‘Amazon is country’s largest fashion platform for Diwali shopping’

Amazon.in is the country’s largest fashion platform for Diwali shopping and will be number one in order share of online fashion this Diwali, a top executive from Amazon India told BusinessLine.

“We exited 2017 as the single-largest fashion destination to become the fastest-growing online fashion marketplace in the country. According to an IMRB study, Amazon Fashion had the highest order share online as a single, standalone marketplace during festival season 2017, garnering 38 per cent share of the total orders in fashion” said Arun Sirdeshmukh, Business Head, Amazon Fashion, India.

“Amazon is the country’s largest fashion platform for Diwali shopping and this year too, Amazon will be number one in order share of online fashion, led by apparel and shoes” he said.

In the run-up to the biggest festival sale of the year, that kicked off at 12 noon for its Prime Members on Tuesday, Amazon has added 3,000 new brands taking its tally to 21,000 brands that offer 10 lakh styles with a total inventory of nearly 40 million units, a 60 per cent increase since last Diwali.

Celebrity brand portfolio

Amazon has added 100 designers to its designer boutique store, scaled up its celebrity brand portfolio with exclusive brand launches such as Just F (Jacqueline Fernandes), Prowl (Tiger Shroff), D:FY (Hardik Pandya, Rheson (Sonam Kapoor) and forged exclusive brand partnerships with international brands such as New Balance and Under Armor.

The e-tailer has beefed up its private label fashion portfolio with 21 new private label brands for men, women and kids from the beginning of 2018, taking its private label brand count to 23.

In addition to Symbol, its menswear brand which offers over 3,000 styles and MYX, its ethnic wear brand for women that offers over 500 styles, Amazon has introduced new private label brands such as Arthur Harvey, a men’s formal shirt brand with close to 100 styles and House & Shields, a men’s casual wear brand with over 100 styles, and many more. Amazon’s s private label selection has seen a 75 per cent increase in selection YoY in 2018.

Last week, arch rival Flipkart’s head of Fashion, Rishi Vasudev had told BusinessLine that Flipkart will have 50 per cent share of the online fashion market during the festive season and will exit this year at 40 per cent share, when it is business as usual.

In the e-commerce journey so far, consumer electronics led by smartphone sales, has been the largest category for e-tailers and continues to hold sway in value terms. However, Fashion is now the second most hotly contested category, as volumes or unit sales in Fashion far exceeds volumes in Consumer Electronics.

Fashion is also a category that attracts new customers in droves to e-commerce marketplaces for the vast selection and price range. For instance, one out of every three new customers to Amazon comes through Fashion. According to a Google and AT Kearney report, Fashion is all set to overtake Electronics to become the largest online category for shoppers by 2020.