Former Myntra CEO Explains Why ‘Light-skinned’ Models Are Popular in Indian E-commerce

It’s no secret that many people buy clothes online from various e-commerce sites like Amazon, Flipkart and Myntra, and for many it may have even replaced going to stores to try on clothes before buying. But one thing that is important when you put clothes online for clothing brands is the images – how the models look in the images of the online store, and now, according to Ananth Narayan, former CEO of Myntra, white-skinned models can drive more clicks.

While this is certainly a peculiar study, Narayan argued in a podcast with Zerodha chief Nikil Kamath that Indians prefer products with Caucasian models, which is reflected in click-through rates for product listings.

“I have an interesting anecdote about the colors of the models. I think it is changing, but if you go to Myntra, you will find that everyone is fair-skinned,” Narayan claimed. Kamath asked Narayan why Indian clothing brands like Louis Philippe and Peter England hire Caucasian foreign models to represent their clothes, to which he replied that the primary consideration here is click-through rate.

“We did an experiment where you looked at click-through rates a long time ago and you found that the click-through rates are actually different. So, purely economically, performance marketing had higher click-through rates—that was about 5-7 years ago,” Narayan explained. Simply put, if you had a whiter model, the click-through rates were higher compared to darker models.

Narayan said it could be related to the “mindset” of people.

Narayan also mentioned that the name associated with the foreign units and the fair-skinned models allow these brands to associate themselves with the premium category.

Kamath then raised the question of whether this approach would still be effective in the long term. And while Narayan noted that this perception is changing and kagzi, an Indian ethnic brand that hires Indian models, is equally successful, he also said that brand names play an important role in influencing customer behavior. it is important that the brand has a story.

This fact then correlates with the “colonial baggage” that India allegedly has, but Narayan eventually said that this is gradually changing, but it won’t happen “overnight”.

So yes, it’s certainly interesting to see the former CEO of a fashion e-commerce brand make such a claim about consumer behavior and patterns, but this begs the question of what else could influence consumer behavior and what one thinks before clicking on a link or photo.