Fossil forays into smart watch segment, to add 5 more stores

US-based luxury watch maker Fossil Group, which today forayed into Indian wearable device market, has plans to expand its sales network by adding up to six stores by the end of next year.
Targeting young customers, it has launched a range of connected devices across six of its owned and licensed brands - Fossil Q, Michael Kors Connected, Skagen Connected, Chaps, Emporio Armani and Misfit.
"Smartwatches are slated to constitute about 40 per cent of wearable devices by the end of 2016 and through the launch of the new range we aim to capture a considerable share of the market. With the growing penetration of digital technology we recognised the need to meet the requirements of the millennial trend setter," said Fossil Group Senior Vice-President APAC Jack Quinlan.

The company has already launched its range of wearable devices at leading Asian markets of Hong Kong, Singapore, Japan and Malaysia and received good response, he added.
Besides, the company which has single brand retail licence is considering to add more stores to its network of 15 stores.
"We have the potential to add 5 or 6 by the end of next year. It depends on the locations and several factors," he said. Presently, Fossil group's products are present at around 600 point of sales.

The company would leverage retail, department stores, local chains, duty free, ecommerce platforms. Besides it is also discussing with leading electronic chains for its range of smart watches.

"India is the fastest growing market with a growth rate of 44 per cent by value. We are growing by this from last five years. We are growing profitably with high double digit growth," Fossil Group India Managing Director Vasant Nangia said.
The company is expecting online to be one of its major growth drivers besides the traditional retail channels.
"We are in a great position because we have tied up with all e-commerce players, which is our fastest growing verticals It helped us to penetrate tier II and lead to great growth for us," he said adding that presently, e-commerce is contributing around 15 per cent of its total sales.

The group has nine brands in India which includes Fossil, Diesel, Misfit, Emporio Armani, DKNY, Michael Kors, Armani Exchange.
According to Nangia: "Now our focus is to bring display watches in all our portfolio brands. All the brands would now have smart feature watches".
The company, which has a manufacturing unit at Parwanu, near Chandigarh, is expanding the unit.
"We are expanding the capacity as well as doing the vendor development as part of our commitment to the country," he said.
Nangia declined to share information about the investment made, but added that the company has committed an investment of USD 4.5 million for the single brand retail.