How Myntra rode the covid-19 storm

When the nation went under a lockdown on 25 March, fashion and lifestyle brand Myntra had no clue what impact the lockdown will bring to their business. And with the focus on essentials, Myntra quickly realised that it did not have much of a role to play in the lockdown.

But Amar Nagaram, Myntra’s chief executive officer, was constantly asked by his team what Myntra can do in such challenging times.

“To be honest, we thought of launching grocery delivery on Myntra but then realised our friends at BigBasket and Flipkart are doing a much better job of it and decided not to get into it,” said Nagaram on Mint’s webinar on 'Pivot or Perish' on Thursday.

But then an opportunity opened up. “We realised that if our own employees are finding it hard to get masks and protective gears, what about the consumer?” he says.

So Myntra quickly brought in its partner fashion brands and started making masks and personal protective gears.

"We realised that more than ever before, the consumer centric thought process has to be prevalent,” said Nagaram, adding that e-commerce came with a set of apprehensions specially in the fashion segment where most of Myntra’s consumer base was not comfortable with finding a different trend or style or brands as it comes with size issues.

“Now those apprehensions got overshadowed by health and safety concerns and this is the time where we needed to step up our game and augment some of the behaviour that was being demonstrated in the offline space,” said Nagaram.

So when Myntra realised that the way people are working from home and spending time in front of their computers, there is a need for lounge wear and leisure wear. “We reached out to our partners who gave us work from home essentials and fashion essentials and we stayed relevant for the customer.”

To keep their customers further engaged, the company also began pushing content online, on how to stay fit at home and DIYs (do-it-yourself) videos on a range of issues. This increased engagement and the traffic on Myntra’s website went back to its pre-covid-19 days.

This chaos covid-19 brought, Myntra said it turned into an opportunity to stay relevant and know what consumers expect from the brand.

And now with the lockdown lifted up in many cities, Myntra has resumed operations. And Nagaram says it is a happy feeling to be busy again.