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February 18, 2026
Kartikay Kashyap, BrandWagon, Financial Express
18 February 2026
IKEA HAS BEEN around in India for about eight years, with another three years before that spent studying the market. It has developed a range that it deems “locally relevant-like the roti maker, the tava (pan), the belan (rolling pin), and the pressure cooker -which now constitute about 50% of the products it offers in the country. It has shifted its communication strategy to sync with local culture and fit into local spaces and has worked hard to beef up its omnichannel sales model with about 30% of its sales originating online. But profitability has remained elusive for the retailer whose global sales reached approximately €45billion in the 2015 financial year (FY25).
Just for context, the company’s India entity widened its losses by about 29 to 1,325.2 crore in the financial year ending March 31, 2025 (FY25). The revenue also dipped 3 to 1,749.5 crore from 1,809.8 crore in FY25.
So now the brand is taking a leaf out of its China playbook and tweaking its retail formats. Starting last year, it started piloting smaller store sizes ranging from 15,000-20,000 sq ft that are more cost-effective to set up and faster to integrate with its omnichannel model. “The goal is to create a simpler and more efficient shopping experience,” Ingka Group Retail Manager Tolga Oncu had said when the concept was unveiled last August.
Five months on, the furniture retailer is looking to take a step up the ladder – setting up new stores in the 50,000-70,000 sq ft range in the country, which will sit comfortably between its smaller stones (15,000-20,000 sq ft) and big box retail outlets (4 lakh sq ft), Adosh Sharma, country commercial manager at Ikea India told FE recently. Ikea’s broader plan also includes doubling its investments in the country to over 20,000 crore ($2.2 billion) over the next five years and improving local sourcing.
Will all this help the retailer grab a larger share of the highly fragmented furniture and furnishing market in the country? Will the brand achieve profitability in the next two years in keeping with its plans?
Ikea realises copy-pasting its global retail strategy in India is not going to work. That explains its recent moves to tweak store sizes and product design. Over and above the regular 5-M-L strategy, the fourth format the brand is developing comprises no-frills planning and order points, focused on customers who want to design homes or seek complex solutions without distraction.
“Smaller stores, which fulfill purpose-led needs will help them to get closer to their customers,” says Devangshu Dutta, founder & CEO, Third Eyesight.
The furniture and home decor segment has been up against slow purchase cycles in India. Smaller sized stores that are closer to residential arras might help step up the frequency of purchases. “Players are moving towards a higher purchase frequency strategy and smaller stores will help lkea cash in on this opportunity,” says Kushal Bhatnagar, associate partner, Redseer Consultant Strategy. He says quick commerce has helped improve the purchase cycle in the home decor space, and that is something Ikea will likely tap going forwand.
Dutta says Ikea has taken a long-term view on India and the investments in the pipeline is an indication of the opportunity that awaits players.
The brand claims it has served close to 110 million customers in FY25 across channels, and online sales are growing 34% compared to the previous fiscal. While furniture contributed the lion’s share of its revenue, the food business contributed 100% and Ikea for Business (tailored solutions for businesses) another 19% to its topline.
(Published in Financial Express)
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February 16, 2026
Christina Moniz, Financial Express (Brand Wagon)
16 February 2026
Starting this month global sportswear maker Nike shifted its e-commerce operations to beauty and fashion marketplace Nykaa to address poor logistics, high delivery times and inventory niggles. With Nykaa in charge, the brand said, customers can expect free shipping on all orders and faster deliveries rang ing from twotofour days depending on the location.
The change comes at a time when Nike is struggling to cope with declining market share and operational and supply-side issues in India. Its physical store count in the country has dropped by half in the past ten years to 100 from over 200 a decade ago. Nike in India undertook major restructuring of its business between 2016 and 2019, closing 35% of its stores in those three years to take a more digital-first approach.
It’s not all doom and gloom though. The brand reported a 14% growth in sales in the fiscal ending March 2025 to clock ₹1,380 crore. But it is well behind competing brands such as Puma (₹3,274 crore) and Adidas (₹3,114 crore), both of which have over 400 stores across the country.
Given India’s size, the competitive landscape and potential, treating it as a secondary export market to be serviced from Singapore was a poor decision on Nike’s part, says Devangshu Dutta, founder and CEO, Third Eyesight.
Nike’s alignment with a local player offers important strategic lessons for global brands with big ambitions in India, especially those in the ₹8,800 crore sportswear market. Brands that have not treated India as an afterthought have succeeded in creating sustained growth and market leadership, says Dutta.
“Most of Nike’s global competitors have treated India as a market high consequence. Nike might be the leader by global revenues, in India is smaller than its global rivals like Adidas, Puma and Skechers. ASICS has a smaller base but is growing at 30% while Lotto is also looking to grow its footprint massively, observes Dutta.
Ever since Nike’s digital-first pivot, its customers in the country have raised several complaints citing delivery failures and poor service, with some deliveries reportedly taking weeks. Its decision to transfer its digital operations to Nykaa in India could potentially address these missteps and reverse the breakdown of customer experience, say experts.
Changing course
“The recent move feels like Nike acknowledging that India cannot be treated as an extension of a global system. It needs local infrastructure, local partners, and a model built specifically for how Indians shop online. Partnering with Nykaa brings local execution muscle that is hard to replicate quickly,” observes Tusharr Kumar, CEO, Only Much Louder, adding that the move is a maturity moment for global brands. “Scale alone doesn’t guarantee success. What matters is adapting to local consumer behaviour, logistical realities and service expectations,” says Kumar.
That said, Nike’s shift won’t be without challenges. The biggest one will be balancing scale with brand control, notes Yasin Hamidani, director, Media Care Brand Solutions. “While Nykaa offers strong reach and trust, Nike will need to ensure its premium positioning, product storytelling, and customer experience don’t get diluted. If managed well, this move doesn’t necessarily hurt Nike’s brand,” he states.
However, he adds that competition like Adidas and Puma, with stronger on-ground retail and omnichannel presence, may gain an edge if Nike’s visibility or momentum slows. “The partnership with Nykaa must feel strategic and not like a retreat,” he cautions.
Given that Nykaa is also a marketplace for other activewear brands, it remains to be seen how the platform maintains Nike’s premium customer experience. “On its own platform, Nike could control everything from storytelling to checkout flows and post-purchase engagement. Nike will now need to adjust to sharing customer data, promotional calendars, and operational priorities with a partner platform,” says Somdutta Singh, founder & CEO at Assiduus Global, adding that striking the right balance between leveraging Nykaa’s scale and maintaining Nike’s distinctiveness will be key.
(Published in Financial Express – Brandwagon)
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February 14, 2026
This episode of theUpStreamlife is a freewheeling conversation between Vishal Krishna and Devangshu Dutta, founder of Third Eyesight, with insights into the growth of modern retail and consumption in India, brand building and M&A, the balance of power between brands and retailers/platforms, sustainability vs growth and many other aspects, and is well-suited for founders and teams who want to be building for the long run in India.
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February 12, 2026
Vaeshnavi Kasthuril, Mint
Bengaluru, 6 February 2026
Global fragrance maker Bath & Body Works Inc. is betting on a reset to revive growth after years of heavy discounting and weak product innovation dulled its brand momentum across markets. The Columbus, Ohio-based retailer is pivoting to a “consumer-first” formula strategy centered around upgraded formulations, more disciplined marketing, and fewer promotions.
The reset matters as India is emerging as one of the company’s fastest-growing and best-performing markets and is also becoming a testing ground for how the brand evolves its retail model. India now ranks among Bath & Body Works’ top five international markets by growth.
“We’re seeing strong engagement across stores (in India), digital marketplaces and even quick commerce, which gives us confidence as we evolve the brand and introduce more innovation,” said Tony Garrison, global vice president at Bath & Body Works, in an interview with Mint.
The fragrance maker entered India in 2018 in partnership with Dubai-based Apparel Group and has since expanded to about 50 stores across major metros, while also building an online presence through platforms such as Nykaa, Myntra, and Amazon. Apparel Group brings over 80 global brands to India, including Victoria’s Secret, Charles & Keith, Aldo, Crocs, and Tim Hortons.
“We’re learning a lot from how the Indian consumer shops across platforms, especially the speed and convenience expectations,” Garrison said. “It’s helping us think differently about assortment, pack sizes and how we show up digitally”.
Even as discretionary spending softened, the brand’s franchise partner, Apparel Group, delivered double-digit sales growth in India and high single-digit comparable store gains in FY25. It reported a 26% year-on-year jump in FY25 revenue to ₹1,118 crore and a net profit of ₹20.5 crore, reversing a loss in the previous year.
Globally, Bath & Body Works’ earnings reflect soft consumer demand as well as margin pressures. Its revenue declined 1% to $1.59 billion in the third quarter of FY25, while net income fell 27% year-on-year to $577 million.
Reviving the fragrance engine
While legacy scents such as Japanese Cherry Blossom, Champagne Toast, and Thousand Wishes remain global blockbusters, the company admits it hasn’t produced enough new hits at a similar scale in recent years. Japanese Cherry Blossom is a $250 million fragrance.
“I think we haven’t done the best job of keeping up with some of the fragrance trends. We haven’t done a lot of innovation, and that’s what you’re going to see this year. This is a big change year for us,” Garrison said.
The company plans to elevate its home fragrance portfolio, bringing in more premium candle collections, gift-ready packaging, and deeper, more sophisticated scent profiles. The broader goal is to encourage shoppers to trade up within the brand rather than wait for markdowns. “We want customers to see the value in the product itself… not just the promotion,” Garrison said.
New retail formats
To test new retail formats, the company and Apparel Group plan to pilot a small “neighbourhood store” format of roughly 500 square feet in select non-metro markets later this year. These stores will focus heavily on core body care lines and hero fragrances, while creating a more discovery-led environment for first-time shoppers.
India is also emerging as a key market in testing how far premiumisation can go. Garrison noted that the company has not seen a slowdown locally: “India has actually been one of our strongest markets in the post-Covid period. Even when consumers are careful, they still spend on small luxuries that make them feel good”.
What experts say
Retail experts caution that the reset in India won’t be without challenges. Devangshu Dutta, founder of Third Eyesight, noted that brands often fall back on discounting when volumes don’t come through. He added that the personal care market has become intensely crowded, making brand clarity critical.
While the brand is leaning into quick commerce and smaller stores, Dutta cautioned that premium brands still need larger formats to build experience-led differentiation. “Neighbourhood stores can be spokes, but you still need the hub—the large store—to communicate the brand experience,” he said.
Race Intensifies
The turnaround plan comes at a time when rivals, including The Body Shop and Forest Essentials, are also vying for the Indian consumer’s wallet. The Body Shop plans to achieve ₹1,100 crore in revenue in India within the next three to five years. India’s fragrance market was valued at $1.0 billion in 2024 and is projected to grow at a 13.9% CAGR to $3.23 billion by 2033.
(Published in Mint)
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February 6, 2026
Anees Hussain and Kartikay Kashyap, Financial Express / Brand Wagon
6 February 2026
Swiggy Instamart’s Noice has consciously rejected every aesthetic that defines platform house brands. Its visual identity doesn’t sport minimalist colours or whites, no clean sans-serif, no ‘discount alternative’ signalling. Instead it uses Indian truck art inspired design with neon colours and bold text. That design architecture also personifies Swiggy’s big gamble.
Noice isn’t just a private label chasing margin expansion. It’s a differentiation play by a company that’s losing ground in a war in which being faster and cheaper is no longer enough. Early data suggests that Noice is finding traction. In namkeens, sweets, and western snacks, Noice holds a 4.4% market share on Instamart as of December 2025, competing against category leaders like Haldiram’s (16.7%) and Lay’s (9%), according to 1digitalstack.ai. This segment generated between ₹41-60 crore per month in the September-December period, with Noice’s share translating to roughly ₹1.8-2.6 crore a month. In beverages (fruit juice, mocktails, energy drinks, tea, coffee and soda), Noice more than doubled its platform sales share -from 2.6% in July to 5.8% by December. The brand now ranks 12th overall, ahead of Coolberg and gaining on established players. Category leader Real’s share fell from 12.3% to 9.5% over the same period. The beverage category generated ₹13,920.3 crore per month during July-December, with Noice’s December share of 5.8% representing about ₹88 lakh in monthly sales. Modest but shows velocity.
Bhushan Kadam, senior vice president, White Rivers Media, says the platform enjoys certain struc-tural advantages: “Swiggy has a credible shot at building Noice into a meaningful private label play because quick commerce (q-commerce) in India is still in a high-growth phase and Swiggy already has the scale, infrastructure, and customer base to drive repeat consumption.”
Swiggy’s own performance with private labels on q-commerce has been positive. Its Supreme Harvest brand, spanning pulses, oils, spices, and dry fruits has achieved just over 20% platform penetration, accord-ing to 1digitalstack.ai. The broader private label landscape offers both encouragement and caution. Tata Digital-owned BigBasket (BB) remains the clear winner, with private labels accounting for nearly 33% of its total revenue. But BB has a crucial advantage: Sourcing infrastructure inherited from Tata’s retail operations that provides scale – and supply chain depth that pure-play q-commerce platforms are still only building.
Noice isn’t Swiggy’s first experiment with owned brands. In May 2025, the company sold its cloud kitchen brands – The Bowl Company, Homely, Soul Rasa, Istah – to Kouzina Food Tech after years of trying to operate its own restaurants. Those brands required Swiggy to manage kitchens, hire chefs, and compete with thousands of independent restaurants. Unit economics never worked out.
Noice represents a fundamentally different model. Instead of large manufacturers optimised for extended shelf lives, Noice works with regional food makers producing in small batches. Launched mid last year with 200 SKUs across 40 manufacturers, it has expanded to over 350 products from 60 makers across 20-plus categories. Packaged versions of items like paneer and rasgullas from the mithai shop fail to resonate with consumers because they might use preservatives and taste artificial. Other offerings include biscuits made with butter instead of margarine, Punjabi lassi with seven-day shelf life delivered everyday like milk.
“Noice seems to be purpose-built for q-commerce: Impulse driven categories, low switching costs and algorithmic discovery. That alone fixes the biggest flaw of Swiggy’s past private label experiment,” says Ankur Sharma, cofounder, Brandshark. It is trying to do things for which customers come back to the platform – “products that are not there on any other platform”, adds Satish Meena, advisor, Datum Intelligence.
Uphill climb
Unlike other private label brands owned by Blinkit and Zepto who largely deal in non-perishable products, Swiggy-owned-Noice currently has a 50-50 split between perishable and non-perishable categories. Perishable products fetch 25-45% margins compared to 15-25% on non-perishable private labels and just 10-15% on third-party FMCG brands. Short shelf lives that enable freshness also mean higher wastage risk if demand forecasting fails. The solution Swiggy is testing hinges on shifting the capex risk entirely to small manufacturers while using its distribution scale as a leverage.
That apart, competition in q-commerce has intensified sharply over the past year. Reliance Retail’s JioMart, Flipkart Minutes, and Amazon Now have entered meaningfully with aggressive pricing. Zepto slashed minimum order values and waived customer fees at ₹149. Swiggy waived platform fees – but only on higher-value baskets at ₹299, essentially ceding low-AOV (average order value) products that drive frequency. In the meantime, market leader Blinkit’s gross order value reached nearly twice that of Instamart’s.
In q-commerce’s brutal pricing war, it is execution that will determine if Noice becomes a genuine differentiator or just another private label. “Proving Noice is not ‘just another’ private label would be the biggest challenge for the company,” says Devangshu Dutta,, founder and CEO, Third Eyesight.
(Published in Financial Express/Brand Wagon)
