India’s largest online marketplace, Flipkart, has been eyeing the private label business for long and was keen on launching its own labels online on Flipkart Fashion. The company has finally launched one in its fashion segment, named Divastri.
Divastri is a fashion-based private label by Flipkart that offers ethnic wear collection for women. One thing to note is that Divastri comes under unstitched garments category so as to control quality and prices in the segment.
“We have some basic line of private label but Divastri will be our first brand in the fashion space. We have selected over 20 sellers, some of whom double up as manufacturers to licence the brand and sell on the Flipkart fashion marketplace. We have started with a selection of 1,500 and will soon ramp it up to 2,500,” said Rishi Vasudev, VP of fashion (retail) at Flipkart.
Flipkart has assured that buyers will get shrink-proof guarantee, lab tested fabric and zero colour loss guarantee. Currently all the products under this brand are being sold at a discount of upto 65%, so you check this out as soon as possible.
At this moment, the company sells nearly 60% from Fashion department of all units sold online, out of which 50% units sold are ethnic wear. Having a private label will allow Flipkart to go past just being an online marketplace for other brands.
Largest competitor, Amazon India, has also launched its own private fashion label ‘Symbol’ to take on the large e-fashion industry in India. While Symbol is more of a western wear brand, the company has plans to launch an ethnic wear label as well.
Flipkart has in the past launched private labels in other sectors – SmartBuy in electronics, Digiflip and Flippd for electronic devices. This shows the inclination by the company to sell its own brands online.
The company will be launching more such private label brands in the coming years in the western wear category and even office formals and casuals for both men and women. Flipkart-owned Myntra also has its own fashion labels that will continue to sell on its own platform.
Flipkart is betting big on private labels as it plans to offer the complete width of lifestyle options to its customers. In the end it all boils down to the quality and price of the product, which is the company is able to meet then this business will take off very well.
Source: ET
