Business Wire India
Q3’22 revenue at Rs 447 crores, up by 64% YoY. Like-to-like retail sales growth for Q3 at 56%
Profitability has continued to be robust with EBIT margin of 8% in Q3’222-year revenue
CAGR is at 47%, driven by strong festive demand and growing brand strength
6 new stores added during the quarter taking the total store count to129) in 47 towns, covering 1.2 lakh sq. ft.
India’s leading omni-channel direct-to-consumer jewellery brand, CaratLane, recorded its best ever quarterly revenue of Rs 447 cr. on the back of a strong growth momentum witnessed in the festive season. CaratLane also recorded their highest EBIT margin of 8% is in quarter. The 2-year revenue CAGR stood at 47%. The revenue growth is driven by improvement in marketing efficiencies, leveraging of the omni-channel sales network and strong product launches. Improvement in consumer sentiment, removal of Covid lockdown measures, and a higher intent by consumers to spend on the back of robust savings due to lack of options in other categories like travel and food, were few of the external tailwind factors.
The Company continued to draw customers in, during the biggest season of the year, with the focus on new collection launches and new category additions. The two hero collections, Ombre 2.0, and Bloom, were launched keeping in mind the festive requirement of customers. New introductions in the affordable occasion-wear segment and the onset of the wedding season also saw an increase in the average order value. CaratLane’s digital platforms have been a key driver, enabling the customers to discover great products online and then helping the customer navigate to the best channel of purchase for themselves (online, CL Live, Try at Home, or stores).
The Tier 2 cities are quickly becoming a strong market for CaratLane. Right from increased browsing to higher intent users and conversions, these markets have become a focus for the brand. Existing customers also keep coming back to CaratLane in these towns due to lack of other options when it comes to everyday jewellery.
Two key customer segments for CaratLane are self -buyers and gifting buyers. While both these segments saw a strong growth during the quarter, the festive and wedding season played a big role in driving higher number of customers to go for gifting. Gifting is also an important reason for existing customers to buy more frequently.
During the quarter, CL Live exhibited a strong 85% growth while the TAH channel delivered a growth of 35%. The Company added 6 new stores during the quarter with a net addition of 7,851 sq. ft. as part of the overall strategy of capitalizing on the large opportunity in small format stores in underpenetrated and underserved markets across India in large and small towns. The existing stores continued to witness strong traction with 56% like-to-like growth for the quarter. The retail network as of Dec’21 is now spread across 129 stores spanning 47 cities with a total area of 120,212 sq. ft.
CaratLane’s new US website went live in Q3. With a new warehouse, delivery timelines have reduced to 3 days for US customers.
Mithun Sacheti, Founder and Managing Director of CaratLane commented, “Strong brand strength, superior product mix, low customer acquisition cost and efficient operations, along with operating leverage has led to an EBIT margin of 7.5% in Q3’22. So far we have served over half a million customers across the country. It is a matter of pride for us that over the last 12 years, we have painstakingly built this profitably growing brand, a rarity amongst all B2C start-ups.”
On outlook for Q4 FY22, Mithun added, “Despite the impact of Wave 3 of Covid, we have a reasonably positive outlook for Q4 FY22. The various levels of lockdown restrictions across different cities have impacted us in January, particularly at our stores, and more so in what would otherwise be busy weekends for us. However, with reduction in restrictions across the country we ended January on good note and with the coming up of 2 key sales periods in the quarter Valentine’s Day in February, and Women’s Day in March, our expectation continues to be optimistic.”
* Standalone financials of CaratLane Trading Private Limited
