Myntra is an Indian fashion e-commerce marketplace company headquartered in Bengaluru, Karnataka, India. The company was founded in 2007 with a focus on personalisation of gift items. By 2010, Myntra shifted its focus to the online retailing of branded apparel.
In May 2014, Myntra.com merged with Flipkart to compete against Amazon which entered the Indian market in June 2013 and other established offline retailers like Future Group, Aditya Birla Group and Reliance Retail.
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History
Established by Mukesh Bansal along with Ashutosh Lawania and Vineet Saxena, Myntra was in the business of on-demand personalisation of gift items. It mainly operated on the B2B (business-to-business) model during its initial years. Between 2007 and 2010, the online portal allowed customers to personalize products such as T-shirts, mugs, mouse pads, calendars, watches, teddy bears, pendants, wine glasses and jigsaw puzzles.
In 2011, Myntra expanded its catalogue to include fashion and lifestyle products and moved away from personalisation. Myntra tied up with various popular brands to retail a wide range of latest merchandise from these brands. Myntra offered products from 350 Indian and International brands by 2012. Myntra also had casual wear for men and women from brands. The website saw the launch of Fastrack watches and of Being Human, the brand.
2014 saw the merging of Myntra with another Indian e-commerce giant Flipkart.com in an estimated deal of INR2,000 crore (US$310 million), though nothing in terms of value was officially disclosed by any of the company. Merger was majorly influenced by two large common shareholders, Tiger Global and Accel Partners. Myntra still continues to function and operate independently to increase its market share from 50 to 70 per cent of the market share. In 2014, Myntra's portfolio included about 1,50,000 products of over 1000 brands ranging from international brands to designer brands and distribution area of around 9000 pincodes in India.
In May 2015, Myntra moved on to app-only business model wherein customers can only buy and transact in their site through smartphones. The move came after the site claimed that 95 percent of Internet traffic on their site came mobile and 70 percent sales were generated through smartphones. The move to app-only generated mixed reviews and saw 10% dip in sales initially.
However, in February 2016, the company retracted its app-only model in an attempt to win back lost customers. The company cited that the app-only strategy had backfired and Myntra would relaunch its website.
Myntra was voted as the "India's Most Admired & Valuable Power Brand Award 2016" at 7th Annual India Leadership Conclave & Indian Affairs Business Leadership Awards 2016 under the chairmanship of the founder Satya Brahma on Friday 1 July 2016 in Mumbai.In September 2017, Myntra won the rights to manage international fashion brand Esprit's 15 offline stores in India.
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Acquisitions and investments
In October 2007, Myntra received its initial funding from Erasmic Venture Fund now known as Accel Partners, Sasha Mirchandani from Mumbai Angels and a few other investors. In November 2008, Myntra raised almost $5 million from NEA-IndoUS Ventures, IDG Ventures and Accel Partners. Myntra raised $14 million in a Series B round of funding. This round of investment was led by Tiger Global, a private equity firm; the existing investors IDG Ventures and Indo-US Venture Partners also put in substantial amount towards funding Myntra. Towards the end of 2011, Myntra.com raised $20 million in its third round of funding, again led by Tiger Global. In February 2014, Myntra raised additional $50 Million (Rs.310 crore) funding from Premji Invest and few other Private Investors.
In April 2015, Myntra acquired Bengaluru-based mobile app development platform company Native5, with a view to strengthen and expand Myntra's mobile technology team.
In July 2016, Myntra acquired mobile-based content aggregation platform Cubeit, to strengthen and expand its technology team.
In July, 2016 Myntra acquired their rival Jabong to become India's largest fashion platform.
Regulatory action and lawsuits
The Enforcement Directorate are investigating Myntra for breach of Foreign Exchange Management Act.
In January 2016, Enforcement Directorate issued notice to Myntra's owner Flipkart.
Labor issues
In July 2015, Myntra and Flipkart's logistics staff went on a strike alleging lack of basic employee benefits and poor wages.
Allegations of promoting cow slaughter
Many shoes sold by Myntra are made from cowhide which is the natural skin and hair of a cow. This is also a byproduct of the cow slaughter industry. .
Recognitions
- Awarded 'Best E-commerce Partner of the year 2011-12' by Puma India
- As of 25 April 2016, Myntra ranks as the top 4 startup for India in the StartupRanking.
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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