 "Purplle aims at $100 million sales in FY21, looks for acquisition")
Online beauty and personal care
platform Purplle is looking to double its sales to USD 100 million during the current fiscal, as it is bullish on growing demand in the e-commerce space in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic, a company official said.
The e-commerce firm, which has raised USD 35 million of funds from global investment bank Goldman Sachs and other investors, is exploring opportunities for acquisition in brands, technology and content space to fuel growth, Purplle co-founder and CEO Manish Taneja told PTI in a telephonic interview.
"The coronavirus pandemic had worked in our favour. In the short term, demand will continue to be robust as people prefer to stay indoors and online purchases. Given the economic situation, we may see some speed breakers in the long term," he said.
Purplle achieved USD 50 million in gross merchandise value in 2019-20.
"In the current fiscal, we expect USD 100 million sales, out of USD 7 billion beauty industry in the country," he said.
Taneja said the consolidation in the online beauty and personal care segment is expected to happen in the second half of the current fiscal.
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"Consolidation will happen in this industry in the second half of the year. Some small firms and start-ups will find difficulties to tide over the crisis, and raising money is getting difficult now. We are open for acquisitions," he said.
The company concluded a mega sale programme on Saturday
"In 2017, we introduced our own brands. Now, our four in-house brands generate 45 per cent of the total revenue," Taneja said.
The online beauty and cosmetics firms have started witnessing good business from tier- II and tier- III cities after the lockdown restrictions were eased, he said.
"Our 70 per cent of sales are coming from tier-II and tier-III cities. West Bengal and the north-east region are contributing nearly 30 per cent of our sales," Taneja said.
The firm had opened a fulfilment centre in Kolkata recently, while two more such facilities will be made operational shortly in Hyderabad and Guwahati.
Fulfilment centres help the company to bring down logistics cost, he said.
Skincare, make-up and haircare are the largest volume drivers in the online shopping of personal care segments, he added.
(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)