E-commerce is no longer seen as a deep-discounting only format: Myntra CEO

Walmart-owned online fashion retailer, Myntra, will host its biannual sale event, End of Reason Sale (EORS) between December 20-24. The event will be the biggest so far, with 900,000 styles from over 3,000 brands participating, says Amar Nagaram, CEO, Myntra.

According to Nagaram, the Covid-19 pandemic has accelerated the growth of e-commerce. As consumers’ shopping preferences change, Myntra, one of the largest fashion e-tailers in the country is witnessing higher traffic on the platform compared to the pre-Covid levels.

In an interview with BusinessLine , he talks about how Myntra weathered the Covid-led slowdown, consumer trends and other changes. Edited excerpts:

The lockdown was completely unprecedented, and for the first time, there were nine weeks of no revenue for us. This was really a tough phase for everyone. We had no idea how long the lockdown would last. It was then we decided to up the consumer engagement initiatives and launched Myntra Studio on our app. In order to shore up site traffic, top influencers of the country focussed on fashion-related content, personal care and grooming tips and so on, on Myntra Studio. It worked. Over the next few weeks traffic on the platform was back to pre-Covid levels.

We then created a new category of fashion essentials which included masks. We worked with brands like Wildcraft and others to create this new portfolio. Over the next few weeks, Myntra introduced personal safety offerings like sanitisers and hand rubs; and personal care items.

As unlocking began, we reworked our apparel portfolio to include in-demand items like loungewear, shorts, comfortwear and items. The DIY portfolio of trimmers, epilators and shavers was ramped up.

In June, we carried out the year’s first EORS with 700,000 styles and it did extremely well, despite the on-ground supply constraints and the then prevailing sentiments in the apparel and fashion industry. This was the first time we delivered orders from brand partners’ offline stores at scale, as part of the omni-channel technology.

On the partner side, we were empathetic towards our MENSA partners, who are part of our kirana network for last-mile deliveries. We were among the first in the industry to get Covid insurance done for our delivery partners and made advance payments so they could weather the period of no sales.

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Yes, there was downtrading across the board in the initial days. But downtrading happened within brands. For example, a person buying ₹2,000-sneakers of brand X, chose a ₹1,400-sneaker of the same brand. It was here that brands stepped in with new offerings across the then in-demand price points.

Post the festive season, there has again been a pick-up in ASPs, and it continues. Pick-up in demand for premium items have also happened since the festive season. I think these trends will be sustainable for over the next one-two years.

Post Unlock 1.0, with people working from home, there was demand for comfort and loungewear and open footwear. Later, traction was for sportswear — apparels, initially, and then footwear. As the festive season approached, ethnicwear sales picked up. Now, we are witnessing a demand for winterwear like sweatshirts, woolens for indoors, track pants, jackets and jumpers. We are expecting this to continue into the EORS period.

In other categories, items like kidswear, sarees and home décor have picked up well. These were not amongst the most ordered categories pre-Covid. We brought in new partners like Nalli, Pothys and Chennai Silks to ramp up the saree category.

Covid actually accelerated some of these trends, which otherwise would have played out over the next couple of years.

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First, people are now more comfortable with online shopping and it continues to play out in Tier-II and -III towns.

Second, brands are increasingly focusing on omni-channel presence. Earlier, it was online versus offline. Now it’s about the two channels working together.

Third, people have also become comfortable with and are aware of price parity across e-tailers and brick-and-mortar stores of a brand. E-commerce is no longer seen as a deep-discounting only format.

International brands, especially premium ones, and some domestic ones realised it is easier to expand through online channels rather than increasing physical presence in a slowdown year. We have on-boarded 400 new brands in the last seven months and ahead of the December EORS, 50 new brands have been added.

We have accelerated our investments in the technology space with initiatives like ‘Myntra-Mall’. These investments would otherwise be looked at in 2022 or 2023. We are looking at every opportunity to make things better for our customers, employees, brand, delivery partners and larger ecosystem.