How Apparel Group India Managed to Grow its E-commerce Sales by 30%

In addition to growth in sales, the Apparel Group was also able to achieve 12-14% increase in 'add to cart' rate, among other benefits, thanks to finding the right tech-implementation partner

- Sanya Arora

Covid-19 compelled several companies to turn their focus to e-commerce. Fashion and lifestyle retail company Apparel Group India Pvt. Ltd. too was among them. Apparel Group India Pvt. Ltd. operates 12 brands in India, including Aldo, Aldo Accessories, Charles & Keith, Bath and Body Works, Victoria's Secret, R&B, Beverly Hills Polo Club, Inglot and Tim Hortons. The company retails these brands not only from its stores but also through its website.

However, pre-COVID-19 e-commerce contributed little in the way of business for the group. "Apparel Group's e-commerce business was less than a percent in 2019," said Abhishek Bajpai, Chief Executive Officer, Apparel Group India. The pandemic-induced lockdown compelled the company to focus its attention on the website, which was its only source of business for a while when everything was shut. However, its online business was not capable of taking the sudden load.

The Need

The group was facing many challenges, including:

1. Limited in-house bandwidth to be on top of the e-commerce implementation.

2. Inability to identify opportunities and key metrics to leverage the next phase of growth and monitor the project's progress.

3. Poor customer experience.

4. Inability to divert global consumers towards omnichannel.

5. Insecurity of losing brick-andmortar customers to e-commerce.