Koovs update shows fast growth as it preps international expansion

By

Sandra Halliday

Published
Apr 4, 2017

London-listed e-tailer Koovs plc delivered good news on Tuesday morning as its trading update for the year to March 31 showed sales up 87%.

Like its pureplay peer Asos, the pioneer in the online fast fashion space and also reporting Tuesday, Koovs is experiencing a rapid sales acceleration as consumers increasingly buy their fashion online and look for their brands and own-brands in one convenient location.

But Koovs is much smaller than Asos and still has lots of growth space in the Indian market that is at its core, as well as abroad.

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The company, which has just announced a deal to expand in the Middle East, said its sales hit £18.6m in the latest 12 months. The number of units shipped and repeat customers in the period both rose 100%, with registered users overall up 80% to 1.8 million. And its web traffic rose 77% to over 78.45 million while its social followers are now more than two million.

This growth came despite the impact of demonetisation in India. The company said that a proactive approach on customer payment and delivery options, coupled with a strong Christmas trading period, delivered growth of over five times the growth rate of the Indian e-commerce market as a whole.

And it continued to improve its gross margin position by improving the intake margin and controlling markdowns.

CEO Mary Turner said that the firm’s “distinctive fashion proposition is really working with our young target market in India” while chairman Waheed All added that with India being the fastest growing economy in the world, “Koovs' authentic global fashion is the right proposition at the right time in this major market and there remains huge confidence for its continued growth.”

The company is achieving its strong growth partly through exclusive private label lines and during the year launched four designer collaboration collections with Manish Arora, Hattie Stewart, Gauri & Nainika and Masaba. New collaborations to launch this spring including a deal with Disney and the Princess Collection by Daniella Helayel.

Marketing is also key to its growth and phase three of the Koovs brand campaign started in mid-March and has lifted web traffic by 50%, peaking at two million in a single week.