“If it is a success, the online retail sector will be directly or indirectly benefitted by the ‘Make in India’ campaign, since if manufacturing sector develops further, a need for platforms to make the products accessible to markets will be generated,” says a top honcho of an Indian online fashion retailer.
Praveen Sinha, Founder and MD at Jabong.com, one of the first online fashion retailers to set up shop in India, shared his opinion on the ‘Make in India’ campaign and growth of Indian retailing in India and why profits continue to elude Indian etailers in an exclusive chat with fibre2fashion.
To the question on if the ‘Make in India’ will also benefit the online retail industry, he adds, “I suppose e-commerce can be the platform to make these products accessible. So if we have more products and on the supply side, we have created more sources, then the demand can be met easily.”
Jabong is one of the most reputed online retailers in India specializing in fashion and lifestyle products and has proved to be a tough competitor in the online fashion space. Jabong holds an Alexa traffic ranking of 37 in India and ComScore places it at second rank in traffic among Indian e-commerce sites.
Pravaeen Sinha is one of the co-founders of Jabong and a well known name in the Indian e-commerce space. He is a media friendly person and well versed with the industry. He has completed his graduation from IIM Kolkatta and is popular for his innovative ideas.
Sharing his opinion on the future of Indian online retailing, he says, “The biggest advantage that e-commerce offers, is that it has a lot of variety to offer to the consumer as compared to a physical store, since it does not have the constraints of physical space.
“It is a configuration of many brands at affordable rates which helps meet youth aspirations. For example, Mango stores cannot be found everywhere, but it is easy to purchase its products online through the online retailers.
“So, more and more people are adopting the online option for shopping. Other than this, e-commerce has many advantages at places where the offline stores lack, though it does not help with the touch and feel factor. But many innovations are taking place to eliminate these limitations.”
