Of the 200 mn Internet users, about 20—25 mn people shop online

Recently, the e-commerce industry has witnessed a mega deal. The two biggest giants, Myntra and Flipkart, the pioneers in this industry, have joined hands together to create the biggest e-commerce story. Flipkart, which started in 2007 as an online bookstore, sells products across categories, including fashion and electronics. Whereas Myntra focuses on national and international brands across the fashion and lifestyle category. Now the industry is eying on how these two giants will compete with their peers like Amazon and Snapdeal. To know more about this deal, Dataquest spoke to Shamik Sharma, Chief Product and Technology Officer, Myntra. Excerpts

What were your key challenges over the years? How much is the Indian customer adapting to online retail today?

When Myntra first repositioned itself to a full catalog fashion and lifestyle platform in 2011, the market for online retail was still nascent but we saw great future potential. Over the years, we have used technology as a key enabler to overcome obstacles and made online shopping simpler and accessible to the masses. The e-commerce industry in 2013 has grown over 85% and a significant share of this growth can be attributed to online fashion retail. Currently, of the 200 mn Internet users, about 20-25 mn people shop online and we expect this percentage to grow exponentially due to the explosion of low-cost mobile devices. At Myntra, we are already witnessing 30% of our traffic being generated via mobile and expect this to grow to 50-60% in the next 12-18 months.

Is there a difference in business model/positioning/market approach between Myntra and Flipkart?

Yes, Flipkart is a horizontal player and retails everything from books to electronics and fashion whereas Myntra.com is a vertical player which focuses on building a strong line up national and international brands across the fashion and lifestyle category. Myntra's collection is handpicked from across brands keeping in line with the aspirations of young India.

How do you propose to integrate the value chains of the two businesses? What challenges do you foresee?

We are currently evaluating various synergies between the two companies. As mentioned, both companies will continue to co-exist.

What was the key motivation behind the merger?

Flipkart is the biggest brand in e-commerce in India with its pioneering strategies in the industry. Myntra has also built deep expertise in the fashion business with a vision to become a `20,000 crore brand by 2020. By joining hands with Flipkart, we will together grow on our shared mission to bring high quality and affordable fashion and lifestyle products to every Indian customer.

What's that one best thing about Myntra that you would like the world to know?

Myntra.com is by far the most sought after fashion and lifestyle destination online today and on a steady path to become the largest in the billion dollar brand in the next two years.

Our focus towards customer service and building everything around it has helped us achieve this position. Our young team of highly talented engineers and product developers have built remarkable products and tools in-house which are completely scalable and provide a seamless shopping experience. For example, we closely studied shopping behavior and reasons for product returns and implemented our product exchange feature which was an industry first. This feature helped us drastically reduce the number of product returns which resulted in increased customer satisfaction. This along with our start-up mentality has helped Myntra grow rapidly and stay clear of competition in this highly competitive market.