19 September 2022, Mumbai:

Fabindia sales are up 29 percent. This reverses the performance in the first year of the pandemic when revenues contracted.

Following relaxation in Covid pandemic-related restrictions starting June 2021, improved customer sentiment further aided by the festive season and expansion of the retail store portfolio, the trajectory of revenues continued to improve month-on-month till year-end. However, the relative operating performance for a few weeks during the period January 2022 to February 2022 got impacted due to temporary restrictions imposed in the wake of the Covid third wave, but thereafter resilience has been seen in revenues which resulted in significant improvement in overall performance.

Fabindia has more than 300 stores. Ethnic wear retailer Fabindia was founded in 1960 to market the craft traditions of India. It started out as an exporter of home furnishings and the first retail store came up 15 years later. In 2000, the company added the non-textile range, while organic foods and personal care products were launched a decade ago.

A few years ago, Fabindia launched four business units, Home and Lifestyle, Personal Care, Fabcafé, and E-commerce.

India is still a largely unorganized market for traditional and ethnic products but several retailers from leading department chains have been offering contemporary styling in the ethnic wear space.

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14 September 2022, Mumbai:

Retail businesses across India had a 15 per cent growth in sales as compared to pre-pandemic levels.

Though most items have witnessed inflation higher price items are selling well and lower price items are not seeing as much growth. This depicts that while the upper middle and elite class are shopping, lower income group customers are not shopping much. Retailers hope this is temporary and consumption gets more broad-based as the festive season kicks in.

In August 2022, the growth in sales compared to pre-pandemic times was noticeable across regions too with sales in east India growing to 19 per cent, south India showing a growth of 12 per cent, north India indicating 18 per cent and west India growing by 11 per cent. Sales across categories are showing a steady increase with sports goods indicating a strong performance followed by footwear, QSR and jewelry performing better than other categories.

Being restricted to home for almost two years, a lot of social gatherings including weddings are now happening and orders for the same are also visible. There has been a significant uptake in occasionwear and bridalwear, besides workwear. The women’swear segment in particular has seen a huge surge in demand.

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08 September 2022, Mumbai:

Trends has opened a store in Budgam. The 10,000 sqft store boasts of a modern look and 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.Customers of this town can look forward to a uniquely special and superlative experience of shopping for trendy women’s wear, men’s wear, kids’ wear and fashion accessories at attractive prices.

Reliance Trends is an apparel and accessory specialty chain belonging to Reliance Retail. Trends aims at being India’s favorite fashion shopping destinationby strengthening its reach, connecting with consumers in India right from metros and mini-metros to Tier I, II towns and beyond.

Reliance Retail plans to capture a lion’s share of the organised Indian retail market. The Mukesh Ambani-led retail giant is charting aggressive expansion plans. It will further consolidate its leadership position through a four-pronged strategy—expanding geographical reach into smaller towns, innovating more concept stores, going omni-channel and leveraging technology and data analytics. The company also plans to converge its offline and online business by way of the omni-channel strategy to offer a seamless experience to customers.

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15 September 2022, Mumbai:

Mall operators in India are giving preference to international biggies and global brands over domestic retailers.

Many domestic brands are also planning aggressive physical store expansions, but good quality malls are over 95 percent occupied, and instead of giving space to existing retailers they want global brands to come.

Malls are also relocating existing brands to other floors by offering them rent benefits to make space for new brands. Some of the non-performing brands have been given the notice to perform or been told their contracts will be terminated.

New retailers are finding it challenging to find Grade A mall spaces in the current scenario. In the first place, such malls are thin on the ground. For instance, the athleisure segment is doing well and brands in that segment are looking for bigger spaces but very few have been accommodated.

Naturally, Grade A malls are the first port of call for retailers -- but what is currently happening is that there is a constant wait list, so there is zero lag between one leading retailer exiting and the next one taking up the vacated space.

No outright luxury mall is currently in the pipeline. The current focus of luxury brands on mono-brand boutiques is largely restricted to New Delhi and Mumbai, and selectively in Bangalore and Kolkata.

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14 September 2022, Mumbai:

For the first time since it came to India three years ago, Uniqlo has made a profit.

This is a Japanese fashion and lifestyle brand. As an international brand, it is able to get good locations and is a preferred tenant, which helps in generating sales, especially in top cities. However, the pricing is a bit premium and until it is able to source locally, selling products at the right value for the market will remain challenging.

Still, the market is not easy, and turning profitable at a time when most rivals are spending aggressively is a good indication of success.

To date, Uniqlo operates stores in Indian cities including New Delhi and Bangalore. The fast fashion retailer aims to continue its growth trajectory by continuing to expand its brick-and-mortar presence in the country.

Uniqlo will open a store in Chandigarh on September 29. The store will house the brand’s selection of men’s wear and women’s wear, accessories, innerwear, and other lifestyle items and is expected to increase Uniqlo’s sales and customer base and give the brand access to the markets of Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, and Jammu Kashmir.

The business reported a net profit totaling Rs 21.4 crores in the 2022 financial year up from a net loss of Rs 36.1 crores in the 2021 financial year.

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08 September 2022, Mumbai:

Uniqlo’s new store in Chandigarh is expected to increase Uniqlo’s sales and customer base and give the brand access to the markets of Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, and Jammu Kashmir.

The new store is located in the biggest mall in Chandigarh at Nexus Elante and will be spread over two floors with a total area of 15,000 square feet. Global Japanese fashion retailer Uniqlo has witnessed strong growth in India since its launch in 2019 and plans to continue its expansion in the Indian market by opening new stores across the country in the coming months.

Uniqlo, a brand of Fast Retailing, is currently operating six stores in Delhi NCR and one in Lucknow. As of now Uniqlo sources from India; cotton shirts, innerwear and loungewear. But ultimately the plan is to make in India and sell in India.

Uniqlo currently retails in over 23 countries and offers high functional and high quality apparel called Life Wear. This is inspired by life’s needs and provides thoughtful and timeless clothing available in a variety of colors and styles for people of all ages. The clothing comes from the Japanese values of simplicity, quality and longevity and is for men, women and children and infants.

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15 September 2022, Mumbai:

Retail sales in shopping malls across top eight cities in India are expected to grow 29 per cent annually.

So says property consultant Knight Frank. This is on the back of consumption growth and the opening of new malls. The organised retail sales volume in the top eight Indian cities is estimated to grow at 17 per cent. Retail sales in malls across Mumbai, National Capital Region (NCR), Bangalore, Hyderabad, Chennai, Pune, Kolkata and Ahmedabad grew at three per cent in fiscal year 2022.In fiscal year 2023, the potential consumption in malls is estimated to surpass pre-Covid levels.

Fresh supply of retail space in malls is estimated at 50million square feet to 55 million square feet in the next six years, and this will drive growth in sales at shopping centers.At the end of the first six months of the 2022 calendar year, the total mall stock stood at 92 million square feet spread across 271 operational malls in the top eight markets.An incremental supply of 15 million square feet was added between January 2020 and June 2022, despite the disruption of the pandemic. Being restricted to home for almost two years, a lot of social gatherings including weddings are now happening and orders for the same are also visible.

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13 September 2022, Mumbai:

Amazon’s marketplace unit cut its losses while the other two businesses saw an increase in losses. Amazon India has three key units, the marketplace, logistics, and payments.

Revenues of Amazon Seller Services, which runs the Amazon India marketplace, jumped 32 percent. The e-commerce marketplace also managed to cut net losses by 23 percent.

The marketplace unit of Amazon India generates revenue from multiple sources, including fees for offering its marketplace to sellers and services such as shipping, advertising, and others. Revenues of Amazon Transportation, the local shipping services arm of the e-commerce giant, jumped 12 percent. Net losses for the shipping services arm also grew by over 38 percent.

Amazon India has made headway with customers in metros and Tier I cities but faces immense competitive pressure in new categories such as grocery from domestic players and from startups. The biggest challenge for Amazon, however, has been regulatory headwinds, since many of India’s new e-commerce rules favor domestic companies.

Amazon has struggled to grow its business significantly in high-margin categories such as fashion, beauty, and personal care.

Amazon has completed nine years in India and will now focus on social commerce and local stores to add the next 500 million users.

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05 September 2022, Mumbai:

Lifestyle will diversify into smaller cities. One reason is the rising real estate costs in metros and large towns. Lifestyle has 85 stores across the country with more than 70 per cent in metros and Tier I locations.The retailer is looking to expand in phases and by the end of March 2023 at least 1,518 stores in Tier II markets are expected to be operational.

The business model in Tier II locations will be different, with a different store size, different products and a different brand mix. Products will be created separately for these markets. The first choice will be a mall where there is like-to-like participation of other brands. The second choice would be a standalone store on a high street.The process has already started with store openings in the south.

Lifestyle, the retail brand of the Dubai-based retail and hospitality conglomerate Landmark, is also looking to expand the share of business derived from the online channel amid changing consumer preferences in the country, particularly among new-age buyers. Lifestyle is putting up infrastructure and investing a lot in technology and in the next two years would like online to be at least per cent of the business.

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15 September 2022, Mumbai:

H&M’s net sales increased by three percent in the third quarter of 2022 compared with the corresponding period last year.

The third quarter got off to a weak start, in common with the industry in many of the group’s major markets. Sales improved sequentially during the quarter, with a better start for the autumn collections than last year.

Apparel brands and retail companies continue to remain impacted on account of resurgence of Covid, partial lockdowns implemented in certain parts of the world and weak consumer sentiment.

H&M is continuing its expansion in the Indian market with revamped, spacious and exceptional designs for the new stores. H&M currently operates 49 stores across 26 cities and also sells its products online through on HM.com and Myntra.

The fashion retailer has managed to retain its position as India’s largest fast fashion brand by revenues on aggressive store expansion and lower pricing.H&M stocks fast fashion items created in-house and teams up with designers for one-time collections. It keeps a large inventory of basic, everyday items sourced from places including India and Bangladesh that carry lower price tags than those of most of its rivals.

H&M entered India in 2015. H&M’s new store in Lucknow is spread over 1,160 square meters.

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10 September 2022, Mumbai:

The American department store chain Macy’s is on the e-commerce marketplace Myntra.

Macy’s entry into India via the online route bypasses the need to make big investments in offline stores. Foreign brands keen on India are willing to test this market through the online route and Myntra has become a valuable partner due to its sheer customer base. For Macy’s, price point and positioning are what will be key.

For now, Macy’s has listed its private labels on Myntra. For instance, the platform currently lists brands such as Alfani, a workwear brand for men and women, apart from men’s casual clothing line under the Club Room, activewear brand Ideology, and daily basics such as tank tops and track pants under the Karen Scott brand. Mantra is also selling loungewear under the Macy’s Jenni brand.

Macy’s runs hundreds of fashion stores in the US. Macy’s is the largest retail brand under Macy’s, which also runs high-end department store chain Bloomingdale’s and make-up and skincare chain Bluemercury. Macy’s operates as an omnichannel retailer combining macys.com and a mobile app paired with a nationwide network of stores in the US that sell apparel, home, beauty, accessories, and more. It also retails third-party brands in its stores.

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05 September 2022, Mumbai:

Reliance Retail was the largest customer of Future Consumer Ltd (FCL) in fiscal year ’22, contributing 63 per cent of its sales.

FCL is the FMCG arm of the Kishore Biyani-led Future Group. FCL is engaged in the business of sourcing, manufacturing, branding, marketing and distributing food and processed food items and health and personal care products. A year before that, Reliance Retail had accounted for 26 per cent of total sales.

Future Consumer will take its personal care, snacks and homecare products to general stores across the country.So far, the company was distributing only a few of its own brands in general trade in a limited way. Now it plans to aggressively distribute its brands in general trade outlets and create the right go-to-market strategy. Future Group is positive about Future Consumer. This aims to break a whole lot of classical definitions around FMCG products. Big Bazaar Direct was an omni channel retail format with an ambitious target of setting up 50,000 franchisees across India.The way that the model was slated to work was that franchisees could visit customers and help them browse through a catalogue of Big Bazaar products to conveniently place their order. Big Bazaar Direct later made an entry into the pure-play e-commerce arena.

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