Brands create exclusive merchandise for online platforms
By Sujata Sachdeva
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After feeling the heat of heavy discounts strategies followed by online
platforms, leading lifestyle brands and retailers like Future Group,
ITC-owned Wills Lifestyle and John Players, Puma, Turtle and Max Retail
have now launched exclusive merchandise collections for online platforms.
The collection would only be available online, while physical stores would
display a separate range. Players feel that the strategy would let them
beat the trend of consumers window-shopping at malls and stores, while
actually buying the product of their choice online, at a much lower rate.
The launch of separate and exclusive product lines for online and offline customers is aimed at reaching out to a wider customer base. The move is also being seen as a strategy to differentiate between the lines offered at stores and online. Products on offer at Puma’s exclusive stores, for example, are not made available online and vice-a-versa.
By 2023, research estimates suggest that e-commerce will be the dominant ‘organised’ retail channel in the top 75 Indian cities (cities with population of one million or more). It will account for as much as 30 to 35 percent of total merchandise sale by value in these cities and about 20 percent of total merchandise sales in the rest of urban India.