Bombay Dyeing to foray into e-commerce

Bombay Dyeing, the 133-year-old textile company of the Wadia group, plans to enter the e-commerce space by launching its e-tailing site to sell its bed and bath products soon, said sources from the company.

“The site will be up and running in the next two months and currently, we are in talks with logistics companies for delivery purposes,” they said.

Though Bombay Dyeing’s sells its products at 350 exclusive outlets and 2,000 multi-brand outlets, the e-commerce plan is to create another revenue stream for the company. “The e-commerce route is less expensive compared to others,” said sources.

In the June quarter of this financial year, Bombay Dyeing made losses of Rs 27.5 crore on revenues of Rs 465 crore, due to higher expenses.

The company expects to make revenues of Rs 3 crore in the first year of its e-commerce site.

Though e-commerce sites as Jabong.com, tradus.com and futurebazaar.com sell Bombay Dyeing’s bed and bath products, the source said Bombay Dyeing planned to differentiate itself by selling current fashions in the bed and bath section and sell fresh stocks. The site would also hold contests from time to time to engage with customers.

“Discounts will be given from time to time, but fresh stock will not be on discount,” he added.

“Many retailers will go online as it has good potential. Online shoppers are different from those buy in stores. It does not take anything. They have to create a portal as they already have a supply chain. Sourcing, etc, is in place,” said Prashant Agarwal, deputy managing director at management consulting firm Wazir Advisors.

“The dynamics of discount sites and online stores run by companies will be different, as it is an additional revenue stream for them whereas discount sites give discounts to attract customers even at the cost of making losses,” Agarwal said.

Bombay Dyeing is also taking the brand overseas and has set up its first store in Jeddah in Saudi Arabia and also plans on opening up more stores in West Asia and Saarc countries.