Myntra focusing on offline stores in a bid to expand in Tier 2 and 3 cities
Myntra, one of the largest online fashion retailer, is planning an aggressive push into Tier 2 and 3 cities in the country and focusing on regional and omni-channel experiences in a bid to achieve the goal. Abhinav Yajurvedi, Senior Vice President Engineering, said that “As we expand to Tier 2-and-3 towns, regional and omni-channel experiences will take the front seat. These would be enabled by technology, and not just ecommerce. For instance, the customer should be able to walk into a nearby store if the inventory is available on the website instead of waiting for us to deliver the product. For returns as well, the customer should have the choice of returning a product to the next-door kirana store which will then ship it back to Myntra. So, these integrated experiences shall have to be built. Ecommerce is future, but in an omni-channel way. While ecommerce fulfils a need, omni-channel takes the experience a notch higher. This is a genuine need in a country like India where infrastructure is broken”.
The company is investing in technology and innovation to resolve issues related to sizing and fit so that customers do not have to go through this hassle. Besides sizing and fit, personalization is another area which can be explored by big data. On this, Abhinav added that “A lot of data is available but we probably do not know how to mine it. Instead of building generic experiences, hyper personalization for everyone is one area which will get more attention. We want to give our customers the same experience they get in a physical store”.