Amazon zeroes in on fashion, but can it stand against Flipkart?

The battle between Amazon and India major Flipkart is veering into a new segment--Fashion. Now, Amazon claims to observe a huge growth in its fashion segment in India.

The platform on Tuesday announced a jump of around two-and-a-half times in sales during the third edition of its Wardrobe Refresh Sale, which ran between 21 and 24 June this month.

This was supposedly the biggest-ever sale for the company, which witnessed around 4X growth in markets such as Indore, Pune, and Vadodara. During the event, it also recorded 2X growth in terms of first-time shoppers via fashion sales.

Out of all the customers, who visit the store, around 30 per cent are new to the platform and are largely driven by fashion, said a Business Standard report.

Like its rival Flipkart, the Seattle-headquartered e-commerce platform sees an increased adoption in fashion. It has also gone under exclusive tie-ups with brands such as Under Armour and GAP, which saw 6X and 8X growth, respectively.

In March of this year, Amazon Fashion launched a dedicated online baby clothing store. The dedicated online store is selling apparels, shoes & accessories for baby girls and boys up to 2 years of age from both home-grown and international brands.

Amazon to face giant Flipkart

Amazon, which has seen a huge potential in the fashion category, will face a huge challenge from Flipkart.

The India-born e-commerce has been trying to establish itself in the fashion space for the past four years when it acquired Myntra way back in 2014. In 2016, Flipkart announced the acquisition of Jabong.

With both the acquired entities, Flipkart currently claims to keep a hold on around 70 per cent of the market in online fashion segment.

Besides, it also launched Divastri, its first brand in the fashion space last year. Flipkart-owned online fashion portal Myntra also has 20 private labels, including Roadster (its top-selling, outdoor lifestyle brand) HRX by Hrithik Roshan amongst others.

Last month, Myntra announced to clock a total revenue of Rs 2,000 crore with its losses shrunk by 25 per cent in FY17 as compared to the previous financial year.

According to Myntra, the spike in turnover was triggered by the growth of its portfolio of private labels. Last year, it had claimed that its private brands business including Roadster, HRX, Anouk, and Dressberry posted a 5 per cent consolidated profit in September 2017.

However, the share of fashion in Flipkart’s gross merchandise value has remained static between the first quarter of 2016 and that of 2017, claimed a report by RedSeer.