Suneera Tandon, MINT (A Wall Street Journal Partner)
April 16, 2013

Radio jockey Alisha Anand, 26, is ready to spend Rs.26,000 on a pair sunglasses from American luxury label Tom Ford this summer. The Delhi-based Anand, who works for 94.3 FM, budgets for a pair of new shades every summer, although she agrees that this year, “it’s a bit expensive”.

Women like Anand are driving up sales for companies such as Luxottica India Eyewear Pvt. Ltd. The local subsidiary of the Luxottica Group, which sells brands such as Ray-Ban and Oakley, has seen the number of women consumers double in the last four years, spurring demand for branded sunglasses.

“It’s largely an urban-centric consumption, driven by lifestyle changes, exposure to media and higher disposable incomes. Women are gaining more economic independence and can afford multiple ownership of products such as sunglasses,” said Amitabh Sehdev, head of marketing at Luxottica India, which also retails sunglasses branded Prada, Burberry and Vogue through 600 outlets across 90 cities.

Currently 40-45% of the collection in terms of volume is devoted to women’s products by Luxottica. The category is growing at 30% compared with 20% for men’s sunglasses, the company said.

According to a March 2012 report on the sector by the Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India (Assocham), the sunglasses market was estimated at Rs.2,200 crore in 2012. The report suggested that premium sunglasses—brands such as Esprit, Giorgio Armani, Cartier, Tommy Hilfiger, Ray-Ban, Dolce and Gabbana, Calvin Klein and Police—are growing at 40% a year and that high-end eyewear accounts for about 30% of the market.

Maui Jim, the American eyewear brand that has been present in India since 2009, has increased the proportion of women’s sunglasses to 30% from 5%.

“We are seeing a big demand from women consumers coming from cities such as Mumbai, Delhi, Bangalore,” said I. Rahumathullah, managing director, Maui Jim India. Higher disposable incomes and the need to match occasion and ensemble are among the reasons for this, he said.

While women are adding to the growing consumer base, the availability of multiple brands and a marked shift towards them are driving growth in the category, according to experts.

The availability and visibility of such products in retail areas such as malls is helping boost demand for sungalsses, said Devangshu Dutta, chief executive of New Delhi-based management consulting firm Third Eyesight. The difference in the growth rates is also because men generally go with one look that combines style and practicality, while women have a keener eye for style.

“Men would buy shades for protection and quality while women would go for multiple brands to suit different occasions,” Dutta said.

The availability of branded products has helped push sales, said Ravi Kant, chief executive officer, eyewear business at Titan Industries Ltd, which operates 220 Titan Eye+ stores in 72 cities that sell brands such as Vogue, Cabana, Esprit, Fastrack and Ray-Ban, among others.

“Earlier, the optical outlet was the brand, but today consumers differentiate one brand from another,” he said, adding that people who come into the stores now ask for brands by name.

Preferences differ by region, according to the trade. In the north, women like glasses with logos prominently emblazoned on them. Consequently, luxury labels such as Armani and Dolce and Gabbana are popular there.

Kolkata-based retailer GKB Opticals has seen demand for brands at its 60 stories across the country, with customers seeking out sunglasses carrying names such as Jimmy Choo, Vogue, Ray-Ban and Prada.

Over the past two years, women sunglasses buyers have doubled at GKB, according to Dibyendu Roy, national sales manager, who feels that the presence of dedicated multi-brand retail outlets have improved the sales scope of the item.

The growing number of women consumers is good news for companies as they tend to spend more than men, according to Amit Chaudhary, co-founder and chief operating officer at Lenskart.com, the online retailer that said it gets up to 2,000 orders per day for products such as frames and sunglasses.

He said the average price of sunglasses bought by women is higher than that purchased by men. “They spend more time reviewing the product and are more focused on quality. Men are impulsive buyers,” he said.

The site sells brands such as Prada, Burberry, Ray-Ban, Maui Jim and Vogue. The proportion of women online shoppers has risen to 35% from 25% about two years back.

“Consumers are spending more on the category overall,” said Roy of GKB, which also witnessed a rise in average price tags of sunglasses sold, especially to women.

Raghavendra Kamath, Business Standard

April 10, 2013

The newly opened 23,000-square-feet-standalone flagship store of UK’s department store chain Marks & Spencer (M&S) at Koramangala in Bangalore has a different look from the existing stores of the chain in the city.

Each of the eight brands of the British retailer are clearly segmented and displayed using props and visual merchandising. For instance, its brand ‘Limited Collection’ has been given a fashion-focused feel with an illuminated catwalk, while women’s casual-wear brand ‘Indigo Collection’ has been displayed with trestle tables and denim mannequins. Another women’s wear brand ‘per una’ is presented with white-washed wooden wardrobes and chandeliers.

"The new format is a part of our global strategy of upgraded stores. Sub-brands have been relaunched with clearer differentiation so that navigation becomes easier," says Venu Nair, managing director, Marks & Spencer Reliance India.

In fact, the £600 million-revamp, involving 800 stores, started in its home market UK in September 2011 after a study that reflected the difficulty faced by customers in moving around in the stores.

M&S, which has a 51:49 joint venture with Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance Retail, has opened half-a-dozen new format stores like the one in Bangalore with an average size of 20,000 sq ft to 23,000 sq ft. The chain wants to open five more in the next couple of months. Currently, it has 29 stores.

Consultants say the government allowing foreign direct investment (FDI) in multi brand retail has partly played a role in M&S focusing on sub-brands.

"Earlier, under the single brand regime, the rule was that besides having your brand name on the store, every product should have the brand name of the company. With FDI allowed, it would be easier for foreign retailers to launch sub-brands here," says Devangshu Dutta, chief executive, Third Eyesight, a retail consultant.

However, M&S’s Nair says it wants customers to have the same store experience as they would have seen in its stores in international destinations.

But, will this strategy work?

Dutta says sub-brands help target more specific segments (by age, gender, usage occasion etc.), if they are handled well. "This can help fine tune not just product needs, but also create specific or limited promotions without it being carried over to other parts of the store or other sub-brands," he adds.

Even home grown fashion retailers such as Shoppers Stop, Future Group are focusing on their sub-brands to drive sales. For instance, Shoppers Stop has run specific activations around its apparel brand Haute Curry and extended that to jewellery and footwear. But that can’t be strictly compared with M&S, as unlike them, M&S only sells brands that are owned by it.

Such revamps are crucial for established brands such as M&S given that the Indian fashion scene is changing fast with the entry of fast fashion brands such as Zara and Mango, and the expected foray of fashion brands such as H&M, Uniqlo and others.

For M&S, the revamp is the second such major experiment in its 12-odd year presence in India. In 2007, it cut prices of its merchandise by 35 per cent to reposition itself as a mid-market retailer. It also introduced more lines as customers perceived its prices to be too high and designs limited and not suitable for Indian context

While its rivals say M&S was stuck between premium department stores such as Shoppers Stop and mass market retailer such as Big Bazaar, executives at M&S Reliance say that the strategy was well thought out. "If you are a premium retailer, and have prices more than Rs 3,000 apiece, the volumes are going to be low. We thought it is better to be a mid-market player here," an executive adds.

M&S has also increased sourcing from India and south Asia significantly. It sources around 61 per cent of its merchandise from the region which helped it to offer lower prices here.

Marks & Spencer Reliance made losses of Rs 18.66 crore and Rs 9.13 crore in FY 2010, FY 2011 respectively, and the company is still making losses. But same-store sales growth is good at all stores. Nair says many of the chain’s categories are doing very well. For instance, men’swear sales jumped 31 per cent during the December quarter and lingerie went up 28 per cent.

While the chain is reportedly set to bring its food section here, its peers and ad consultants say this could be challenging given that food is normally associated with hypermarkets.

(With inputs from Sounak Mitra)

Nilofer D’Souza, Forbes India
April 2, 2013

In what could put the government’s controversial new foreign investment policy in retail to an impact test, French group Auchan has announced its first retail store, Decathlon, in Bangalore. It is the first big-format niche retail chain to open in an increasingly fitness-conscious urban India that craves for sporting space and quality equipment.
The Euro 43 billion French group’s venture is one of the early bird licences under a new investment policy which allows 100 per cent foreign funding of single-brand retail stores. Though the government had cleared the policy in November, some niggling issues regarding local sourcing had remained and it was finally notified in January. Auchan’s proposal to invest Rs 700 crore went through on February 13, the same day that the FIPB also cleared single-brand retail plans of Promod SAS, Le Creuset and Fossil.

Most of Decathlon’s stores now sport an ‘open to all’ sign to indicate the change in its policy. It states the change on its Facebook page too. In a comment to customers, Decathlon Mumbai, says, “FDI in retail did not allow foreign retailers to sell to individuals directly. We were respecting the law of the land by being a wholesaler.”

Decathlon does not have a clear competitor as the sports goods retail market in India is populated with small over-the-counter stores or a few hundred square feet space in department stores. It has been present in the wholesale market with a cash-and-carry model for the past three years. This would be the first test of big-format retail’s impact on small merchants in a niche segment.

Decathlon stores are big—sprawling over at least 4000 square feet. In comparison, sports goods shops in the country are tiny. Even in malls or supermarkets, sports goods get only a corner, about half the area of a typical Decathalon store. It uses the extra space for indoor sporting facilities.

“It could turn out to be a category killer, and create and define the category because of the experience and product mix it has,” says Devangshu Dutta, chief executive, Third Eyesight, a retail consultancy, “Even with wholesale operation in Bangalore, they have done fairly well. They broke even fairly quickly,” he says.

The company opened a store in Mumbai last week and plans to open in Hyderabad and Chandigarh too. About 3000 customers thronged the store on the first day. That is a big draw for a niche segment currently valued at Rs 2,500 crore but estimated to grow to $6 billion by 2025 in India.

In cities, people are starved for entertainment beyond movies, restaurants and malls. Decathlon has potential to provide weekend entertainment alternatives. That fits with its own target audience – the family.

Nupur Anand, DNA (Daily News & Analysis)

Mumbai, March 13, 2013

Taste this: the organised (or upmarket) Indian cafe market is estimated to have notched up sales of $230 million (Rs1,246 crore) in 2012. And the figure is expected to bubble up to $410 million (Rs2,222 crore) by 2017, as per Technopak estimates.

No wonder, 5-7 more foreign players are keen to give the likes of Starbucks, Coffee Bean and Costa a run for their rupee income.

The identity of cafe kings eyeing India remains tightly guarded, but it is believed they are from Europe, South-east Asia, the UK and Australia.

Sunil Chaudhary, assistant vice-president of Tecnova, a retail consultancy that has been approached by a few foreign players, attributes the growing interest in India to “a combination of the Starbucks effect and the expectation that the market will double in five years”. They are all on the lookout for Indian partners, a task that is proving tough, according to retail consultancy firms.

Devangshu Dutta, CEO of Third Eyesight, a consulting and advisory firm, says that in the past one decade, the cafe has emerged as both a preferred hangout point and an informal meeting place in India.

This, he says, provides headroom for growth. “The growing propensity to spend and the growing eating-out habit in urban India is another attraction for foreign chains. Besides tea and coffee, other ‘experimental’ drinks such as bubble tea, a south Asian specialty, will be offered at cafes.”

Foreign chains’ interest extends beyond the cafe segment to the wider quick service restaurant (QSR) market, says Arvind Singhal, chairman of Technopak Advisors. “That’s understandable because the food market is still underdeveloped, compared to other countries. Niches like Chinese food, bread and sandwich are particularly popular.”

Most players are keen on entering the Indian QSR segment via the franchisee route. QSRs account for 18% of the $74 billion (Rs4 lakh crore) informal eat-out sector in India, including restaurants that serve traditional Indian snacks like idli, dosa and chaat, as per Euromonitor estimates.

Yourstory.in

New Delhi, March 11, 2013

Ennovent, a company that accelerates innovations for sustainability in low income markets, is launching its new offering, Startup Services, in partnership with Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ). Startup Services is aimed at developing and refining the business models of enterprises with products and services that improve the lives of low-income people in India.

Often, when entrepreneurs bring innovations such as solar lamps or low-cost education to market, they face several barriers that stem from a lack of peer and expert support networks, and a difficulty in engaging with mentors and service providers. Ennovent’s Startup Services aims to address these challenges in an affordable and accessible manner.

Compared to a traditional brick and mortar incubator, Ennovent’s Startup Services will offer a mix of virtual and on the ground support through a diverse group of expert mentors, sessions and workshops.

Ennovent’s Startup Services will initially be focused on entrepreneurs in untapped smaller North Indian Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities, such as Jaipur, Kanpur and Chandigarh. In these smaller, lower-income cities, such services are currently not available. In turn, many high-potential enterprises end up developing models that are not designed to be scaled effectively and thereby fail to create a sustainable impact.

To provide support for early-stage entrepreneurs, Ennovent will create local Hubs of enterprises in different cities, which will collaborate via an online platform, the Ennovent Network, to share knowledge, insights, challenges and other resources. The Hubs will provide hands-on mentoring support, workshops and short training sessions with industry leaders. Customized mentoring modules will also be provided to meet the specific needs of early-stage entrepreneurs.

“Mentors, with their experience, enable entrepreneurs to challenge and clarify basic assumptions on which he or she may be making critical decisions,” notes Devangshu Dutta, Managing Partner at PVC Partners as well as CEO of Third Eyesight. “The mentor can also add credibility to an organization and open new doors for the entrepreneur. Ennovent’s Startup Services that aims to focus on the facilitation of hands-on support for early stage entrepreneurs, especially for those working in Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities is, therefore, a great development for the startup ecosystem in India”.

Stephanie Bauer, Advisor of Sustainable Economic Development at GIZ adds, “Ennovent brings forth a unique network based approach for providing support to early stage enterprises. We are very excited about this partnership and look forward to accelerating the development of high potential impact-focused startups”.

While many social enterprises with innovations for low-income markets exist in India, recent studies indicate that only 1 – 2% get sufficient funding to scale operations for sustainable impact. Through their Startup Services, Ennovent hopes to help these enterprises refine their business models and become investor ready by leveraging both on-ground and network based support.

Startup Services will be hosting a wide range of workshops and sessions from March onwards. Mentors, investors, entrepreneurs and other key market players are invited to join.

Learn more about Ennovent Startup Services