Walmart-owned Myntra to expand to Malaysia, UAE and Australia months after Singapore foray

The launch in these markets will be one of CEO Sinha’s key focus areas over the coming months

Walmart-owned Myntra, one of India’s largest fashion e-commerce platforms, is now preparing to launch operations in Malaysia, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Australia as it looks to diversify revenue streams and sharpen its ambition of becoming a global brand, people familiar with the developments said.

Moneycontrol was first to report about Myntra’s international foray in May.

Why is Myntra launching in other countries?

The plans to launch in new countries come after Myntra has seen “promising” initial results from its launch in Singapore.

“Most of Myntra’s international traffic comes from Singapore so that market was a natural first choice to foray into,” one of the persons cited above said.

Myntra’s chief Nandita Sinha had earlier told reporters the company sees over 30,000 customers visit its platform from Singapore each month.

“Malaysia, the UAE and Australia, in that order, where the Indian diaspora is present in large numbers, are the other big regions where Myntra has seen international traffic come from, apart from  Singapore, so launching in these markets made more sense for Myntra’s global expansion,” the person added.

How is Myntra’s global business structured?

To be sure, Myntra’s global business is housed under another website – Myntraglobal – through which it fulfills orders that come from outside India. The orders are dispatched from India and fulfilled with the help of local partnerships in the other regions.

Myntra has no teams on ground in Singapore and it is likely to follow the same approach with the other markets as well.

“Myntra has received approvals from Walmart to launch in Malaysia so that launch can be expected in a few months. The other regions, the UAE and Australia, are still a few months out but work to enter these regions has begun,” a second person cited above said.

A spokesperson for Myntra did not reply to Moneycontrol’s queries.

The launch in these markets will be one of CEO Sinha’s key focus areas over the coming months. Over the past years, she has turned Myntra profitable, tightened her hold over Flipkart Fashion to make the entire group’s fashion vertical even stronger to compete against Amazon Fashion, Ajio, Nykaa and more.

Is this Myntra’s first launch in the Middle East and the UAE?

To be sure, this will be the second time Myntra is entering the UAE market. In 2020, Myntra had partnered with the Emaar Group’s e-commerce platforms, Noon and Namshi, to sell products in the region. The company however paused operations in the countries after the efforts yielded no results.

CEO Sinha, while addressing reporters in May, said this time Myntra’s international foray will be more efficient.

This time, the idea is to take “the same selection and inventory (from India) for the diaspora consumers (outside India). So that's really our attempt, it's more expansive and efficient. (The attempt is to) really build consumers, rather than build a completely new traction to a new platform,” Sinha had said.