Westside, a retail establishment under Tata’s Trent, is poised to broaden its beauty offerings while simultaneously boosting its presence in the e-commerce sphere, according to Shailina Parti, COO at Trent Ltd.

Out of the 300 stores the brand operates, it has refurbished approximately 15-20 so far, with plans to expand the area dedicated to beauty by three times in its revamped stores. This expansion aligns with the brand’s average of opening 30 new stores annually.

“To capture the beauty market, we’re investing in R&D, along with launching many new ranges. We’ve gone into fragrance in a big way. We are also launching skincare. Our objective is to develop affordable quality products. So, we are building beauty and we see beauty very much in the forefront of our strategy,” she said.

“Westside.com has grown 150 percent on last year. We want to further build our online proposition. Currently, e-commerce contributes to 7 per cent of our overall revenue and is profitable. There lies an opportunity to grow it by another 30-40 percent on the current base over the next 2 years,” she further added.

Currently, 65 percent of the brand’s revenue originates from women’s wear, with men’s wear contributing 30 percent, while the remaining 5 percent is distributed across other categories.

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“There are 3 pillars of our strategy in terms of our platform – ethnic women’s fashion, women’s western wear, and men’s wear. These are the three fastest-moving and highest revenue categories,” she said.

The brand is also considering housing the home segment exclusively in stores with ample space.

“We’ve realized doing a little bit of home in all our stores all over the country, may not be what we want. We should find the right stores with lots of space and do it well. So that’s what we’re doing and we will keep it to limited stores,” she explained.

In addition to this, the brand is also heavily investing in other categories such as lingerie and accessories.

Presently, the 25-year-old brand operates in 86 cities, including 8 metro and tier I cities, and 78 tier II cities. It maintains 109 stores in metro and tier I cities, and 121 in tier II cities.

“We are betting big on tier II cities as aspirations and purchasing power of the consumers is improving. Apart from this, there’s less competition in those cities for fashion. So, the less competition gives us the advantage as well” she asserted.

The brand, which has 25 to 30 percent of its stores located in malls and the rest on high streets or in out-of-town areas, is experiencing a 17 percent year-on-year growth.

“We are not in the business of above-the-line marketing and advertising as we’re building a community. We’re building experiential marketing that connects people with Westside, not on a brand level, but on a community level and we see that as a very much long-term strategy,” she said.

She further added, “Westside as a brand in India is evolving every year. It’s not a revolution and it’s not going to have super fast growth. So, going ahead, I see 10-15 per cent growth each year.”

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