In an effort to attract Gen-Z’s fashion and lifestyle e-commerce platform Myntra has designed what it calls an new in-app experience called Myntra FWD. As part of this offering, the company has rolled out a series of features to deliver a differentiated app-in-app experience. Additionally, Myntra FWD is designed to capture aspects such as what’s in trend, community-driven recommendations as well as their preferred content formats. In a conversation with BrandWagon Online Sunder Balasubramanian, CMO, Myntra talks about this new proposition.
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Q. What was the need to create a different app-in-app feature? Is there any data based on which you decided this?
It is a mixture of pieces that have allowed us to create this. One part of it is that over the last year, we have been adding selections aimed at Gen-Z. We understand how they actually look at products on our app, how they add to cart, and what is important for them. Secondly, as we have been running social commerce programs, we also understand what they look for and see when they engage with influencers on our platform. The third part is how they look at trends and what is important. This is a larger learning that we do when we talk to this cohort itself. So, a mixture of all these pieces has given us the learnings to make this platform.
Q. To what extent do you expect the new experience to play a part in driving sales? Currently how much of sales Gen-Z account for?
Currently, we cater to over eight million Gen-Z customers on our platform, and looking forward to taking another 10 million in the years to come.
What is important about Gen-Z more than these specific numbers is what the future potential of this cohort is. The top end of the cohort today is aged between 25-26 years old, who are first time employees. Going forward in the next five years, both from a size perspective and a purchase power, this is going to be the cohort that will drive most of our businesses and brands.
Q. You claim that you plan to add 10 million Gen-Zers to customers. How do you plan to achieve this target? Besides this new experience, how do you plan to add them, what is the marketing and communication plan you have?
10 million new customers is the goal. For us, the starting point of it is the app and the experience. We will start with 65,000 styles, but as you look forward, we are going to expand this across as we come out with daily drops and will expand our catalog to over one lakh styles.
The key pillar of reaching out to this audience is using creators and influencers. We already have over 500 influencers who are Gen-Z focussed, including the campus ambassador programme which reaches out to students across universities in the country. We expect a mixture of influencer driven content, word of mouth and virality to kick in to enable growth within this cohort.
Q. With this new app-in-app feature, how does the unique selected selling proposition change and what are the strategies against competitors?
What is most important when we define our unique selling proposition is what is important to the customer. As we look at it from that viewpoint, what is important for them is trends. So, if you look at the app-and-app experience of the overall Myntra, the visual identity is very different.
The kind of curation is very different. Things like daily drops are something very unique to them. So that trend first piece is of big differentiation. As you look at the app and whole section, which is about your favorite influencers. So, that part of it gains much more precedence here versus any other cohort because influencers and their authentic feedback is important for them.
Q. What will be the average ticket price?
As much as gen-Z looks at trends, their focus is also on affordability. So keeping this in mind, our average selling price would be between Rs 750-800, which is in line with what expectations this cohort has.
Q. What percent of the ad budget will be allocated to traditional versus digital? How do you plan to utilise digital to its advantage?
The interesting thing is that gen-Z are digitally present. I remember reading data about how they spend almost eight hours a day online. When that happens, and you are an e-commerce, it is almost like a marriage made in heaven in terms of fitment. So for us, the focus will be on doing most of our marketing and reaching out to this cohort using the digital medium across social media platforms using our own app and social commerce.