03 October 2022, Mumbai:

There were strong festive sales in eastern India during Durgapuja.

Complete easing of Covid curbs after a gap of two years helped lift sales. Diwali sales are expected to top 2019 levels. Sales grew 19 per cent from April 2022 to August 2022 compared to pre-pandemic or 2019 levels.

The early trends indicative of the festive season have been encouraging for retailers and brands. The industry is expecting this season, which is without any Covid restriction after two years, to perform better than the festive season in 2019. The eastern and northern markets have performed better with sales growth at 22 per cent and 20 per cent respectively.

Consumer sentiment is buoyant. Consumers are not only shopping for themselves but also inquiring about gifting as socializing picks up. Retailers are betting on a strong festive season to help lift demand; this is especially true for categories such as apparel and premium electronics. While categories such as Quick Service Restaurants, electronic goods, and sports goods continue to show steady growth, categories like garments, beauty and wellness, footwear and jewelry that were otherwise indicating a very-near-the-pandemic level of growth in the past four months have started showing decent growth.

Earlier in 2022, buying behaviour during occasions, especially the wedding season, were showing an upward trend across income groups.

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28 September 2022, Mumbai:

E-commerce firms sold goods worth Rs 24,500 crores in the first four days of the festive season sales. So says strategy consultancy firm Redseer.

During this period each minute as many as 1100 mobile phones amounting to around Rs 11,000 crores were sold on large e-commerce platforms. Fashion saw a 4.5x jump in terms of daily average gross merchandise value compared to business-as-usual days to reach Rs 5, 500 crores in the first four days.

E-commerce marketplaces usually hold up to three sales leading to Diwali. The first of these sales is usually the largest and usually accounts for more than 50 percent of the sales during the festive period.

However, the festive season’s share of the online retail gross merchandise value (GMV) is dropping, due to the increasing frequency of transactions fuelled by sale events throughout the year.

GMV is the total value of merchandise sold over a certain time frame. The spurt in sales is expected to further push the overall online retail GMV up 30 percent from 2021. This has been driven by accelerated digital adoption and increasing penetration in Tier II cities and beyond.

The launch of new e-commerce models such as live and video commerce will further drive the growth of online shoppers, especially in Tier II cities and beyond.

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01 October 2022, Mumbai:

Reliance Retail has launched a new format Azorte in Bangalore. This is a premium fashion and lifestyle store, covering an area of around 18,000 sq ft. The new store format is said to be equipped with tech-enabled interventions such as smart trial rooms, fashion discovery stations, aisles, and self-checkout kiosks.

Azorte is positioned as India’s fast fashion neo store that offers high-street fashion with on-trend styles and classics reinvented, where shoppers can future-proof their wardrobe. Azorte has adopted a multi-format approach to cater to all consumer segments.

The company also plans to ramp up its store presence across key markets over the coming months. The store offers products such as western wear, Indian wear, children’s wear, footwear, fashion accessories, home, beauty, and more.

The mid-premium fashion segment is one of the fastest growing consumer segments as millennials and Gen-Z are increasingly demanding the latest in international and contemporary Indian fashion.

Reliance Retail has set its eyes on the beauty and personal care market in India after dominating the apparel retail segment in the country. Reliance Retail is also inclined towards a multi-brand beauty retail concept for more mass market brands. Earlier this year, Reliance Retail signed a long-term franchise agreement with American apparel major Gap.

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27 September 2022, Mumbai:

Pantaloons’ online festive sale has discounts ranging from 40 per cent to 70 per cent.

Customers can select from a wide range of categories, including kurtas, suits, footwear, and more, to encourage individuals to wear the newest ethnic attire for celebrations.

Pantaloons has a varied variety of clothing options for everyone and is also considered to be one of the most popular hubs for shopping among Indian citizens because of its affordable pricing and great discounts throughout the year. Fashion retail brand Pantaloons is going the extra mile to build a greater personal connect with the consumer.

Though less than five per cent of Pantaloon’s sales are driven through e-commerce, it’s growing considerably faster than the rest of the business. The brand is building up its website, which is also used for e-commerce. Most of Pantaloon’s e-commerce sales are driven through partners like Myntra, Flipkart and Amazon. Pantaloons also runs digital campaigns to drive traffic to its site largely through social media campaigns and tie-ups with influencers. Pantaloons is currently present in more than 150 towns and cities.

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22 September 2022, Mumbai:

The share price of Shoppers Stop has surged 125 percent in 2022 so far. In the last 12 months, it has gained more than 200 percent, nearly quadrupling investors’ wealth.

The stock rallied 73 percent in the last three months on the back of consistent improvement in operating performance with a revival in the retail sector, along with strong support from strategic pillars - repeat sales from First Citizen loyalty customers, increasing contribution from private labels, higher sales from the beauty segment and traction in omnichannel.

In the last quarter Shoppers Stop’s standalone revenue grew 13 percent above pre-Covid levels. EBITDA margin improved to 17 percent. The fashion retailer opened six new outlets -- two department stores, three beauty stores, and one at an international airport.

It has a robust pipeline of store additions in place and aims to open 12 to 15 stores in fiscal 2023, primarily in Tier II and Tier III cities. The store sizes will be around 25,000 square feet to 30,000 square feet.

Revenge shopping was the name of the game when India re-opened its doors after the pandemic. Stocks of quick-service restaurants, hotels, and fashion retailers became big beneficiaries of this theme.

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30 September 2022, Mumbai:

The operating margin of India’s footwear industry is anticipated to increase by 200 to 300 bps in fiscal 2023. The projection equates to a sales growth of around ten percent over pre-Covid levels.

Driven by increased footfalls and an uptick in discretionary spending the demand for footwear is expected to remain healthy, especially in the offline retail route during the upcoming festival and wedding seasons. While the recovery derailed slightly in the fourth quarter owing to the third wave, the sector bounced back in March 2022.

In addition to the formal footwear segments, the growing athleisure segment further supports revenue growth. Moreover, increasing Omni channel presence has also added to the sales volumes.

While cost rationalization was the focus area in fiscal 2021, and companies saved on employee and other expenses, including rental concessions and advertisement expenses, a large portion of such costs were back to pre-Covid levels in fiscal 2022.

Although these costs are expected to increase further in the current fiscal, the profitability of these players would witness an improvement because of healthy volume growth. In addition, raw material prices have started moderating in recent months, which, if sustained, would also support the profitability of footwear players in fiscal 2023.

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26 September 2022, Mumbai:

Reliance Retail may take over the beauty retailer Sephora from Arvind Fashions.

As of now, Arvind Fashions holds Sephora’s master franchise rights for India. Sephora is a French multi-brand beauty products chain owned by the world’s top luxury goods retailer LVMH Moët Hennessy. Sephora has 24 stores in India in 12 cities.

Globally, the beauty retailer known for retailing premium cosmetics and perfumes such as Bobbi Brown, Benefit Cosmetics, Lancomeetc is present in 35 countries with over 2,700 stores.

Reliance Retail has set its eyes on the beauty and personal care market in India after dominating the apparel retail segment in the country. India’s beauty retail market is driven by a higher propensity to shop online owing to increased internet penetration as well as a largely millennial and gen-Z population with aspirations and growing disposable incomes. Reliance Retail is also inclined towards a multi-brand beauty retail concept for more mass-market brands.

Earlier this year, Reliance Retail signed a long-term franchise agreement with American apparel major Gap after the latter terminated its franchise agreement with Arvind Lifestyle Brands in 2021.

Prior to its 2015 tie-up with Arvind, Sephora’s rights rested with DLF Brands. Its operations were also managed by New Delhi-based Genesis Colours.

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21 September 2022, Mumbai:

Fabindia’s revenue rose 31 per cent in fiscal 2022 over fiscal 2021. The one-third increase in revenue significantly wiped out the adverse impact of the pandemic on sales. Following relaxation in pandemic-related restrictions from June 2021, improved customer sentiment, further aided by the festive season and expansion of the retail store portfolio, the trajectory of revenue continued to improve month-on-month till year-end.

The ethnic wear brand began reopening stores and FabCafes through a phased approach commencing in June 2020 and successfully completed the reopening process over the course of several months, as local conditions and regulations permitted. FabIndia is growing its online presence and the company’s revenues through online sales — its own website, app and third party websites — amounted to Rs 93 crores on a standalone basis during fiscal year 2021. This represents 16 per cent of its total revenue from sales compared to nearly Rs 46 crores during fiscal year 2019.

The ethnic apparel market in India was estimated at Rs 141 crores for fiscal year 2020. The branded ethnic apparel category is expected to grow at a higher rate of 15 per cent per annum between fiscal 20 22 and fiscal 2026 driven by increasing share of the branded segment in the overall ethnic apparel market.

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28 September 2022, Mumbai:

Reliance Retail has launched Reliance Centro, a new avatar of Future Group’s Central. This is a new fashion and lifestyle department store format and the first such Reliance Centro store has opened in New Delhi.

With Reliance Centro the company aims at strengthening its reach across the country and targeting mid-premium segment customers. The new lifestyle and fashion retail chain will host products across categories like apparel, footwear, cosmetics, lingerie, sportswear, luggage, and accessories from over 300 Indian and international brands.

The new format was launched in New Delhi, the store is spread across an area of 75,000 sqft and hosts more than 20,000 style options for all seasons and ages.

Reliance Retail has set its eyes on the beauty and personal care market in India after dominating the apparel retail segment in the country. India’s beauty retail market is driven by a higher propensity to shop online owing to increased internet penetration as well as a largely millennial and gen-Z population with aspirations and growing disposable incomes.

Reliance Retail is also inclined towards a multi-brand beauty retail concept for more mass-market brands. Earlier this year, Reliance Retail signed a long-term franchise agreement with American apparel major Gap after the latter terminated its franchise agreement with Arvind Lifestyle Brands in 2021.

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26 September 2022, Mumbai:

Clothing and lifestyle retailers as well as malls are seeing record growth in sales in the past few weeks.

They expect demand at a decadal high during the festive season starting with Navratri. A host of factors, including positive consumer sentiment and fresh merchandise, are driving sales. They expect festive season sales to be a bumper one this year with strong double-digit growth despite no discounting.

The apparel and discretionary segments were hit badly during the pandemic and were the slowest to recover in the consumer space. However, retailers across apparel, lifestyle products, and restaurants posted double-digit revenue growth year-on-year for the March quarter despite a slow start due to the Omicron wave.

The massive wardrobe refresh after the reopening of the office and social gatherings helped. This is the first normal festive period after two years of Covid stress. Retail businesses across India reported a growth of 15 percent in sales in August 2022 compared with August 2019.

Dussehra and Diwali have historically been an occasion for selling full-priced merchandise and most brands refrain from offering discounts on newer collections and products.

There has been a strong run-up right from Onam to Durga Puja. Demand for full-priced merchandise has remained robust. Urban consumers are buying discretionary products though there has been a slight slowdown in value or mass-priced products in non-metros and rural.

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19 September 2022, Mumbai:

Myntra the Bengaluru-based, fashion e-commerce retailer backed by Flipkart, is expanding its portfolio to include 1,400 beauty and fashion brands. The move is timed to make the upcoming ‘Big Fashion Festival 2022’ a huge success. Myntra’s CEO Nandita Sinha says the Big Fashion Festival, popularly known as BFF, would launch 15 international fashion brands. The year 2022 marks the third edition of BFF.

“This year Myntra is engineered to handle as many as 0.9 million concurrent users on its platform — slightly lower than the one million concurrent users that it was built for last year”, Sinha says.

Geared up for the big sale, Myntra will be handling 13,000 online orders per minute. The platform is also geared to handle 900,000 concurrent users per minute at peak. Over 21,000 Kirana stores will fulfill 80 percent of the BFF orders.

Riding on big brands India's entry

American department store chain Macy’s, the operator of hundreds of fashion stores in the US, is set to enter India riding on e Myntra during BFF. Myntra’s app hosted a “launching soon" tag, along with Macy’s logo.

The retailer will also offer a flat 25 percent off on Macy’s inventory as a part of a special launch. The launch, ‘Only on Myntra’, is part of the retailer’s Big Fashion Festival special, set to start ahead of the festive season.

Chennai’s top ethnic wear brand Nalli has also joined the Myntra line-up recently. Compared to BFF 2021, the third BFF will see 1.5 times more styles and also house over 6,000 brands and over 100 new launches. Sinha is confident this year’s BFF is going to be huge and she expects to add nearly six million unique customers and acquire nearly a million first-timers during the event that commences on September 23.

Myntra is focused on Indian consumer preferences around D2C and will put the spotlight on New Age brands such as Label Life, Almo, and Breakbounce in its selection. Sinha says, “The other area of opportunity for us is for our international brand portfolio to grow during the festive season.

We are launching 15 new brands, including Macy’s, Freesoul, and 8seconds from Korea in our attempt to bring global fashion to the country. The Indian customer needs are niche and there are a big set of brands fulfilling those niches. So, we will continue to build the D2C category with partners.”

The fashion marketplace says it would go live with its ‘Big Fashion Festival’ sale on September 23, aligning it with Flipkart’s Big Billion Days and Amazon India’s Great Indian Festival Sale, which begins the same day. India’s apparel market is set to touch Rs 5.7 trillion by 2024, as per Boston Consulting Group forecasts.

The country’s top retailers including Reliance Retail, Aditya Birla Fashion, Nykaa Fashion, and Flipkart Group have been luring international brands in a bid to appeal to younger and well-heeled shoppers. Myntra’s growth strategy is relying on international and direct-to-consumer (D2C) brands as well as newer categories such as Gen Z and teenage fashion.

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