Reliance Retail’s private labels outpace top fashion brands like Puma, Nike on Ajio

Almost half of the 30 top brands currently sold on Ajio are Reliance Retail’s private labels, which on many occasions have outsold top national and global brands such as Puma, Nike, Levi’s, Superdry, Adidas and US Polo on the ecommerce channel of the country’s largest retailer, two people familiar with the matter said.

Reliance Retail’s private brands of Avaasa Mix N Match, Teamspirit, DNMX and Netplay are four of the top five selling brands on Ajio this year, underscoring the company’s strategy of pushing its own private brands from various channels. Puma was the only outside brand among the top five. The same brands formed the top five at Ajio’s Big Bold Sales in July.

“Private brands may be construed as the mainstay of Ajio as it is for almost all fashion vertical sites,” said one of the people, adding: “Primarily because the offering across all elements of the marketing mix can be delivered as per customer expectations, especially in the online space as real-time data of customer expectations is accessible.”

The second person said ethnic private label Avaasa Mix N Match was the top-selling brand on Ajio that year. Ajio did not respond to an email seeking comment.

Ajio is swiftly emerging as a challenger to Myntra in the online fashion space and the platform is heavy on its own private labels as well as on Indian and global fashion apparel and lifestyle brands.

Some of the global labels that are sold in India by Reliance Brands, including Superdry, Armani Exchange, Gas and Steve Madden, are also among top-selling brands on Ajio, the first person said.

Harminder Sahni, cofounder of retail consultancy Wazir Advisors, said online players have a wealth of data on what is selling — and what is not selling — of designs, colour and sizes among other parameters, and online platforms use the data to bring their own lines with sharper pricing to entice consumers.

“Most of the consumers shopping online are looking for better priced products and players use the data of other brands to create their own products smartly around that and then they position their private brands right next to those established Indian and global brands,” he said.