THE KIDSWEAR BOOM

My daughter loves to wear branded clothes,” gushes a mother outside a mall in Delhi. She quickly clarifies that she wants to wear exactly what I wear. Indians are increasingly spending more than they ever have on clothes for children. The Indian kidswear market was earlier dominated by non-branded players since parents did not believe in investing in kids’ clothing. But those days were passé with the organized brands are making a big move in the apparel sector.

Stepping Up The kids clothing market is growing rapidly. According to an Euromonitor report, the kidswear market is antici­pated to post a retail value CAGR of 13 per cent at con­stant 2016 prices, reaching sales of Rs 1,769 billion in 2021. The factors that are fuelling the growth of the kid­swear segment, includes growing exposure of both parents and children to­wards the fashion trends, and the rising numbers of double-income parents. Sugato Majumdar, COO, Mahindra Retail, shares, “India has been adding millions to its population. The difference now is that incomes as well as discretionary spending have gone up. Consum­ers are demanding and are spoilt for choice. The entire online phenomenon with a focus on deals and discounts has also fuelled this growth in the past few years.”

On the rise of small cit­ies, Supam Maheshwari, Founder & CEO, Firstcry.com, says, “The increase in kidswear is no longer restricted to the urban regions. The segment’s growth and trends are percolating in tier-I, II, and III cities. We have over 300 stores across India, and the focus is majorly on kidswear.”

Seeing the booming market, both national as well as international brands have forayed in India via franchising, partnerships and company-owned outlets. Few of the global brands that have expanded through fran­chising include US Polo Assn, Tommy Hilfiger Kids, Adidas Kids, Allen Solly Junior, Poney and Carter’s. All these brands have their exclusive kids outlets. More so, seeing the tremendous growth, luxury brands like Armani Junior, GAP, Versace, etc are vying for space.

Other brands like 612 League, Toonz Retail, Max Retail, etc are also expand­ing their presently. Manu Indrayan, Co-Founder & CEO, 612 League shares, “For our retail segment, we are currently present at close to 500 POS in 150 cities with 55 EBOs. We have also launched ‘Won­der Store’ through our EBOs in India, a first-of-its-kind virtual reality shop­ping platform based on the Augmented Reality Technology.”

Offline &Online: Hand-in-HandThe online market is 5 per cent of the retail market and is likely to outpace organized retail, especially in the baby and kids segment. See­ing the present shopping culture, all major brands have their presence in both e-commerce web­sites as well as in physi­cal outlets. Majumdar of Mahindra Retail points out, “Customers are looking for convenience and at the same time still not able to come out of the belief that they must ‘feel’ the product physically before they make the final decision. It is important for any retailer or brand to give a seamless shopping experience across digital and physical stores to its customers.”

Indrayan of 612 League informs, “Online contributes to about 11 per cent of our sales. It is geared towards a con­tribution of more than 20 per cent by 2020.” Similarly, Maheshwari, Firstcry says, “We were determined to create an ecosystem in the niche by providing a well-integrated offline as well as online option for parents. We are glad that we have been able to create a strong omni-channel presence with our online store, over 300 offline stores and mobile store.”

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