Myntra to foray into offline retail with Mango brand

Myntra, India’s largest fashion e-tailor, is foraying into offline retail space after it won the rights to manage brick-and-mortar outlets of Spanish fashion brand Mango. The company has also won the exclusive rights for selling the brand’s accessories online. Myntra will acquire eight outlets of the brand from its current franchisers i.e. Major Brands and DLF Brands, and is expected to open 25-30 Mango specific stores in the next 5 years. Its International Business VP, Shefali Singh, will be leading this business channel.

Ananth Narayanan, CEO Myntra and Jabong, said that “This will be in a hybrid model between a sub franchisee and retail managed purely by Myntra. In the next six months we will finalize the entire offline deal. The aim is to kick start pre-Diwali”. The deal will also help the fashion accessory startup to diversify its risk and expand its presence in offline (brick-and-mortar) channels too. It is already planning to build an offline presence for its private labels, and a Roadster outlet is due to launch early next month.

Mango is among the major Spanish fashion labels, including Zara and H&M, which has presence in India, however, it lagged out among the competitors due to its differences with local franchisers over expansion, brand representation and store size. Thus the current deal seems to be a win-win proposition for the both the players with Mango trying to again expand its business in the country and Myntra looking for an offline route to diversity its portfolio.