Lifestyle to continue spreading retail network with new stores

Lifestyle is planning to open seven or eight stores a year for the next two or three years. All stores will come up inside malls. As of now the department chain has 78 stores in the country. The retailer also wants to increase the contribution of e-commerce to total sales from three per cent now to 15 per cent over the next four years. With this in mind, Lifestyle’s 10 private labels will be sold through Flipkart and Myntra. The retailer is also expanding its private label range across brands. Almost 40 per cent of Lifestyle’s sales are from private labels. Lifestyle has also decided to focus on regional communication this festive season and promoting on social media to attract the attention of younger consumers who often buy online.

Lifestyle’s growth rate has plummeted to single digit this year as compared to double digit last year. Same-store sales growth has come down. Average billing is stagnant. Sales growth in Kerala led by Onam was double digit but this isn’t a true indicator for the festive season since last year’s base was small due to the state-wide floods. Durga puja sales will be the first indicator for festive season sales this year.