Myntra pushes $1-b sales volume target to next fiscal

Fashion and lifestyle e-tailer Myntra has pushed its target of achieving $1 billion in gross merchandise volume (GMV) in FY 2016 to the next fiscal year because of increased competition from smaller but nimble players.

Having clocked $800 million in annualised average GMV in January 2016 up from $500 million in December, Myntra plans to build on the momentum in January to touch $1 billion GMV in FY 2016-17.

Stating that January has been the biggest month ever for Myntra, Ananth Narayanan, CEO, said the company would focus on achieving profits while maintaining scale in FY 2016-17. Sales volumes for January were propelled by growth of Myntra Fashion Brands, led by Roadster, increased contribution of marquee international brands such as M&S, Forever 21, high growth in the women’s wear category and a successful ‘End of Reason’ sale that was kicked off much before the onrush of end of season sales by other retailers and e-tailers. Myntra, a Flipkart-owned company, is the country’s largest app-only fashion e-tailer.

The company dropped discounts — which most e-tailers resort to — by 6 per cent and reduced supply chain costs by 5 per cent in the Diwali quarter and expects to push discounts down further by 3-4 per cent. The three key strategies of brand selection, platform strategy and service optimisation helped the company clock growth of 70 per cent y-o-y in 2015.

“Online fashion consumers are largely brand seeking. Brands will grow and define the future of fashion and we expect the branded fashion market to grow twice as fast as the overall fashion market in the next five years,” said Prasad Kompalli, Head – e-commerce platform.

Another focus is to increase the revenue contribution of 11 of its in-house brands from 20 per cent in 2015 to 25 per cent by the end of 2016. International brands accounted for 5 per cent of overall revenue by December, and this is expected to increase to 15 per cent by 2017.

Of the 30 international brands, the leading brands offered by Myntra in 2015 were Forever 21, Mango, Antony Morato, Scotch & Soda and M&S.

The company’s experiment with a technology insights-led in-house brand called Moda Rapido, which launches jeans, tees , kurtas and trousers every four weeks, has accounted for nearly 1 per cent of Myntra’s revenues.

By December end, there were over 2,000 brands on Myntra, of which 800 had been on-boarded in 2015. It attracts 12 million monthly active users, with visits per month rising to 12.

COMMENT NOW