are on India and if nothing as impactful as Covid or a global recession happens, India is expected to see high retail demand in the next decade considering the advantages of a youth economy and great transactions.

The real resurgence is expected to happen in 400 towns across India across all forms of retail including digital and non-digital. By 2030, retail in India is expected to be about two trillion dollars and contribute ten percent to GDP and eight percent to employment. The increasing customer base of GenZ and millennials highlights the need for a seamless and fast customer experience.

In terms of demand, Gen Z and millennials contribute about 77 percent. Very few countries are expected to offer the level of possibilities and opportunities that India can offer in the next ten years.

Among key trends expected to drive retail growth in India, demand has become somewhat premium. Consumers want to pay more and are willing to pay more. This is across the board and there is a massive opportunity for retailers to leverage this trend in the next decade.

Latest Textile News

28 November 2022, Mumbai

Brands and retailers have been trying to create Black Friday sale events in India for the past few years.

Electronic goods and smartphone makers, e-commerce platforms, grocery stores, fashion brands, restaurants and cafes, multiplexes, hotels and malls have clambered aboard the Black Friday bandwagon. Many are extending the sale period over the weekend to the start of next week or Cyber Monday, originally coined for e-commerce sales.

There was a 20 per cent to 25 per cent surge in footfalls and business by Friday evening and this was expected to rise further over the weekend. Brands and platforms are hoping to create another consumption event on the lines of Republic Day and Independence Day sales that were launched over a decade back. Some retailers have been seeking to popularise Black Friday over the past few years. Marketers are looking to create events by giving some discount as it works as a demand aggregator wherein Black Friday and Cyber Monday are their latest bet.

These events create a consumer need. It’s how Republic Day, Independence Day sales or even a regional occasion like Akshaya Trithiya has been created as national sales day. Most of the MNCs already know Black Friday, so it’s easy for them to replicate in India.

Latest Textile News

21 November 2022, Mumbai:

This festive season saw bumper sales online.

So says Redseer. About 64 per cent of the transacting shoppers came from Tier II cities.Fashion led category adoption in Tier II cities, led by unbranded fashion, wherein one in every five orders had a kurti or sari in their cart. Within beauty, makeup was the most sought-after category with a lot of interest in looking and feeling good. During the festival sales online gross merchandise value (GMV) grew 25 per cent year on year during the festive month amounting toRs76,000 crores . And Tier II contributed to more than half of this GMV, at around 57 per cent. Democratisation of categories continued this year as well, with lower-order-value itemsgrowing faster than mobiles and electronics. While mobiles and electronics dominated category share, home and kitchen, groceries and beauty personal care were the fastest growing categories. Grocery grew almost two times from the last festive season. Sales went up both online and offline during the festival month.Simultaneous growth of online and offline revalidated the domestic consumption story and indicated ample growth opportunities for both formats. There is growing maturity in the online retail ecosystem.Three in four sellers reported at least two times volume growth from business as usual during sale days, with strong support from platforms in planning and executing the festive season well. This increase was more visible in lower average selling price categories like fashion where 42 per cent of the sellers reported a three times to five times growth from business as usual.

Growth in long-tail categories

While mobiles initially attracted flocks of customers, their overall growth slowed down. Fashion sales remained strong as ever driven by the need to dress up for festivals. Long-tail categories or lower-order-value items grew much faster than mobiles and electronics.Within long-tail categories, grocery contributed to 34 per cent of growth while home and kitchen (21 per cent) and beauty and personal care (14 per cent) were the other frontrunners. E-grocery witnessed a two times growth from last festive season. In home furnishing and décor, cushion covers, showpiece and decor accents contributed most to the growth. Gifting emerged as a strong reason for purchase across categories and consumers reported an increase in the overall satisfaction with online platforms.

Latest Textile News

 03 December 2022, Mumbai

India’s e-commerce marketplace is expected to more than triple in value by 2027. So says Bain.

The sector will create seven million jobs in India by 2027. Online marketplaces could also enable 15 million micro, small, and medium enterprises to grow their businesses online.

Deal-making in the short to medium term is likely to be more measured and valuation multiples will see some degree of rationalization. The future of marketplaces, on the other hand, is robust and with strong growth in their gross merchandise value and continued interest from investors, the segment is expected to see ample opportunities and a strong pick-up.

While the marketplace model is popular across multiple categories, upstream business-to-business, fintech, and shipping and logistics are some of the most exciting areas. These sectors show evidence of successful marketplaces as well as significant headroom for the growth of new or emerging players.

India is home to more than 300 funded marketplaces spanning multiple categories such as retail, education, healthcare, travel, and financial services, among others.

Marketplaces have contributed to India’s growth story by offering greater access to capital and innovative financing solutions for traditionally underserved segments, enabling micro, small, and medium segments to transact online, with an increased pan-India reach, and have provided employment opportunities to more than three million gig workers in India.

Latest Textile News

26 November 2022, Mumbai:

Fabindia has opened an experience center in Bangalore. The 21,000 sqft store sprawls across three floors and has been designed to be convenient, communal, curated, and immersive with true lifestyle-led categories and services like home and lifestyle, apparel, personal care, and wellness.

The store has an interior design studio which has a team of expert designers that are available to help visualize and customize a home with a choice of window treatments, handcrafted curtains and blinds with a wide array of fabrics and colors. Customers can also get free consultations for home makeovers. The home and lifestyle store is spread across 14,000 sqft with an experiential format and a complete product range of universal assemble-to-order beds, and a dining and wardrobe category that is spread across 7000 sq. ft.

The brand also offers an extensive collection of wall art, area and accent rugs, lighting, kitchen and dining as well as a dedicated section for Fabkids collections and a gifting section with an exciting assortment of pre-packed gift sets, and physical Fabgift cards.

Fabindia offers multifaceted lifestyle product categories that that are handmade and curated using traditional techniques and skills of 55,000 artisans and 12,000 farmers pan India.

Latest Textile News

18 November 2022, Mumbai:

Retailers are opening stores at a brisk pace. Shoppers are thronging malls and stores, returning to normal patterns of behaviour. Retailers, struck by Covid in the early part of the pandemic, hit a pause on expansion plans as demand remained suspended for months due to intermittent lockdowns. However, things have started to pick up this year.

Retail activity in the second half of the current fiscal is expected to be strong, especially in categories such as food and beverages and sportswear and family entertainment centres. Mall supply is also expected to increase in the coming quarters.In tier II and tier III cities, large, organized retailers are coming up with 10,000 sqft to 20,000 sqft stores.Those kinds of stores have not been seen in such cities.

In 2023, their expansion could be faster than in 2022. Retailers of home appliances are set to open more stores in 2023.Sales across categories are showing a steady increase with sports goods indicating a strong performance followed by lifestyle, footwear, QSR and jewelry performing better than other categories. In August 2022, the growth in sales compared to pre-pandemic timeswas noticeable across regions too. There has been a significant uptake in occasionwear and bridalwear, besides workwear.

Latest Textile News