Myntra to focus on outdoor range; bring North Face to India

Online fashion retailer aims to grow revenue contribution from outdoor and sports range to 20% over next 15 months

Online fashion retailer Myntra aims to grow revenue contribution from outdoor and sports range to 20 per cent over the next 15 months as it adds more products and international brands to its portfolio.

The Flipkart-owned company, which currently gets about 15 per cent of its revenues from sports business, has partnered The North Face (TNF) to bring the US-based brand's apparel and footwear to Indian consumers.

"The North Face is an important addition to our list of international exclusive brands... Currently, the share of sports business on Myntra from a revenue perspective is 15 per cent," Head of e-commerce at Myntra, Prasad Kompalli, told PTI.

He added that the outdoor category is expected to grow at the rate of 2x in 2016-17 and by 2017, Myntra is looking at 20 per cent of overall revenue coming from outdoor.

TNF's range will be available in India from January 11, priced Rs 3,000 onwards.

TNF, part of VF Inc, was founded in California in 1966. It is an outdoor product company specialising in outerwear, fleece and coats. It competes directly with Columbia sportswear, which entered India in December 2013.

Bruno Feltracco, Vice President and Managing Director, Outdoor and Action Sport Coalitions - Asia Pacific, at VF Asia said India offers a huge opportunity as a market.

"Our experience in China helped us decide to first go online and understand the market. There is nothing that prevents us to go offline after we reach a certain stage. We already have some of our other brands here that are doing really well," he added.

VF Asia's other brands include Lee, Wrangler and Nautica.