Myntra to run India's biggest fashion sale event remotely by staff on WFH

The fashion retailer is geared to handle 20,000 orders per minute, expects 3 mn people to shop from the safety of their homes

Fashion retailer Myntra said it is conducting the country’s biggest fashion sale event, End of Reason Sale (EORS), this week. This will be the first mega sale event in the country after the lockdown. 

The Walmart-owned firm is geared to handle 750,000 concurrent users, and process 20,000 orders per minute at peak. The entire event is being managed by the Myntra team working remotely from home. There will be a dedicated central virtual war room for tactical problem solving across all phases of the event.

Shoppers across the country will have access to over 700,000 styles from over 3,000 fashion and lifestyle brands. 

Myntra is expecting 3 million people to shop from the safety of their homes. The 12th edition of EORS will be held from June 19-22. Customers will have access to brands such as Lacoste, Calvin Klein, H&M, Mango, and Nike. 

Myntra has also launched 50 new brands on its platform ahead of the event, including brands such as Chicco, Charles & Keith, La Senza, and Gant.

“There is significant pent-up demand on the consumer side as well as keenness on the brands’ side to return to business.  We are expanding reach to over 27,000 pincodes with a million shipments every day,” said Amar Nagaram, chief executive officer, Myntra.

Myntra’s successful kirana model, under MENSA (Myntra Extended Network for Service Augmentation), will play a major role in last-mile delivery in the upcoming EORS. Around 15,000 kirana partners will cater to 75 per cent of the overall deliveries spanning 300 cities. This will give impetus to the earnings of delivery partners directly linked to the number of deliveries.

The firm has tied up with over 50 brands to enable direct delivery of merchandise from the stores to the consumers’ doorstep, enabling brands to reach a wide base of customers, in a safe way. The firm expects tier-II and -III cities and towns to contribute significantly to its growth and will be focusing on these markets. 

Myntra is undertaking a first-of-its-kind influencer activation, with over 60 diverse influencers, both at the regional and local level, for deeper penetration and wider reach. The company has partnered Bollywood actors — Hrithik Roshan and Sonakshi Sinha — and Tollywood actress Samantha Akkineni for its marketing campaign.

Myntra has scaled up the collection for Myntra Fashion Brands (MFB), with 100,000 products and styles across apparel, accessories, and footwear. Some of the leading brands from MFB include Dressberry, Anouk, and Ether.

Over 3,500 Indian handloom products from over 400 brands are also live on the platform, giving impetus to small and medium enterprises. The fashion event will also host over 1,000 brands in the western and sports apparel categories. 

Myntra said it has registered strong demand for categories such as personal care, loungewear and kidswear over the past two months. It expects this trend to continue alongside others such as fashion essentials, women’s ethnicwear, beauty, active and sportswear.

Nagaram said with consumer behaviour evolving in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic, the key difference for the rise in orders, compared to last year, has been an increase in demand for comfort and homewear apparel. 

“Consumers seem to be opting for more in-house wear rather than the pre-lockdown era of making occasion-based fashion choices,” said Nagaram.