Udaan bets big on lifestyle segment, adds 100,000 businesses in 2020

B2B e-commerce major Udaan on Sunday said it added about one lakh new businesses last year on the platform under its Lifestyle segment under which over 230 million products were shipped.

The Lightspeed-backed company has also seen over 250 sellers under the category achieve sales worth Rs 1 crore on the platform in 2020.

"We are glad that despite the global pandemic and its adverse impact, Udaan kept the wheels of small businesses across Bharat moving by leveraging the power and scale of e-commerce," Udaan Head (Lifestyle Business) Kumar Saurabh told PTI.

He added that the volume growth achieved in the lifestyle business was primarily driven by a vast range of quality products being available at affordable prices to business partners, who in turn cater to smaller parts of the country.

The addition of one lakh new businesses last year, Udaan now has about 2 lakh businesses under the lifestyle category. The segment contributes about 10-12 per cent of Udaan's overall gross merchandise value (GMV).

While the company did not disclose its GMV numbers, a report by Bernstein states that Udaan's GMV was at about USD 2.1 billion ARR (annual recurring revenue) in December 2020.

GMV is a term used in online retailing to indicate the gross merchandise value of the products sold through the marketplace over a certain period of time.

Udaan's Lifestyle business - comprising of clothing, accessories, and footwear - shipped over 230 million products, catering to more than 26 lakh orders in 2020.

Sharing trends from the year, Udaan said the lifestyle segment saw sales of 10 million comfort wear products and slippers across 900 cities during the year.

With work-from-home (WFM) becoming a norm due to the pandemic helped boost sale of daily wearables, and about 9 million t-shirts, 4 million shirts and 3 million kurtis were sold.

Over 3.5 million socks and blouses were sold on the platform during 2020, while 25 million protective masks were sold on Udaan in the first 8 months of the pandemic, it added.

"Massive digital adoption triggered among retailers and manufacturers during the pandemic also resulted in the demand going up as the unlock happened. This clearly highlights the huge potential in the lifestyle business," Saurabh said.

He added that Udaan is uniquely positioned to leverage this opportunity by offering the benefits of e-commerce and internet-scale to its business partners, in line with its vision of transforming the trade ecosystem in the country by leveraging technology.

Key states such as Bihar and Assam witnessed large transaction volumes in the lifestyle category as well as cities such as Lucknow, Visakhapatnam, Bengaluru and Kolkata.

While there has been strong adoption of the platform by small and medium businesses, even large manufacturers and brands such as Jockey, Arvind, Shoppers Stop, BIBA, Rangriti, Lifestyle, Adidas, Reebok, Puma, Hummel, Relaxo and Aqualite have also partnered with Udaan.

Udaan - which has 30 lakh businesses on its platform - has operations across categories including lifestyle, electronics, home and kitchen, staples, fruits and vegetables, FMCG, pharma, toys and general merchandise.

Of these 30 lakh, 17 lakh are small retailers, including kirana shops, chemist shops, small hotels and restaurants and others.