Aditya Birla Group to launch its online store

Joining the list of physical retailers, who are eyeing an online foray, the Aditya Birla Group is all set to launch its online fashion store abof.com to give a strong competition to existing fashion platforms like Myntra and Jabong. Fashion has always been considered a high margin business in the retail industry and companies are trying to cash-in on the opportunity by launching their own web platforms.

Abof.com is said to be already being piloted in more than 10-15 cities and is expected to be officially announced within the next 30 days. The platform stocks company’s private label under brand name abof and several fashion brands, including Vero Moda, Only, United Colors of Benetton (UCB) and Nineteen. In future, the company would also launch some international fashion labels through its online platform in India.

Last month, the firm, through its private equity (PE) arm, Aditya Birla Private Equity, picked up a minority stake in Mumbai-based Creative Lifestyles, a women’s apparel retailer having labels such as Fusion Beats, 109F and O2xygen under its fold. The company retails through 366 points of sale and large ecommerce portals.

Aditya Birla Group has been witnessing considerable rise in contribution of fashion retailing business, with the combined entity’s revenue growing by 40 percent and EBITDA by 43 percent, in the past two years.