Asian retail fashion brands accelerate India journey amid economic slowdown

Cute soft toys, colourful kitchenware, and an eye-catching range of beauty products at attractive prices, stacked up in neat rows in well-lit stores. This is a common sight in high street shops nowadays. 

These stores, housing Asian fast fashion brands, are making a beeline in the country irrespective of the economic slowdown. While Chinese brand Yoyoso opened its first India shop in Bengaluru on Friday, Japanese fashion retailer Uniqlo is gearing up to launch its store in the country by next month.

According to experts, when customers are not sure about the economy, they tend to go for value because there’s a sense of buying cheaper that comes into the people’s mind.  “A relative economic slowdown is the perfect time for value brands to usher into the country, provided it is value in the eyes of the customer,” said Kumar Rajagopalan, chief executive officer (CEO), Retailers Association of India.

Brand consultant Harish Bijoor feels that even in a slowdown, people want to look fashionable, and if the price is not obscene, they continue to shop.

The flourishing range of affordable Asian brands such as Ximi Vogue, Yoyoso, Kioda, and Usupso are seizing the opportunity and trying to capture a pie of the estimated Rs 10,000-crore fast fashion market in the country.

At the helm of all these fast-fashion retailers is Japanese lifestyle chain Miniso, which is expanding full throttle and looking at about 70 more stores in the country by the end of this year. The company, which recently announced the opening of its 100th store in India, is also eyeing tier-III and tier-IV towns for expansion. Korean affordable luxury brand Ximi Vogue, which currently has 36 operational stores in India, will be adding 14 more in the next 40 days, taking the total number to 50. Talks are already on to take the number to 150 stores by the end of next year.

“The business that we are into is the most appropriate and right match for the Indian audience. It is sasta, sundar and tikau (affordable, beautiful and durable),” said Shiven Anand, expansion head of Ximi Vogue India.

These stylish brands, which have a similar product portfolio encompassing beauty products, fashionable accessories, stationary, home necessities and digital accessories have something for everyone in the range of Rs 50-to Rs 2,000.  Owing to the small ticket size, this segment is driven by impulsive buy. Add to this the packaging, the quality and the international feel, these brands are a hit with customers.

“Our average revenue per square feet is so high that even if it goes down, it makes commercial sense for a model like ours to operate. Our per square feet revenue is anywhere between Rs 2,000 and Rs 5,000, which for a regular apparel or footwear stores is Rs 800-Rs 1,100 per square feet,” added Anand.

Trying to position themselves differently from their competitors, some of these brands are curating a unique product line for the country. “We are curating a different set of products, especially for India, in the space constraint and kitchen organisation segment,” said Adeeb Ahamed, managing director, Tablez, which has brought Yoyoso to India.

The company is looking at 100-odd stores within a span of three years at an investment of Rs 2 crore per store.