A little throwback to the year that has passed when MBP had covered Jabong and Praveen Sinha actually had the vision to take the company forward by ‘staying ahead’ of its competitors.
As Myntra acquires Jabong, let’s have a peek at the time when Jabong burst into the scene in India.
It was during the initial days of what is a fully grown e-commerce ecosystem now when everyone first lifted their heads to welcome a company that rode on pomp and swagger – spending foreign dollars on big-ticket ads and discounts.
Amazon had the not entered the country and Flipkart was yet to launch its fashion category. Myntra was in a transition mode from its earlier model of personalisation for gifts one. BigShoeBazaar had just become Yebhi.
It took Jabong only two years to start showing its presence. Surely they did not consider Myntra even as their competition.
Its revenue grew from around Rs 4 crore in FY 2011-12 to Rs 527 crore in FY 2013-14, while Myntra’s revenue grew from around Rs 65 crore in FY 2011-12 to Rs 552 crore in FY 2013-14.
However, after certain decisions that went south and founders leaving the portal came the hard fall.
Between January and June 2015, Jabong’s losses were to the tune of Rs 227.4 crore. The number stood at around Rs 155 crore between January and June 2014. The net revenue for the first six months of 2015 grew only 26 percent, to Rs 410.7 crore. By 2015 end, it was a well-known fact that Jabong was in trouble.
