Now 'Pay in Parts' for Armani Jeans

High-end brand experiments with EMIs via credit cards to push market share

Buy back, cash back and equated monthly instalments (EMIs) worked wonders for iPhones in India. Now, premium apparel brand Armani Jeans, from the house of Giorgio Armani, is trying for a repeat of sorts by offering customers the option to pay in instalments or what it calls ‘pay in parts’.

It has tied up with a clutch of banks in India to provide the facility to customers who can pay in three or six parts with credit cards. The scheme, targeted at the youth, is also a strategy to carve out a market presence in the premium apparel segment.

The offer is valid across all Armani Jeans products — denims, shirts, bags. Shirts at the Armani Jeans store in this city are between Rs 10,500 and Rs 24,000; denims are available for Rs 11,000 to Rs 21,000. Bags are between Rs 10,500 and Rs 18,000.

Under the ‘pay in parts’ scheme, credit card users of ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank, Standard Chartered, Axis and Citibank, among others, can buy an Armani Jeans product and pay in instalments at zero interest. The Italian fashion house’s other brands, Giorgio Armani and Emporio Armani, also have stores in India but the scheme has been launched only for Armani Jeans.

Whether it would be extended to the higher-end brands is not clear. The duration of the scheme is also not clear. So far, Armani Jeans has steered clear of promoting the scheme widely and is probably testing the waters. Customers making their way to the store are informed about the new scheme.

“The concept of EMI has led to a big push for retailers in segments like mobile phones and consumer durables, particularly anything aspirational. I think introducing the concept of EMI in high-end apparel should work well,” says Kumar Rajagopalan, chief executive at Retailers’ Association of India.

For instance, iPhone sales in India had surged by 400 per cent after the launch of cash back and EMI schemes a couple of years earlier.  This scheme from Armani Jeans is India-specific.

According to a recent report from Wazir Advisors, the Indian apparel industry is valued at Rs 300,000 crore, with the share of the organised sector at 35 per cent.

Projected to grow at a compounded annual rate of nearly 14 per cent, the market size is likely to be Rs 576,000 crore by 2018-19. The luxury segment accounts for a small pie, at about three per cent.

“Buying high-end clothes in EMI is not a trend in India, although most credit card companies offer customers the option of converting transactions to EMIs,” said Harminder Sahni, managing director, Wazir Advisors.

The size of the Indian luxury fashion market was close to Rs 3,150 crore, according to Wazir. By 2018-19, it is expected to grow to Rs 9,700 crore, accounting for a five per cent share in the overall apparel market.