Myntra hopes to turn EBITDA positive in 3 months

Fashion e-tailer Myntra, a Flipkart-owned company, is expected to announce EBITDA profitability ahead of its projected Jan-March quarter of 2018.

The firm is on track to close this fiscal with $1.2 billion in Gross Merchandise Value (GMV), as per plan, Ananth Narayanan, CEO, Myntra and Jabong told BusinessLine . Four months ago, Myntra’s private-label portfolio of 13 brands, which delivers about 23 per cent of its business, had turned EBITDA positive.

“Myntra is the No 3 player, after Flipkart, which is No 1, and Amazon, which is No 2. We have been bigger than Snapdeal consistently over the past six months. This year, we will close with $1.2 billion in GMV. We are ahead of target in turning EBITDA positive and will announce that soon,” he said.

Myntra’s End of Reason Sale (EORS) from December 22 to 25, its biggest sale held twice every year and which contributes 20 per cent of the e-tailer’s annual business, is expected to deliver 40-45 per cent growth over the last edition. During the sale, Myntra is expected to grow its daily revenue 25x and Jabong 12x.

“This EORS, we hope to acquire 5 lakh new customers, 60 per cent of them from tier II and III locations. In the past six months we have seen a clear trend of more tier II and III customers using our platforms.

“We have worked to increase delivery speed by 25 per cent overall in tier II and III locations (from eight to six days), and expanded our kirana store partnership from 800 to 3,600 stores, which will deliver Myntra orders to customers in their localities for a fee. This time, we have assisted e-commerce shopping in Lucknow, Jaipur and Indore, with trucks driving around advertising and helping people shop.” Narayanan said.

Myntra has hired 3,500 temporary staff for EORS who will work at its warehouses, transit hubs and distribution centres. Two hundred customer service associates have been hired to handle calls, emails, online chat and social media. “We are seeing 25 per cent escalation by customers on social media, as they find it easier to complain or pose queries on Twitter or Facebook. Therefore, we have ramped up our social-media customer service team,” said Manish Pansari, Head of Services.

Myntra has acquired 6 million new customers from EORS to date, and expects to ramp up that number to 11 million with this sale. “We have a team of 200 people working for four months for EORS. For three nights, we will have over 200 Myntra staff, spending the night at the office until the sale concludes, to be part of the sheer excitement of hitting milestones during the sale” said Narayanan, who will also be there to cheer and motivate his team.

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