The upsurge in emerging economies and the growing disposable income of the millennial youth has altered the luxury market segment, thus leding to an unprecedented growth in this market. The luxury market is expected to cross $18.3 billion this year growing at a CAGR of about 25 per cent. Sensing the needs of this market segment, Da Milano, the leather accessories brand has added the high fashion premium footwear label ‘Rosso Brunello’ to its satchel.

Known for the portrayal of modern women, Femina magazine has positioned FLAUNT as a ‘GO TO’ fashion and lifestyle brand that symbolises dynamism and aspiration of the urbane woman who is willing to take risk and satiate her fashion and lifestyle needs.

Established in 2003 with just 2 stores, Sabhyata has 40 stores all over the country, alongside exporting throughout the world. Expanding at a scale of launching of at least two stores every month, the brand aims to reach a turnover of Rs 100 crore by the end of this fiscal year, revealed Anil Arora, Co-founder, Sabhyata. 

What Potential do you see in ethnic wear market? 

The new age malls have started exploring techniques to upgrade and revive their overall brand appeal in the minds of consumers. Benu Sehgal, Senior VP-Mall Management, DLF Place, Saket also talks about how the mall is going through change.                                                   

Today malls are going through huge transformation to go with the new age retailing. How you are combating this change?

Founded by three colleagues at the sales team in Noida, Shotang aims to revolutionize the traditional retail. As told by Anish Basu Roy, CEO & Co-Founder, Shotang was a self-coined adjective by him along with other two co-founders Anter, Vishal to describe any person or idea that was absolutely rocking!                                                                                                                           In an interaction with Retailer, Roy shared how he plans expansion in the times when traditional retailer are not much into technology.

Betting big on omni-channel retail, industry mogul Tata has stepped into online domain with launch of Tata CLiQ. This latest venture is not just an eCommerce portal; but a multi-brand phy-gital marketplace integrating best of in-store experience and online aspect of eCommerce, says Ashutosh Pandey, Chief Executive Officer, TataCLiQ.com during a candid chat with Retailer media.

Talk to us about Tata CLiQ and its exclusivity?

Once driven by the snake game on Nokia phones, mobile gaming has turned into serious business in India, believes Ashish Gupta, Country Manager – India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh, Gameloft. Chatting with Retailer media over a cup of hot chocolate at the Imperial, Gupta spoke about the PC era that India skipped and the issue of discoverability in gaming industry which is why developers find licensing an effective retail strategy for this market segment.

During the times of major shift in retail landscape, when e-commerce players are re-inventing themselves, shopping malls have been the least affected retail destinations, given their constant revamping strategies. Brand mix is the pull-factor for consumers these days, says Abhishek Bansal, Executive Director, Pacific Mall in a candid conversation with Retailer. Bansal also spoke about the resized and revised spacing happening at shopping centres.

How has the retail mix changed you and which categories have been altered?

It was his stint with TATA Group, where Amit Bhardwaj, the proud co-founder of 6Degree leant about revenue targets. The urge to build something of own made him take small projects in TATAs as part of the company’s Innovation contests. And this was the time when he met Nikhil Hegde and decided to work together on this startup. Working on a professional networking concept, the duo met some fashion professionals and got to know the fragmented and unorganized nature of fashion industry.

In the times when retail ecosystem is undergoing a structural change, the utmost focus of brands is to rev up the sales figure while going low on offers and discounts. Many big retail players such as Amazon, Dabur, Raymond, Cisco etc. have roped in sales enhancement solution providers to deliver best practices in sales by leveraging people, processes and technology to drive revenue. When all brand assets are aligned to deliver a superior customer experience, there is a demonstrable positive correlation on sales, says Sunil Munshi, CEO- India, Denave.

Betting big on the online space, the jewellery and accessory brand Swarovski has gone online with fashion retailer Myntra. Being Swarovski’s foray in eCommerce, this undertaking aims at consolidating the reach and share access with tech-savvy consumers as well as nascent Tier 2 markets, revealed Sukanya Dutta Roy – Managing Director, Swarovski India. While she emphasized on operating at same frequency online and offline, she even hinted that the brand is likely to launch its own eCommerce platform in next phase of scaling up.

With the pervasiveness of mobile and digital technologies, customer expectations are driving retailers to think and act differently. And no second thoughts that from showrooming to beacons, disruptive technology will continue to blur the lines between online and brick and mortar establishments, making omni-channel retailing the norm, asserts Sunil Kumar Thakur, Country Manager - India, BMC Software.

What is driving digital transformation in retail segment?

Years of experience along with the zeal to serve consumers good quality product has inspired Santhosh HJ to start his venture Troche.com that retails in the Hyper-local category. In a candid chat, he reveals more about his pillar of strength, his father- Jagadeesh Kumar HS, Chairman, Troche.com and more.

KAARYAH, an eCommerce portal dealing in women’s fashion wear, has won accolades for offering 18 size options, besides getting funding from Ratan Tata. Unlike discount binge online, this online retailer vouches on perfect fit which is something not readily available in case of women’s wear. In a candid interaction with Retailer, Nidhi Agarwal, Founder & CEO, KAARYAH shares the insights about the brand while elucidating on the plans to scale up.

What is the USP of KAARYAH?  

India At the times, when eCommerce is booming in India, investors are pouring money into retail mainstays of a bygone era - shopping malls that touted to be least affected by emergence of online shopping. And amidst the cut-throat competition of online and offline, eRetail has impacted the malls in a positive manner, says Abhishek Bansal, Executive Director, Pacific Mall in a candid conversation with Retailer. Bansal also spoke about the resized and revised spacing happening at shopping centres and increasing dominance of F&B and entertainment category in shopping centres.

Started off as an idea in 2011, Unbxd was conceptualized of the need to resolve the challenges pertaining to online shopping experience amidst the burgeoning eCommerce industry in India. If Unbxd were a standalone eRetailer, we would today be larger than Flipkart and Snapdeal combined, in terms of the scale of shoppers, says Pavan Sondur, CEO & Co Founder, Unbxd in a candid interaction with Retailer. While document search was a relatively easy problem to solve, product search on eCommerce websites was a completely different ballgame, adds Sondur.

Satyen P. Momaya, the newly appointed CEO at Celio Future Fashion aims to build on the social network to communicate with the millennial youth. Spearheading the Retail Business at Celio Fashion, Momaya intends to work towards making the brand a premier menswear brand in the country by striking a balance between the Indian fashion and global fashion innovation, while focusing at better consumer interaction at the same time.

Touted as the second most revenue generating season, Back-to-school is one of the most happening areas in Indian licensing and merchandising industry, given the availability of flock of kids’ centric properties. Gone are the times, when kid use to have just one set of back-to-school range; credits to the aspirational customers, BTS category has a lot to do with the sales of consumer product divisions.

The exponentially growing kids’ wear market in India has definitely paved way for a lot of brands to explore the market and the home grown brands are cashing upon the opportunity, given their understanding of Indian markets. Following similar footprints, Toonz Retail has launched Toonz fashion stores. In a conversation with Retailer media, Sharad Venkta, CEO and MD Toonz Retail India Pvt. Ltd. revealed the strategies of operation and expansion plans of these newly launched fashion stores.