Around 4 mn customers shopped during Myntra’s Big Fashion Festival 2020: Achint Setia

Myntra has garnered strong response to its Big Fashion Festival this year as well, witnessing 100% growth in orders over last season. The Festival witnessed the highest traffic, with a 106% rise over the last edition and raking in record numbers by registering a 2x growth over last year.

“This festive season was the biggest ever for Myntra on all parameters,” claims Achint Setia, Vice President - Marketing, Myntra.

The online fashion portal also launched Season 2 of one-of-its-kind digital fashion reality show, Myntra Fashion Superstar. The theme of this year’s show and also the official hashtag is #MFSChangeTheConversation, which aims at promoting ‘fashion for good’ and inclusivity. The theme focuses on how influencers have the power to use social media to bring about a positive change and challenge social norms.

Also read:  Myntra’s Big Fashion Festival most awaited shopping season of the year

In conversation with Adgully, Achint Setia, Vice President - Marketing, Myntra, speaks about the response received for Big Fashion Festival this year, accelerated focus on new customer acquisition, growth of e-commerce, Myntra Fashion Superstar Season 2 and more.

What can we expect from Season 2 of ‘Myntra Fashion Superstar’? Have you made any changes in the format?

‘Myntra Fashion Superstar’, a first of its kind digital fashion reality show streaming on MTV and on Myntra Studios, is our fashion content destination on Myntra. Season 2 has a renewed focus on inclusivity and individuality. This edition will challenge a lot of predispositions on social media and at the same time will be entertaining for budding fashionistas. The contestants will showcase their fashion acumen, their ability to create meaningful content and proficiency in using social media to make a positive impact on their audiences. 

‘Myntra Fashion Superstar’ is the main discovery platform for the fashion influencer community and hopes to inspire several aspiring fashionistas to #ChangeTheConversation in fashion in a positive and enabling manner. The show has a diverse panel of judges and mentors in Sushmita Sen, fashion expertise with Manish Malhotra, and social media in Mallika Dua. While the show helps us drive deeper conversations with the youth on issues that matter to them, Myntra is going steady as a trailblazer in the field with this season of the event with all contestants’ looks being 100% shoppable, making it the first fully shoppable show in India. 

How does Fashion Superstar fit into the larger strategy for Myntra? Could you tell us about your strategy to become a fashion content destination?

Myntra Fashion Superstar is a content IP that helps Myntra drive brand salience and recall in the youth segment. Owing to its format, the show’s overarching theme allows Myntra to show what we stand for in conversations that are important to the youth of today, like body positivity, mental health, LGBTQ rights, inclusion, and much more. Because of the compelling conversations that the show can drive in the relevant TG, we are able to build meaningful relationships with the viewers, which translate to brand love in the long run. Myntra is working towards building a robust and holistic approach towards democratising fashion to further consolidate our position as the go-to fashion and lifestyle destination in the country.

How is Myntra leveraging influencer marketing and how is it relevant for the platform’s engagement strategy?

Influencers have drastically changed the scope of trust-based marketing in India and are now a huge part of Myntra’s marketing mix. Today, we work with a community of over 1,000 influencers across channels to build content at scale and drive awareness around new launches and events. The fashion influencer community has become an important channel through which we communicate the story and vision of the brand to India’s booming youth population and fashion-forward audiences. We are deeply invested in structuring and building the fashion influencer ecosystem in the country, hence we set up our show, ‘Myntra Fashion Superstar’, not only to identify India’s next big fashion influencer, but also raise awareness about the influencer community and empower millions of fashion enthusiasts in the country.

How has Myntra’s Big Fashion Festival contributed to the growth in sales and also adding to the new user base this year?

Myntra’s Big Fashion Festival raked in record numbers by registering a 2x growth over last year. We witnessed the highest traffic, with a 106% rise over the last edition. We also had 100% growth in orders over last season, as around 4 million customers shopped for 13.5 million items during the Big Fashion Festival. Categories such as kids’ wear saw an overall spike of 130%, and beauty and personal care grew 72% over the last season. The festive season drew a significant portion of shoppers to the ethnic section, with Ethnic wear registering a 100% growth compared to the last edition.

This time, the new customer base was skewed towards tier 2-3, with 50% sales coming from these markets. Tier 3 cities witnessed a growth of 180% in new customers, which was led by Imphal, Udaipur, Shillong, Karimnagar, and Muzaffarpur, among others.

Could you tell us about Myntra’s accelerated focus on new customer acquisition from newer regions, including in Tier 2 and 3 markets?

This festive season was the biggest ever for Myntra on all parameters. We implemented a multi-pronged holistic approach, covering various channels of communication, to drive higher brand salience. Our marketing efforts focused on driving conversations around the brand through star-studded campaigns with celebrity brand ambassadors, who have a wide audience appeal in the country, including Tier 2 and Tier 3 markets. We went live with an array of A-list celebrities, with Kiara Advani and Disha Patani at a national level, followed by Samantha Akkineni and Naga Chaitanya, focusing on the southern markets. In addition to this, we associated with 3 of the most popular IPL teams, RCB, MI, and CSK to ride on the popularity of the tournament while also targeting their wide fan base. We also roped in Bhuvan Bam as our Digital Brand Ambassador to maximise visibility and unlock Tier 2 and Tier 3 markets.

How has Myntra’s associations with some of the franchise teams of the Indian Premier League been? How have they contributed to building deeper connections and brand salience with a much wider audience?

We had partnerships with some of the most renowned IPL teams, such as RCB, MI, and CSK. We were not only the official fashion sponsor for RCB, but also had our logo placed on the right chest patch of their jersey. We are in constant pursuit to form deep connections and drive higher brand relevance with users across India, including Tier 2 cities and beyond. Leveraging IPL assets as a part of our marketing strategy enabled us to cut across diverse markets and allowed us to have relevant conversations with our consumers. We built strong user engagement through social media, via the RCB, CSK, MI, and Myntra handles, where customers could win unique daily prizes by participating in interactive contests around the cricketing extravaganza.

IPL also helped us deliver on our mega event, the Big Fashion Festival, which concluded recently, with a record number of customers shopping on Myntra. It also helped us with our brand conversations throughout the latter part of September and at the beginning of October. This year’s IPL has also witnessed the highest number of viewership across platforms over the previous editions. What was more interesting for us was the uptake in women’s viewership which is a bonus for a fashion and lifestyle brand like us. 

What have your observations been on the changes in consumer behaviour on e-commerce platforms during the pandemic and lockdown times? Do you see Fashion emerging as a strong frontier for e-commerce growth? 

Ever since the start of the pandemic, we have witnessed a surge in demand for the ‘Above the Waist’ fashion category and work from home apparel. With a lot of companies adapting to remote working culture, we have also witnessed an uptake in beauty and personal care products. The pandemic has had a silver lining with empathetic and helpful brands coming closer to consumers than ever before. The apparel industry has made quite a comeback since the unlock phase. We have had 2 mega-successful events in EORS and the Big Fashion Festival, the recently concluded Big Fashion Festival witnessed a 100% growth over last year, with Tier and Tier 3 contributing to 50% of the overall growth.