India as a potential market for expansion of an online fashion retailer

Globalization and a very high competition level influence companies all around the world. In order to enlarge their businesses, they try to increase their market shares and look for new prospective markets for the further expansion. Nowadays many emerging markets, particularly India, attract solid overseas investments.

The aim of this bachelor thesis is to estimate the potential attractiveness of India as a market for expansion of an online fashion retailer.

In order to attain the mentioned aim, the thesis will consist of several chapters with theoretical and practical information. Chapter 2 will be focused on the principal information on this topic: market selection criteria, including evaluating market attractiveness and potential risks. Based on these criteria, the most important economical, political, demographical, geographical and administrative information about India, which is relevant to the research, will be provided in chapter 3. This will be followed by an analysis of Indian textile business, including retail market overview and its influencing factors (infrastructure, logistics, IT development, culture, legislative regulations and restrictions). According to restrictions in online business, chapter 5 will be focused on description of four market entry strategies, their advantages and disadvantages.

Next the analysis of the pioneer and follower timing strategies will be provided. Based on all findings before, success factors for running online fashion retail business in India will be formulated. Then there will be given an overview about the important players in the field of online fashion retail in India, the main points of their activities in comparison.

As the completion of the research, the potential Indian market entry strategy will be formulated. This includes an analysis of locations in India and a SWOT analysis, which information will be provided according to the previous findings of the thesis. All derived information and ideas formulated in the thesis will be summarized in conclusion and the main thesis question introduced in the aim will be answered.