Fashion and lifestyle accounted for over 50 pc to total sales: ShopClues

E-commerce firm ShopClues has launched a new private label 'Code Yellow' as it attempts to expand its fashion and lifestyle business, a category that makes up for more than 50 per cent of its total sales.

The new label -- focussing on affordable western wear and accessories -- is targeted at women in tier II, III and IV regions, ShopClues said in a statement.

"Just like 'Meia' last year, Code Yellow is an initiative to make further inroads into the fashion markets of tier II, III and IV regions. These markets have seen a surge in their women buying western wear. Over 70 per cent of our buyers come from these cities," ShopClues co-founder and chief business officer Radhika Aggarwal said.

 

She added that fashion and lifestyle is the top category in terms of revenue growth, contributing more than 50 per cent of the company's total sales.

ShopClues has identified top 35 merchants in the lifestyle category, who will manufacture products at their end as per the ShopClues' standards and guidelines. The e-commerce company, in turn, will support them in terms of branding and end-to-end logistics.

"With our aggressive growth plans in place, we expect Code Yellow to acquire almost 1.5 lakh new customers by the end of 2018," Aggarwal said.

The company operates a number of exclusive labels -- Home Berry (home decor), Meia (women's fashionwear) and Digimate (electronics accessories) brands.

E-commerce firms like Flipkart, Amazon and others have been betting on private labels to drive growth. These in-house labels are believed to offer better margins to e-commerce players that are under increasing pressure to hit profitability and bring down cash burn.

For the fiscal ended March 2018, ShopClues narrowed its losses to Rs 208 crore from a total loss of Rs 333 crore in 2016-17. The total revenue from operations grew by 45 per cent to Rs 275 crore in 2017-18, from Rs 189 crore in the preceding fiscal.

ShopClues, which has raised USD 16 million (about Rs 110 crore) this year from some of its existing investors as part of an internal round, is hopeful of reaching the break-even by Diwali this year.