In the wake of its phenomenal retail growth in the domestic market, American lifestyle and footwear brand Skechers wants to aggressively scale the brand and take the offline store count to 500. Excerpts from an interesting conversation with Manish Chandra, Head, Retail Operations (India), Skechers.
How important is the India market for Skechers?
How are you expanding your athleisure product portfolio in India?
We have recently launched our apparel and accessories range in India. The collection is available at a few selected stores and through the India website right now as we are in the first phase of the launch. The collection spreads across casual, athleisure and performance wear for men and women. Besides, we have shoes from all segments to go with the recent athleisure trend.
Could you elaborate on your omnichannel strategies?
Although we are present across major e-commerce marketplaces, we are not aggressive on the online portals as part of our business strategy. This is because we don’t follow a discounting model. However, we have recently launched our website for India – www.skechers.in. Further, we are working towards implementing in-store devices to enhance the shopping experience at our physical stores.
What are your expansion plans and how is franchising helping the brand scale in new markets?
Franchisees help us penetrate into newer markets through their local expertise and plans. Currently, we have 232 stores in India, of which 173 stores are operated using the franchise model. We plan on expanding the franchise store count to 250 in 2019. Further, for expansion, we would be targeting the eastern India, 100 smart cities and all other potential markets. In all, we plan on reaching a retail footprint of 500 stores across all potential cities, markets and malls in India.
How do you identify your potential markets for expansion?
There are a few statistics of a market that we account for before entering or investing in. We look for markets and cities with airport presence, a benchmark population and good per capita income. Furthermore, we account for details like tourism and sources of income and employment in the target market. Most of our franchise partners have seen a significant growth throughout the regions they have invested in, but the Tier I, II and III cities have proven to be extremely profitable.
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