We are eyeing 100% m-o-m growth this festive season: Manish Kalra

With deals, special sale periods, curated offerings and aggressive marketing and promotion push, e-commerce players have been having a bonanza time during the festive season this year. As the festivities reach a crescendo, Adgully takes a look at how various e-commerce players are leveraging the buying frenzy this year.

Also read:
Festive buying fervour spells bonanza time for e-commerce players
https://www.adgully.com/festive-buying-fervour-spells-bonanza-time-for-e-commerce-players-69231.html

Manish Kalra, Chief Business Officer, Craftsvilla, shares with Adgully how the online ethnic marketplace is cashing in on the festive fervour...

What are the marketing spends that have you allocated for this festive season? How does it compare with the spends last year?
Festive is an important season for us. It is the time when consumers go for ethnic wear and other ethnic products. Like last year, we have interesting collections and offers planned for the consumers. The spends are definitely comparable, however, the focus is on ethnic fashion and grand sales with exciting deals.

What is your gameplan to boost sales during this festive season?
Our focus is on getting the best selection of various categories for the consumer. We want to provide the consumer with a single stop for all Diwali-related shopping. Our stylists have curated a special festive collection based on the latest trends for festive. There are also new collections and special discounts that the sellers have provided to delight our consumers. This year, we have planned two sale events keeping in mind the two important festivals of Dussera/ Navratri and Diwali.

While apparels are top of the priority list, we are also bringing in newer SKUs in categories like home décor. Products like Jaipur blankets/ quilts, unique lamps, lanterns and ethnic curtains are few categories that we are seeing an increase in interest for.

How do you plan to create distinction for your offerings vis-a-vis other players?
Our strategy has always focused on providing the best collection at the best prices to our consumers. We will continue to do that during the festive period too. We have planned some exciting discounts that the sellers are passing on directly to the consumers. And not to mention the new SKUs in top categories like apparels and jewellery. The specially curated collections for each festival will continue to be our strength. We aim to be the one-stop for all the festive shopping.

How are you planning to counter competition from other e-commerce players?
We offer a very unique selection that includes products like Pooja items, Navratri special collection like chaniya choli and sweets. We specialise in ethnic as a category and no other player has the advantage of being the expert in this category.

What is your outlook in terms of sales revenue during the festive season this year?
We saw ~100 per cent month on month growth in the last season. This year, too, we are expecting a similar number.

Do you think there is a slight slowdown in the market sentiment this year?
Festive season in India is big and we as Indians save up for this period. We keep our budgets aside for festive shopping and hence, we do not expect slowdown of any kind.

What are the implications of restrictions on deep discounting by the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion? How will it impact you?
As a company policy, we don’t offer discounts. All the promotions and discounts that are reflected on our website/ app are directly provided by the seller to the consumer. Hence, the change in policies does not have direct impact on us.

Do you think that premium (for example, Amazon Prime) or special offerings are also going to play a significant role in getting e-commerce players an advantage?
It will help the horizontal e-commerce players to differentiate amongst their offerings, while for specialised players like ourselves, our strength remains in unique selection and pricing.