Kulin Lalbhai’s first big move towards reshaping Arvind’s fashion empire is about to get tested. The younger son of textile tycoon, Sanjay Lalbhai is ready to unveil Nnnow.com, a project that has been in the making for over a year, which intends to tap the growing digital influence of fashion shoppers in India.
“I know Omni-channel is an oft-repeated term. It’s confused with multi-channel sales. I need to be clear about what we are doing. This is simply Arvind’s biggest wager in the last few decades,” Lalbhai said.
Arvind Internet, which owns Nnnow, has built a team of 200 people, including a 70 member tech team, drawn from Google, McKinsey, Jabong and Myntra, among others. It is likely to lose money for a while but the vertical will play a significant role in boosting revenues for the group’s fashion retail unit, he added.
Nnnow will connect digital shoppers to every piece of merchandise from Arvind’s warehouses, 50-odd brands and a network of more than 1,200 stores across 200 Indian cities. Offline stores lose as much as 15% sales due to stock outs as the digital consumption is driving looks-based shopping, J Suresh, CEO, Arvind Lifestyle Brands says. Nnnow will offer same-day delivery, click-and-collect (store pick-ups) facilities while the mobile app for the portal will be rolled out in July.
“Merchandise availability is becoming crucial. We see Nnnow adding 8 to 10 per cent to the annualized revenue of Arvind Lifestyle Brands,” Lalbhai said. The fashion retail unit last reported revenue of Rs 2,500 crore with a five-year compounded annual growth rate exceeding 25 per cent. At full consumer price, which is equivalent to gross merchandise value, or GMV in e-commerce parlance, sales will be topping Rs 5,000 crore.
