Online fashion retailer Myntra is increasing focus on mobiles as it expects handsets to account for over half of the revenues by end of this fiscal and up to 70 percent by the end of 2015-16 financial year, accordint to a PTI report.
The company draws about 30 percent of its revenues from mobile shoppers and is trying to capitalise on the growing dominance of sub-Rs 15,000 smartphones that is helping in the penetration of mobile Internet in India.
“Mobile shopping is growing in India and we expect it to account for over 50 percent of our revenues by end of this fiscal and about 60-70 percent by 2015-16 fiscal,” Myntra chief product and technology officer Shamik Sharma told PTI.
About half of the total revenues from mobile comes from tier II and III cities, he added.
Buoyed by response from online users, Myntra.com is already aiming to double its revenues to Rs 2,000 crore this fiscal as it expands its seller base and adds more products.
The firm, which sells products from over 650 brands like Nike, HRX by Hrithik Roshan, Biba and Steve Madden, clocked revenues of about Rs 1,000 crore in 2012-13 fiscal.
Trying to capitalise on growing fondness for m-commerce, Myntra has launched its mobile shopping app for Android phones. The application, it claims, will make browsing convenient.
“We will also launch an app for iOS and Windows Phone users in the next few weeks,” Sharma added.
Studies conducted by the firm project that smartphones will be the preferred mode of shopping online in the next 12-18 months, he said.
India is currently the world’s fastest growing smartphone market fuelled by the dominance of sub-Rs 15,000 smartphones. The year 2013 saw a year-on-year growth of 172.2 percent with over 41 million units shipped across the country, Myntra said.
Quoting industry body IAMAI data, the firm said India will have 185 million mobile internet users by June 2014. Besides the app, Sharma said Myntra also gives incentives to shoppers to purchase products from its site using mobiles.
Marking the biggest consolidation deal in the Indian e-commerce space, homegrown e-retailer Flipkart acquired Myntra for an estimated Rs 2,000 crore last week. Myntra, however, will continue to operate as a separate entity and its co-founder and CEO Mukesh Bansal will join Flipkart board and head the fashion business.
India’s e-commerce market, estimated to be worth about $ 3 billion, has firms like Snapdeal, eBay and Amazon and is expected to hit $ 22 billion by 2018.
