Bengaluru: Personalisation, influencer-led live commerce, beauty and personal care will be the key focus areas for Myntra’s leadership team,
its newly appointed chief executive Nandita Sinha said, at a time when more competitors have emerged in the category.

Sinha, who was earlier vice-president of customer growth, media and engagement at Flipkart, told ET in an interview that Myntra is focussing on building and strengthening its team with a focus on fashion and technology. Her big priority is to push internal talent, she added.

The Walmart-owned online retailer has seen a significant top-management churn in recent months, with former chief executive Amar Nagaram
leaving to start his own venture, ET reported previously.

Subsequently, the company saw other high profile exits, including chief financial officer Ramesh Bafna and chief of marketing, Harish Narayanan.

On Myntra’s new initiatives to target Gen Z shoppers, Sinha, who had been with Flipkart since 2013, said it had launched Style Squad on Tuesday in an attempt to lure more influencers to the platform.

This is a cohort of influencers that Myntra has partnered with to promote products from partner brands, she said.

Myntra will rely on these creators to promote and launch new brands in India.

The fashion portal has handpicked these from the top 10% of high-performing creators it has worked with through its social commerce platforms, Myntra Studio and M Live, Sinha added.

“We will scale social commerce… since August we have seen great traction amongst consumers, amongst the creator ecosystem and amongst the brands that have partnered with us,” Sinha said.

She did not disclose whether the company would acquire any businesses to scale up its live commerce business, but said partnerships would be key to its development.

ET reported on February 22 that creator management platform
Qyuki has held talks with the likes of Dailyhunt and Saregama for a sale, as companies look to onboard influencers to stitch together content with commerce.

ET also reported on February 23 that Good Creator Co (GCC), an offshoot of the Good Glamm group, is close to
acquiring video commerce platform Bulbul in a cash and stock deal, in another major consolidation move in the creator and influencer economy space.

“The big disruption through live commerce is yet to happen, which is what we will continue to build for at Myntra,” she said.

“We cannot talk about acquisitions but partnerships are something which is part of the world we are solving,” Sinha said on being asked about potential acquisition plans in the category to bolster its content play.

Myntra said it had seen a five-fold growth in traffic on its live commerce platform, M-Live, without going into specifics.
It said that more than 10 million customers interact with its social commerce avenues, M-live and Myntra Studios, every month.

Livestream commerce is used by brands to promote and sell products through livestreams on digital platforms like Instagram and Facebook, often in collaboration with influencers.

Besides the major ecommerce players that are going big on live commerce, there is a group of specialised firms like Simsim, Bulbul, Kiko Live and Trell in the video commerce space.

ET reported on December 20 that social commerce platform Meesho was working on live commerce.

Myntra’s parent company, Flipkart, has
launched a live-commerce feature on its platform.

Sinha also said that beauty and personal care would be another key part of its strategy going forward.

“Whether it is sustainable and conscious beauty, global brands, beauty and personal care will be the focus category,” she said.

The category is growing by 2.5 times year-on-year and higher – at 3x – in small cities.

In the last few months, the company said that Myntra Beauty has added over 50 Indian and global brands, including Caudalie, Dermalogica, Anastasia Beverly Hills, Jeffree Star, and Pilgrim.

Myntra is looking to add 500 brands this year, taking the total number of beauty and personal care brands to 1,300 on its platform.

While omnichannel retailer Nykaa dominates the beauty and personal care industry, multiple companies, including India’s biggest conglomerates, Reliance Industries and Tata Group, are looking seriously at building their own beauty and personal care platforms.

Nykaa has also ventured into the fashion and apparel segment.