February 2020 Issue Apparel February 2020 issue | Page 42

MARKET WATCH
Plus Size Brand aLL to
Open 20 Stores this
Financial Year
Plus size clothing brand aLL plans to add 20
brick-and-mortar stores to its current total of
79 during the current financial year. The brand
also expects over 50% growth partly driven by
increased growth in Tier 2 markets and online.
“Women’s and menswear brand aLL will open
20 exclusive brand outlets across India during
the remainder of the current financial year, the
business,” CEO Hetal Kotak told Images Retail
Bureau in an interview. After reporting 24%
growth in the previous financial year, all expects
to see over 50% growth in the 2020 financial year
which ends in March, according to Kotak.
Although metros currently contribute 90% of
the brand’s overall sales, Kotak said that there
has been significant growth in Tier 2 markets.
Excerpted from Fashion Network
Gone are the days when offline stores were
the only stops to shop for consumers, with no
channel dilemma to deliberate over.
According to India Business of Fashion report
2019, physical stores or offline channels account
for the ‘elephant’ share of 92.8% in the total
fashion market revenue in India. Top names like
Titan, Big Bazaar, Reliance Trends, Shoppers
Stop and Westside are some prime examples of
big fashion retailers striving to ride the elephant.
The increasing number of stores as a
conscious decision on the part of the retailers
in India reflects the need and importance of
strengthening their physical presence in the
market. However, the growing online fashion
market pushed by favouring logistics and
demographics has compelled the fashion retailers
to examine their business strategy.
Excerpted from Deccan Herald
Retail Industry Expects Growth in Second Half of 2020
As economic slowdown continues to hurt sales, the Indian retail industry expects to bounce back in the second half of
2020 on the back of consumer demand revival and increased spending.
While major players struggled to keep themselves on the growth chart in 2019, they expect a decent double-digit
growth coming back in 2020.
But sectoral experts are cautious, saying it would depend on various factors like recovery of manufacturing
and other sectors, incentives in the Union Budget and availability of money in the hands of consumers to make
purchasing decisions.
According to Debashish Mukherjee, Partner and Regional Lead, Consumer and Retail, Middle East & Africa at A T
Kearney, in 2019 the sector had challenges in terms of lower growth.
“People expect growth to come back in 2020. However, it depends on (how) consumer sentiments improves and the
consumer has to feel really richer than they are.
“It is not that there is zero growth but the growth is not that exciting to make that kind of purchasing decision, which
they use to. In some way more money has to come into the hands of people,” he said. He also noted that there is stress
in the system due to lack of funds and that is a reality.
According to CARE Ratings, the Indian retail industry accounts for about 10 per cent of the country's Gross Domestic
Product (GDP) and around 8 per cent of the employment and was valued at USD 792 billion as of 2018. CARE expects
the retail industry to register a growth rate of about 12-14 per cent over the next three years and reach about USD 1,150
billion by 2021.
Excerpted from ETRetail.com
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I APPAREL I
February 2020
Cracking the Channel
Conflict for Fashion
Retailers