The retailer intends to deepen its presence in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, while also exploring opportunities in over 15 new regions
Bengaluru: North India-based value fashion retailer Citykart aims to have 300 stores over the next three years, aiming to add approximately 30 stores every year, a top company official told IndiaRetailing.
Launched in 2015, in Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh the company offers affordable fashion for men, women, and kids, along with footwear and accessories. It also offers home furnishings, general merchandise, toys, and most recently, cosmetics and personal care products.
The retailer reached a milestone of 100 stores in 2023 and now operates 107 retail outlets in 73 cities across nine states, including Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Odisha, Assam, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, West Bengal, Jharkhand, and Tripura covering 8.95 lakh sq. ft. of retail space.
The retailer intends to deepen its presence in its current strongholds, primarily Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, while also exploring opportunities in over 15 new regions across states like West Bengal, Odisha, Jharkhand, and Assam.
This expansion is expected to drive the company’s revenues to Rs 950 to Rs 1,000 crore in the financial year 2025, up from approximately Rs 636 crore in FY24, which itself marks a 20% increase from Rs 523 crore in FY23.
“We are focusing on the fortification strategy in the current neighbourhood markets we already operate in, while simultaneously expanding into new regions in the North and Northeast Indian states,” said Sudhanshu Agarwal, founder and chief executive officer of Citykart.
“Once we feel we have established a strong enough presence in North and East India to continue growing, we will consider expanding into South and West India,” he added.
Serving non-metros
In India, the value retail space is heating up with several players in the segment, including V-Mart, V2 Retail, Tata-owned Zudio, Reliance-owned Youtsa, Shopper’s Stop Intune, Landmark Group’s Max, among others. Value Retail is growing rapidly in non-metros. Citykart is among the players who has been servicing the demand in the areas.
“Value retailers are the shopping malls for tier 2, 3, and beyond cities. In these areas, organised retail was almost nonexistent at the time of our launch. For entrepreneurs looking to establish organised retail in these markets, a strong focus on affordability and value is essential,” said Agarwal.
Speaking about the sector’s growth, he added, “Local mom-and-pop stores are unable to provide the level of fashion merchandise that we offer at price points appealing to customers, making it increasingly difficult for unorganised retailers to compete with us.”
Today, the Gurugram-based brand boasts a loyalty base of over 1.10 crore customers. “Tier 2 and tier 3 cities are performing much better for us compared to metro cities,” he said.
Inside Citykart
The company employs around 2,800 people, with approximately 30% of the workforce being women. Across categories, the retailer has approximately 25,000 stop keeping units (SKUs) each season. During the summer season, it typically offers around 25,000 to 30,000 SKUs, while in the winter season, the number decreases to about 15,000 to 20,000 SKUs due to lower demand.
Despite offering multiple categories, apparel still accounts for 82% of the company’s offerings, with the remaining 18% comprising other products.
Most of its designs are developed in-house by a dedicated team of designers who create the entire collection. However, it does not manufacture the products, instead sources it from various vendors across India.
Citykart stores adopt a concept of ‘weekly deliveries’, where merchandise is updated every week; however, not the entire store changes—only a specific section is refreshed each week.
Furthermore, Citykart is a pure-offline retailer and does not sell online. “Currently, online retail is not a profitable venture for us. While we may consider it in the future, our primary focus at the moment is on offline growth,” he added.
Future plans
“In the upcoming quarter (Q3 2024), we expect to open around 20 stores, with a total of 40 to 45 new stores by the end of this fiscal year (FY),” said Agarwal.
As part of this expansion, Citykart will be entering 15 new cities, backed by an investment of approximately Rs 100 crore, creating employment opportunities for around 700-1,000 people.
“We will deepen our apparel offerings by providing more options while also adding more categories that complement fashion,” shared Agarwal.
Speaking about growth expectations, he said “Last year, we achieved a positive same-store sales growth (SSG) of 12%, and this year we are on track for strong double-digit growth on top of that. Overall, we anticipate a 25- 30% increase in total sales.”
