Flipkart aims to sell one bn fashion products in 2023, preps for sale event

India’s Flipkart plans a record annual sale of some one billion fashion products in 2023, said people familiar with the internal target of the e-commerce firm owned by USA’s Walmart.

The target was set after Flipkart, for the first time, hit 200 million orders in the fashion category January to May this year, according to sources. Fashion products sold in the ‘spring-summer season’ surpassed pre-pandemic sales in 2019. The season this year had some 175,000 fashion sellers as participats.

A Flipkart spokesperson declined to comment about the internal target.

Flipkart is betting on the fashion market and has announced its end-of-season sale (EOSS) event where it will connect customers to 200,000 sellers. The June 10-17 event will have more than 10,000 fashion, beauty and lifestyle brands.

“Every season, Flipkart observes consumer behaviour and works collaboratively with thousands of brands in the ecosystem, to bring forth the best products and offers,” said Sandeep Karwa, vice president, Flipkart Fashion.

"After a two-year hiatus, we look forward to making this season a memorable one for everyone involved. We are confident that this event will propel our endeavour to onboard the next 200 million customers and chart a sharper growth trajectory for our partner brands,” he said.

During the EOSS, Flipkart will offer 60-minute delivery in nine cities. This is for a wide range of assortment, related to watches and accessories from premium brands like Emporio Armani, Tommy Hilfiger, Fossil, Casio, Lacoste and Guess.

In order to serve customers from metros and from emerging tier 3 and tier 4 towns, Flipkart has introduced Fashion TV. The 24X7 live commerce feature will enable sellers and hundreds of brands and influencers to interact with customers in real-time.

There will be 4 formats of live prime time shows including- brand-led lives, celeb led lives, game time lives and season’s top trends show. In addition, participating brands and celebrities will co-host a series of 100 live sessions for 10 hours daily to offer a wide range of time-bound offers rolled out periodically. The interactive format will significantly boost customer trust and participation in the event.

Besides live commerce, when asked about the strategies Flipkart is implementing to tap the fashion market, Karwa said instead of just focusing on big apparel hubs such as Agra, Tirupur, Ludhiana and Surat, the firm also enabled sellers from small towns and cities in a big way to sell on its platform.

“We figured out there are sellers across the country, who have set up manufacturing units in smaller towns and cities,” said Karwa.