Tag: Falguni Nayar

Nykaa Success Story

About Nykaa

Nykaa is a brand based in India that specializes in multi-beauty and personal care products. It had originally been set up as a sole e-commerce medium until it later began building up various retail outlets in many other urban cities across India.

Nykaa Founders

A graduate with MBA from IIM Ahmedabad, Falguni Nayar begins to work at Kotak Mahindra in investment banking after her graduation. She became the Managing director at Kotak in 2005. She worked for Kotak Mahindra for about 18 years, during which she decided to move beyond the banking sector and experience in other sectors. She recognized the unexplored potentiality of the online beauty sector. 


Nykaa was started in 2012 by Falguni Nayar and is headquartered in Mumbai. She entered the market to remove the irregularities in the beauty industry. Despite high demand, the industry was not up to the mark. Her expertise in Investment banking has made her value the sustainability of the business.


Despite being a capital-intensive industry, she decided to raise and accommodate funds accordingly. The company has pioneered in providing a one place shopping experience for all domestic brands, international brands, luxury & prestige brands, premium brands, niche, and cult brands.

Business Model of Nykaa


Its business model revolves mainly around inventory management as the company purchases the products directly from brands or distributors and then provides them to the customers on its platform. 


Thinking about how it is different from marketplace models like that of Amazon or Flipkart?

Well in the latter, products are listed by third-party sellers for the customers to make a purchase, which is not the case of Nykaa. This helps Nykaa to secure its customers from any fraudulent sellers and maintain the authenticity of the platform. 

Apart from this, exclusive collaborations with big brands in beauty and fashion, the creation of private labels across categories, and having a physical presence have all helped it stand out in a competitive e-commerce industry where buyers are generally vendor-sceptic and looking for the best deal.


Furthermore, the company’s offline stores are present in 3 formats – On Trend, Luxe, and Kiosks. On Trend & Luxe deals with trending and fashionable brand products. While Kiosk is specifically for featuring premium and luxury brands including Dior, MAC, Huda Beauty, Estee Lauder, and many more prestigious brands.


Apart from Amazon and Flipkart, purple.com is a direct competitor of Nykaa. Purple is one of the companies present in the online retailer business in the same segment. 

Further, in order to interact with beauty enthusiasts, the company formed an online platform – Nykaa Network. This helps them connect better with the customers and provide them with a unique experience.  

Nykaa’s Marketing Strategy

The main element is to promote brands and products via multiple channels, websites, and blog pages. It pitches the products digitally to reach customers in all regions of the country. To directly reach the right audience, the company also collaborated with Femina to conduct Femina Miss India over the last few years.


Another key to its success is its ability to create relevant, engaging, and relatable content for its audience. The focus is to connect with beauty enthusiasts through their YouTube and Instagram handles. The company’s ability to establish itself as a legitimate voice in beauty and, increasingly, fashion talks through social media platforms.

How is Nykaa operating now?

This India-based startup originally began as the sole e-commerce platform. Since then, the company is continuously expanding its operations.

 

It started with the online operations but then diversified into offline stores as well. Currently, the company has 76 brick-and-mortar stores. Earlier, it was only operating in the women’s segment. But in 2019, it entered into the men’s segment by launching Nykaa Men. As of now, the company has 300+ brands in its catalogue under the women, men, and kidswear sections.

Conclusion

The company is planning to expand further in the offline mode through its brick-and-mortar stores. It is planning to open 180+ stores by 2024. This will help the company to boost its sales and revenue. Apart from this, the company is launching an IPO soon, which could take its valuation to 4 billion dollars. It will be the first company in the online beauty marketplace to launch an IPO. Besides, the company is also planning to achieve profitability before going public. 

We could say that Nykaa has become the amazon of the beauty industry. This platform has been instrumental in dispelling the misconception that e-commerce and beauty retail does not work well in India. Due to a continuous rise in sales and the profitability of the company, its plan to launch the IPO has been preponed.


One can say Nykaa has become into the Amazon of the cosmetics sector. Because of this platform, the myth that e-commerce and beauty retail don’t function well in India has been decisively disproven. The company’s plan to start the IPO has been postponed due to an ongoing increase in sales and profitability.

Start-up to Success: Nykaa

The cosmetic market is a 1.3 billion dollar industry in FY2020, and the growth is only expected to be double in the future. The amazing growth of the industry, along with rapid digitization, led its way to the establishment of the e-commerce giant, Nykaa.

Nykaa was established by Falguni Nayar in 2021, as a retail company that sells cosmetic commodities online. However, after its enormous growth Nykaa also offers offline stores all across India. The company also offers comprehensive content that includes product reviews, beauty how-to videos, expert written articles, and even an e-magazine.

Origin of Nykaa

Prior to the coming of Nykaa, there was a huge discrepancy in regard to the beauty market. Falguni Nayar, the founder of the company, noticed the inconsistencies in the market of beauty products, and thus came the idea of the beauty e-commerce. ‘Nykaa’, the name comes from the Sanskrit word ‘nayaka’ which means actress or ‘one in the spotlight’.

Nykaa initially started as an online corporation and eventually turned to be an omnichannel strategy. Nykaa has its base in Mumbai, and showcases a wide variety of beauty and cosmetic products for all genders. Other than beauty and cosmetics, Nykaa is also a retailer for intimate wear, garments, jewellery, home décor and more. Nykaa also sells luxury brands such as Estee Lauder, Dior, Chanel, Gucci to name a few.

Soon after its success, Nykaa also launched its line of in-house products, under the same name. The products include a wide range of products from cosmetic to skin care to bath and body products and more.

About the founder

Falguni Nayar was a student at IIM Ahmedabad, where she pursued her MBA in Finance. She then joined Kodak Mahindra Capital Company, as an investment banker. She worked in Kodak Mahindra for 18 years, amidst which she decided to pursue her entrepreneurial venture, and resigned from the bank. And today, she is India’s first self-made billionaire.

The beauty and cosmetic products market in India was not at par with that of other countries like France and South Korea, despite of having a high demand market. She had the vision to see India in par with these countries in terms of catering to the beauty industry. And she thus, fulfilled her desire to established the online beauty sector a reliable source for consumers to confidently purchase authentic products.

Being passionate about beauty herself, she wished Nykaa to be a one stop solution for a Indian woman’s selfcare need, and change their grooming experience for the better. Nykaa’s motto Your beauty, Our passion, truly justifies their claim.

Future of Nykaa

Nykaa claims to make 5 million per month as revenue across India, and the numbers are only expected to grow. During the pandemic, online sector grew exponentially, and Nykaa shined exceptionally, helping India with delivering essentials during the lockdown.

Along with online deliveries, Nykaa has 80 plus stores all across India, and they are planning on growing 180 stores all over India by the year 2024. And they are further planning on expanding internationally.

Nykaa came into the spotlight when it launched IPO for subscription during the October 28 to November 1 2021, and fixed a price band of Rs 1085-1125 apiece for maidan offer. Nykaa was offered 81.78 times over the 2.64 crore shares that were being offered. Nykaa had a dream debut in its IPO where the market cap of the company crossed Rs 1 lakh crore. The valuation of Nykaa surged almost to $13 billion in its Indian market debut. And the valuation of Nykaa is only expected to grow further in the coming years.  

                    Falguni Nayar started Nykaa at the of 50 with no prior experience, and changed the fate of Indian beauty industry. The biggest take away from this journey is that, age is just a number, and you can turn your dreams and passion into a billion dollar industry when you have an entrepreneurial mindset. Falguni Nayar will be an inspiration for the generations to come.