Lifestyle has planned to keep its expansion trajectory strong by opening 7 to 8 stores annually in the coming 2-3 years, despite there being a downturn in consumption affecting the company’s growth rate.
“Penetration is still small in India and we will continue with our pace of expansion. All the stores will come up inside malls, which will help attract younger consumers, said Vasanth Kumar, Managing Director, Lifestyle.
The retail chain’s growth rate dipped to single digit this year as compared to double digit previous year. Lifestyle, notably, recorded Rs. 4,000 crore garnered in sales in 2018-19. Vasanth added “Average billing is stagnant. Walk-in in malls is under pressure and same-store sales growth has come down.”
The retailer also wants to increase the e-commerce sales to contribute more to total sales, up from 3 per cent now to 15 per cent over the next 4 years.
Therefore, it has now joined hands with the e-commerce giant, Flipkart to sell the products from its bouquet of 10 private labels through Flipkart and Myntra platforms.
“We could not have grown in e-commerce on our own. A presence in the marketplaces will help,” said Vasanth.
Lifestyle has decided to focus on campaigns that attract regional customers and millennials through social media engagement. Vasanth added “Impulse purchases are now happening in e-commerce largely through the mobile phone. For retailers, it is mostly planned purchases and hence we want to attract consumers accordingly.”
The retailer is also expanding its private label range across brands. Vasanth said, almost 40 per cent of the sales are from private label, which is one of the highest in the Indian apparel retail industry.
Source: https://in.apparelresources.com