Flipkart aims to capture 50% of online fashion market during festive season

India’s largest e-commerce marketplace, Flipkart aims to capture 50 per cent share of the online fashion market during the upcoming festive season that concludes after Diwali, where it will face off with arch rival Amazon. Flipkart’s current market share stands at 35 per cent (excluding Myntra and Jabong).

“We will have 50 per cent share of the online fashion market during the festive season and will exit this year at 40 per cent market share when we go back to business as usual” Rishi Vasudev, Vice-President, Flipkart Fashion, told BusinessLine.

75% sales growth

The e-tailer expects its unit sales to grow by 75 per cent during the festive season and shipments to cross 1.7 crore a month by the year end, driven significantly by an arsenal of over 50 exclusive brands offering over 10,000 styles. Last fiscal, Flipkart achieved over $1 billion in GMV with 1 crore shipments a month. The Flipkart-Myntra-Jabong combine had garnered nearly 80 per cent of the online fashion market after last year's festive season sale.

This year, in addition to its line-up of 50 brand exclusives, Flipkart has launched Denizen from Levi's exclusively on its platform, as a part of the brand's global re-launch this year. The Levi's team has chosen the US and India as the first two markets to experience the re-designed brand.

Brand exclusives have always been an important part of Flipkart’s Fashion strategy and the e-tailer expects one in five brands sold during the festive sale to be a Flipkart exclusive and one in three styles sold to be a Flipkart exclusive. While some brands sell exclusively on Flipkart, others offer exclusive collections on the platform.

“We have worked with the brand for a year to launch the Denizen collection which has been designed for youth across metros as well as Tier 1,2,3 cities and beyond to 4,000 plus cities and towns, aided by customer insights from our platform to determine the fits, colours, prints and price points” said Vasudev. Denizen has been launched with 80-100 styles of denim, tees, sweatshirts, joggers for men and women.

Denim market size

The denim market in India, currently at ₹20,000 crore of which 2.5 per cent is driven by e-commerce, is expected to grow five times at a CAGR of 50 per cent over the next five years. Highest growth is seen in the mid-premium segment which Flipkart is addressing with the Denizen launch, at price points ranging from ₹1,500 to ₹2,000.

“Denims outsell any other bottom-wear sold online by 5:1 and this trend is expected to continue. Nearly 75 per cent of all bottom-wear sold on Flipkart is denims, outselling all other bottom-wear. Flipkart is well poised to take a lion's share of this growing market with a current market share of 40 per cent of the online share of denim category” said Vasudev.