Why myntra should partner with its competitors?
A lot of us see online and offline worlds as either/ors and not really mutually complementary. Our idea is that if the customer buys from one channel, the other channel loses a potential sale. But for a moment, let us see how online and offline worlds can partner to create a successful alliance. I am using Myntra as an example in this story and stating two strong reasons to drive home my idea.
Every time a store does not have the right customer size, it loses the customer — How many times have we all loved a dress so much but could not get our size in the store? Inventory management is one of the biggest challenge for an apparel industry where trends change almost every 3 months. Imagine if the store can get the customer to place an order and deliver the right size to the customer’s home. But not every store can have an online presence and established delivery network. It is cost prohibitive. Now, if the store can partner with an online player and get the customer to complete the purchase online on the store’s online link and then deliver the right through the online player’s logistics. The store ends up gaining a customer, the online partner benefits from the economies of deliveries and may be an extra commission.
Not everyone wants to buy online — I have a lot of friends who have not adopted to buying clothes online. I myself have a quite high return rate for my online apparel purchases. Sometimes, it is the product not as per the description, sometimes the shoe does not fit well and so on. Now if I could buy on mynta and collect in a local store where I could try and buy, imagine the cost saving it would drive for myntra. One may say that if I have to anyway go to a store, I might as well make my purchase there. But the benefits of not standing in long payment queues, of getting the entire catalogue of that store available online to check and select from at my convenience far outweigh. And then, the very fact that the return is instant can make a lot of people try buying online for the first time.
I believe that just as the online world is becoming smaller, apps are collaborating with each other on user data; there are more synergies that can be developed between the online and offline world partnerships.
