Snapdeal may be looking to buy designer apparel seller Exclusively.in to take on rivals

Looking to strengthen its fashion business in order to take on rivals Myntra and Jabong, Snapdeal may acquire Exclusively.in, a website that sells only designer brands. “The company plans to use Exclusively to shore up its fashion offerings besides extending it to offer global bridge-to-luxury and even luxury brands, said one of the persons cited above,” the Economic Times reported today. Founded in 2010, with offices in New York and New Delhi, Exclusively offers a comprehensive collection of designer apparel and accessories, showcasing over 200 labels. The site features high-end traditional Indian apparel as well as scarves, jewellery, handbags, crafts, paintings, photography and other home goods made by Indian designers. It also recently launched travel and wedding verticals. [caption id=“attachment_1292313” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  E. Image courtesy Snapdeal[/caption] Snapdeal has so far raised $1.5 billion (roughly Rs 9,300 crore) from a clutch of investors that include Japan’s Softbank which owns 33 percent and Ratan Tata, among others. Fuelled by big investments, the e-commerce space is witnessing aggressive competition between Snapdeal, its bigger rival Flipkart and global giant Amazon, who have been throwing in big discounts to attract customers and have emerged as among the biggest advertisers now. While the company has no plans to list in the near-term due to the availability of ample liquidity in the private capital markets, it is targeting to increase its total number of sellers to one million from the current 100,000. The competition in the fashion space is only heating up and consolidation seems the only viable option for players. Last year, Flipkart acquired Myntra for Rs 2,000 crore as part of its fashion push and Amazon is planning its own fashion label. And it’s not just e-tailers but brick and mortar stores that are planning online forays too. While the Aditya Birla Group is set to launch an online fashion retail venture selling apparel, footwear and accessories, a report in the Economic Times had said last week that Shopper’s Stop and Lifestyle are looking to start selling their products online too.