Bengaluru: Flipkart-owned online fashion retailer Myntra, which is on track to meet the target of increasing its gross merchandise value (GMV) by 50% this year, is aiming to grow its sales by at least 40% during its flagship season-end sale in June.
In an interview, Myntra CEO Ananth Narayanan said that 70% of all orders placed during its End of Reason Sale will be delivered by a network of kirana stores. Like the previous editions of End of Reason Sale, Myntra has tied up with a vast network of kirana stores, to help speed up deliveries.
“There are 7,500 kirana stores we have geared up with. We had 300 people training those kirana stores over the past three weeks to ensure that the deliveries happen exactly like a Myntra delivery would happen,” said Narayanan. In the previous edition of End of Reason Sale, Myntra had signed up with 3,600 kirana stores.
“Incidentally, the net promoter score is the same for a kirana store and a regular delivery agent for us. We are excited about the model because it allows us to scale without adding a lot of people. But at the same time, it creates a lot of employment throughout the country,” he added.
Myntra, which holds the flagship sales event twice every year, will be launching its first wearables product during this edition. It had earlier acquired Bengaluru-based smart wearable devices start-up Witworks for an undisclosed amount. The firm is also planning to expand its offline presence from the existing 12 stores to 200 within the next two years to strengthen its private label business. Myntra, which also owns Jabong, generated GMV of $1.2 billion last fiscal. The retailer expects the figure to increase by 50% this fiscal. Mint had reported in April that the company has been focusing more on using its resources to expanding sales faster than turning profitable.
“For the operating business, I am still pushing to run as profitably as one can. But what we are doing is putting a lot of investment in growth. For instance, the wearables acquisition, the push on personal care, omni-channel, the new category launches, etc., are all part of growth investments, over and above the Ebitda profitability push. We are also continuing to look for inorganic plays,” said Narayanan.