Bottom wear-focused brand The Pant Project has entered multi-brand retail through a strategic partnership with Shoppers Stop. Marking its first presence in the multi-brand outlet format, the collaboration was announced by a company official on LinkedIn as part of the brand’s broader offline growth strategy.

The Pant Project’s collection is now available at five Shoppers Stop locations across Mumbai, Pune, and Bengaluru, The Pant Project’s CEO Dhruv Toshniwal announced in a post on Linkedin. These include R City Mall in Ghatkopar, Viviana Mall in Thane, Linking Road in Bandra, Elpro Mall in Pune, and Bannerghatta Road in Bengaluru.

The brand’s full product range, previously available on its own website and exclusive stores, will also be stocked at Shoppers Stop, with pricing aligned across all channels. Launch offers and free alteration services will be available to customers in-store.

“Early feedback we have gotten on the floor has been that most brands focus 70-80% on top wear, so its refreshing to have a brand that focuses so deeply on bottom wear,” wrote Toshniwal. “It’s a clear white space in the market. Our brand promise stays the same. The most comfortable pants in your wardrobe. We started with five outlets with Shoppers, we’ll build on this partnership, and before you know it, we will hopefully be coming soon across India. Excited to be expanding our physical and digital retail footprint to be closer to you.”

With nine standalone outlets and a presence on leading e-commerce platforms, the brand’s entry into multi-brand retail reflects its strategy to increase accessibility and scale its presence nationally. The Pant Project launched in 2020 and is based in Mumbai.

Author Credits- Isabelle Crossley
FASHION NETWORK

Amazon Now, which is the company’s official entry into the ultra-fast delivery segment, will now compete with rivals Blinkit, Zepto, and Swiggy Instamart which already dominate the market.

New Delhi: In a major development, e-commerce giant Amazon has launched its Amazon Now service in three pin codes of Bengaluru. Amazon Now, which is the company’s official entry into the ultra-fast delivery segment, will now compete with rivals Blinkit, Zepto, and Swiggy Instamart which already dominate the market.

According to a Moneycontrol report, the launch follows a pilot that began in December 2024 and indicates the company’s intention to regain market share, as Indian consumers increasingly move from traditional 1–2 day deliveries to rapid 10–30 minute deliveries for daily essentials and groceries.

The American e-commerce giant is likely to expand the service to other places in Bengaluru in coming weeks before scaling it to other cities. It is important to note that Amazon NOW’s entry comes at a time when quick commerce platforms are not only witnessing quick adoption but are also starting to capture the share of legacy e-commerce players like Flipkart and Amazon itself.

According to a recent report by Flipkart and Bain & Company, over two-thirds of online grocery orders and about 10 percent of overall e-retail spending in 2024 occurred on quick commerce platforms.

To recall, Eternal (formerly Zomato) founder Deepinder Goyal earlier had said that the quick commerce firms were burning over Rs 5,000 crore each quarter—with Zepto alone accounting for more than half of that.

Industry leaders have already been bracing for a more competitive phase.

“Our view is that competition is going to intensify further from here in the near term…We will aggressively look to grow our market share, especially in the face of heightened competition, and will not let any short-term profitability goals come in the way of that,” Eternal CFO Akshant Goyal said in a letter to shareholders following its Q4FY25 results.

Author Credits- Victor Dasgupta
India.com

Shein has licensed its brand for domestic use to Reliance which “is responsible for manufacturing, supply chain, sales and operations in the Indian market alone,” Shein said in a statement.

Chinese brand Shein, in collaboration with Reliance Retail, is planning to expand its Indian supplier network and start international sales of Shein-branded and made in India within six to 12 months, according to a Reuters report.

Shein has been in talks with Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance Retail prior to the U.S. imposing tariffs on Chinese imports. The goal is to increase the number of Indian suppliers from the current 150 to 1,000 within a year, the report revealed citing sources.

In a statement to Reuters, Shein said its partnership with Reliance was limited to the licensing of its brand to Reliance Retail for Indian domestic consumption only. Reliance did not respond to queries.

Shein sells low-priced apparel such as $5 dresses and $10 jeans shipped directly from 7,000 suppliers in China to customers in around 150 countries. Its biggest market is the U.S. where it is adjusting to tariffs on low-value e-commerce packages from China which could previously be imported duty free.

The retailer launched in India in 2018 but its app was banned in 2020 as part of government action against China-linked firms amid border tension with its northeastern neighbour.

It returned in February under a licensing deal with the Reliance Industries unit which launched SheinIndia.in selling Shein-branded clothes produced in local factories. In contrast, Shein‘s other websites mainly list goods from China.

Reliance, controlled by Asia’s richest person, Mukesh Ambani, has contracted 150 garment manufacturers and is in discussion with 400 more, said the two people, declining to be identified due to confidentiality concerns.

The goal is 1,000 Indian factories making Shein-branded clothes within a year for both the Indian market and to service some of Shein‘s global websites, the people said.

Shein initially wants to list India-made clothes on its U.S. and British websites, one of the people said. Discussions have been ongoing for months and the launch time of six to 12 months could change depending on supplier numbers, the person said.

The scale of supplier expansion and export time frame is being reported for the first time.

In December, Minister of Commerce and Industry Piyush Goyal told parliament that the Shein-Reliance partnership aimed to create a network of Indian suppliers of Shein-branded clothes for sale “domestically and globally”.

Author Credits- Anirudha Yerunkar
India.com