Global lifestyle brand Mumuso ventured into India in September 2018 with its first store in Kolkata. The greatest reason or trigger for Mumuso Franchise was the reputation of the Mumuso, as a global brand as retail chain that propounds joyful shopping that also takes care of daily necessities.
The master franchise intended to spread the popularity of design-led lifestyle retail, which is a rather new business segment in the Indian retail industry and a rather profitable sector. With the lineage of several family businesses and acumen of a true entrepreneur Raunak Agarwal opted to take a leap into the retail that not caters to the demand of international products, but also fulfils the pretty functional fashion needs.
Belonging to the established business group of Kolkata, the city was an obvious choice for launching Mumuso India. The Kolkata market may be one of the underrated shopping destinations, yet it is a melting pot of various communities combined with its Metropolitan status and knowledgeable buyer’s population that opens various avenues, related to demand generation.
The city had the history of the colonial capital and also had a great inclination towards international products, since long, owing to the inhabitation of a small section of a population with same origin.
The proximity and openness towards North-East, East Asian cultures, Kolkata became a very preferable destination for Mumuso’s debut. These combined with greater acquaintance of the franchisees with the Kolkata Market and the city being an indigenous location of their business group was an added advantage.
The speciality of the Mumuso lies in the diversity of its offerings, apart from products’ attractiveness and affordability. The product categories range from Games & Toys, Beauty and Personal Care, Bags & Fashion Accessories, Stationery, Apparels to Digital Accessories, Home Textile, Household Essentials and Pet Care. Thus, Mumuso has a lot to cater to a host of needs, taste and preference
The pricing of the products is great considering the quality the brand offers. Most of the products are premium in nature and the lowest and highest product prices stand at Rs. 49 and Rs. 2929 respectively.
The products or the raw materials are sourced from Korea, China and other countries, expert manufacturing countries, of relevant products. Whatever is the sourced nation, the raw materials or finished products ought to be of high quality for the satisfaction of the customers.
Due to the impact of the COVID leading to various restrictions, slowdown of manufacturing, conveyance and other infrastructural facilities, some of the materials were manufactured and sourced from reputable vendors to maintain the continuity of operations.
India is one of the most prospective markets for any international brand. The size of the market and the healthy spending habits of the people are the most important driving factors for industry players.
As per financial reports, India is 3rd largest consumer market in the world. One of the most developing markets around and most luxury brands are eying a fair share of it in order to expand their foot in the Asian market.
As consumers become ever more sophisticated, they’re also demanding products that better meet their needs and expectations. With local brands already able to meet local preferences, overseas brands also need to localize their offering to match domestic competitors. And Mumuso tries to follow the trend.
At present, Mumuso has 19 stores at spread across 11 states. Within West Bengal, 3 Mumuso stores are located in Kolkata, 1 at Belur (Howrah), Madhyamgram (North 24-Parganas) and Durgapur each. There are 1 outlet in Bongaigaon, 2 in Guwahati of Assam, 2 in Mumbai (Maharashtra)1 store each in Gangtok (Sikkim), Bengaluru . (Karnataka), Hyderabad (Telengana), Dimapur (Nagaland), Varanasi (UP), Itanagar (Arunachal Pradesh), Imphal (Manipur), Aizwal (Mizoram).
Mumuso aims to expands with the definite goal of making their presence felt in the major Metropolitan cities of India, that are more likely to accept the new genre of design-led utility products. After that, the company shall target the Tier-2, which are slowly adopting the urban lifestyle and purchasing behaviour.
Female and kids are the main target audience of the brand. However, there are substantial items catering to the needs to the male purchasers.
Mumuso operates through both traditional Brick & Mortar, as well as, relatively E-Commerce structures. In the former operational structure, the company has COCO, FOFO & COFO business models and it plans to makes the expansion strategy fruitful with all the models working in tandem aligning with the company’s goals and vision.
Mumuso always wanted its consumers to have an all-round experience, when they visit its online or offline retail. Having almost all major categories of lifestyle and utility items for daily use, the food and beverage seemed to be the only lacuna. Having said that, Mumuso only focuses on tea and coffee products from the segment, presently. Moreover, the Food & Beverage Sector is one of the most viable sectors of business and almost all big players try to enter and capture and part of it.
Being one of the pioneers in the marketing of global fashion and utility products, Mumuso is trying to create a demand for the cute essentials in the modern market, where appearance of the products has become an important considerable aspect for buyers, apart from their usefulness. Mumuso is also trying to ensure the integration of quality element along with providing the variety in their product portfolio, which is generally absent in the relevant categories.
