The India unit of e-commerce marketplace Shopclues, owned by US-headquartered Clues Network Inc., is mulling to foray into the offline segment this month. According to reports, the e-retailer will open its first brick and mortar store in Lucknow (Uttar Pradesh).
The upcoming store will be spread over an area of 600 square feet. However, the location of the proposed store has not been revealed by the company yet.
A variety of products in various categories such as fashion, accessories and entry-level smartphones will be stocked at the offline store, Radhika Ghai, Co-founder of the marketplace was quoted as saying by ET.
Some existing investors recently made an investment of around US $ 10 million which is likely to be used for the offline foray. Shopclues is hopeful to note 25 per cent of its revenue from the offline presence by the end of this year.
Further decision on the offline expansion will be taken post the launch of the Lucknow store.
Founded by Sanjay Sethi, Radhika Aggarwal and Sandeep Aggarwal, in July 2011 in Silicon Valley, ShopClues is among the fastest growing e-commerce companies in India.
Markedly, the online marketplace saw a 5 per cent increase in its total revenue to Rs. 188 crores in FY 2017.
The aggressive expansion plans of the major e-commerce players such as Flipkart and Amazon India has made the situation tougher for others and impacting their businesses as well.
Last month, around 4 per cent of the total workforce was reportedly fired by Shopclues on the performance basis. The firm’s employee strength is believed to be around 1,200.
The entry into the physical retail will help the company to improve its business figures further.
