Aditya Birla Online Fashion to shutter operations

Aditya Birla Online Fashion (ABOF), the fashion portal of the $50-billion Aditya Birla conglomerate, is set to shutter operations.

The company, which has been in operation for two years, informed employees about its plans in a town hall on Thursday in the presence of about 120 people.

The top management, including chief executive Prashant Gupta, is said to have been informed a month earlier. While senior executives have been given six months, it is trying to accommodate some junior employees in group companies Madura Garments and Pantaloons. ABOF has 200-250 employees and plans to shut down the portal in the next four months.

''This space is not mature enough to give a return on investment. So putting more resources into it is unlikely to change the situation. We have told the employees we would wind down this business and, over the next five months, we will try to help them find alternative jobs within the group,'' The Times of India quoted Santrupt Mishra, global HR head at Aditya Birla Group, as saying.

He added that players who had started much earlier were still struggling in this space and did not seem to be clear about creating returns for shareholders.

This is the second online brand the company has been forced to shut down in recent times, after Trendin.com.

Abof.com was launched in 2015 with the idea of no-discount quality sales at affordable prices. However, a year into the business, most of the products were being sold at a discount.

Meanwhile, Amazon and Flipkart are competing with each other in the e-commerce space with a plethora of offers, discounts and sales every three-four months. Other sites like Paytm Mall, shopclues.com, Myntra and Snapdeal are also keeping up with this trend.