Natasha Ali (32), a Bangalore-based food blogger, usually shops for her customary festive salwar-kameez from stores in the central business district. But this time, she bought some online instead. Till recently, online stores had not deemed it fit to stock ethnic wear (especially saris) due to their higher touch-and-feel requirements. This Diwali, though, the trend has changed.
With Indians becoming even more friendlier with e-commerce play, consumers have dropped the inhibition of shopping online for ethnic wear. ?It is not a pleasant experience in the stores during the Diwali season. It is chaotic and I didn?t want to deal with over enthusiastic sales men. I always found it convenient to shop online, but this time I feel encouraged to shop even for ethnic wear since the sites were offering more size options than normal retail stores,? said Ali.
After initial years of indecisiveness, e-commerce firms have decided to stock themselves with Indian outfits not only because it is a high-margin game, but also due to the fact that consumers are now getting used to buying saris and lehengas online. ?There is great product detail, description, images available online as embroidery is key to ethnic wear,? said Arun Chandra Mohan, Jabong.com, co-founder and managing director.
The current market for e-retailing in India is estimated at $3.2 billion, growing at over 23% annually, according to a recent study by Technopak, a research firm. On an average, 60% of the consumers are from the top 10 cities and in the 20-30 year age group. The ethnic-wear market is estimated to represent up to 40% of the overall online apparel market in the country.
Sensing the new trend, the largest e-retailer in the country, Flipkart, launched men?s apparel along with the ethnic wear in limited range from October 5. Myntra launched saris in September just in time for the festivities.
For Myntra, sari as a category has grown over 50% in the last five weeks. ?Sari is size less unlike other products as we don?t see any problem with size. Ethnic wear business has picked up in the last two weeks and we expect very good sales in the next week as well. In the last fortnight sales grew by over 50% and in the next 10 days we expect it to move further up,? said Ganesh Subramanian, chief merchandising officer, Myntra.com.
Myntra offers 12 popular brands of saris by FabIndia and Satya Paul to name two. Fashionandyou.com also offers 20-25 sari varieties. Jabong, which started offering ethnic wear just a month after the website was launched, offer 2,200 saris to chose from. Jabong offers 50-60 ethnic brands. Fashionandyou.com has120 ethnic brands and 30 designer brands.
E-tailers point out that apparel as a category offers about 30-40% margin depending on the brand and price point. Ethnic wear usually has higher margins compared with other apparel categories. Designer ethnic labels commands even better margins, said Mohan.
For some stores ethnic wear brings in higher value per customer around this time. For instance, at Koovs.com, an online fashion store, the average apparel value is Rs 800, while it is Rs 995 for the ethnic collection. The higher margins, though, depend a lot on the brands.
According to online retailers most of the consumers also buy jewelery and footwear to match with their ethnic attire. ?We have a full fashion range to go with the ethnic wear,? said Rajesh Kamra, co-founder and director, Koovs.
?With an array of online portals concentrating on Indian ethnic wear, the transition from ?brick to click? is evident. We consider our online platform as our 17th retail point and not e-commerce. Kimaya has consolidated inventory of 16 stores and collections of over 180 top designers of the country to cater to the festive need,? said Pradeep Hirani, chairman and managing director, Kimaya Fashions.
The companies are now feeling confident that ethnic wear, contrary to popular notion, may continue to sell well online even after the festival season.
Trivikram Thakore, director of marketing, Fashionandyou.com, said that in India the propensity to buy ethnic wear is not restricted to the festival season.
