Myntra has planned to open a physical stores to boost its private labels across India by the next year. In fact there are talks of the fashion portal’s merger with Flipkart continue. Myntra is likely to continue as a standalone fashion brand even after its expected merger with Flipkart. Which is why the company has been beefing up efforts to promote its flagship private label casualwear line — Roadster. Ganesh Subramanian, COO, Myntra said, “We are looking to go offline for pure brand-building, not to increase sales. We will start by opening one Roadster shop each in Mumbai, Delhi and Bangalore and later venture into other towns and cities.”
Myntra has recently roped in Bollywood star Ranveer Singh to endorse Roadster. It also plans to launch two or three more celebrity brand labels this year. In March, the fashion portal signed up Ogilvy India Worldwide to manage brand-building exercise for its own fashion lines. However, Myntra declined to talk about their investment on these offline stores. “It is too early to make an estimate,” Subramanian said.
Bangalore-based Myntra, founded by IIT-Kanpur graduate Mukesh Bansal, gets about 20 percent of its total revenue from its company-owned private label sales and expects it to rise to 35 percent by the end of the year.
Myntra said it will look at expanding its private label offerings online before taking to the brick-and-mortar stores. “We will penetrate a few more categories like kids’ private brands and formal wear brands in the second half of the year,” Subramanian said. It expects to turn profitable by year end with a turnover of Rs 800 crore.
