‘The third pillar of beauty’: Nykaa ‘doubling down’ on prestige fragrance in bid to gain market share

This is aligned with Nykaa’s aim to expand its presence in more beauty and personal care categories, after successfully capturing market share in makeup and skin care.

“The focus of Nykaa was to increase the number of categories within the beauty and personal care space that we are addressing. We are taking meaningful market share in makeup and skin care, which were two of the core categories to our beauty play historically, and they have served us well in terms of growth, and they continue to do so,” said Anchit Nayar, executive director and chief executive of Nykaa’s beauty business.

Now the company has turned its eyes towards the prestige fragrance category, which has been booming globally in the past few years.

“However, we believe that fragrance is the third pillar in any beauty specialty, beauty play globally, and this has been a big focus for ours over the past 12 months,” said Nayar.

The focus on fragrance has yielded significant rewards for the company, growing 74% year-on-year, according to Nayar.

“With regards to our market share in the fragrance category in the country, we believe that our market share on the prestige side is roughly 13% and this has been a 300-basis point improvement over FY23 and that will continue to improve in FY25 as we have just begun the first quarter of the year, we believe this will continue to increase.”

The brands in its portfolio include Burberry, Dior, Estee Lauder, Giorgio Armani, Jo Malone, Lancome, Paco Rabanne, Tom Ford, and Yves Saint Laurent.

The firm said it would be adding more brands to its offerings.

To spur the category's growth, it has established the Nykaa Fragrance Collective, which is “an exclusive collective of discerning prestige keepers meticulously curated to create the fragrance category”.

The company has also held Nykaa Fragrance Collective events as an immersive way to experience fragrances.

Luxury opportunity​

CosmeticsDesign-Asia previously reported​ that Nykaa has identified the prestige beauty segment as a future growth driver.

In March, the company unveiled a new luxury flagship store, Nykaa Luxe, in Mumbai that houses brands, including heavyweights such as Benefit Cosmetics, Lancôme and MAC Cosmetics.

Nykaa Luxe also has exclusive brands such as Charlotte Tilbury, Dr. Barbara Sturm, The Ordinary, Urban Decay, and YSL Beauté.

The company has since established more Nykaa Luxe stores in cities such as Dehradun and Jaipur.

In July this year, the firm’s overall brick-and-mortar store count reached 200 with a presence across 72 cities in India.