According to reports, the country’s biggest online fashion retailer Myntra, is in plans to start a chain of brick-and-mortar stores selling multi-brand cosmetics and wellness items. Bindu Mendonsa is tipped to spearhead the company’s offline foray into cosmetics and wellness products.
The fashion retailer sells more than 100 beauty and cosmetics brands, including MAC, Clinique, Bobbi Brown, and Estee Lauder on its e-commerce platform. Now, it plans to sell these products through a chain of multi-brand physical stores.
The report also states that India’s beauty market has more than doubled to an estimated $8 billion currently from about $3.6 billion in 2010, say industry estimates.
Earlier in October, Myntra along with its partner Barcelona-based fashion brand Mango had opened its first brick-and-mortar store in Delhi. The e-tailer had bagged omni channel distribution rights of Spanish fashion brand Mango in February this year.
As part of the alliance, the companies will set up 25 Mango stores in five years. The companies had said they expect to see about 250% growth in business and a 50:50 split between online-offline sales in a year.
In September, Myntra had announced that it had bagged distribution and management rights of the international fashion brand Esprit. The company also began managing 15 Esprit offline stores in the country.
While announcing the addition of Mango venture Myntra CEO Ananth Narayanan, said that the fashion e-tailer is looking out for more such partners for omnichannel presence in the country. He said that Myntra is expecting 10-15% of business from such partnerships in the next five years.
Narayan said that offline presence boosts online sales for an e-tailer. Citing its private label brand Roadster’s first offline store in Bangalore in Bangalore in March this year, he said the online sale of the brand grew by 4% after the brick-and-mortar store opened up.
