Amazon India adds luxury brands to the list of offerings

E-commerce platforms in India are on a fashion spree, adding premium brands, exclusive products on e-shelves and hiring stylists to curate fashion trends. But who is topping the charts?

Luxury brands like Emporio Armani, Tarun Tahiliani, Versace among many others are now available on the website of e-commerce giant, Amazon’s Indian portal, bringing the website on the top of online apparel retailers’ list.

Amazon India has included a new selection of about 150 Indian and international premium brands like Armani Exchange, Versus by Versace, Payal Pratap, Monisha Jaising et al. With inclusion of high-end brands, the website has been able to establish a strong hold of the market of Indian online clothing retailers.

Not just apparel, the website has also added luxury watches on its e-shelves. Invicta, Stuhrling, August Steiner, Burgi and Akribos XXIV are some brands to choose from. The sale of watches has been contributing 15 pc to Amazon’s fashion business, with the dealings in premium watches doubling in October this year.

The platform claims to have about 70 pc exclusive brand partnerships. Online fashion platforms usually don’t fetch deals with exclusive products launched by brands, but Amazon seems to be beating all possible barriers.

“This year, the firm aggressively negotiated with top fashion brands that had strong fashion equity in the market and were high on aspirational value,” Arun Sirdeshmukh, Business Head, Amazon Fashion told an Indian daily.

The e-commerce company is claiming that its Indian platform’s fashion segment attracted nearly 30 pc new customers.

The stats come across as positive and hopeful, especially with the company targeting to be the country’s top online store.

“With a third of its customers buying from its online fashion store as of November 2016, Amazon India is focusing on the category,” Sirdeshmukh added.

Currently, Amazon is in competition with the Indian e-retailer Flipkart, which is also on a revamping stage. The online portal recently partnered with over 100 stylists who will help push the company’s online products by stylising and curating fashion trends.

“We are starting a 360-degree campaign for Flipkart Fashion which goes beyond talking about our brand stores and looking to expand user base. This will take Flipkart fashion market share further ahead by at least 5 pc next year and boost overall sales,” head of Flipkart fashion, Rishi Vasudeva was quoted saying.