Nykaa’s cross-border strategy

Overview on Nykaa

Nykaa, founded by Falguni Nayar in 2012, is a leading omni-channel retailer in the beauty, personal care, and fashion space. The company operates through a seamless integration of its mobile application, official website, and an extensive offline network of over 265 physical stores across 90 cities.

Known for its strong focus on authenticity and curated offerings, Nykaa provides consumers access to more than 4,200 beauty brands and 4,400 fashion brands, positioning itself as the country’s most trusted beauty platform.

Cross-border strategy motivator

India is on everyone’s radar. India today stands at the cusp of a consumption renaissance. The next decade will be shaped by aspirational consumption due to the doubling of GDP per capita to $4500 by FY2030. Beauty and Fashion — are expected to benefit disproportionately from this tailwind. The Indian Beauty and Personal Care (BPC) market is set to grow from $24 billion in FY2025 to $40–45 billion by FY2030.

The world’s most prominent beauty brands are now betting big on India, making it the beauty market’s brightest opportunity and Nykaa is betting on this global pivot towards India to establish itself as the go-to partner with full stack platform and deep consumer penetration.

Nykaa , through “Nykaa luxe” already serves Indian consumers with global brands that have presence in India ; it now also aims at catering with premium international brands with no presence in India.

Implementation

They have introduced a “Global store feature” — this front end execution is a dedicated section for international brands with clear differentiation from domestic inventory. Nykaa handles custom duties and compliances internally for customers through its platform. Its supply chain is import-led and it uses demand signals to scale up further to maintain efficiency.

Nykaa has partnered with 45 + international premium beauty brands in 2025.

How and to whom it benefits?

One of the primary drivers of Nykaa’s cross-border approach lies in its ability to bridge the gap between Indian consumers and global beauty brands.

Consumers : Traditionally, consumers had to rely on direct international purchases — often facing challenges such as high customs duties, long delivery timelines, and limited price transparency. Alternatively, unorganized retailers frequently sold these products at significantly inflated prices. Through this approach, Nykaa has solved accessibility, pricing and authenticity issues for consumers.

Global brands : Nykaa acts as a local partner for international brands, handling the complexities of the Indian regulatory landscape and distribution. Nykaa ensures that products are cleared through customs and delivered, managing the entire supply chain, which is often the biggest bottleneck for international sellers. This gives global brands access to the massive Indian consumer market. In short — ‘ smooth and easy’ entry to Indian market.

Impact on Nykaa :

~ Premium customer acquisition: Consumers purchasing international brands typically exhibit higher spending capacity, leading to increased average order values and stronger unit economics for the platform.

~ Higher growth contributor : The rising demand for international products not only reflects evolving consumer preferences but also contributes significantly to the company’s overall GMV growth.

Analysis

There is a significant rise in demand for premium global brand among premium Indian consumers.

Global store GMV shows a 14% hike in FY25 which is higher than its fashion retail segment. The Global store contributes to higher AOV leading to better margins and economic growth for the brand.

But —

This market is still niche and small yet growing. While Nykaa maintains its operational efficiency , its logistical responsiveness remains constrained due to longer delivery time. Moreover, placing an order still requires a consumer to follow an additional step of KYC verification.

The limited in-app visibility of the “Global Store” feature indicates that it is still in a nascent, experimental phase, with restricted exposure to the broader user base.

Nykaa is yet to establish clear dominance in this segment, with competition from international resellers and specialized platforms offering comparable and focused cross-border services.

Is it a hit ?

Nykaa’s cross border strategy is driven by aspirational demand and lack in domestic substitutes or you can say — Indian consumers trust a foreign established product quality a little more. Considering all the shortcomings currently, it’s yet to be called a “hit”.