After more than a decade of being a digital-first brand, Joker & Witch has formally entered offline retail, marking what its co-founders describe as the most strategic phase of the company’s journey so far.
The brand launched its first physical store in December at Lulu Mall, Central Bengaluru, followed closely by a second store at M5 Mall in Electronic City.
“Offline was never a question of if for us, it was always a question of when,” said Satish Singh and Maya Varma, co-founders of Joker & Witch.
“The decision to go offline is deeply data-backed. Joker & Witch’s online consumer demographics have clearly pointed towards metros, tier-one and tier-two cities, with select tier-three pockets showing strong demand,” they further added.
Over the long-term, the brand plans to open stores across the country, but only where the data supports it.
“Online has already done the market discovery for us. Offline is simply the physical manifestation of that demand,” they further added.
In the current calendar year, Joker & Witch plans to open anywhere between 10 and 20 company-owned stores, followed by a sharper acceleration to 30–50 stores next year.
“This year is about learning, tightening the playbook, and ensuring operational discipline. All our stores this year will be company-owned. As we grow, we are very open to exploring the franchisee route, but only once the model is completely ironed out,” they asserted.
The brand is funding store rollouts entirely through internal accruals. “We are very strong on cash flows. We don’t see a need to raise equity capital just to open stores. This entire year, we should be able to fund expansion ourselves,” they said.
They added that even as the footprint scales, the company would prefer simple debt lines over dilution.
Joker & Witch is targeting compact formats of 200 to 500 square feet, primarily in high-convergence malls.
“We want locations where the mall does the marketing for us. High footfall, strong catchment, minimal external marketing spends. High streets may come later, but malls make far more sense for us right now,” they asserted.
The total capex earmarked for 10-20 stores stands at Rs 2-4 crore, with a possible 15-20 per cent variance depending on location and fit-out efficiencies.
“We are very clear that every store needs to break even within 15 months,” they said.
Geographically, Bengaluru will continue to be a stronghold, with one or two additional stores likely within the city this year. Beyond that, Joker & Witch is actively evaluating Pune, Mumbai, Hyderabad, Vizag, Chennai, Kochi, Chandigarh, Noida, Indore, Gurgaon, and Lucknow.
The brand currently operates with nearly 4,500 active SKUs across watches and jewellery. In stores, about 9–10 per cent of this assortment is physically displayed, supported by an endless aisle model.
“Two-thirds of our value comes from watches and one-third from jewellery, and we’re seeing a very similar trend offline. In terms of volumes, jewellery contributes a higher share due to lower ASPs, but watches continue to dominate revenue,” they stated.
At present, offline AOVs of the brand are about 10 percent higher than online, and basket sizes are stronger.
“Our online basket size is around 2.1. Offline, it’s between 2.4 and 2.6, and we believe this gap will always exist because of assisted selling and impulse discovery,” they explained.
The company expects offline to contribute around 20 per cent of total revenue by FY27, with a far more ambitious long-term target.
“In three years, ideally, we want offline to be contributing more than 50 per cent of the business,” Singh said.
The brand expects to close the current year with net revenues of Rs 130-140 crore, followed by Rs 170-180 crore next year, while maintaining EBITDA margins of around 10 per cent.
