Myntra, Jabong claim to be India's largest multi-brand sportswear retailer

Jabong says sportswear will represent a $500 mn business for it in the next three years

Flipkart-owned online fashion portal Myntra says it, along with subsidiary Jabong, have become India’s largest multi-brand sportswear retailer as the country lacks any large offline players in this space.

The company claims it controls over 40 per cent of the online sportswear market in the country, with both Myntra and Jabong generating a combined gross merchandise value of roughly Rs 1,250 crore. The sportswear category drives 35 per cent of Myntra’s own revenues, making it one of the most important categories for the online retailer.

“From the consumer’s point of view, if they want to buy a decent pair of running or basketball shoes, apart from walking into a brand outlets, the only destination for them in the country is Myntra and Jabong. There is no other organised multi-brand offline retailer for sportswear,” said Puspen Maity, Vice President and Business Head, Sports, Footwear and Accessories at Myntra.

Maity says online retail has leapfrogged offline retail in India’s organised sportswear segment. While the online market represents just 10 per cent of the overall Rs 32,000 crore sportswear market in India, the share is expected to grow significantly in the near future. 

For Myntra and Jabong, the company expects sportswear to become a $500 million (approx Rs 3,200 crore) category in the next three years, representing a two and a half times growth in sales. The company expects to do this through bringing newer brands into India, while also working with existing brands to drive a larger chunk of their sales in the country.

“Sportswear has been growing at 35 per cent year-on-year for the past few years for us. One of the key driving force behind this category is the number of brands. If you look back a few years, there were just two or three top brands, but now we’re bringing in so many new players who are exclusive to us. This is what is helping us,” added Maity.

While the entry of new brands is helping the sportswear category grow in India, they are largely limited to tier 1 and tier 2 cities so far. Online retail, on the other hand, is helping grow sales of branded sportswear in smaller towns, where Myntra says it is leading the way along with Jabong.

To keep up the growth momentum and ensure it achieves its $500 million target, the company says it is in talks to bring several global players into the country. Similar to how the company has inked contracts with Mango and Esprit, it says it is working on signing deals to handle both online and offline retail for a few sportswear brands and global multi-brand retailers as well.

Myntra and Jabong are also seeing good traction from consumers in the high-end sportswear segment such as premium sneakers. The company says it has partnered with major global brands who have in the past been apprehensive to launch such products in India to release them on its platform on the same day as the global launch. Maity says Myntra is slowly beginning to use its size to define what products these brands bring to the country.

Key points
 

• India's sportswear category is estimated to be worth Rs 32,000 crore, out of which a third is organised
• Online retail currently contributes around 10 per cent of the overall sportswear market in India
• Myntra and Jabong claim they jointly control 40 per cent of the online sportswear category in India
• The company said it expects the category which to grow to Rs 3,200 crore ($500 million) in three years
• Sportswear currently contributes around 35 per cent of Myntra's overall revenues