E-commerce heats up with football fever

If you want Brazucca, official football for the World Cup, or a T-shirt branded with Brazilian football star Neymar Junior or if you are a Maradona or Pele fan, the online world is stuffed with all the merchandise you wish for.

As the battle begins in Brazil with three teams competing to win the Cup, leading e-commerce entities such as Flipkart, Myntra and Jabong have the latest assortment of team merchandise and related products. Even smaller players like Bluegape.com have launched T-shirts, cups, wall clocks and other products inspired from the fan community.

Fashion e-tailer Myntra is exclusively selling merchandise showcasing nine teams, along with 145 products from leading brands such as Adidas, Nike, Puma, etc.

LOVE A TEAM? FLAUNT ITS JERSEY

• Flipkart, Myntra and Jabong have the latest assortment of team merchandise and related products
• FIFA-inspired merchandise on Bluegape.com has seen 1,000-plus sales in a week

Flipkart has come out with Liverpool merchandise for children.

In a country where cricket dominates and there is little space for other sports, young people from metros aged below 30 are the key buyers on these websites.

“The market is no more a small one. Sportswear has merged with fashion and people like to boast their sport choices. Traffic from areas like West Bengal and the northeast is higher but the metros give us over 50 per cent of the traffic,” said Praveen Sinha, co-founder of Jabong.

FIFA-inspired merchandise on Bluegape has seen 1,000-plus sales in a week. Cesc Fabregas from Spain, Lionel Messi from Argentina and Cristiano Ronaldo from Portugal  are among the most popular choices online.

“We believe that cricket is to the father and football is to the kid. From match official ball to on-field and off-field team jerseys and training jerseys, we have a wide assortment of products for football lovers,” said Ganesh Subramanian, operations chief at Myntra.com.