Myntra Debuts Wearable Platform, Launches Its First Product — Blink Go

Riding high on the recent acquisition of its parent company (Flipkart) by Walmart, Myntra has now made its debut in the wearables market. Its in-house innovation lab unit has developed a Myntra Wearable Platform.

The development came just two months after Myntra acquired the smart wearables platform WitWorks.

What Is The Myntra Wearable Platform?

The Myntra Wearable Platform is essentially a software platform that will power its own line of wearable products as well as those developed by third-party device makers. It allows wearable devices to discover and talk to each other, as claimed in an official statement by the company.

The first smart wearable product launched on the platform is a fitness band called Blink Go. The device has been developed completely in-house within just three months. It will be available at an introductory pricing of INR 2,099 at the company’s flagship sale event End of Reason Sale (EORS), starting this Friday.

Blink Go Specifications

• Colour display, a heart rate sensor, and designer straps
• Battery life of three-five days
• Activity tracker
• Leaderboard to compete with friends and users across the world
• Manufacturing with global partners

Plans For Myntra Wearable Platform

As Jeyandran Venugopal, chief technology officer, Myntra, said in a media statement, the team is looking at building a line of wearable products that can complement with each other in an integrated manner.

“For instance, an earphone may have capabilities to stream music or have text to speech capabilities while a smart shoe may allow users to more accurately count their steps,” he said.

He further revealed plans to bring in smart features through a combination of varied sensors and connectivity modules for audio wear, footwear, eyewear, and apparels with the aim to acquire 10-20% of the wearables market over the next three years.

Going ahead, the company will also be forging tie-ups with data companies to push in data analytics, thereby making sense of the data generated from the wearable devices. Iyer also shared plans “to build a more powerful wearable platform on top of WitWorks’ Mavin operating system, a custom fork of the Android operating system, which may find its way to expensive wearable devices in the future.”

As soon as the market demand picks up, Myntra will also look to ink partnerships with third-party wearable makers.

Myntra: What’s Its Success Mantra?

Among the 10 acquisitions made by Flipkart so far, Myntra is one subsidiary that has so far left no stone unturned to multiply its revenues. A popular fashion apparel and accessories brand, Myntra, has already made its foray into private labels and offline, showing consistent growth in its annual turnovers.

Most recently, in May this year, the company reported to cut back its losses in FY 17 by 25% to $96.06 Mn (INR 655 Cr) as against $120.7 Mn (INR 823 Cr) in the previous year.

Here is the growth timeline for Myntra in 2018.

• January 2018

• • Posted a turnover of $314.6Mn (INR 2000 Cr) in the fiscal year 2016-17

• February 2018

• • Posted 100% growth in its accessories category for FY17
  • Collaborated with high-end watch brands like Lacoste, Coach and Hugo Bos
  • Revealed plans to achieve a YOY growth of 200% in the next fiscal
  • Shared plans to acquire a 5% minority stake in Bengaluru-based outdoor gear and sports apparel company Wildcraft
• March 2018
  • Received a capital infusion of $63.68 Mn (INR 414 Cr) from Flipkart’s Singapore-based subsidiary FK Myntra Holdings
  • Flipkart infused $176 Mn in its fashion arm Myntra Jabong Private Limited through Flipkart’s Singapore-based subsidiary FK Myntra Holding Private Limited
  • Myntra Designs received a capital infusion of $63.68 Mn (INR 414 Cr) from Flipkart’s Singapore-based subsidiary FK Myntra Holdings
  • Myntra Designs had reportedly posted a turnover of $314.6Mn (INR 2,000 Cr) for the fiscal year 2016-17, a 94% increase in FY17 from the previous year
  • Started offering EMI (Equated monthly instalment) payments on its platform starting from $0.78 (INR 51) a month on the purchase of clothes

• April 2018

• • Acquired Witworks, a Bengaluru based technology startup, focussed on producing smart wearable devices and their underlying software

• June 2018
  • Announced plans to expand its offline presence to 100 stores in the next two years
  • Announced plans to close FY19 with a GMV of $1.9Bn

Myntra is currently growing at a fast pace and the expected funding from Walmart into its parent company will certainly help the company go more aggressive with its expansion plans. Players like Fitbit, Goqii, Lenovo, Apple, Xiaomi, among others, are already popular in the Indian wearables market, which, as per a recent Forbes report, is showing signs of fatigue.

However, as the IDC Worldwide Quarterly Wearable Tracker, CY Q1 2017 saw total shipments of 612K units of wearables in India, we can expect the momentum to continue. It is also possible that with low-range options like Blink Go coming from Myntra Wearable Platform, a new class of buyers might emerge on the scenario.