Comments
This fashion lifestyle RFID-enabled store allows shoppers to pick up apparel and accessories without any assistance from sales staff, discover real-time online prices and do a self-checkout in 30 seconds, eliminating the need to scan individual products or remove security tags from each garment.
Three months after shutting down its 4,000 sq ft flagship highstreet Roadster store in Bengaluru, fashion-lifestyle retailer Myntra has opened second ‘Roadster Go’ offline store in a mall.
Tech innovations
The first ‘Roadster Go’ store spanning 1,900 sq ft, which was opened in another shopping centre here last June, was Myntra’s attempt to introduce shoppers to a Retail 2.0 experience.
The new ‘Roadster Go’ store spread across 3,200 sq ft is currently the biggest store for the brand. The company, however, was tight-lipped on the reasons for the closure of the first store.
Like the first one, the new store offers shoppers a number of tech innovations to enhance shopping experience and bring online and offline experiences under one roof.
“Roadster has shown how fashion and technology, when integrated, create unique experiences that take offline shopping to a new level. As a pioneer in omni-channel fashion, Myntra is committed to strengthening its offline presence through a franchise model and offer new experiences to engage customers and make shopping fast and seamless through technology,” said Amar Nagaram, Head, Myntra Jabong.
Launched in 2012, Roadster is Myntra’s top-selling and fastest-growing, outdoor lifestyle private label brand that created a record with the fastest run rate of ₹500 crore in four years. It was expected to achieve a run rate of ₹1,000 crore by FY 2019.
However, during the launch of the first ‘Roadster Go’ store in the city last year, Ananth Narayanan, who was then CEO, Myntra-Jabong, had marked down the run rate to ₹750 crore and said the company plans to open a ‘Roadster Go’ store in Pune and end fiscal 2019 with 15 stores, and a total of 50 stores in fiscal 2020. Narayanan exited the company earlier this year in mid-January.
Expansion plans
Myntra has the master franchisee rights for Mango and Esprit in India and at last count had opened 10 Mango brand stores. In an interaction with BusinessLine last year, Narayanan had said the company planned to have 100 stores by 2020, including Myntra private label brand stores, Mango and Esprit stores.
However, not much progress has been made in its offline store strategy since then and several requests to meet Nagaram was turned down by the company. In an emailed response to a query on the Roadster, Mango and Esprit store count, without divulging details, Myntra said, “Myntra continues to move forward in its strategic direction, including through franchise offline stores, as per the plan.”
Comments
COMMENT NOW
Comments
Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.
We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of TheHindu Businessline and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.