EaseMyTrip targets 100 offline stores by FY25

Nishant Pitti- CEO and Co-Founder, EaseMyTrip

Travel tech startup EaseMyTrip is ramping up its offline expansion. It has so far opened 16 offline stores in Jaipur, Delhi, Agra, Ludhiana, Jalandhar, Pune, Surat, Jalgaon and Gurugram, among others under a franchise model. By the end of FY25, it plans to touch the 100-store mark.

“This financial year, we are focusing on expanding our offline presence. This allows us to reach a broader audience and provide a more personalised customer experience,” Nishant Pitti, CEO and co-founder, EaseMyTrip told Fe in an interaction.

The idea behind opening offline stores is to further enhance brand visibility and trust. “Customers can walk in, meet our travel experts, and get customised travel solutions that are often more difficult to achieve through online platforms alone,” Pitti said. He added that this is particularly important in smaller cities where internet penetration might not be as high, people are not internet-savvy and they value personal relationships and trust in service providers.

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The travel tech startup believes that this blend of online convenience and offline personalised service is crucial to enhancing customer experience.

In Q3FY24, EaseMyTrip reported an operating revenue of ₹164 crore, a marginal increase from ₹160.7 crore in the previous quarter. The firm also reported a net loss of ₹15 crore in the same quarter as against a profit of ₹45.6 crore in the previous quarter. This is the first time the startup has incurred a loss in at least three years.

Explaining the reason behind this, Pitti said, “We wrote off amounts recoverable from Go Airlines . We had to incur a one-time expense of ₹72.4 crore consisting of advances to suppliers written off and trade receivables that were written off”.

Excluding the write offs, the startup has reported a net profit of ₹39.1 crore in the same quarter.

Last month, Pitti decided to withdraw from the GoAir bid to channelise the company’s efforts towards improving its core strength areas.

Founded in 2008 by Nishant Pitti, Rikant Pitti, and Prashant Pitti, the travel tech startup is now focusing on strengthening its market position by diversifying and expanding its services beyond air travel.

“We are still in the initial stages of our diversification. However, we have seen promising trends that highlight the potential of these areas,” he said.

In Q4FY24, hotel bookings on its platform surged by nearly 39%, and other non-air segments, including holiday packages, activities, and train bookings, saw a 53% increase.

As part of its diversification plans, EaseMyTrip has also acquired Guideline Travels Holidays India , Dook Travels, and Tripshope Travel Technologies. It has also entered the insurance sector with the launch of its new insurance arm, EaseMyTrip Insurance Broker.

“This move leverages the overlap we observed between online ticket bookings and online insurance purchases,” said Pitti.

EaseMyTrip also recently became the 12th unicorn startup after Livspace,  EaseMyTrip, OfBusiness, Zerodha, among others to join the Open Network for Digital Commerce.