#amazon india has made another move to strengthen its position in fashion and apparel retailing with launch of the "The Denim Hangout" for men. This pitches Amazon against Flipkart & others in India who have been aggressively investing in fashion retailing, as it is a higher margin business and is a very large category for e-commerce.
This comes after the launch of Amazon's "Ethnic Store" for Indian women, which was released in April 2014.
It is interesting that they launched the women's and men's store separately though; indicating a move towards creating well defined verticals in the consumer psyche.
This follows the general trend in online retail, where the major players are trying to shed the image of being a horizontal godown of all products under the sun.
Earlier this year, Flipkart announced its acquisition of Myntra.com, which was the country's largest Fashion and Apparel online retailer. Flipkart, thanks to the acquisition, now controls a 50% share in the Fashion and Apparel segment. The company wants to corner nearly 60% of the market by 2020, when they expect the fashion and apparel category to be nearly $70 bn in size.
Online Fashion and Apparel segment is expected to grow like a weed as Indian consumers with disposable incomes, too many of them, get more comfortable with the try-out-at-home and friendly return and payment policies.
With Amazon's entry into this space, it makes us wonder if Flipkart and Myntra.com picked a whiff from far away and decided to consolidate in anticipation.
Indian e-commerce is quickly becoming a three way battle. E-bay, the third and one of the oldest player in India, has been flexing its muscles with investments into Snapdeal. This could turn into a acquisition in the future. But for now, both Ebay and Snapdeal probably need to get a lot more fashionable.
Oh and where does that leave Jabong? Well, they raised $27mn few months ago.