Myntra reports 60% jump in demand for international brands

Nearly 40% of demand for international fashion labels is driven by shoppers in tier-two cities and beyond. In all, Myntra sells over 5,000 brands such as H&M, Levis, Louis Philippe, Mango, Forever 21, Urbanic, Biba, Nike, and Fossil, among others.

“The Indian consumer is largely becoming a very globally influenced consumer. There is a lot of global inspiration that is also coming, that is something which we realized a few years back. We tried to get into that trend and really lead that trend for the Indian fashion customer,” Nandita Sinha, chief executive, Myntra said in an interview with Mint.

The move also points to a more recent aggression displayed by Indian retail houses that are bringing global brands to the country to capitalise on the growing demand for branded apparel. Greater variety helps draw in more shoppers with better listings and capture consumers across price points.

For instance, Myntra on-boarded American retailer Macy’s by listing its private labels in the run-up to the festive season sales earlier this year. These include brands such as Alfani, a workwear brand for men and women, apart from men’s casual clothing line under Club Room. Myntra also lists Macy’s activewear brand Ideology, and daily basics such as tank tops and track pants under the Karen Scott brand. 

More recently, the UK-Based Boohoo Group marked its foray into the Indian market with Myntra. The former will sell brands such as boohoo, Dorothy Perkins (DP) and Nasty Gal across categories like dresses, tops, bottoms, and footwear.

The retailer also launched Korean clothing brand 8Seconds, Priyanka Chopra’s hair-care brand Anomaly, as well as Turkish clothing brand Trendyol. Some of these brands also retail via other online marketplaces such as Ajio, Nykaa and Tata Cliq.

Online retailer Nykaa recently on-boarded multi-brand shopping platform Revolve on its platform to offer premium clothing and accessories.

Myntra has looked at partnering with popular brands from regions including south east Asia, the US, the UK, South Korea and Turkey, the company said.

“Last year was a particularly interesting year for us because we launched 25 international brands in fashion, and almost 50 in beauty. We’ve seen a huge traction from our customers. International brands have grown 60% across the last two years. In fact, 40% of this demand is actually coming from tier two cities, which means that consumers across the country are really waiting to adopt globally influenced trends,” Sinha said.

However, most of these brands are largely present online, leaving a gap in the offline retail market. Sinha, however, said that an offline strategy is an outcome of how global brands choose to expand in the market. “I think those are calls that we leave the brands to take and how they want to expand in the country,” she said.