Flipkart-owned Myntra is one of the leading online portals for fashion and lifestyle accessories in India. But to boost sales and further enhance accessibility to users, the company is now reportedly all set to launch its first offline brick-and-mortar store in Bengaluru.
As per a report from ETtech, the first store will be opened under Myntra’s private brand Roadster in swish shopping district of 100 Feet Road. For the Roadster outlet, Blackberrys apparel store on 100 Feet Road in Indiranagar has already carved out 3,500 sq ft out of its total 8000 sq ft.
According to Ananth Narayan, CEO of Myntra, “it will be a highly tech-enabled store.” He has also confirmed that the outlet would have digital walls, allowing consumers to navigate and browse products. While no concrete timeline has been officially announced, Ananth has said that the store is expected to open late December or early January.
However, Myntra is not the only e-commerce startup that is now looking towards offline stores to expand its business. Online lingerie seller Zivame, optical products retailer Lenskart, and online furniture store Pepperfry are already expanding their business through the offline route.
Among all of those, Lenskart currently has the largest network of offline stores. It operates more than 250 brick-and-mortar outlets and plans to expand it to 350-400 by March 2017. On the other hand, Zivame plans to open 50 stores by March.
Myntra is not new when it comes to experimenting with the business model. Earlier, the company had shut down its desktop and mobile website and was only accessible via its mobile app. It claimed that it was receiving more than 90% of traffic via mobile. However, the strategy didn’t work as the per the company’s expectations and it relaunched its website.
Recently, the company acquired its rival Jabong for $70 million. The combined platform of Myntra and Jabong now houses over 30 top global brands, including Dorothy Perkins, Tom Tailor, G Star Raw, Bugatti Shoes, The North Face, Forever 21, among others. The two platforms also have a combined user base of more than 15 million monthly active users.
