Athletic apparel retailer Lululemon to ramp up tech team in India

Lululemon which sells a variety of athletic wear is expanding its India Tech Hub, where teams are working on projects of strategic importance

Canadian athletic apparel retailer Lululemon is looking to ramp up its presence in India by expanding its technology hub in the country and hiring talent.

The Vancouver-based firm has a market cap of $40.85 billion. It sells a variety of athletic wear, including performance shirts, shorts, pants, lifestyle apparel, footwear, and yoga accessories. Since its founding in 1998, Lululemon has expanded to sell its products internationally in over 600 stores and online.

In 2021, Lululemon established a tech hub in Bengaluru, its first such facility outside North America. The team in India is working as an extension of the global technology team on projects of strategic importance. The employees here are spread across teams of product systems, merchandising and planning, digital presence, distribution and logistics, and corporate systems. 

“The biggest motivator for us to open the India tech hub was access to great talent,” said Danny Ryder, chief digital officer, Lululemon, in an interview. “We are looking to ramp up our capabilities in multiple areas. The quality of talent in India is incredible.”

To support its growing operations, the India Tech Hub has been pivotal in enhancing the company’s value chain by unlocking the power of data and technology. It is leveraging advanced technologies such as data science, machine learning, and artificial Intelligence for many projects.

“We have been growing by taking individual capabilities and setting up teams here,” said Ryder. “We will continue to push into having more teams here.”

Vaidyanathan Seshan, senior vice president, International Technology and head of India Technology Hub at Lululemon said the team in the country consists of over 200 people. 

“We will double it in the next one and a half years,” said Seshan. “We are looking for engineers (related to) software, database and artificial intelligence, and machine learning practitioners.”

The company which has a presence in 18 countries reported net revenue of nearly $7.4 billion in 2022. It is aiming to reach $12.5 billion in revenue by 2026.

The firm witnessed a spike in its online sales due to Covid-19. The pandemic accelerated the shift to e-commerce, with an increasing number of consumers shopping online at a higher frequency.

“That did shift a lot of our business online. Luckily we had been making a series of investments in our e-commerce infrastructure,” said Ryder. “ As we come out of Covid, we are still seeing very strong growth in e-commerce business across the globe. The India tech hub is a huge enabler in making sure we continuously invest in growth and e-commerce business.”

Ryder explained that some of the e-commerce elements where technology plays a role include driving traffic to the platform and marketing. Other aspects include operating websites across the globe and the supply chain being able to take and fulfill orders.

India is also a huge retail market. The retail industry in the country is likely to see 10 per cent annual growth to reach about $2 trillion by 2032, according to a BCG-RAI report. However, unlike other major athletic apparel brands such as Nike, Adidas, Puma, and Under Armour, Lululemon doesn’t have any direct presence in the country to sell its products through physical or online stores.

Ryder said the firm would very much like to have a presence and be able to sell its products through retail stores and e-commerce platforms in the country. “India is definitely on our roadmap. It is really a matter of time,” said Ryder. “We have been making some foundational investments to ensure we can be compliant in the marketplace.”