Myntra’s End of Reason Sale aims to revive businesses amid COVID-19

The COVID-19 pandemic has compelled businesses to restart with a clean slate. There is a need for reimagining all aspects of a business as health and safety have emerged as the top priorities. In such a scenario, Myntra, the leading fashion apparel and accessories online marketplace and part of Flipkart Group, is all set to hold its bi-annual sale this year.

Now in its 12^th edition, the End of Reason Sale (EORS) of Myntra is being organised in the backdrop of COVID-19. However, this fashion online marketplace has an advantage as its online shopping makes it a contactless experience for customers which in turn promotes health and safety.

In a conversation with YourStory, Amar Nagaram, CEO, Myntra, says, “In the last two-and-a-half months, we understood two critical aspects - ‘how prepared are we’ and ‘how adaptable we can be’.”

After going through a complete lockdown, the country is now in Unlock-1 stage which means gradual lifting of curbs. Uncertainty looms large on how things will unfold.

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Myntra CEO is however confident of going ahead with the sale and says it would showcase not just the resilience of this marketplace but also give a sense of normalcy to many of its partners like fashion brands, kirana stores, suppliers and others, who were eagerly waiting to restart their businesses.

Changes

The key difference for Myntra this time is that all preparation for the large-scale event was done with most of its employees working from home.

EORS will be held between June 19 and 22 and Myntra expects it would receive about three million online shoppers during this four-day period.

In preparing for this shopping fest, Myntra over the last two-and-a-half months kept itself engaged with its customer base through various interactive activities like gamification or content. And in the process, it also got important insights.

“We captured a significant amount of mindshare of the online shoppers and also maintained close links with our brand partners,” says Amar.

According to the CEO, these initiatives have proved valuable to them, especially in organising EORS.

Wide range

This year, Myntra will showcase over seven lakh styles from 3,000 brands and over 1.5 lakh styles will be on offer for the first time. Over 3,500 Indian handloom products from 400 plus brands will be put on display to give an impetus to small and medium enterprises.

Also, Myntra Fashion Brand with over 100,000 products and styles across apparel, accessories, and footwear segments will be showcased. It has geared up to handle 20,000 orders per minute during peak and 75,000 concurrent users.

With a large working population working from home due to COVID-19 lockdown, Myntra believes some of the key category drivers for EORS this year will include fashion essentials across women’s ethnic, kids, beauty, personal care, active wear, and sports products.

A key focus for Myntra this year will be the penetration of EORS into the Tier 2 and Tier 3 markets where it expects these towns to contribute upwards of 40 percent during the sale. Also, the pincode reach has extended to 27,000 from the earlier 23,000.

Amar says, “One of the reasons why brands are coming to us is because they were not able to reach this new demography and geography. We are building this supply and demand in an organic manner.”

Omnichannel

Myntra is an online shopping destination but at the same time it has strengthened its offline ecosystem which includes kirana stores. It expects that 15,000 kirana stores will cater to 75 percent of all deliveries across 300 cities.

Besides, it has tied up with over 50 brands to enable direct delivery of merchandise from the stores to the consumers.

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According to Amar, Myntra has built strong linkages with the kirana stores where it has provided them insurance cover and also given advance payments.

“All this goodwill is coming back and this time EORS will be different as well as critical for many players in the ecosystem,” he says.

Indicator of future

The EORS 2020 will be an indicator of many things for India’s ecommerce industry. It could mark a decisive shift in how online shopping is done in the country and also the preference of the consumers.

Amar believes that the entire ecosystem of online shopping is ideal for an environment which is impacted by COVID-19 where the major focus is on contactless transactions.

“EORS 2020 will be the first indication of normalcy not just for our partners but also for the consumers,” he says.

This could also mean that there are greater number of consumers who are comfortable shopping online, especially in buying fashion apparel.

“We want to grow a sustainable business. Now everything is coming back together and we are prepared for the new normal,” says Amar.