Planning to buy yourself a designer dress? Well, you no longer need fear the disapproving look of a judgmental salesman at a posh boutique shop.

With e-retailers such as Myntra, Jabong, Koovs and Fashionandyou also selling premium products (priced between ₹3,990 and ₹50,000), you can simply stay home and purchase an outfit with the click of the mouse, or over your phone.

Online players are ramping up their premium products by roping in ace fashion designers such as Rohit Bal, Anita Dongre, Neeta Lulla and Manish Arora. The portals are also tying up exclusively with premium international brands to provide easy access to their consumers.

It’s not hard to see why this is happening. Thanks to Bollywood, awareness about designer labels and fashion brands has grown among Indian shoppers. Offline fashion retail is still under-represented in most Indian cities and towns while aspiration levels are rising, and the e-tailers are trying to tap this into this demand.

Buying apparel and garments online is cheaper. That perhaps explains why fashion is the fastest growing category in the online space, accounting for almost 40 per cent of the segment’s overall sales.

Growing business

Myntra’s Chief Marketing Officer, Vikas Ahuja, says the idea is to connect with the massive growth and demand in smaller towns for affordable luxury products. The next phase of growth will come from tier-II and -III cities, he added.

In the next 10-12 months, Myntra plans to add over 50 international brands exclusively to its portfolio.

Fashion portal Jabong is planning to launch about 15 premium brands this year. It already has European brands such Dorothy Perkins and Miss Selfridge in its cart. Premium and designer wear is driving sales growth for the company.

Jabong founder-CEO Arun Chandra Mohan says this category fetches a margin as high as 70 per cent. Most of these brands will rake in ₹50-60 crore in revenue in the first year itself, he adds.

Suminder Pal Singh, GM, Sales and Sourcing, Fashionandyou, says that within the next six months, sales are expected to rise by up to 20 per cent from the current 5 per cent. The company says it will launch a separate ‘designer lounge’ by June.

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