It’s been a tough couple of years for Page Industries. The maker of innerwear and athleisure, retailed under the Jockey brand, has always banked on its premium fabric quality to carve out a leading share in an otherwise fragmented space. While the company managed a double-digit revenue growth in the September quarter, it must now look beyond its playbook, say experts. They believe it’s important to experiment with channels and designs to stay relevant for consumers who are ever willing to trying new things.
What was noticeable about the near 11% sales increase in Q2FY25, the best in seven quarters, was the 41% y-o-y growth in the e-commerce channel sales. The growth is coming off a small base; B2B sales were hit in FY24 with a couple of e-marketplaces that sell the Jockey brand, slowing down.
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Nonetheless, e-commerce and within that q-commerce helped boost overall volumes which came in at 55.2 million pieces, up 6.6% y-o-y. To be sure, as Karthik Yathindra, President and chief of sales & marketing, Page Industries, points out, the q-commerce channel can carry only some specific products. “The assortment we have chosen for q-commerce is tight and limited,” he told analysts on the post-results earnings call, adding Page continues to lead in the e-commerce space as number one in terms of market share.That’s good news for the men’s innerwear business. With a fair part of consumer demand shifting online, it must continue to work on this channel especially since q-commerce is more relevant for menswear than for womenswear.
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Indeed, experts point out that increasingly more legacy players—across categories and brands—are now becoming indexed to the e-commerce channel and the world in general is moving to omni-channel. “E-commerce has allowed many brands to come into the market and demand is moving to e-commerce,” says Angshuman Bhattacharya, Partner and National Leader – Consumer Product and Retail Sector, EY-Parthenon.
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