TRIUMVIRATE SET TO RULE THE FASHION ROOST

The Myntra-Jabong deal may change India’s online fashion industry forever.

The triumvirate of Flipkart, Myntra and Jabong will command close to half the online fashion commerce space, expected to cross $10 billion by 2019. “There is a lot of white space and there are many segments that need to be serviced in fashion,” Myntra CEO Ananth Narayanan said.

Jabong has a large number of international brand, such as Dorothy Perkins, which Myntra or Flipkart don’t. Myntra has a bunch of private labels, some of which will be available on all the platforms.

“The acquisition opens doors to many more brands at different price points to Flipkart and Myntra,” said Jabong co-founder Pravin Sinha, who quit last year. Myntra and Jabong will focus on premium buyers, while Flipkart will run across segments.

Myntra and Jabong will not undercut each other’s price points. “Flipkart is going after a very sharply targeted segment. It will also help it in improving margins and consolidating back-end, and have better costefficient operations,” said Nita Kapoor, head of new ventures (India) and CEO, News Corp VCCircle.

Together the three will have greater clout with vendors, and standardising services can cut costs 3-5%. “Myntra is already unit-economic positive… And we are looking at a GMV of $1 billion by end of this fiscal,” said Narayanan. And cost saved can be passed on to attract buyers.