Mango Sees 1 Billion Euros in Online Sales by 2021

Mango, the Spanish fashion brand, expects its online sales to reach 800 million euros this year and top 1 billion euros in 2021.

The 2020 online figure represents a 40 percent increase over last year’s 564 million euros generated online. From the start of this year until October, online turnover was 5 percent above the 564 million euros achieved in all of 2019.

“Reaching 1 billion euros is something we would never have imagined when we launched our e-commerce in 2000. It is a hugely ambitious target, but we are going to put all our efforts and hard work into achieving it,” said Elena Carasso, Mango’s online and customer director.

The company had total 2019 sales of 2.374 billion euros, of which 24 percent were generated through e-commerce. Mango is considered one of the first companies in the fashion retail sector to launch e-commerce.

The Barcelona-based retailer reported that the increase in online sales is partly due to the almost three million new online customers the firm has added this year, 900,000 of whom were added during the months of lockdown, when turnover grew by more than 50 percent.

A Mango best-selling top this season.

Many other fashion retailers have reported accelerating online sales growth due to the pandemic and the resulting sheltering-in.

Mango did not disclose any figures for its brick-and-mortar store fleet. Mango has about 2,100 stores operating in more than 110 countries.

During these months, Mango has implemented various initiatives to meet the online shopper demand, transferring more than 200,000 garments from the brick-and-mortar channel to the online one. Mango also extended its return policy to 60 days and increased its digital marketing spend by over 30 percent so far this year. Mango said it is personalizing its communications with customers to a greater degree.

Among the projects in the works, Mango is adding technologies based on artificial intelligence to improve after-sales service; self-service and automation tools to speed transactions and other customer functions to increase their satisfaction, and integrating omnichannel capabilities with franchises, such as using the stock of a store for online orders.

The company distributes online to 80 countries. Mango, started in 1984 by Isak Andic who still owns the company, produces about 150 million fashion pieces a year, in women’s, men’s, kids and its plus-size line called Violeta by Mango.

A Mango bestseller this season.

Asked what percentage the 800 million euros seen online this year would represent of total sales, Carasso replied, “Today we cannot answer this question given the high level of uncertainty arising from COVID-19. The percentage will depend on the performance of our physical stores and the eventual restrictions imposed in each market in the remainder of the year, which is a period of high turnover considering that it includes both Black Friday and Christmas campaign. She said online growth is occurring in almost all markets and that the U.S. is “one of the main ones, in our top 10 e-commerce markets.”

Regarding store closings and openings, Carasso said, “We have recently announced new openings in some important markets such as India, Italy and Denmark. We continue to expand the business. In recent years we have carried out a great expansion in our network of physical stores, in which we have expanded from 500,000 square meters to 800,000 square meters of commercial space after a large opening of large stores. Within this expansion plan, we contemplated some smaller store closings, close to the locations of the new openings.”

She said in the last three years Mango invested more than 150 million euros in digital transformation. “Within this important figure, it is difficult to separate what is strictly investment in e-commerce since the digital transformation does not apply only to one area but transversally to all the departments and processes of the company. Obviously, an important part affects the development of e-commerce.”

Asked if there a difference between what sells best online and what sells best in the stores, Carasso replied, “Yes, there are significant differences. Online, the most trendy and risky garments sell even better than in stores. In addition, the customer who buys online purchase a higher proportion of garments with a higher price and products with special qualities.” Bestsellers are comfy items and denim, currently, she said.

For the rest of the year, “We are optimistic on both channels,” said Carasso. “We think that we have an optimal collection to be able to achieve very important billing levels, which help offset part of what we have not been able to bill in our store network during the months of confinement.”

Mango, she added, “is not a company that bases its commercial strategy on promotions. Our intention each season is to be able to ‘defend’ the price we put on our garments. That does not mean that we participate in some promotions that are typical of the industry such as Black Friday and sales periods.”

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