A jump into the entrepreneurial wagon from a software background is not unheard of, but definitely not so common. Many successful entrepreneurs have done that in the past and Myntra’s co-founder Mukesh Bansal is one of them. The 40-year-old businessman too came from a software background and later went on to launch an online shopping hub for the modern-age generation.
Well, taking about Myntra, it is one of India’s rapidly growing e-commerce platforms with focus on fashion and lifestyle. But what made this company so successful despite the presence of other e-commerce giants like Flipkart, Amazon etc? The answer lies in its incredible journey.
In this blog, we will tell you about everything about Myntra’s success story and how did Mukesh Bansal start this company.
Let’s begin with the background of Mukesh Bansal.
Who is he?
Mukesh Bansal is a well-known Indian businessman who founded a popular fashion e-commerce company Myntra and is currently serving as the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of CureFit.He was born in 1976 in Haridwar, Uttarakhand. Hailing from a middle-class background, Mukesh did his B.Tech in Computer Science from Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Kanpur in 1997.
Bansal is a very hardworking and disciplined person. When it comes to his work, he likes to be a task master. After working with several companies in US for 10 years, he came back to India to start his own company (Myntra) and his entrepreneurials journey continued thereafter.
The Success You Know, The Story You Don’t
Mukesh Bansal started his professional career with Deloitte in Chicago, where he used to work as a system analyst. He spent around two years in that company. Impressed with the ‘dotcom’ boom that was progressing in San Francisco in full swing, Bansal moved to the city in 1999. Before launching Myntra, Bansal worked with several companies like eWanted, Centrata, NexTag, newScale and all of them were at the early stage in Silicon Valley.
Eventually, Mukesh’s experience at Silicon Valley propelled him to start Myntra in 2007 along with his two partners, Ashutosh Lawania and Vineet Saxena.
Building Myntra
Initially, the company started as an online seller of personalized merchandise such as T-shirts, mugs, mouse pads, and others. It was in 2011, when Myntra started selling fashion and lifestyle products and moved away from personalization. Further expanding its business, the online platform, in 2012, also included the products from 350 Indian and International brands.
In 2014, Myntra was acquired by the Indian e-commerce company, Flipkart in a deal valued for Rs 2,000 crore. Notably, the purchase was influenced by two large common shareholders, Tiger Global and Accel Partners.
Despite the deal, the company continues to operate as a standalone brand under Flipkart ownership, primarily focusing on “fashion-conscious” customers. On May 10, 2015, Myntra took everyone by surprise as the company announced to shutdown its website and decided that it would serve its customers through a mobile application only.
However, the move didn’t work well for the company as it led to a major decline in its sales. Seeing the negative impact of the app-only model, Myntra later decided to revive its website. As far as the present scenario is concerned, one can say that Myntra is a force to reckon in the online fashion industry.
Secret behind the success of Myntra
With an inspiring leadership and astute business mindset, the success of Myntra in the recent past is not surprising at all.
The main driving force behind Myntra’s success is to infuse an idea into people’s mind that whenever they wish to buy any apparel, footwear or any other fashion or lifestyle-related item they should think of Myntra first. Even if a person wishes to buy something offline, he should check it online first. Not only this, Myntra has also done tie-ups with several famous celebrities through associations with movies and events as they represent fashion sense. This marketing strategy clearly helps the company to grow in the e-commerce world over the years.
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