Where Are You Buying Clothes These Days? Online or Offline? If you casually ask your friends, colleagues, or family members about their preferred way of buying clothes, most of them especially Gen Z and urban millennials will probably say online. While offline retail is still large and influential in India, the shift towards online fashion shopping is happening at an accelerating pace.
Among the various platforms available, there are two names that consistently pop up in conversations. And one of the most prominent and trusted of these is Myntra. Today, Myntra stands tall as India’s largest fashion e-commerce platform, but this success story wasn’t straightforward.
Well, this is not easy because we have seen so many brands coming up and launching online stores. Some are even more affordable than Myntra. But despite having tough competition, Myntra somehow managed to survive the battle, and interestingly, it was a loss-making company till last financial year.
But this time a sudden growth was seen in its financials. Myntra is now a profitable company. Not reporting INR 20 or INR 30 crore as profits, it is more than INR 500 crore.
Well, how in just less than two years did it turn profitable from losing INR 700 crores annually? And how it managed to emerge as India’s largest fashion e-commerce platform.
When Myntra launched in 2007, it started as a personalized gift seller but pivoted early to focus solely on fashion and lifestyle. This early focus on clothing, accessories, and footwear allowed Myntra to become a category specialist, unlike generalist e-commerce giants.
By positioning itself as a fashion-first platform, Myntra attracted both customers and brands seeking a dedicated partner to showcase apparel and lifestyle products effectively.
In 2014, Myntra was acquired by Flipkart, India’s leading e-commerce player. This move provided two critical advantages: access to capital and logistics infrastructure and the ability to integrate with a larger ecosystem, gaining customer access and scale.
Well, these are core reasons for its stability, but it won’t bring customers, right? So, what are the factors that brought customers and helped it build a loyal base?
Myntra’s in-house brands have played a key role in its growth and profitability. One of the most successful among them is Roadster, Myntra’s outdoor lifestyle brand launched in 2012. Roadster alone contributes close to 7% of Myntra’s total sales. The brand gained significant attention by becoming the first Indian brand to collaborate exclusively with the world’s premier motorcycle championship, MotoGP, in 2016.
Along with Roadster, Myntra’s private labels like HRX (endorsed by Hrithik Roshan) and Moda Rapido further strengthened its portfolio. These in-house brands allowed Myntra to improve margins, maintain tighter control over product design, pricing, and customer experience, and reduce reliance on third-party brand partnerships.
Marketing is one of their biggest strengths. End of Reason Sale (EORS): Myntra’s biannual EORS has become a flagship event, offering discounts up to 90%. The sale’s success is bolstered by data-driven targeting, celebrity collaborations, and personalized promotions, creating a sense of urgency and excitement among shoppers.
When they offer these huge discounts, it leads to volumes, and eventually it helps them to make profits on volumes.
Not just these two. Influencers and celebrity-led campaigns are another major contributor to its growth.
Myntra’s FWD campaign brilliantly leveraged the power of influencer marketing to connect with young, fashion-savvy shoppers. Recognizing that Gen Z is increasingly influenced by social media, Myntra tapped into the credibility of influencers to promote its wide range of fashion, beauty, and lifestyle products in a way that felt authentic and relatable.
Unlike traditional celebrity endorsements, the FWD campaign focused on partnering with a mix of micro- and macro-influencers who genuinely built connections with their followers. These influencers showcased Myntra’s trendy clothing, accessories, and beauty products through real-life, engaging content and outfit ideas, styling tips, and personal experiences without the feel of forced advertising.
This approach proved highly effective because 70% of Gen Z consumers prefer discovering products through influencers rather than traditional ads, as research suggests.
This strategy helped Myntra strengthen its connection with Gen Z, enhance brand recall, and drive higher conversions, all without coming across as sales-driven.
One more notable point for their strong financials is because of the diversified revenues. Myntra generates its revenue through a well-diversified model, primarily driven by logistics, marketplace services, and advertising solutions.
Logistics stands out as the largest contributor, making up 48.3% of the operating revenue, and saw a significant growth of nearly 20% to ₹2,918.9 crore in FY25. This reflects Myntra’s strong investment in building a robust supply chain and efficient delivery network.
At the same time, marketplace services, which include commissions and platform fees earned from facilitating brand sales, accounted for 34% of revenue, growing by 15.6% to ₹2,051.8 crore.
Additionally, advertising revenue surged by 28% to ₹914.5 crore. This clearly shows the growing importance of Myntra’s digital marketing solutions. By offering targeted ad placements and innovative brand promotion tools, Myntra has transformed advertising into a powerful revenue stream, further strengthening its position as a full-fledged fashion ecosystem rather than just a marketplace.
So, with their in-house branding, they are saving and earning better margins; with marketing, they are acquiring more customers and building a loyal customer base; and last, by diversifying their revenues, they are increasing their strong presence in this space.
