Myntra’s Chief Marketing Officer Gunjan Soni talks about the brand’s latest campaign aimed at attracting people who shy away from buying fashion online, future goals and efforts to give consumers the best online fashion experience
By SAMARPITA BANERJEE
Q] Tell us about your ‘back to the website’ move and why you decided to ditch the app-only model…
We found huge success after moving to the ‘app only’ model. Our numbers grew by 70%. Secondly, by focusing on our app, we were able to create one of the best user experiences. It’s been rated as amongst the best leading e-commerce mobile apps in India. Whether it is personalized user content or creating a community in commerce or running smoothly on 2G networks, our app outperforms anybody else at this point in time. However, as we look forward, we wanted to add new categories like home furnishing and jewellery. And our consumer research on these categories revealed that a larger screen size complements the user experience. Also, some of our women consumers preferred the larger form factor. These are the two key reasons why we re-launched our website and we expect to get another 15%-20% increment in sales coming from the website.
Q] Do you think your ‘app only’ move had alienated a certain segment of the audience?
I don’t know if I would use a strong word like ‘alienated’. Yes, there is a segment of people who prefer one form factor over another, which is the reason we have come back. If there is a preference for a certain device, we would like to offer consumers both the choices.
Q] What was the thought behind the recent campaign?
Through consumer research, we realized that there is a group of online shoppers who are shy of shopping for fashion. They have inhibitions. This was really the target segment we wanted to focus on. We also wanted to assure them that in case something goes wrong with their buy, we have the best policies in place to help them with returns. That’s the twist and the intent of the campaign.
Q] What was the thought behind Anouk’s much talked about ‘Bold is Beautiful’ campaign?
Anouk as a brand stands for ‘Bold is Beautiful’. Once we chose that as the brand identity, as a woman-focused brand, we kept picking up topics that would make others uncomfortable. Anouk as a brand feels that today’s woman is not scared of surfacing some of the tougher issues and for her, truly being bold is the new beautiful. That’s what we tried to bring out in each of the campaigns. The choice of the specific ideas emanate from that brand. You will continue to see such thoughts coming out on each campaign we do for Anouk.
Q] With 4G coming into the scene, do you also expect traffic from rural audiences?
Fundamentally, e-commerce has democratized access. Earlier, the offline fashion shopping experience was disproportionately in favour of metros. We see a fairly diversified mix now. The metros contribute only 35% to our revenues. The remaining comes from the non-metros and Tier I and Tier II towns. And 4G will help in giving us deeper access.
Q] What differentiates Myntra from other brands?
From a strong revenue and intent standpoint, we want to cross the billion dollar gross merchandize value (GMV) in the next financial year. We are very clear that we would be the first company in e-commerce in India to turn profitable. We have a few key differentiators. One is that we are a fashionfirst company, and we are therefore using technology to bring and make the fashion buying experience the best for the consumer. That manifests itself in the personalization of the app, the recommendations, the products and selection. We put a lot of effort in selecting the right brands. Then next step of the process is delivery. We keep on making experiments to ensure that our delivery experience is attuned to the fashion shopping experience. Hence, the 30-days trial period, that makes things easy for our consumers. Second is our approach towards content and commerce. We have created forums on the Myntra app for users to like or follow brands, to help them see brand content directly. As consumers, they are therefore well informed. Thirdly, our unique brand positioning has helped us in terms of the positivity and brand recall. We see that as an asset and we continue to nurture it.
Q] Do frequent requests of exchanges from customers take up your logistics costs significantly?
The cost of logistics is very much built into the business model because that’s the difference between being an online and offline player. We are obviously not building infrastructure. The corollary is, we are building a very friendly logistics infrastructure which is a part of the business plan. Having said that, Myntra is already among the best in terms of the ratios of return and we are continuously working towards improving that. We are also trying to improve the ability for people to understand their sizes and fits better on the app. Since we keep many different brands from around the world, people often get confused between different size charts. We are constantly working towards simplifying that to reduce returns. Logistics is an important facet; there is a metric that we track called the net promoter score (NPS). We want to continue to be the highest in the industry and see ourselves getting an NPS of 50. I want my brand to be on top of people’s minds.
Q] What is your market-share currently?
Together with Flipkart, we are over 50% of the online fashion market.
Q] What is Myntra’s broad marketing strategy for the next few years?
We want to attract more like-minded consumers to our base. We already have a great following of consumers and we believe that we should reach out to more customers and make them aware about the benefits of Myntra. We will also continue to reflect on Myntra’s brand identity in every campaign. For the current campaign, the choice of caste, the mood and the situation has been reflective of our target segment. It is also a fact that we are a friendly, approachable brand that is offering outstanding fashion. That will continue. We believe that as the leaders in the fashion e-commerce space, it is our duty and responsibility to bring the next set of customers on board and introduce them to online fashion shopping.
Q] What are the challenges that you see going ahead?
I don’t see any major challenges. Probably that’s my mindset, I only see opportunities. I think our industry is still at an adolescent stage. So, we have huge head room for growth and that really keeps us all excited. As I mentioned earlier, our marketing strategy would involve getting the next set of wonderful consumers to experiment with online fashion shopping.
Q] What is Myntra doing to reduce the incidence of technical glitches similar to the one that happened recently?
Technical glitches don’t happen very often. But when it does, we pick it up very fast, immediately apologize and let our customers know about it. It has allowed us to learn even more in terms of what safeguards we need to put in place. I think that learning journey continues and we are very confident that there won’t be further glitches.
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