Flipkart believes online retailing will reflect the offline trend of smaller apparel brands making up the lion’s share of future sales. The Bengaluru-based e-tailer has launched an exclusive Handloom Store for saris and related products and is working with small entrepreneurs and weavers to bring them on board.
"If you look at offline retailing of fashion products and apparel, branded goods are a small fraction of the market. A lot of sales comes from small entrepreneurs, manufacturers, and weavers," said Ankit Nagori, senior vice-president, marketplace, at Flipkart.
"With our fashion business scaling up so fast, it is important that we start replicating the offline mix," he told Business Standard.
India has close to 20 million small and medium entrepreneurs manufacturing products that can be sold through e-commerce. According to Nagori, only about 30,000 small sellers retail online.
(Source: Business Standard)