The size of the fashion e-commerce market in India, which is currently around $8-10 billion, is set to grow 35 per cent to around $30 billion in the next five years, according to Myntra Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Nandita Sinha. “Today the contribution of e-commerce to most of the fashion businesses is 10-12 per cent. This will grow to 30 per cent. That means almost one-third of fashion in India in the next five years will be sold online or through digital platforms,” she said speaking at the ETRetailTech Summit 2022 in Mumbai. She said the Indian e-commerce industry is going through a “transformational” growth phase and talked about the rise of channel-less retail. “As businesses, fashion, and retail digitizes and it leads to the scale of 30 per cent being digital sales, all channels will coexist in a very symbiotic relationship for each of the channels to grow, and contribute in a meaningful way,” she said. Millennials, Gen Z’s to drive consumption in future Sinha said India is going to have 1 billion internet users by 2030 and 50 per cent of its population is below 25 years. “
A lot of these consumers who are below the age of 25 with this 1 billion internet population will get digitized. And in this journey a lot of businesses, brands will get digitized.” “We will see growth in the number of consumers who are shopping fashion online. This number was around 120 million last year and will grow by three times to reach around 350 million. A lot of these consumers are actually going to be millennials and Gen Z’s. These are the consumers who will fuel the growth in the coming years. It is very important to understand who these consumers are and what is really driving their preferences and choices,” Sinha said. Changing fashion landscape Sharing insights on the changing landscape of the fashion retail industry, Sinha said India is an under-penetrated country from the brands point of view as it has less brands per capita consumption than the Southeast Asian countries or the West.
“What that means is that with this digitally native consumer who is exposed to a lot of global trends through social media, there is a proliferation of brands that is coming into the country to build their brand base, be successful across both online and offline channels and use the next seven to eight years to establish themselves very deeply in the country.” She also shared that along with international brands, there is an increasing element of building homegrown D2C brands. “I think brands are also taking the opportunity to create specialized capsules for India, which are rooted in Indian culture.” Talking about how fashion brands today are focusing on brand building, Sinha said the two key avenues – social media and beauty as an extension of fashion.
“The social media and the digital influencer creator ecosystem and how do you use that ecosystem along with the flagship brand experiences in the form of original brand stores that create experiences, that’s what really brands are looking to do in the country as they go forward.” Sinha also shared insights on the future of the beauty industry. “Beauty and fashion are really coming together. Beauty is an extension of fashion, and all of the trends that fashion saw; the beauty industry is seeing the same. It is about expert advice, being personalized, inclusive and ethical. So a lot of consumers are looking at brands which are inclusive and ethical,” she said. The Myntra CEO also said technology is driving transformation in the fashion e-commerce industry across areas including logistics services, warehousing, delivery optimization, route optimization and fraud detection.
