Nykaa Fashion starts offline expansion, first store to open in Delhi's Ambience Mall

Fashion segment is company's top priority with significant investments on the cards. The aim is to become a lifestyle destination. Home segment will be launched next year.  Fashion and beauty marketplace Nykaa will follow the same trend for fashion as it did for its beauty business.  

Launched in 2018, Nykaa Fashion that was operating through its online portal till now announced its foray into offline retail with its first store in Ambience Mall in Delhi's Vasant Kunj area. The store will open in early December. Nykaa first started as an online beauty retailer in 2012 and gradually expanded its offline footprint. Today it has 76 stores across the country.

Just like beauty stores, Nykaa Fashion will be a multi-brand store, says Adwaita Nayar, CEO, Nykaa Fashion. "We have a roadmap for the next couple of months wherein we will be opening 10-15 stores.  

The reason we are opening in Delhi first is because it is our biggest market for fashion and beauty both. After Delhi, we will move to Mumbai and Bangalore followed by other metros," said Nayar. While the company will expand its offline footprint, it will see how business pans out next year before making further plans.  

India already has key fashion e-tailers dominating the online market. But, Nayar says there are certain gaps that are not yet filled.  

She explains that the focus on the online retail has been on discounts whereas they are trying to shift the focus on joy of buying fashion, premiumisation and curation with content-led shopping.  "We are more premium than what is out there but we are still accessible. If the average order per cart is Rs 500, we're trying to take it to Rs 2,500," she adds. Nykaa runs both the verticals separately with different teams and mobile apps.

But, will fashion overtake beauty business? Nayar emphasises that fashion is the company's top priority. "We believe that fashion will be as large, if not larger, a business than beauty is. Fashion for us is not on the sidelines. It's getting a lot of investment, a lot of management bandwidth and focus."  

Nayar says, "My vision for fashion is quite large. I want it to be a lifestyle destination. We will do women, men, kids, a luxury store for designer wear (Luxe was launched online last year) and will also launch home segment in the next three, four months."

"It will be a store where people can find anything that is related to fashion, whether they're looking for thermals, or anarkalis or maang tikka or fancy hair accessories. And, we will replicate it for other categories - for men, kids, home. In home, we'll be away from furniture and larger appliances for now. Home decor is also on the cards."  

Currently, 600 brands are listed on its online store. While the firm didn't share any numbers Nayar says Nykaa Fashion is growing strongly. "Over the last 12 months the business has grown 10x, over the last six months it has grown 6x." On the cards are multiple marketing events and campaigns next year to increase brand awareness.  

In November, Nykaa had raised an undisclosed amount from asset management firm Fidelity Investments through a secondary transaction that gave exit to some of its early investors. Nykaa had turned a unicorn in March this year after raising Rs 166 crore from Steadview Capital at a valuation of $1.2 billion.

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