Expect over 1 mn new shoppers in flagship sale this year: Myntra CEO

There is a huge resurgence in the fashion category this year as an increasing number of people step outside to shop for fashion products for social occasions and work, said Nandita Sinha, chief executive officer (CEO), Myntra. They are buying workwear due to the reopening of offices and educational institutions.

Sinha, who took over as CEO of the Walmart-owned online fashion retailer in January, is gearing up for the firm’s biannual flagship sale event - End Of Reason Sale (EOSS) - this week. She is expecting it to be the country’s biggest fashion event. Over 5 million customers are expected to transact on the platform.

Myntra is poised to expect over 1 million new customers, with over 40 per cent of the overall traffic coming from tier 2/3 cities and towns.

“There are many fashion occasions that have actually catapulted demand for categories, such as back-to-work, social gatherings, and back-to-college. People are prepping up for the festival season in the second half of July,” said Sinha, in an interview, adding, “There is a huge amount of fashion consumption that is happening. Also, over the past two years, consumers have been very engaged with social media and social commerce (for fashion products).”

Sinha said the 16th edition of Myntra’s biannual EORS, which will be held from June 11-16, is going to be bigger and better than the earlier editions, comprising the biggest-ever collection of 1.4 million styles across 5,000-plus brands.

The six-day event is set to provide offers from fashion, lifestyle, beauty, personal care and home categories, catering to over 5 million unique customers across the country, with an expected uptick in demand by over 3x of business-as-usual (BAU) and 26 per cent increase in traffic over the previous July edition.

“This EORS, we have been able to provide direct and indirect employment to over 27,000 professionals across supply-chain logistics and customer support,” said Sinha, adding, “What makes us very proud is the fact that 2,000 of them are women and 300 differently-abled, reinforcing our commitment to inclusion and diversity.”

Sinha said Myntra’s countrywide network of 21,000 kirana store partners (Myntra Extended Network for Service Augmentation network) will cater to over 19,000 pincodes, fulfilling 85 per cent of deliveries and providing crucial support to the last-mile delivery process during the event.

The Myntra platform is geared to handle 16,000 orders per minute and 1.1 million concurrent users during peak hours.

EORS 16 has created over 27,500 direct and indirect seasonal employment opportunities across warehouses, last-mile delivery, and contact centres to cater to the expected surge in demand.

“In terms of scale, we are expecting 3x traffic, (compared) to what it is during (BAU),” said Sinha.

According to sources, the firm is expecting 1.5x growth in terms of products sold, compared to EORS 14 in July 2021, which saw over 18 million products ordered by 4.2 million customers across the country. It recorded 4x growth over BAU.

To cater to changing customer needs, Myntra has onboarded 100 new brands ahead of EORS and increased its style selection by 40 per cent from the previous July edition. This gives shoppers a wide catalogue of products from top international and domestic brands, including direct-to-consumer brands to choose from. Customers will have access to brands such as U.S. Polo Assn., Puma, Biba, Roadster, H&M, and Mango.

StyleCast, Myntra’s go-to destination for GenerationZ shoppers, has scaled its offerings by 5x since launch to over 35,000 styles. Some of the key category highlights include sportswear, with over 2,000 brands being offered. This is followed by beauty and personal care, bringing about 1,100 brands with over 53,000 styles and special offers.

In a first, Myntra is enabling access to hundreds of limited high-value offers on beauty and personal care, including ‘Buy One, Get One’ constructs.

Myntra will provide a unique shopping experience through its M-Live property to those shoppers who get inspired by influencer choices and absorb their content to create styles for themselves. Its social commerce propositions - Myntra Studio and M-Live - will host 1,000 sessions by 1,000 influencers with shoppable content.

It is also collaborating with over 2,500 popular fashion and beauty creators to keep the buzz around the marquee festival alive.

For Good ‘Reason’

• 5 million No. of shoppers Myntra’s End of Reason Sale 16 intends to serve
• 16,000 Orders to be handled per minute at peak hours
• 1,000 Live sessions hosted by over 2,500 influencers
• 85% Deliveries expected to be fulfilled by 21,000 kirana partners
• 27,500 People it’ll provide direct and indirect seasonal job opportunities to