CHENNAI: With its sales touching a new high at Rs 313 crore for 2015-16, the government-owned handloom and powerloom retail shops with
Co-optex
brand is now looking at strengthening its presence in the online market. In the last five years, sales of Cooptex products increased by 44% and in the last one year it was up by 2%.
Sarees sold for Rs 150 crore followed by bedsheets, for Rs 66 crore. The Co-optex products are now available online on Flipkart. Sales picked up with customers ordering mostly sarees.
"We are now planning to increase the online sales. Talks are on with other ecommerce stores. So, our products will soon be available in several more online stores," a senior Co-optex official, not willing to be named, told TOI.
Co-optex is now offering products like silk and cotton shirts, churidar materials, dhotis, bed spreads besides cotton printed sarees online. In the last financial year, 1,090 customers purchased 1,741 products worth Rs 53.73 lakh. "Co-optex has begun to sell traditional saris like Chettinad, Kandangi, Chinnalapattu as well as organic sarees. There are several new designs for the sarees and during festival season there is also discount due to which the sales are increasing each year," said the officer. The ambience of the Co-optex retail shops in many districts has been spruced up to woo new customers. "There are a total of 196 showrooms across the country of which 129 are situated within Tamil Nadu. The ambience has been made more aesthetic and we have exported products worth `66 lakh in the last financial year," the official said.
In the last year alone 2,426 new designs were created and launched. Of this, 1,272 designs were for silk sarees and 47 for blankets. The sales through special Co-optex exhibitions touched Rs 2.48 crore, he said. With assistance under Tamil Nadu Innovation Initiative, four niche boutiques with all modern amenities were set up at a cost of Rs 1.20 crore. "The boutiques are functioning in Chennai, Coimbatore, Kochi and New Delhi. The footfalls at these boutiques have increased and sales from after they were modernised went up from Rs 3.41 crore to Rs 4.14 crore," he said.
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