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Business of Brands
Hyderabad: The fashion conscious Indianwoman with higher disposable income is driv-ing the fashion and imitation jewellery marketin India. The 15 to 20% year-on-year growth inthe segment with an estimated market size of.̀ 15,000 crore provides an alternative for playersto create an identifiable brand in a space dom-inated by small manufacturers.
The segment which targets young women andprofessionals in the 18 to 35 year bracket hasseen the emergence of multiple brands in thepast two years. Omni-channel strategy and ex-pansion to underserved Tier-2 and 3 cities en-sures that the brands ring a bell beyond the mar-ketplace. “Fashion jewellery is a largelyunorganised sector. Our target is to reach outtier-2 cities by retailing across 100 multi-brandoutlets over the next three years. Apart fromthis we will set up 32 store-in-store unitsthrough our tie-up with organised malls such asCentral and 20 through local mall chains overthe next two years,” says Vishwas Shringi. The
Jaipur-based startup incorpo-rated in mid-2012 has raised.̀ 12.5 crore in funds so far andhas a presence across 18 mar-ketplaces online. The companyis in talks to raise Series-Bround of .̀ 60 crore to fund its of-fline expansion plans.
YouShine which started itsoperations with a kiosk in a mall at Delhi in 2009continues to focus on offline expansion in orderto build a strong brand and cross-sell to consum-ers. “Touch and feel is essential part of the busi-ness. We went online in 2011 and didn’t see valuein it then. We are now a part of all leading fash-ion marketplaces and set up our online store inApril 2012. Presently the online channel con-tributes to 30% of our total sales but the ratio islikely to become equal,” says Ashish Sood, co-founder and CEO of YouShine. The brand cur-rently has 12 operational stores and will in-crease the number to 22 by end of 2015 . “Fashionjewellery is a high potential category with mar-gins ranging from 30 to 40%. The mindset haschanged from jewellery as an investment to anaccessory for multiple occasions in urban In-dia. Practicality of buying multiple pieces forvarious outfits and safety issues is driving theacceptance of fashion jewellery among Indianwomen especially,” says Pragya Singh, associ-ate VP Retail at Technopak. An omni-channelstrategy pursued by the sellers has led to short-er time-frames for reaching profitability, withan active interest from early-stage investors.“Fashion jewellery is a large market and Voyllaoffers exclusivity in this space. It has disruptedthe business model by tying up with manufac-turers directly and the pieces which do not sellwithin 90 days are resigned to the manufactur-er. The business is profitable within two years,which is not possible in a pure e-commerce mod-el,” says Apoorva Ruparel, partner at Envoy-Labs Consulting LLP.
Indian Women Ride High on Imitation &Fashion Jewellery
The markethas seen theemergence ofmultiplebrands in thepast two years
Mihir.Mishra @timesgroup.com
New Delhi: No-frills carrier SpiceJet beganoffering cut-price fares on some sectors, insome instances almost half those charged byrivals, even as ticket rates surged across theboard after the airline that’s struggling forsurvival grounded more planes and can-celled more flights. Still, the Kalanithi Ma-ran-owned carrier also got some relief onWednesday as the state-owned Airports Au-thority of India (AAI) gave it some slack—itgot another five days to pay dues of .̀ 200 crore.
SpiceJet is offering tickets for last-minutetravel at discounts of as much as 50% on keyroutes, although the difference isn’t much onthe No. 1 Mumbai-Delhi route. But flight can-cellations by the airline have led to fares go-ing up in general.
“While SpiceJet is offering cheapest last-minute fares in key sectors, average fares ascompared to November-end have also in-creased by about 15% due to one airline pull-ing a lot of flights,” said Sharat Dhall, presi-dent of Yatra.com, an online travel portal.
The Directorate General of Civil Aviation(DGCA) ordered SpiceJet last week to stoptaking advance bookings of more than amonth and withdrew 186 flight slots due tothe carrier’s financial woes that have led toaircraft having to be returned to leasing com-panies. The DGCA order came into force onMonday evening.
The fare gap is most pronounced on the Del-
hi-Kolkata, Delhi-Chennai, Delhi-Hydera-bad and Mumbai-Goa sectors. “The avenuesto raise revenues for SpiceJet are limitedsince they cannot book beyond one month,”said an airline executive, who did not want tobe identified. “They have a limited numberof flights flying. Passengers are also not will-ing to fly SpiceJet because there is no sched-ule integrity due to so many cancellations.”
The carrier’s Boeing 737s fleet, down to 37 inJuly from 42 before it had to return planes,were further reduced to 22 on Wednesday.This led to the cancellation of 25 flights fromDelhi, 17 from Mumbai, 15 from Bangaloreand 11 each from Chennai, Kolkata and Hyde-rabad. Before the crisis, the airline had 72flights from Delhi, 40 from Mumbai, 46 fromBangalore and 35 from Hyderabad, 26 fromKolkata and 46 from Chennai. SpiceJet hascancelled more than 1,800 flights in a monthafter it decided to shrink its fleet.
Government officials said AAI has given theairline time to clear its dues. “The airline hasbeen given time till Monday on payment of .̀ 5crore to AAI today," said government sources.AAI had asked the airline to clear dues or be de-nied credit, meaning it would have to pay cashto use the facilities. The DGCA has, mean-while, asked the airline to refund passengerswhose flights have been cancelled by Decem-ber 15. The airline has already refunded55,000 passengers, according to figures avail-able with the regulator. SpiceJet has also forthe first time delayed salaries to employees inDecember, after giving their tax filing formslate in the previous months.
SpiceJet Offers Hot Deals at Last MinuteFare gap is most pronounced on the Delhi-Kolkata, Delhi-Chennai, Delhi-Hyderabad, Mumbai-Goa sectors
Delhi-Kolkata
Delhi-Chennai*
Delhi-Hyderabad
Delhi-Mumbai
Del-Bengaluru
Mumbai-Goa
*second-lowest fare in the route was `12,145 by SpiceJet
Lowest Fare (SpiceJet) 2nd-lowest Fare
New Skies for Fare Wars
Source: Travel portals (Fares searched between 3 pm and 3.20 pm)
Sectors
17,86435,113 (AI)
14,890 (Jet Air)
17,361 (Jet Air)
14,820 (GoAir)
17,759 (GoAir)
5,774 (Jet Air)
8,891
10,465
16,815
14,716
4,189
For the sectors mentioned below SpiceJet had the lowest fares (Figures in `)
Aviation regulator DGCA has directed SpiceJet to limit advance booking to a month
Industry sources say
that SpiceJet’s strategy to be cheapest is an
effort to sell as many tickets
as possible
New Delhi: World’s largest furnitureretailer Ikea on Wednesday an-nounced a new initiative “Make Morein India” as it plans to double its sourc-ing from the country to about ¤630 mil-lion by 2020. “The initiative is aimed atpotential suppliers and to expandIkea’s supplier base as well as the cate-gories of home furnishing productssourced in India. Ikea today sourcesfor ¤315 million and plans to double thesourcing by 2020,” the company said.
“We believe there is tremendous po-tential in India. We are looking fornew suppliers who share our visionand values, are willing to grow with usand become world class suppliers,”Ikea South Asia head of sourcingSandeep Sanan said.
At present, Ikea has 48 suppliers inIndia with 45,000 direct employeesand about 400,000 people in its extend-ed supply chain. As part of this initia-tive, Ikea India will conduct two semi-nars — in Mumbai and Bangalorewhere more than 100 new potentialsuppliers are likely to participate.
The seminars will focus on enrollingnew suppliers in existing categorieslike textiles and rugs; as well as fornew home furnishing categories likefurniture and mattresses and sustain-able materials like bamboo and aca-cia; and also growing suppliers for cat-egories like metal, plastics, andlighting, the company said. In Septem-ber, Ikea said it plans to invest .̀ 12,500crore to set up 25 stores in India. - PTI
Ikea to Double IndiaSourcing by 2020
Anandita Singh Mankotia & Gulveen Aulakh
New Delhi: In a major setback to the Chinesesmartphone vendor Xiaomi’s Indian oper-ations, the Delhi High Court has asked Xiaomias well as e-commerce website Flipkart, its ex-clusive partner, to stop selling and importingphones in India until February 5,owing to Er-icsson’s claims that Xiaomi was infringing up-on its patents on technologies that are essentialto manufacture Xiaomi's devices.
The handset maker has been barred frommanufacturing, assembling, importing, sellingor advertising, including their third-party web-site any devices into India until the next date ofhearing of the case. The order also forbids, Flip-kart, the third party website from selling anyXiaomi devices.
Both Flipkart and Xiaomi have also beenasked to furnish details of the quantum of thedevices sold by them till date in India that are3G, EDGE and AMR compliant and the revenueearned from the sale of these devices. (hand-sets, tablets etc). Meanwhile, the Central Boardof Excise and Customs has been directed not toallow any imports of Xiaomi's mobiles, hand-sets, devices and tablets.
The court order, a copy of which was reviewedby ET, states that Ericsson which claims thatXiaomi has infringed upon eight of its regis-tered standard essential patents, has made out aprima facie case for an ad interim injunction inits favour. Ericsson has alleged that despite itsproposals to Xiaomi to obtain a licence to usethe former’s patents, not only did Xiaomi by-pass it and enter the Indian market in July, it also set up an Indian subsidiary Xiaomitechnology India Pvt Ltd.
“Thus the defendants have become liable topay damages, rendition of accounts, deliveryup and other reliefs,” the court has ruled. Thisfollows the recent Delhi High Court order ask-ing homegrown handset maker Micromax topay a royalty that amounts up to 1% of the sell-ing price of its devices to Ericsson for using theSwedish equipment maker's patents on tech-nologies that are essential to manufacture theproducts. The interim order for Micromaxholds until December 31, 2015, the deadline setby the court to conclude the trial.
Xiaomi's India head Manu Kumar Jain saidthat the company was yet to receive the court or-der. "While we haven't received an official no-tice from the Delhi High Court, our legal team iscurrently evaluating the situation based on theinformation we have," he told ET.
"India is a very important market for Xiaomiand we will respond promptly as needed and infull compliance with Indian laws. Moreover, weare open to working with Ericsson to resolvethis matter amicably," he added. According toEricsson it had been discussing the matter withXiaomi for over three years and due to Xiaomi’snon-compliance it was forced to explore the le-gal route.“Ericsson’s commitment to the globalsupport of technology and innovation is undis-puted. It is unfair for Xiaomi to benefit from oursubstantial R&D investment without paying areasonable licensee fee for our technology,” thecompany said in a statement.
Delhi HC AsksXiaomi to Stop SellingPhones Locally
“While SpiceJet is offering cheapest last-minute fares in key sectors,average fares as compared to November-end have also increased byabout 15% due to one airline pulling a lot of flights”SHARAT DHALLPresident, Yatra.com
