Merch Mania: Kohli, Sharma drive demand for fan gear this IPL

IPL driving merchandise sales in India. Image: FanCode

Sports merchandise, which includes  jerseys, mugs, backpacks, and more, is a multi-billion dollar industry globally, but has not yet taken off in India in a big way. However, this year, the ongoing Indian Premier League (IPL) 2024 has thrown up some interesting statistics in terms of merchandise sales.

Sales of Rohit Sharma  (Mumbai Indians) and Virat Kohli (Royal Challengers Bengaluru) jerseys are the most popular. More than 1,100 of these have been sold so far in IPL 17 by FC Shop, the merchandise platform of the live sports streaming service FanCode.

"In the first 30 days of IPL, the total number of orders has doubled from last year," said Yannick Colaco, Co-Founder, FanCode. Its parent company is sports technology company Dream Sports.

The company is selling merchandise of nine out of 10 IPL teams.

Big bucks

The biggest order they received this year is for a Gujarat Titans gaming chair worth Rs 34,999. "We also had one customer in Delhi place an order worth Rs 30,000 for merchandise and accessories from multiple IPL teams," he said.

While Sharma and Kohli remain the most popular in terms of jersey sales, younger players like Shubman Gill, Sanju Samson, etc., are also fast catching up.

For Rajasthan Royals (RR), Colaco pointed out that Samson's  jersey is among the  most in demand,  and  most of that demand is from Kerala. "RR remains the most popular team in the state," he added.

Merchandise sales of Punjab Kings (PBKS) is around four times more in Delhi compared to Punjab. Lucknow Super Giants is also more popular in Delhi than Lucknow itself, and sees almost 2x more sales in the capital, versus its home city.

Among the over 120 products and more than 650 SKUs (stock keeping units) made available by FC Shop, jerseys are the most in demand. "During the event, what sells the most is various versions of the official jerseys. Customisation is a big thing. Around 35 percent of our sales is of jerseys which customers have asked to be customised with their names. We have partnered with Gujarat Titans, and people can get their jerseys customised at the venue while the game is going on," Colaco explained.

More than 36,000 jerseys and t-shirts have been sold so far. Team mugs and water bottles/sippers are the most sold items, apart from jerseys.

This IPL, demand for sports merchandise is the highest in Delhi, followed by  Mumbai and Bengaluru. Tier 2 cities comprise almost 30 percent of the sales. Ghaziabad (in UP) and  Howrah (West Bengal)  are among the tier 2 cities that drive a good amount of sales, according to FanCode data.

"Metros and tier I cities are driving 50 percent of the sales, and the rest is coming from tier II and other markets. In Kolkata and Ahmedabad, we have partnered with Blinkit, and people who buy IPL tickets can get jerseys delivered in 10 minutes. Quick-commerce was started recently, so its percentage contribution (to sales) will be in single digits. We will scale it up as we go along ," Colaco said.

Demand drivers

According to Colaco, what's driving sports merchandise sales is improved accessibility and affordability.

"Sports merchandise is available on ecommerce platforms like FirstCry, Myntra, and Amazon. We also have non-traditional partners like our sister company Dream11, which has over 200 million sports fans. We also have a partnership with Spencer's (a retail chain owned by the RP-Sanjiv Goenka Group). All IPL fan gear is available in 11  Spencer's stores across the country." FC Shop's alliance with WHSmith will enable it to sell  sports merchandise across six airports in India.

"Access is important, along with affordability. To address this, we have expanded the product range. For four teams, we have started offering fan gear starting at Rs 599. While prices have not come down, the range of products have grown so that fans can enter the sports merchandise market. A few years back, jerseys were available for Rs 2,499. We are now selling  jerseys with the official logo and colours for Rs 599, and cotton t-shirts with the team's name, between Rs 799-999,"  he said.

Colaco added that piracy  can be addressed by improving access and affordability. "Among Indian sports fans, there is a genuine passion. While I think sports fans in India do not want to buy fake sports merchandise, something priced at Rs 5,000  is clearly not affordable, creating an opportunity for pirated  products to be sold much cheaper."

He gave the example of Adidas introducing jerseys at a starting price of Rs 999 during 2023 cricket World Cup. "During the World Cup, there was a sea of blue and a lot of that was because Adidas started making jerseys at Rs 999, and those flew off the shelves,'' said Colaco.

The merchandise market

The FanCode Co-Founder estimates the sports apparel market in India to be worth $2.5 billion  by 2029. He said that the licensed sports merchandise market globally is currently a $33.5 billion industry.

Another estimate by Maximize Research, a consulting firm, says that the Indian sports apparel market was worth $673.34 million in 2022, and is expected to grow to $1,926.10 million by 2029, at a CAGR of 16.2 percent.

Besides IPL, FanCode had a partnership with the ICC (International Cricket Council) for the 2023 cricket World Cup. "More than 90 percent of the sales were for Indian products. During the World Cup, search for Indian jerseys on Google was almost 4x  compared to non-World Cup months," he said.

Apart from cricket, the company has merchandise for Formula 1, basketball, and football, which includes  licensed gear for football clubs like Paris Saint-Germain, Juventus, Man City, and Barcelona.