Ethnicity: Towards organising ethnic retail

By Shailesh Shah

Kishore Biyani-led Future Group, with a view to providing an organised retail platform for Indian ethnicwear products at par with western brands in the country, opened the first store of its newly launched retail chain 'Ethnicity' in Ahmedabad.

The new concept retails a wide range of products across ethnic and fusion wear, handicrafts, home décor, accessories and gifts. It also offers wide collections of ethnic and fusion wear, jewellery, handicrafts, home decor, beauty products, accessories and gifts. However, the USP lies with localised packaging, like for Gujarat, it has Gujarati packaging. The same will hold true with north and east India once it is launched there.

Spread across 25,000 square feet, the new Ethnicity store is located at Gulmohar Park, Satellite Road, Ahmedabad.

The store has six sections.

Rani Market: A collection of sarees, bridal wear, salwar kameez, designer wear, fusion wear, party wear, dupattas, mojris and chappals, embroidered bags, mix n match, dress material and unstitched suits.

Raja Market: A collection of sherwanis, churidar sets, pathan sets, jodhpuris, party suits, party shirts, casual kurtas, accessories, mojris and chappals.

Chota India: A collection of kids ethnic wear, party wear and accessories.

Sona Chandi: A collection of costume jewellery, fashion jewellery and semi precious jewellery.

Ghar Aangan: A collection of home décor products including bed and linen, gift items, toys, utensil and handicrafts.

Thoda Aur: It includes books and CDs, stationery, fragrances, aromatherapy, candles, incence, ayurveda and natural products.

Ethnicity is aimed at providing a platform for smaller Indian brands and ethnic products. After the product category is decided, partnership with Indian companies providing the products is worked upon.

Ever since its inception, the acceptance is there. Firstly, because it's a family store and customers can bring along even their grandparents to enjoy shopping. Secondly, it has a much differentiated product category because generally ethnic stores are predominant with clothing, but here, clothing occupies only 60 percent of the collection.

The Group further plans to set up eight Ethnicity stores across India in the next two years at Rs 80 million per store spread over 25,000-30,000 square feet.