"We follow customers to do what is good for them"

Ganesh Subramanian, Head, New Initiatives, Myntra.com, says the country’s online fashion virtual capital has witnessed a small drop after going all-mobile, but the overall commerce has been on the expected lines.In a candid conversation with Retailer Media, Ganesh talks about the customer service initiatives by Myntra, the facilitation of mobile-buying activity among peers and building communities in the mobile space.      

How is Myntra different from the other marketplaces?

Myntra is a fashion-focused e-tailer. Fashion forms one of the core focuses at Myntra. And within that category, we are looking to solve fashion-related problems faced by our customer, which will help them look good. Today, we sell everything that spells fashion, but we are looking to extending this to selling services of fashion.

For example, ‘Dial-A-Stylist’. Dial-A-Stylist is a service provider, which would have on board stylists, who would know a customer’s dress sense and their wardrobe like the back of their hand. Myntra today is essentially looking to address the fashion-related queries or problems faced by the customer. We will continue to solve them by extending a host of other services as well.

‘Am I dressing right?’ is a universal primal instinct or a thought that comes to a customer’s mind. This is a fundamental question everybody has, whether or not he/she is dressing right. A customer is never sure if he is dressing up or matching up right. Dial-A-Stylist would solve all the fashion-related problems, by providing experienced stylists on a call.

In Bengaluru, we have started alteration services. Myntra’s alteration service is for people who have trouble getting a cloth their size. So, services such as alteration and dial-in-a-stylist are the new initiatives taken by Myntra.

Mynta started the only-mobile app trend and other e-tailers are following suit. What do you have to say to that? In your opinion, will mCommerce be better and bigger than eCommerce?

From Myntra’s perspective, we keep following our customers in order to do what is good for them. In the last year, the share of business and traffic coming from the mobile space has moved from being 8-10 per cent to being well over 70 per cent. It is because the consumers are moving into a new channel that Myntra has decided to follow them. Mobile is a very personal space for the customer.The commerce on mobile for Myntra has been on the expected lines. There is a small drop in terms of customer bases that haven’t moved into the mobile space from the desktop space yet. Otherwise, it is well on the expected lines. The number of mobile app visits at any given period of time is 4-5 times of visits on the desktop. Mobiles are a lot more engaging than desktops.

Could you tell us about Myntra’s expansion plans, and the next step Myntra is ready to take?

We will definitely start providing solutions to customers rather than just selling products. We would not have an ‘x’ million items on our websites, but will understand what fashion-related problems are faced by the customer and try to solve them by providing services. If fit is a problem, Myntra will solve it; if buying denim is an issue, Myntra will find you a solution; how to do make up gives rise to a beauty solution service in place, so on and so forth. So that is the direction where we will expand ourselves.

How many problems do you think people will have related only to fashion?

We see it as a space where a fair amount of problems crop up and every two months you will see new services and solution platforms being launched at Myntra.

What are the new initiatives launched by Myntra?

We will go big on building community, on providing solutions to our customers, on giving a social angle on our mobile platform etc. So, facilitating your buying activity on Myntra among your peer group, friends and family would be the next focus. We will try to make the whole buying online experience engaging.

Although large, the fashion business is sensitive. How do you ensure your customers that the quality is not getting compromised at any stage?

Myntra is a very controlled platform. We have strong criteria of what we want to sell and have a fair amount of control to what’s happening. And every product is quality-checked by Myntra before it is delivered to the customer. We are a part of the supply chain completely. We take the customer feedback very seriously, so if there is an issue, we act on it immediately.