{"id":162449,"date":"2019-10-31T14:00:35","date_gmt":"2019-10-31T14:00:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.theindustry.fashion\/india-is-it-the-next-frontier-for-fast-fashion\/"},"modified":"2021-08-12T14:05:06","modified_gmt":"2021-08-12T14:05:06","slug":"india-is-it-the-next-frontier-for-fast-fashion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theindustry.fashion\/india-is-it-the-next-frontier-for-fast-fashion\/","title":{"rendered":"India: is it the next frontier for fast fashion?"},"content":{"rendered":"
Is the sleeping giant, India, about to wake? There have been many false starts over the years predicting that India would become a major player economically. It\u2019s certainly got the numbers of people, and, its middle class, with its growing disposable income, is expanding fast.<\/strong><\/p>\n
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Depending on the measures used, the estimated size of India\u2019s middle class ranges between 78 million (The\u00a0<\/em>Economist<\/em>, January 2018) to 604 million (Krishnan and Hatekar, EPW June 2017). Even on the lowest estimates this is a huge amount of potential consumers and retailers and brands are moving in.<\/strong><\/p>\n
Japan\u2019s Fast Retailing opened its first Uniqlo store in India this month<\/strong> in New Delhi.\u00a0The company is planning to open two more stores in Delhi\u2019s metropolitan area this autumn. Uniqlo said the three stores will be testing grounds before the company decides its long-term strategy in the country, The company says high import duties imposed in India have impacted the brand\u2019s pricing, but no doubt it will remain competitive against other western chains.<\/p>\n
Uniqlo New Delhi<\/p><\/div>\n
Up until May, this year, India was the world\u2019s fastest growing economy.<\/strong> It has a population of 1.3 billon with 65% under 35. There are an estimated 530 million people online and there will be 491 million smartphones by 2022.<\/p>\n
Apple is rumoured to have finalised a short list of locations<\/strong> for its first retail store in India and Ikea finally opened in 2018 after 12 years of trying. It was prevented from opening stores because of government restrictions on foreign investment. The company says it aims to have 25 outlets across the country by 2025.<\/p>\n
Aiming to tap into the young and affluent Indian consumer and become the ASOS of India is Koovs.com. Its corporate site says it \u201cbrings western fashion authority though the Koovs Private Label,<\/strong> curated global and local fashion labels and designer & celebrity collaborations to create and build the leading online western fashion brand for young, style-conscious Indian customers.\u201d<\/p>\n
Koovs concession<\/p><\/div>\n
Waheed Alli founded the company in 2012. He was previously Chairman of ASOS between 2000 and 2012.<\/strong> Based in London, it had full year sales of INR1,178m\/\u00a312.8 million year to March 2019. While a relative retail minnow, recent forecasts show the e-commerce market in India growing from $24billion in 2017 to $84 billion in 2021 and $200 billion in 2026. Online fashion is expected to grow from a $4 billion market in 2017 to a $15 billion market by 2022.<\/p>\n
Koovs concessions have opened in three central stores in Delhi<\/strong> over the period. They are now rolling out this concession model to another five stores in Bangalore (two stores), Hyderabad, Pune and Noida. The company has struggled recently because of the\u00a0disruptions in India caused by demonetisation and the introduction of the Indian Goods and Sales Tax (GST).<\/p>\n