At a time when online marketplaces have come under the scanner for alleged exclusive agreements with smartphone makers, top apparel and footwear brands, including Under Armour, Nike, Marks & Spencer and Adidas are moving away from such agreements.
The move by these brands is an effort to reach a wider consumer base, which is not possible by being available on a single e-commerce platform. For instance, German sportswear maker Adidas, which had an exclusive tie-up with Flipkart and Myntra, has started selling on Amazon India. British retailer Marks & Spencer, which went online in India through Flipkart Group, has now moved to Amazon and Ajio as well.
“It’s a strategy by any brand launching in the market to side with one strong online player. But later on, they realised that they could do more business by being on other marketplaces since the customer profile for each platform is different. For instance, a Myntra customer is different from the one who shops for fashion on Amazon,” said a senior industry executive, who did not wish to be quoted.
“A single e-commerce platform does not meet the growth aspirations of a brand. When you work with one and get a commitment for an X amount of business from it, you soon realise that selling on others will help you may be do one and half or double of that,” said Abhishek Lal, former senior director of e-commerce and omni-channel at Adidas Group India.
While Amazon India and Flipkart spokespersons did not reply to emails from TOI, senior executives of top fashion brands TOI spoke to said, going forward, product segmentation for different online platforms will the key.
“Based on the core consumer cohorts of e-commerce platforms, we segment our product assortments very sharply. Such a smart segmentation approach to potential target consumers allows us to deliver more effective and impactful communication, while optimising marketing dollars,” said Sanjeev Mohanty, MD of Levi Strauss India.
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