Lifestyle plans to launch separate e-commerce platform

Eyeing the online Indian market, Lifestyle International, which operates Lifestyle, Max and Home Centre retail chains across India, plans to enter the e-commerce space next year. This will be done through a separate company. Lifestyle aims to establish a dedicated online store for its department store, value-fashion format Max, and home decor and furniture format Home Centre.

The plan is to acquire an e-commerce platform as well as partnering large online marketplaces like Amazon, Flipkart and Snapdeal. At present, Lifestyle sells few of its private fashion labels through online stores such as Jabong and Myntra, while Max last month set up its virtual store on Flipkart. The retailer operates 43 Lifestyle stores, 110 Max stores and 18 Home Centre outlets across the country, and its revenues touched Rs 3,700 crores last fiscal.

The company has been witnessing sales at 25 percent a year, with same-store sales growth of 20 percent in some stores. It is aiming to touch Rs 4,700 crores revenue this fiscal to become a billion dollars (about Rs 6,200 crores) entity in 2015-16.