Nykaa On Trend: A Data-Led Store Assortment Model
Industry & Competitive Context
Nykaa positions itself in a market it expects to grow quickly online. Founder-CEO Falguni Nayar has said the online beauty and personal care market is projected to grow threefold from FY25 to FY30, reaching $15 billion. The FY25 AGM presentation draws on Redseer and Bain market estimates and describes Nykaa as India’s largest specialized beauty retail network.
Retail strategy matters in this market because the product is experiential. Shade, texture and fragrance are hard to judge on a screen. Nykaa’s 2017 retail head said stores encourage customers to try products to understand which shade or texture suits them. This gives an online-first retailer a reason to open stores, and it raises the question this case examines: what should a store stock?
Brand Situation Prior to the Model
Nykaa launched in 2012 and opened its first brick-and-mortar store at Delhi Airport’s T3 terminal in 2014. By 2017 it ran two formats. Luxe stores carried mostly luxury and premium brands, while On Trend stores carried brands that trend on Nykaa’s online platform.
At that point the online catalogue was far larger than any store could hold. Nykaa reported 700 brands and 80,000 products online, against an On Trend store of over 350 square feet offering products from over 100 brands. Luxe stores were around 1,000 sq ft. A small format facing a catalogue of that size has to select, and the selection logic is the strategic question.
Strategic Objective
The documented intent is at the level of Nykaa’s retail strategy. In 2017 the company described a “phygital” approach in which customers can shop at every touch point and announced plans to add 30 stores over three years. In 2022 it said it wanted to make online and offline shopping entirely seamless. On Trend’s assortment model is best read as one expression of that omnichannel intent.
Assortment Model Architecture & Execution
The documented mechanism. At launch in 2017, On Trend’s curation was a selection of products trending on Nykaa.com based on sales, reviews and ratings. Nykaa described the format as bringing best-selling online data into a brick-and-mortar experience. The company also said stores had digital interfaces showing trends live on the site. Customers could scan a product to read the reviews posted on the online channel.
The inputs named in this source are sales, reviews and ratings. Nykaa’s investor presentation to the exchanges lists a similar idea among its store-network points. As extracted, the slide text pairs the On Trend format with the phrase granular eCom data guiding our optimal brand mix for a store. The extracted text is fragmentary, so the slide itself should be checked before this is quoted.
Execution in stores. Press coverage of individual openings shows a recurring pattern:
The Thrissur store (2020) retailed a curated selection of the brands carried on Nykaa’s e-commerce store, with a dedicated section for the private label Nykaa Cosmetics and a “Makeover Station”.
The Nashik store (2022) had dedicated segments for skincare, haircare, men’s personal care, cosmetics and fragrances, plus large segments for Nykaa’s private label Nykaa Cosmetics.
The Bengaluru HSR store, Nykaa’s 100th, featured private labels including Nykaa Cosmetics, Nykaa Naturals, Kay Beauty and Dot & Key, alongside international brands.
Bridging the gap between curated shelf and full catalogue. Nykaa said its stores can handle hyperlocal delivery and “endless aisle” orders, making the entire online assortment available to the store consumer. For analysis, this matters more than the shelf data. A curated, data-selected shelf and an endless-aisle fallback together let a small format stay focused without turning away demand it cannot stock.
Positioning & Consumer Insight
The documented positioning is trend-led and accessible. In 2017 Nykaa called On Trend a mass and smaller store format, and a 2022 trade report described On Trend as dedicated to popular and youth-oriented products. Nykaa’s 2022 statement stresses on-trend, authentic products in line with evolving consumer behaviour and beauty trends, supported by 700+ beauty advisors.
Analytical interpretation. The strategy rests on a simple proposition: what has already proven popular online is the lowest-risk bet for a space-constrained shelf. Using ratings and reviews as selection inputs also gives the store customer a form of social proof. This reading follows from the 2017 description but is not stated by Nykaa in these terms.
Media & Channel Strategy
The documented channel strategy is omnichannel. The company said that its stores’ capabilities include hyperlocal delivery and endless aisle orders, and its growth statements stress that cities with stores see consistently higher revenue and accelerated business. This is a company statement, and the underlying data has not been published.
Business & Brand Outcomes
All documented results below are network-wide. Nykaa does not publish On Trend-specific performance.
Footprint. The network had 96 stores in 45 cities at 31 December 2021. It reached 237 stores across 79 cities in FY25, after adding a record 50 stores that year. By 31 March 2026 it stood at 313 stores across 99 cities, after a record 76 additions in FY26.
Reach beyond metros. In 2022 Nykaa said nearly half its stores were in Tier II and III cities.
Store performance. For FY25, Nykaa reported its store network delivered 31% year-on-year GMV growth. Nayar said the physical retail business was expanding profitably.
Company-level context. FY25 beauty GMV rose 30% year-on-year to ₹11,775 crore. business-standard
Strategic Implications
First, the documented model reflects a structural advantage. An online-first retailer holds demand signals that a store-first retailer must build over time. Nykaa publicly framed On Trend as a way to carry those signals into stores.
Second, small formats and large catalogues can coexist when fulfilment is connected. The documented endless-aisle capability suggests the shelf does not have to be comprehensive. This is analysis; Nykaa has not described endless aisle as a design principle for assortment.
Third, the format has changed over time. The 2017 On Trend store was about 350 sq ft with over 100 brands. By 2022, openings featured private labels alongside international brands in larger layouts, such as the three-unit Nashik store.
Fourth, the evidence has limits. The model’s core claim (online data informs store assortment) is documented, but its effectiveness is not independently measurable from public information. Network growth, though strong, cannot be attributed to the assortment model.
Discussion Questions
Nykaa selects On Trend products using online sales, reviews and ratings. What are the strengths and blind spots of using online demand as the basis for offline assortment?
In a space-constrained store, how does an endless-aisle capability change the trade-off between depth and breadth of assortment?
Nykaa states that cities with stores show higher revenue. What evidence would you need to separate the effect of stores from the effect of choosing strong cities to enter?
The network has grown from 96 stores in 2021 to 313 in 2026. How should a retailer decide when to localise assortment by catchment instead of using a common data-led template?
Private labels feature prominently in documented On Trend store descriptions. What are the strategic tensions between data-led curation of third-party brands and promotion of owned brands?
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