Myntra processes 13,000 orders per minute at peak of festive sale

Walmart-owned fashion retailer Myntra said it has set a new record with the 11th edition of its flagship, End of Reason Sale (EOR), being the biggest ever with a 50 per cent rise in orders over the last year. The four-day fashion event witnessed 2.85 million customers placing 4.2 million orders for 9.6 million items.

Nearly 600,000 new customers participated in the four-day sale, with 68 per cent of them coming from tier-2 and tier-3 cities and towns. Products such as jackets, jeans, sweatshirts and t-shirts were some of the most popular products among shoppers.

“We have just concluded the most successful EORS in our history with a 50 per cent rise in orders over last year,” said Amar Nagaram, Head, Myntra Jabong. “We broke several records this edition, acquiring six lakh new customers, registering over 115 million sessions on the platform and 4.2 million orders, which is the highest ever for any EORS. Contribution from tier-2 and tier-3 cities continues to grow, with 57 per cent orders and 68 per cent of new customers coming from these regions,” he said.

Myntra processed 4000 orders per minute in the first hour of the sale reaching 13000 orders per minute at the peak with women’s western wear, ethnic wear and men’s jeans and streetwear being the highest selling categories. Among metros, Delhi NCR tops the list of contributors to the sale, while Jaipur tops the list of tier-2 and tier-3 cities. The 'Myntra Insiders' or members of Myntra’s loyalty program contributed to 57 per cent of EORS revenues and registered 640000 new members.

According to experts, fashion is a $100-billion market in India, and online retail players have only a 6 per cent penetration.

Myntra eyes 18 mn festive-sale users, prepared for 12,000 orders per minute

Walmart-owned online fashion retailer Myntra is expecting the number of customers for its End of Reason Sale (EORS) this year to be 60 per cent more than last year. To cater to the growing demand, the e-commerce company has doubled its inventory from the previous EORS edition in December 2018. It hopes to serve 18 million users during the four-day sale from December 22 to 25.

Myntra said it was geared to handle 12,000 orders per minute during peak demand. It was expanding its reach to over 23,000 PIN codes to take fashion to the doorstep of people from every region of the country, it added.

During this year’s sale, the biggest to date, the fashion retailer will display on its platform over 850,000 styles from more than 3,000 domestic and international brands like Nike, Swarovski, Tommy Hilfiger, and Marks & Spencer. It will also feature Myntra private brands Roadster, HRX, ‘All About You’, and ‘House of Pataudi’.

“We are also expecting sales during EORS to be five times more than on normal days, with over 50 per cent of the sales coming from Tier-II and -III cities and towns,” said Amar Nagaram, head, Myntra Jabong. “There is a lot of technology play here. It is not just about what products would be sold but where they would be sold. We're working hard to predict the right type of inventory to be placed at each location so that it is closer to the demand.”

Myntra has partnered with 35 leading brands to enable deliveries directly from their stores resulting in a wider selection and faster deliveries for customers during EORS. To make shopping more convenient for customers, the firm has also partnered with 200 tailors to offer alteration services in Bengaluru, Delhi, Mumbai and Kolkata. It has opened 20 experience centres across the country for value-added services like pick up, returns, trial rooms and alterations.

Myntra is looking to acquire 700,000 new customers during this edition of EORS, and it expects traffic coming to the platform to be 50 per cent higher than last year. It said the highly successful Kirana model, under MENSA (Myntra Extended Network for Service Augmentation), would cater to 70 per cent of overall deliveries through 15,000 stores across the country. In addition, there were nine forward deployment centres around high demand clusters to enhance logistical capabilities. “EORS also provides us with an opportunity to collaborate with small businesses within our ecosystem,” said Nagaram.

In a first, 50 new brands are being launched on Myntra ahead of the mega sale event. Some of them are Onitsuka Tiger, H&M, Tissot and Fitbit. The company has also scaled up the selection of its private brands with 150,000 styles across apparel, accessories and footwear. Key categories expected to have a high demand include winter wear, women’s ethnic and western wear, denim, streetwear, sports and beauty.

According to experts, fashion is a $100-billion market in India, and online retail players have only a 6 per cent penetration.

Walmart's Myntra leans on Virat Kohli, Anushka Sharma to reach 100 mn users

Walmart-owned Myntra has roped in Indian captain Virat Kohli and Bollywood actress Anushka Sharma as the online fashion company’s first official brand ambassadors. The duo would help the company launch a brand campaign for shopping on the firm’s e-commerce platform. This is the largest ever brand campaign for Myntra where it is targeting to reach over 100 million potential customers, said the company.

Myntra said the campaign was inspired by the company’s vision to offer an enriching online shopping experience for fashion and provide a user experience with hi-tech features that go beyond the act of adding items to a cart. This campaign strings together various features like visual search- that allows users to click a picture of any merchandise and search for it on the Myntra platform. There are other features such as ‘Sneaker Store’ that allows for relevant category and ‘Try and Buy’ which enables users to physically try out multiple clothes before make the final purchase.

“The association of Bollywood and Sports with fashion needs no introduction and hence having Virat (Kohli) and Anushka (Sharma) as the face of this new campaign will enable us to build strong brand salience and establish the joy and convenience of shopping on Myntra,” said Amar Nagaram, Head, Myntra-Jabong. “Technology is enabling us to understand consumers and their fashion needs... which have been highlighted vividly in this new campaign,” added Nagaram.

Myntra services over 19,000 pin codes across the country. The company said it has partnered with over 2000 leading fashion and lifestyle brands such as Nike, Puma, Harley Davidson, and Ferrari. Over 50% of Myntra’s customers are now coming from Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities such as Bhubaneswar, Trichy, Coimbatore, Kanpur, Raipur and Indore. Myntra also said that region like North East is historically a fashion forward market and hence an important market for the company.

Interestingly Judith McKenna, president and chief executive officer of Walmart International is in Bengaluru this week to assess the progress made by Myntra since the acquisition of the company’s parent Flipkart last May for $16 billion. She had said that one of the things Walmart had planned, once the transaction of Flipkart was completed was to get Myntra products to other countries. This included plans to get Myntra products to Canada in 6-9 months. But she said, “Myntra was able to do it in two months and taught Walmart how to do it,” said a person familiar with McKenna’s conversation with the Myntra team. According to sources, she had also said that Myntra has huge opportunity to get fashion to the forefront for customers and solve their problems. “Your ability to solve problem is fantastic,” she had said, according to the person.