New Delhi: Online fashion retailer Myntra is increasing focus on mobiles as it expects handsets to account for over half of the revenues by end of this fiscal and up to 70 per cent by the end of 2015-16 financial year. The company draws about 30 per cent of its revenues from mobile shoppers and is trying to capitalise on the growing dominance of sub-Rs 15,000 smart phones that is helping in the penetration of mobile Internet in India.
"Mobile shopping is growing in India and we expect it to account for over 50 per cent of our revenues by end of this fiscal and about 60-70 per cent by 2015-16 fiscal," Myntra Chief Product and Technology Officer Shamik Sharma said. About half of the total revenues from mobile comes from Tier II and III cities, he added. Buoyed by response from online users, Myntra.com is already aiming to double its revenues to Rs 2,000 crore this fiscal as it expands its seller base and adds more products.
The firm, which sells products from over 650 brands like Nike, HRX by Hrithik Roshan, Biba and Steve Madden, clocked revenues of about Rs 1,000 crore in 2012-13 fiscal. Trying to capitalise on growing fondness for m-commerce, Myntra today launched its mobile shopping app for Android phones. The application is designed to make browsing convenient as shoppers can manoeuvre through the over 60,000 products with ease, Sharma said. "We will also launch an app for iOS and Windows Phone users in the next few weeks," he added.
Studies conducted by the firm project that smartphones will be the preferred mode of shopping online in the next 12?18 months, he said. India is currently the world's fastest growing smartphone market fuelled by the dominance of sub-Rs 15,000 smartphones. The year 2013 saw a year-on-year growth of 172.2 per cent with over 41 million units shipped across the country, Myntra said. Quoting industry body IAMAI data, the firm said India will have 185 million mobile internet users by June 2014. Besides the app, Sharma said Myntra also gives incentives to shoppers to purchase products from its site using mobiles.
Last week marking the biggest consolidation deal in the Indian e-commerce space, homegrown e-retailer Flipkart said it has acquired Myntra for an estimated Rs 2,000 crore. Myntra, however, will continue to operate as a separate entity and its co-founder and CEO Mukesh Bansal will join Flipkart board and head the fashion business. India's e-commerce market has seen huge growth in the past few years as more people log on to the Internet to shop. While apparel and electronics are bestsellers for most e-commerce firms, categories such as home decor and household items are also popular. The industry, estimated to be worth about USD 3 billion, has firms like Snapdeal, eBay and Amazon and is expected to hit USD 22 billion by 2018.
