Madame to launch six new stores as demand picks up in tier II cities
Apparel retailer Madame on Monday announced the launch of six new stores seeing an uptick in demand in tier II cities across India, despite disruption caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. Of these six stores, one store will be located in Lucknow and the other five will be in Himachal Pradesh, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh, and Delhi (NCR), the company said in a statement.
"Women's apparel has seen a growing demand in recent weeks, and tier II city store walk-ins are at 60 per cent pre-COVID levels. We foresee demand to get better by October, coming to almost 75 per cent footfalls as of last year," Madame Executive Director Akhil Jain said.
Jain further said, the company is expecting to reach 80 per cent like-to-like sales this year and the stores' launch in new markets should help the company to reach the desired projections.
"Our online sales have accelerated during the lockdown... We will also be investing more in online promotions in the run-up to the festive season. "While many others are contracting their marketing spends, we are redirecting a larger chunk of the budget towards digital. We are also coming up with an omni-channel to reach the customer when the customer is struggling to reach us," he added. At present Madame has over 150 exclusive stores spread across India.
