Oyo sets sights on wedding business

NEW DELHI: Homegrown hotel brand Oyo is planning to gatecrash the big fat Indian wedding this season with a chain of offline stores.

The stores, some of which will sell wedding products while others will be experiential in nature to help customers simulate wedding scenarios, will mark the SoftBank-backed company’s foray into the offline retail space. This will help Oyo monetise a large number of its properties that can be used as banquet and wedding halls by creating a 360-degree ecosystem related to weddings.

The stores planned for metros will be different from the ones that will be located in smaller towns, sources said. The move by India’s fastest-growing hospitality chain comes close on the heels of its 100% acquisition of Weddingz.in, an online marketplace for weddings and banquets.