Woodland, the adventure gear maker, has introduced specialised mountain bikes targeting the growing number of outdoor and adventure lovers.
The company, which primarily operates with a chain of over 600 company-owned stores, is witness to its e-commerce channel contribution significantly growing and contributing to about 20 per cent of its overall business.
Harkirat Singh, Managing Director of Woodland, told BusinessLine , “We have begun to offer about five models of high-end carbon frame bicycles made to order from a manufacturing base in Taiwan. The number of models will soon be expanded.”
“The launch of bicycles adds to our strong portfolio of outdoor gear. The huge customer base we have created sees us as one stop for adventure gear and these bicycles add to their comfort and convenience,” he said.
Referring to the first half of this fiscal, Singh said post demonetisation and the GST implementation impacted the business. However, as things have begun to settle down, and the temperatures dip in North India, sales of outdoor gear are likely to pick up adding to volumes. “We expect to grow by about 15 per cent this year over last year's revenues of ₹1200 crore,” he said.
Initially, the e-commerce channel was slow to take off but has gradually picked up. Apart from Woodland sales channel, the tie up with leading e-commerce sites such as Flipkart, Amazon, Jabong, Myntra, etc has aided in volume growth. This channel has contributed to about 20 per cent of sales and is likely to go up further if the current trends are any indication.
The company's portfolio of offerings has significantly gone up over the years where footwear and garments contribute to about 70/80 per cent of sales. But some of the new product offerings such as innerwear etc too have begun to contribute to overall volume growth, he said.