Download as docx, pdf, or txt
Download as docx, pdf, or txt
You are on page 1of 22

PROJECT REPORT

(Submitted for the Degree of M. Com-2 in Banking and Finance)

TITLE OF THE PROJECT


A CASE STUDY ON ANY E-COMMERCE COMPANY
- AN ELABORATIVE CASE OF MYNTRA

SUBMITTED BY
Name of the Candidate: SAKSHI JHUNJHUNWALA

Roll No.: HFPMCBF023

Name of the College: H.R. COLLEGE

SUPERVISED BY

Name of the Supervisor: Dharti Narwani


Month & Year of Submission: July, 2021

TABLE OF CONTENTS
 Introducing the topic
 Need of the study
 Research Methodology
 Data analysis and Finding
 Conclusions and Recommendations
 Bibliography (or References)
INTRODUCTION
INTRODUCING THE TOPIC –

1. E-COMMERCE
Although the terms e-commerce and e-business are often used
interchangeably, there are differences. E-commerce is the buying and
selling of goods and services on the Internet or other computer
network. Any brick-and-mortar store can become an e-commerce
business by adding a virtual storefront with an online catalogue. In
most cases, e-business refers exclusively to Internet businesses, but it
may also refer to any business that uses Internet technology to
improve productivity and profitability.

2. E-BUSINESS
Business transactions that involve the exchange of money are covered
by the term e-commerce. E-business includes all aspects of running a
business that sells goods and services, including marketing, earning
and retaining customers, procurement, developing business partners
and customer education. In order to be successful, e-commerce and e-
businesses must have quality storefronts that are simple to navigate
and peruse, with accurate and thorough catalogue information. E-
business became an extension of e-commerce to encompass all aspects
of businesses that function online. E-business involves e-commerce,
but e-Commerce does not cover all aspects of e-business.

3. BUSINESS MODELS
E-Commerce or Electronics Commerce business models can generally
be categorized in the following categories: -

 Business - to - Business (B2B)


 Business - to - Consumer (B2C)
 Consumer - to - Consumer (C2C)
 Consumer - to - Business (C2B)
 Business - to - Government (B2G)
 Government - to - Business (G2B)
 Government - to - Citizens (G2C)

Business - to - Business (B2B)

Website following B2B business model sells its product to an intermediate


buyer who then sells the product to the final customer. As an example, a
wholesaler places an order from a company's website and after receiving the
consignment, sells the end product to final customer who comes to buy the
product at wholesaler's retail outlet.

Business - to - Consumer(B2C)

Website following B2C business model sells its product directly to a customer.
A customer can view products shown on the website of business organization.
The customer can choose a product and order the same. Website will send a
notification to the business organization via email and organization will
dispatch the product/goods to the customer.

Consumer - to - Consumer (C2C)

Website following C2C business model helps consumer to sell their assets like
residential property, cars, motorcycles etc. or rent a room by publishing their
information on the website. Website may or may not charge the consumer for its
services. Another consumer may opt to buy the product of the first customer by
viewing the post/advertisement on the website.

Consumer - to - Business (C2B)

In this model, a consumer approaches website showing multiple business


organizations for a particular service. Consumer places an estimate of amount
he/she wants to spend for a particular service. For example, comparison of
interest rates of personal loan/ car loan provided by various banks via website.
Business organization who fulfills the consumer's requirement within specified
budget approaches the customer and provides its services.

Business - to - Government (B2G)

B2G model is a variant of B2B model. Such websites are used by government
to trade and exchange information with various business organizations. Such
websites are accredited by the government and provide a medium to businesses
to submit application forms to the government.

Government - to - Business (G2B)

Government uses B2G model website to approach business organizations. Such


websites support auctions, tenders and application submission functionalities.

Government - to - Citizen (G2C)

Government uses G2C model website to approach citizen in general. Such


websites support auctions of vehicles, machinery or any other material. Such
website also provides services like registration for birth, marriage or death
certificates. Main objectives of G2C website are to reduce average time for
fulfilling people requests for various government services

NEED OF THE STUDY


The revolution of mobile phone innovations has opened the doors for
companies to gain purchasers through downloadable smart phone applications.
These applications expand the usefulness of the advanced mobile phones and
empower shoppers to perform different tasks easily. These applications have
also produced significant interest due to high client engagement. The greatest
example of this was recently evidenced by the decision of the online fashion
retailer Myntra to operate through apps only by closing down its e-commerce
website entirely. This qualitative study discusses in detail the pros and cons of
Myntra’s motive of taking such a bold step and what is the future of this
decision in the backdrop of the Indian market where a slow transition is taking
place from e- commerce to m-commerce platform. From a buzzword to a
current-day reality, e-commerce in India has been experiencing remarkable
growth, successfully changing the way people transact. People today can shop
literally everywhere within minutes, be it their workstations or homes, and
most importantly, at any time of the day at their leisure. The B2C E-commerce
Industry in India has come a long way since its early days. This market has
matured and new players have entered the market space. Indian digital
consumers are showing a great propensity and inclination to search and buy
things online. Retail on Internet is witnessing very positive growth trends with
various new E-commerce vendors hitting the market and each diversifying to
meet the competition. As a result, the B2C E-commerce space is witnessing a
spur in demand with diversified range of services on offer. The total size of the
business of selling retail goods on the Internet, commonly known as e-tailing,
is set to touch $ 76 billion mark by 2021 in the country, according to a study
by Techno Pak. E-tailing, which is around 6 per cent of the total e- commerce,
is estimated to be around $ 0.6 billion in 2012, said the study ‘E-tailing in
India Unlocking the Potential’. “In India, e-tailing has the potential to grow
more than hundredfold to reach a value of $ 76 billion by 2021. The e-tailing
market will emerge as a destination for highly-skilled technology jobs
employing nearly 0.3 million people by 2021. E-tailing can provide
employment to 1.45 million people by 2021. Its growth will spur the creation
of new capabilities and human skills in the areas of logistics, packaging and
technology,” it said. There is almost an increase of 10 million unique visitors
in 2011-12, Percentage of unique visitors have grown from 26.1 million in July
2011 to 37.5 million in July 2012. Apparel has been the fastest growing
subcategory in retail reaching 13.4% online users in India. Consumer goods,
sports/ outdoor products and retail food sub categories have also shown early
growth signs. Flowers/gifts/greetings is the only subcategory which has shown
de-growth of over 33% in the last 12 months. The e-commerce story in India
would surely witness a new world of digitalization in the coming decade, with
a host of start-ups emerging to compete with existing players in order to draw
benefits from the new and existing markets.

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
Myntra.com is a one stop shop for all your fashion and lifestyle needs. Being
India’s largest e-commerce store for fashion and lifestyle products,
Myntra.com aims at providing a hassle free and enjoyable shopping experience
to shoppers across the country with the widest range of brands and products on
its portal. Myntra was established by Mukesh Bansal, Ashutosh Lawania and
Vineet Saxena in February 2007. All three are IIT alumni and have been
associated with several start-ups. Myntra is headquartered in Bangalore with
regional offices in New Delhi, Mumbai and Chennai. It began its operations in
the B2B (business to business) segment with the personalization of gifts,
which included T-shirts, mugs and caps to name a few. However, in 2010, the
company shifted its strategy to becoming a B2C (business to customer)
oriented firm, expanding its catalogue to fashion and lifestyle products.
Myntra. com is ranked among the top 10 e-commerce companies in India and
is scaling rapidly. Building on the success of personalization Myntra expanded
into broader Lifestyle/Fashion retailing. By the start of 2015, there were more
than 300 million internet users in India with a 32% year on year growth
(IAMAI, January 2015). As the costs of Wi-Fi access and buying a cell phone
with 3G and 4G data choices decreased, Indian mobile users became an
important set of customers.
The changing technology scenario was a wonderful opportunity for retail
brands to personalize and customize the experience for users. From the
perspective of a brand, after the download of an application by the customer,
the application would be logged in always. Thus, the brand would be able to
gather user data like length of browsing time, repeat buying, information
sharing platforms used etc. Organizations would also start having their own
data analytics to better serve the users as well as to supporting their marketing
activities. One such company was Myntra.
In May 2015, Myntra shut its website to become a mobile app- based retailer
enabling clients to just purchase through smart phones. The move came after
Myntra asserted that 95 percent of the Internet traffic came through mobiles
and 70 percent deals were created through smart phones.

The move to only-application business saw 10% decrease in sales at first


which brought up a few issues on the success of having business through
mobile applications only. There was an outrage from the people after this
move and the mobile app page of Myntra on the Play Store received a lot of
one-star ratings. Competitors like Snapdeal and Jabong put out statements that
they were not going to follow this move and would continue to sell through
websites. Even experts were divided over this move.

E-commerce industry in India

India's e-trade business sector was worth about $3.8 billion in 2009, and it went
up to $12.6 billion in 20133.In 2013, the e- retail fragment was worth US$2.3
billion. Around 70% of India's e-trade business sector was travel related. As
indicated by Google India, there were 35 million online customers in India in
2014 Q1 and was estimated to cross 100 million imprints by end of year
2016.The major players in e-trade industry were Flipkart, HomeShop18,
Snapdeal, India times shopping and MakeMyTrip, Jabong and Zomato. India's
e-commerce market was worth about $2.5 billion in 2009, it went up to $6.3
billion in 2011 and to $14 billion in 2012. About 75% of this is travel related
(airline tickets, railway tickets, hotel bookings, online mobile recharge etc.).
Online Retailing comprises about 12.5% ($300 Million as of 2009).

India has close to 10 million online shoppers and is growing at an estimated


30% CAGR vis-à-vis a global growth rate of 8–10%. Electronics and Apparel
are the biggest categories in terms of sales.

India's retail market is estimated at $470 billion in 2011 and is expected to grow
to $675 Bn by 2016 and $850 Bn by 2020, – estimated CAGR of 7%.
According to Forrester, the e-commerce market in India is set to grow the
fastest within the Asia-Pacific Region at a CAGR of over 57% between 2012–
16.

Mobile- application industry in India


The mobile applications industry in India was growing. As indicated by the
Mobile Marketing Association (2014), Indian organizations spent 3 billion
rupees ($49.9 million) on mobile advertisements in 2013, and the business
sector was anticipated to extend 43 percent in 2014 (Varnali and Toker, 2010).
India's M-Commerce (mobile commerce) business size was assessed to be
approx. $2.5 billion in 20146. As per the 2013 Brand Z report, out of the 100
most important worldwide brands, 89 of them outlined and dispatched an
application all over the world. As per App Annie Index (2013), India was in
the third position in terms of the quantity of downloads from Google Play and
Apple App Store7.The application downloads in India was prone to increment
from 1.56 billion in 2012 to 9 billion by 2015 and the incomes produced by
means of these applications were likewise anticipated that would cross INR
(Indian Rupees) 800 crore by 2016.
The average smart phone user in the nation had17 applications and the number
was near the worldwide normal of 25 applications. According to the study by
Ericson (2014), a telecom hardware producer, Indian clients spent more than 3
hours and 18 minutes a day on their smart phones and 33% of that time was
spent on applications. It was seen that there was 63% increase in the usage of
applications in the previous two years. India had higher Smartphone utilization
than the United States (US), where the normal time spent on cellular telephones
was 132 minutes for each day in the US.

History of Myntra
Myntra.com, an Indian e-trade organization of design and casual lifestyle
items, had it headquarter situated in Bangalore. Built in 2007 by Mukesh
Bansal alongside Ashutosh Lawania and Vineet Saxena, Myntra was in the
trade of on-demand personalization of gift items. It basically worked on the
B2B model amid its introductory years.
By 2010, Myntra moved its center to the web retailing of branded clothing.
Somewhere around 2007 and 2010, the online entrance permitted clients to
customize items, for example, T-shirts, mugs, mouse cushions, timetables,
watches, teddy bears, pendants and so forth. After just 3 years, Myntra turned
into India's biggest personalization stage with more than half of the market
share.
In 2011, Myntra extended its index to incorporate style and way of life items
and moved far from personalization. Myntra tied up with different well-known
brands to distribute an extensive variety of most recent stock from these
brands. Myntra offered items from 350 Indian and International brands by
2012. Myntra likewise had easygoing wear for men and ladies. The site saw
the dispatch of Fastrack watches and of Being Human, the brand11.
In May 2014, Myntra.com converged with Flipkart to contend with Amazon
which entered the Indian market in June 2013 and other established offline
retailers like Future Group, Aditya Birla Group and Reliance Retail. In 2014,
Myntra's portfolio included around 1, 50,000 results of more than 1000 brands
extending from worldwide brands to designer brands and diffusion zone of
around 9000 pin codes in India.
Advertising
In the pursuit of reaching out to a larger number of consumers in the country
and spread awareness of the brand in 2011, Myntra.com released a new brand
campaign, for the first time on TV, focusing on the mantra – “A fashionable
new age”. The attempt was to create a film that’s pumping with energy, style
and attitude; a creative piece that could stand up to all the fantastic products
and services that Myntra.com offers. With the establishment of the e-
commerce industry, the greatest challenge is to educate and captivate the
audience on the positives the realm holds. In 2012 Myntra.com unveiled two
new TVCs which underline the advantages of shopping online, on the portal.
The television commercials created by Taproot India went on air on 11 June,
2012 and were built around the theme ‘Real life mein aisa hota hai kya’. The
idea was to communicate the unique benefits that Myntra.com offers by
transposing those advantages on real life shopping which, if possible, would
be quite an incredulous thing. But obviously, it’s only possible on
Myntra.com. While in the previous campaign focused on demystifying myths
about online shopping by communicating the key benefits of shopping with
Myntra, the 2 new TVCs have a clear objective of showcasing the wide range
of products and convenience of shopping on Myntra. The TVCs also
highlighted the fact that shoppers have access to over 500 brands ‘anytime,
anywhere’ and easy product return with the tag line ‘goods once sold can
always be returned’. The campaign aims to amplify the key product offerings
– cash on delivery, free home delivery and 30-day return policy in a manner
that reflects ease of shopping online and helps burst category barriers.
Star N Style
Bollywood celebrities fashion lifestyle play very crucial role in consumer
decision making in India and to take leverage on the same Myntra launched
concept of Star N Style. Star ‘N Style was introduced to give consumers a
peek into the personal style of the celebrities they follow, to get inspired by
their fashion, and help them flaunt the look of their favorite stars. The Star N
Style is quarterly brand property with a varied pool of influencers.
In July, 2012, Bollywood actress Kalki Koechlin launched Myntra.com’s first
fashion property called ‘Star n Style’ at a glitzy event in Delhi. Koechlin’s
handpicked selection of apparel and accessories from over 350 brands were
made available on Myntra.com.

In November 2012, Myntra introduced second edition of Star N Style with the
gorgeous Chitrangda Singh. Myntra started off proceedings with a little teaser
contest on Facebook and Twitter - asking followers to guess the next Star N
Style celeb. In May 2013, Bollywood actress Genelia Deshmukh announced
the launch of their third edition of fashion property Star N Style. Myntra
introduce the concept of personalization to cricket which is one of the biggest
passions of India. Cricket fans and enthusiasts now have the opportunity to see
themselves in the jerseys of their favorite teams by just adding their names and
jersey numbers to the jerseys of their team.
In 2008 Cricinfo, the world’s leading cricket website tied up with Myntra.com
to offer cricket merchandise. Through the customized Cricinfo - Myntra portal,
cricket enthusiasts had an option to customized T-shirt, mug, mouse pad or
poster. Caricatures of famous cricketing stars were up for grabs across the
range of merchandise besides an innovative series on quotes – famous and
witty quotes by cricketers, right on a T-shirt or a coffee mug.
In year 2009 Myntra in association with Reebok – India’s largest sportswear
brand – launched a range of personalized Reebok ‘Official Team jerseys’ for
the second season of the Indian Premier League (IPL).
Style Studio
Myntra.com launched an in-house application ‘Style studio’, a virtual dressing
room aimed at making online shopping more interactive for shoppers in
October 2012. Myntra.com joined the league of e-commerce players such as
Zovi.com, Lenskart.com and Kingschest.com, which have already introduced
this feature.
Product Exchange Facility
The trends of misfitting and not suiting of color are common in apparels and
footwears which lead to customer dissatisfaction and urge for a return.
Myntra.com provides product ‘exchange’ feature on the website. Through this
feature, shoppers have an option to exchange an existing product for a
different size, without having to first return and then re-order the product.
Myntra’s team delivers the new product and takes back the product to be
exchanged during the same visit. The validity period for product exchange is
30 days from the day of purchase.
Usage of Social Media Platform
Ashutosh Lawania (Co-Founder & Head – Sales & Marketing, Myntra.com)
believes that “Technology can be a game changer in the crowded e-commerce
market” Myntra.com relies heavily on technology to boost its market share.
Besides using analytics extensively, the online retailer uses innovations such as
virtual dressing rooms to sustain buyer interest. On the social front, Myntra was
the first among e-commerce firms to initiated a tool called ‘Get Satisfaction’
which integrates all queries and reviews into a single platform and builds a data
bank of answered queries for future reference. Myntra has a strong social media
presence on Facebook, Google+, Twitter and Pinterest with over one million
fans on Facebook. PicsArt, through Ventes Avenues (Ventes Avenues
represents PicsArt) undertook a social media campaign for Myntra to boost
engagement with the latter’s audience, during its six-day EORS (End of
Reason Sale), held in December 2020.
Over the years, Myntra’s EORS has become a marquee fashion event for
the industry and the 13th edition of the fashion event, that offered
shoppers special deals and value offers to end the year on a cheerful and
positive note, was no different. For the event, Myntra was exploring
options to boost engagement and brand awareness in an innovative way.
With its limitless creative features, socially active young audience, and
strong community, PicsArt was an appropriate fitment for the EORS
campaign.
The main objective of the PicsArt-Myntra campaign was to engage c
India's e-commerce market was worth about $2.5 billion in 2009, it went
up to $6.3 billion in 2011 and to $14 billion in 2012. About 75% of this is
travel related (airline tickets, railway tickets, hotel bookings, online
mobile recharge etc.). Online Retailing comprises about 12.5% ($300
Million as of 2009).
India has close to 10 million online shoppers and is growing at an
estimated 30% CAGR vis-à-vis a global growth rate of 8–10%. Electronics
and Apparel are the biggest categories in terms of sales. India's retail
market is estimated at $470 billion in 2011 and is expected to grow to
$675 Bn by 2016 and $850 Bn by 2020, – estimated CAGR of 7%.
According to Forrester, the e-commerce market in India is set to grow the
fastest within the Asia-Pacific Region at a CAGR of over 57% between
2012–16.
Customers while leaving a lasting impression in their minds during EORS.
This was a one-of-a-kind activity, where Myntra had two replays
integrated on the PicsArt app. A Replay is a step-by-step guide that allows
users to recreate an entire series of professional editing effects on their
images. To further increase viewability and engagement, a ‘Replay
Challenge’ was run on PicsArt, which attracted significant traction from
the PicsArt user base. The winner of the challenge received vouchers and
gifts worth Rs 50,000 from Myntra. This created buzz and excitement and
lured users to participate in the challenge multiple times. The creative
editing challenge on PicsArt in India hit 80 million views.
Achint Setia, Vice-President, Marketing at Myntra, said, “This activity not
only resulted in a high engagement rate for Myntra, but also created a
permanent shelf space in the user’s phone - establishing a greater brand
recall. It is so refreshing to observe people engaging with Myntra and
taking the time to edit their images. Innovative campaigns like these create
a lifelong brand salience, build rapport and strengthen the trust between
the brand and its consumers.”
Ravish Jain, Country Head of PicsArt India, shared, “PicsArt users are
tech-savvy, socially active, and aware of ongoing trends. They love to
engage, consume, and create new and fresh content frequently. Our new
Replay functionality was the perfect way to engage users with the Myntra
brand, and this campaign was unlike something they had done before. It
was great to see millions of people in India viewing the branded content
and even more of a delight to see thousands of PicsArt users participate in
the challenge.”
Fauzan Rahim, Co-Founder, Ventes Avenues, commented, “Ventes
Avenues is delighted to collaborate with Myntra on their recent campaign.
We strongly believe that innovation is the key to brand love. The success
of the Myntra-PicsArt campaign has opened several opportunities for
brands to advertise, innovate and create awareness. We are proud to
announce our partnership with PicsArt and we hope this serves as a
relevant platform for brands to engage meaningfully and ‘go beyond the
filter’. We would like to thank Myntra for taking this leap of faith and
trusting us; these numbers are very encouraging, and I am sure many
brands will connect with us on this.”

Myntra does product plugs, fashion stories and give out fashion tips on their
social media platforms that are relevant for the audience and can help them
make a purchase decision. These tools help them to engage and interact with
audience, collect their feedback and share fashion tips with customers. Over a
period of time, the three main focus areas on Facebook are fashion content,
product/category marketing and topical engagement. On Twitter, it does all 3
of this and in addition, use the platform for conversing with bloggers and
people interested in fashion.
On Pinterest and YouTube, the strategy is clearly to show its understanding of
fashion - created as well as curated- and boards and playlists are a reflection of
that. Myntra use Facebook as a medium and Twitter as a platform to run
contests. Its contest on twitter #whatsyourexcuse was in line with their
television campaign and saw a lot of participation. All these campaigns result
in increased engagement and awareness and therefore result in sales.
Corporate Social Responsibility.
With Myntra embracing Corporate Social Responsibility as a key component
of policy decisions, it formed a CSR club and decided to initiate a Cloth
Collection Drive in collaboration with Goonj – an NGO dedicated towards
providing clothing and other necessities to underprivileged communities. The
creative team put together a fantastic marketing plan based on the theme “Old
is gold”.
Myntra’s partnership with MARD (Men Against Rape & Discrimination)
gives shoppers from Myntra, exclusive access to MARD T-shirts. MARD
started as Farhan Akhtar’s initiative to educate and create awareness -through
his poem called ‘What is this country that I live in’.
Salman Khan’s Being Human brand has partnered exclusively with Myntra to
sell their merchandise online. Myntra has committed that part proceeds from
online sales will be contributed to education and healthcare to the
underprivileged supported by Being Human.
Started the Women’s month at Myntra with a host of initiatives dedicated to
celebrate the spirit and strength of women. It conducted sessions for educating
women employees in self-defense art forms and recognize conflicts. In March
2013 Myntra organized a mela in association with AWAKE (Association of
Women Entrepreneurs of Karnataka) which featured products made by women
entrepreneurs and few other smaller NGOs at its campus.

ANALYSIS AND FINDINGS

Pros/cons of Myntra’s decision of shifting to app platform


Myntra said that 95 percent of Internet activity came through mobile and 70
percent of its deals were created through smart phones which could be a
conceivable thought process with reference to why it has wandered totally
into smart phones. Myntra is very responsive to market trends and always
keeps the latest designs and merchandise in its online catalogue. There has
also been a change in the marketing strategy pursued by Myntra over the
years, from focusing primarily on establishing the brand as an online shopping
portal for fashion and accessories to extending to the realm of communicating
the advantages of shopping online and ridding consumers of the inherent
reservations of making online purchases. The brand’s core marketing
mediums include the digital platform, especially Facebook and the electronic
medium, with a majority of the marketing expenditure towards youth-centric
channels. Myntra has used mostly viral marketing and internet for its
popularity coupled with occasional discounts and referral discounts.
Myntra.com understands its shoppers’ needs and caters to them with choice of
apparel, accessories, cosmetics and footwear from over 500 leading Indian
and international brands. Prominent brands include Adidas, Nike, Puma,
Catwalk, Inc 5, United Colors of Benetton, FCUK, Timberland, Avirate,
FabIndia and Biba to name a few.
Pros/cons-Traffic from the smart phone application may have developed from
about zero to 70% in the space of one year however that didn’t essentially
imply that desktop traffic had declined. So, while mobile activity may have
been developing really fast, it was quite possible that desktop traffic had
additionally stayed stable if not expanding.
The other real reason that Myntra decided to clarify the move was the
potential for the cell phone to offer a more customized affair for the customer.
Pros/cons-It is without a doubt genuine that a mobile is a much more
individual gadget than a desktop and it knows a great deal more about us than
our desktop. In any case, aside from some extraordinary components like-
camera and sensors to encourage the client to make sense of how a dress or
embellishment would look on her or a single tick beautician attendant element
where one could have a feature talk with a styling master who can help
him/her with a buy choice every other viewpoint is same as of that of its site.
Personalization has its advantages however it additionally implies that there
can't be an excess of warnings (excessively chafing) or excessively few (a
peril of being overlooked). Getting the offset right will be fundamental. One
more con about Myntra’s strategy to prefer smart phone stage only is mobile
shopping is incredible on-the-go, yet not everybody is continually shopping
while travelling.
Another advantage with the application only strategy is Myntra being a
solitary stage player.
Pros/cons-First of all there is no repetition expenses included in this strategy
and even a greater pro is the way that mobile means more impulse traffic and
conversion of purchases. The mobile revolution over the recent years has
urged clients to shop or window shop through smart phones; subsequently it
appears to be reasonable that the organization needs to keep its clients to a
solitary stage just. Recent accessibility of Low-priced smart phone handsets
and simple accessibility of web through 2G and 3G systems in India was
another reason that affected Myntra to work through applications just.
Pros/cons-Over 60 mobile users in India are confronting network issues while
getting to web crosswise over areas, particularly in provincial regions, a late
Ericsson (2014) study uncovered. It leads to a possible invasion of privacy as
most apps today want access to all your personal information such as device
and app history, contacts, identity, location, phone and media files along with a
lot more. Moreover, the rate of payment failures could possibly increase as the
internet speed/network could sometimes hamper the payment process.
Desktops are far more comfortable. To compare products, customers can have
multiple tabs open. Besides, they can also zoom in to get a better view of the
product, which wouldn’t be so attractive on a smaller screen.
To explain their strategy, online retailers point to the iniquitousness of mobile
phones. Almost everyone has a cell phone, and smart phones are very
common, so they state that they are just following their customers.
Although that seems fine, but why should they eliminate the website
completely? The answer might lie in the cookie, which are the byte-sized
portions of information that assist to build an identikit of visitors to websites.
A cookie can be used by others, and online retailers obviously don’t want to
share it with competitors. However, with an app, there is no such problem.
"The web is an open architecture. There are a wide variety of sensors detecting
what you do, and that information is easily available. In an app, you isolate
your behavior," said angel investor Ajeet Khurana.
Ecommerce websites subscribe to ad exchanges to bring users to websites.
This in turn segments users into different groups and then they can target ads
by taking into account the websites and products that users previously visited
or saw. But cookies have their pros and cons: While they can push a customer
towards a web site, through intermediaries, they can also have ads from other
companies on the browser. Conversely, if a person's objective to buy a product
moves from Google to an app, only the app becomes knows the needs of its
users and it could sell more to these users over time.
"With these third-party cookies, you win as well as you lose. But the bigger
guy has more to lose," Khurana said.

FUTURE OF MYNTRA APP


“Fashion is a very personal experience. We believe that only mobile can truly
deliver this experience as it captures user’s lifestyle and context in manner that
no other medium does. Think of all the hardware and software features that
one can leverage like camera, contact, location etc. to understand the user’s
context and deliver the experience that is deeply personalized,”- Mukesh
Bansal, Myntra CEO, 2015
The organization said that 95 percent of Internet traffic came through mobile,
and 70 percent deals were produced through smart phones. So regardless of the
fact that desktop clients relinquished the site, they weren't generally losing
excessively. Interestingly, more than 50 percent of their mobile activity was
originating from Tier II & III urban communities, which would keep on
growing. Requesting garments online would appear to be coherent just when a
certain brand wasn't accessible in your city and that was the reason Myntra's
attention on Tier II & III urban areas boded well.
According to a late report from Morgan Stanley, online customer entrance in
India was expected to increase from 9 percent in 2013 to 36 percent by 2020,
essentially driven by mobile clients. Hence it was expected that Myntra with
its app- only business would make the users download the application
— a win-win circumstance for the both the individuals who used to go to the
website and for the new users as well. Given how the application universe
functioned, users had the choice of erasing it, if it didn’t work for them.
Hence it made the user more effective implying that Myntra needed to live up
to the expectations. They would need to demonstrate that there was worth in
downloading the application and keeping it.
For the occasion, primary opponents Amazon and Snapdeal had proclaimed
that they wouldn’t be having app-only business however they would keep an
eye on things. Myntra, then again, would trust that it had not only seen a bit of
the future but also chosen the right time to jump in.
From the overall business perspective, Myntra said it hoped to become
profitable by 2016-17 as it phased out discounts and generated higher margins
from apparel sale online. “We are still in an investment mode. Given our
business model and the margins we see, Myntra is poised to become
profitable in a couple of years,” Mukesh Bansal, co-founder and CEO of
Myntra, said.
Myntra was looking to grow fast and went on an acquiring spree with Cubeit,
Native5 and InLogg. The latest acquisition was done to strengthen and further
develop its supply chain capabilities helping it to improve its reach as well as
reduce delivery time. It was also investing in AI to predict the way people will
shop on the website, allowing it to build traffic models and hence plan its
servers.
REACTIONS FROM OTHER ONLINE AND OFFLINE BUSINESS
REGARDING MYNTRA’S DECISION
E-business in India had been a disagreement of sorts. In a report in the Wall
Street Journal, Myntra's choice to close its site for an application just
methodology appeared to create an uncertainty of the business.
Amidst the surge in optimism, there was developing forcefulness among brick
and-mortar organizations to expand their offer of business. While prior,
offline stores had declined to service phones and gadgets acquired on the web,
they now appeared to have understood the significance of concentrating on
online business also.
Recently, e-Commerce major Snapdeal declared that it would permit its
clients over 200 urban communities to pay through their credit/debit cards
when they selected pay-on-conveyance alternative. As of 2015, e-business
sites in the nation permitted cash on delivery (COD) payment choice. The
arrangement had been produced in partnership with GoJavas and it had come
as a vital strategic movie against Myntra's policy.

REVENUE MODELS OF MYNTRA AND OTHER ONLINE


RETAILERS

Revenue Model of Myntra and Flipkart


Myntra was more of a fashion life style shop whereas Flipkart covered almost
all product categories. Both were resellers of brands. Myntra kept up its
application which was the main method through which a client could buy
while Flipkart operated through both site as well as through application.
Myntra's plan of action was taking into account current season merchandise
from various brands and making them available on the portal at the same time
as in respective retail brand outlets. Every one of these items was offered to
clients at MRP. It fundamentally took after a B to C model like Flipkart.
Operationally these two models were the same with a special case of Flipkart
dealing with its own particular logistics. Myntra was attached up with
DHL/Bluedart and other transporters. In this model, the E-Commerce player-
controlled end to end value chain i.e., starting from acquiring to conveyance
was controlled by the service provider. They worked in a standard supply
chain model (obtainment, stock administration, satisfaction, merchant on-
boarding, and logistics). They were searching for a bigger market share by
keeping their functionality and operational medium separate.
Revenue Model of Jabong
Jabong.com, an Indian fashion and life style e-trade portal, offered attire,
footwear, design extras, magnificence items, scents, home embellishments and
other design and life style items. Jabong for the most part offered shoes,
clothing, adornments, home stylistic layout and furniture through its site. The
e-store contained over 1000 brands and more than 90,000 items. Jabong.com
took after both an inventory model and an oversaw commercial center model.
In the inventory model, items were sourced from brands and put away in the
Jabong stockroom while in the oversaw commercial center model; Jabong
gave advertising, logistics and conveyance. Jabong worked through both e-
business portals and through application.
Revenue Model of Snapdeal
With 20 million enlisted clients, Snapdeal was one of the first and biggest
online commercial centers in India. As a webpage which began off offering
deals, they later offered everything from attire to aromas to cellular telephones
to bikes, having everything that a customer might need to purchase, accessible
on their site. Snapdeal's business and stage model was secured by an
imaginative framework that consolidated upgrades from both dealers and
customers. The Snapdeal.com stage empowered merchants to rundown items
available to be purchased on the site, oversee stock, and roll out evaluating
improvements progressively in light of what was going on in the commercial
center. In this model the E-Commerce player did not offer any
products/service all alone but rather offered rebate coupons which could be
utilized by purchasers to profit markdown at the season of purchasing
merchandise or benefiting services from the vendor. Snapdeal worked through
both e-business portals and also through application.
Revenue Model of E-Bay
EBay Inc. (stylized as eBay, formerly eBay), an American multinational
corporation and e- commerce company, provided consumer to
consumer & business to consumer sales services via Internet. The company
managed EBay.com, an online auction and shopping website in which people
and businesses bought and sold a broad variety of goods and services
worldwide. In addition to its auction-style sales, the website had since
expanded to include "Buy It Now" shopping; shopping by UPC, ISBN,
or other kind of SKU (via Half.com); online classified advertisements (via
Kijiji or eBay Classifieds); online event ticket trading (via Stub Hub); online
money transfers (via PayPal) and other services. In the business model it
followed, the role of E-Commerce player was to bring buyers and suppliers on
single trading platform i.e., to create a Mall or Common Market Place. EBay
didn’t have any inventory system of its own. It only provided technology
platforms and tools for e-commerce. EBay had various revenue models. For
example – it earned transaction fee from PayPal. EBay also gained sales from
the service of listing customer’s product to be sold to other users as well as
some advertisement fee. EBay operated through both e-commerce portals as
well as through app.

CONCLUSION
While Myntra had gone all mobile, its parent company Flipkart, which
planned to follow the same path in a year, was yet to make any formal
announcement. The switch would probably depend on how successful Myntra
turned out to be in the following months to come.
Brand-expert Harish Bijoor said, “Initially, there will be palpable turmoil with
anything between 15 to 20 percent of existing customers, but this will settle
down.” He believes that the biggest advantage with the app-only strategy is
being a single platform player. He further adds, “There is focus and no
redundancy costs. An even bigger pro is the fact that mobile means more
impulse traffic and conversion of buys.” When asked whether this decision
could affect sales or faithful customers, he said that, “In the short term, for
about four months, it could, but it wouldn’t in the medium term.
On the other hand, there are cynics like Ranjit Nair, CEO of social media
analytics firm Germin8, who feels that shutting websites will work to the
disadvantage of ecommerce companies. “For one, it gives the impression that
companies are taking consumers for granted by closing access to an important
channel. Besides, there is no guarantee that a particular app will be one of
those that sits on the limited real estate on a mobile screen”.
After the app only move, Myntra Designs Pvt. Ltd (the holding company for
Myntra’s marketplace platform), reported losses for the financial year 2015-
16, to Rs 816 crore, from Rs 741 crore a year earlier.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
[1] “App Annie Index – Market Q1 2014: Revenue Soars in the United States
and China”, www.blog.appannie.com.
[2] “Flipkart, Myntra merge in Rs 2,000 crore deal”,
www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com, May 23, 2014
[3] “Myntra.com Introduces India’s Biggest Fashion Sale, the ‘End of Reason
Sale”, www.telegraphindia.com,
Dec 31, 2014
[4] “Online shoppers in India to cross 100 million by 2016: Study”,
www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com, Nov 20, 2014
[5] Amy Kazmin, “Myntra spearheads India’s move away from desktop
browsing", www.ft.com, May 15, 2015
[6] Don Kellogg, “Mobile Apps Beat the Mobile Web Among US Android
Smartphone Users”, http://www.nielsen.com/, Aug 18, 2011
[7] Hari Bhushan, “History of Myntra”, www.scribd.com
[8] http://m.tech.firstpost.com/news-analysis/is-myntras- app-only-approach-
the-wave-of-the-future- 267497.html
[9] http://www.nishithdesai.com/fileadmin/user_upload/pd fs/Research
%20Papers/E-Commerce_in_India.pdf
[10] http://www.pwc.in/assets/pdfs/publications/2014/evolut ion-of-e-commerce-
in-india.pdf
[11] http://www.quora.com/How-is-Myntras-business- model-different-
from-Flipkarts
[12] http://www.quora.com/Olacabs-1/Why-are-companies- like-Myntra-and-
Flipkart-shutting-down-their- websites-and-moving-entirely-to-their-apps
[13] http://www.quora.com/What-is-the-business-model-of-
Snapdeal
[14] https://ecommerze.wordpress.com/2008/06/13/revenue- models-of-google-
eBay-amazon/
[15] https://paytm.com/blog/online-commerce-in- india%E2%80%8A-
%E2%80%8Akey-stats
[16] https://www.kpmg.com/IN/en/Topics/FICCI- Frames/Documents/FICCI-
Frames-2014-The-stage-is- set-Report-2014.pdf
[17] Karrishma Modhy, “Will Myntra’s move away from desktop cause its
downfall?”, www.tech.firstpost.com,
May 20, 2015
[18] Krithika Krishnamurthy, “Could this be the reason why retailers want?”
www.articles.economictimes.indiatimes.com, Jul 9, 2015
[19] Manu P Toms, “Myntra doing $400M in GMV, to turn profitable by
2016-17: Mukesh Bansal”, www.vccircle.com, May 12, 2015
[20] Shivaji Mitra, “List of top 30 online ecommerce shopping sites in India”,
www.anblik.com, September 5th, 2015
[21] Sumanth Raghavendra, “Polemics and Panegyrics – why Myntra’s move
to app-only may have nothing to do with mobile”, www.yourstory.com,
May 30, 2015
[22] Anirban Sen and Mihir Dalal, “Myntra’s app-only move slowed down
FY16 sales growth”, www.livemint.com,
December 30, 2016
[23] “Myntra ‘acqui-hires’ logistics start-up”, www.thehindu.com, April 20,
2017

You might also like