Woodland, a leading outdoor adventure brand, is expanding its market reach through a dedicated range of products to be available over e-commerce portals.
Hitherto, Woodland products are sold on its own portal and exclusive brick and mortar stores. It plans to keep a distinction between what it sells on e-commerce portals and its retail stores by launching a new range specifically for the online platform.
Since third-party portals are selling at huge discounts, handing a raw deal to retail stores for many product categories, “We want to offer a different range of products for the e-commerce market, which will not be available in our brick-and-mortar stores,” said Harkirat Singh, Managing Director, Woodland.
The ₹1,000-crore Woodland has 485 stores across the country, all owned and operated by the company for footwear, apparels and outdoor gear. Besides, its products are available at over 4,000 multi-brand outlets. With consumers in tier II and tier III cities also aspiring for upscale brands such as Woodland, the brand has started expanding its footprint beyond major cities.
This year, it will add 50-60 stores. “A majority of this will be in small towns and cities such as Salem, Nagercoil and Karur in Tamil Nadu,” said Singh, who was here to launch a range of jackets for varied weather. He said the company will also consider the ‘franchisee’ model for its future expansion. “As it will be very difficult for us to manage small stores in remote towns, we are now weighing various options, including the franchisee model,” he said.
With the online presence and expanded footprint, this year Woodland expects to grow over 25 per cent. It has been growing at over 20 per cent every year. “Though on a bigger base, factoring in our ever-expanding product range and retail footprint, this year we hope to grow over 25 per cent,” he said.