Apoorva Mittal, Economic Times

1 March 2026

Resshmi Nair, 31, had grown used to the dotted red bumps on her arms. Her dermatologist diagnosed it as keratosis pilaris aka strawberry skin. It is a harmless skin condition that often affects legs and arms but Nair, a Mumbai-based marketing consultant, wanted it gone. She slathered lotions and salves but to no avail. Then she chanced upon an Instagram reel which showed an oil-based in-shower spray that promised to take care of her problem. “It was very tempting as it resonated with a personal concern,” she says. She is now on her third bottle. The bumps haven’t disappeared entirely, but they have become smaller, she says.

Like Nair, there are many who seek solutions tailormade for their beauty bugbears. Consumers who once searched for moisturisers and shampoos now look for niche products for hair and skin. They want to repair skin barrier, tame baby hairs and minimise facial pores.

A new generation of Indian beauty and personal care (BPC) brands are both listening to them and leading them. Focused products, they realise, could help them stand out in a crowded sector dominated by FMCG giants. While problems like acne, frizzy hair and rough skin have always been around, experts say the commercial importance of solving them narrowly and packaging that specificity as a brand strategy have become more intense of late.

India’s direct-to-consumer (D2C) beauty and personal care market—which is heavily invested in micro-problem targeting—is estimated to be $4.5 billion in FY2025, according to consulting firm Redseer. The new-age brands could account for 25-35% of total BPC spends by 2030. “Three major factors have contributed to this: one, the rise of digital medium for both commerce and marketing, which created a segue for new brands to launch and scale; two, younger consumers (Gen Z and young millennials) have become ingredient literate and look for results over broad promises; and three, competitive intensity in the market is pressing brands to position as per the right niches,” says Kushal Bhatnagar, associate partner, Redseer.

The shift is measurable on beauty retailer Nykaa’s platform. “Consumer vocabulary is far more evolved,” says a company spokesperson. Searches driven by speci􀀂c concerns or ingredients are growing faster than broad category items. While foundational concerns like acne and brightening remain relevant, the platform is seeing strong growth in queries around pigmentation, barrier repair, pore care and speci􀀂c hair issues. “This fragmentation is actually a sign of a more informed and aware consumer base,” the spokesperson adds.

ZOOMING IN

For young D2C brands, this behavioural shift has opened a narrow but potent entry point. Instead of launching another shampoo or moisturiser, they launch a product targeting a single problem and market it in an easily demonstrable short-video format. In the current beauty landscape, the market has shifted from general solutions to hyper-targeted efficacy.

Moxie Beauty, founded by Nikita Khanna in 2023, illustrates the playbook. Khanna, who previously worked at McKinsey, began with a focus on wavy and frizzy hair, a segment she herself belongs to. But it was one particular styling product, the flyaway hair stick, that went viral, propelling the brand into visibility. She says, “The wavy hair routine required us to educate people, which took time. But one can understand the flyaway wand in five seconds.” And it targeted what she calls a “widely held pain point”. That helped Moxie cut through crowded feeds and end up on consumer shelves. “Being synonymous with a category helps,” she says. “When people want a wax stick or flyaway stick, they search for our brand.”

That shift—from paying for visibility to being searched for directly—is critical in a market where customer acquisition costs (CAC) can be punishingly high. For many D2C brands, launching a sharply defined product is a way to reduce discovery friction and lower early-stage CAC. But a brand cannot be built or scaled on gimmicks, says Khanna. “If you solve only for what will look good in a video and will go viral, you won’t be able to scale. And if it’s a gimmick, people won’t repeat the purchase,” she adds.

Divanshee Jindal, cofounder of the brand The Solved Skin, says companies have to get the “product-communication fit” right. Her brand’s liquid pimple patch, which is designed to mask acne under makeup, is quickly emerging as its hero product. “People get excited when a product feels relatable and authentic,” says Jindal. “A new, convenient format that solves a real pain point makes consumers willing to try a new brand. But if it’s a standard product, say, a salicylic acid face wash, they will often default to a brand they already trust.”

SMALL IS BEAUTIFUL

The idea is to start small but evolve. Moxie, for instance, has moved beyond textured hair into solving broader “Indian hair problems” like damage repair and anti-dandruff that has brought in male consumers as well. “Curly or wavy hair was a huge, underserved problem,” says Khanna. “But the thought was always to solve other problems as well.” Moxie, which recently raised $15 million in a funding round led by Bessemer Venture Partners, says it has crossed Rs. 100 crore in annual recurring revenue on its two-year mark, and is seeing roughly 50% consumers coming back in six months across platforms. However, it says profitability is harder to crack because of intense competition from new brands and changing channel mix.

Mani Singhal, MD of the consulting firm Alvarez & Marsal, points out that most successful D2C brands started out with a sharply defined hero product. “Earlier it was natural vs chemical or price disruption; today it’s much more about efficacy proof, ingredient transparency, visible results and credible
storytelling,” she says.

From the manufacturer’s side, Nishit Dedhia of Kain Cosmeceuticals, a cosmetics manufacturing company, says, “It is easier today for brands to target special concerns. That specificity helps them build a differentiated product earlier on.” Most brands, he explains, 􀀂x a major problem such as acne, dryness, pigmentation and then layer in a niche twist. Strawberry skin, once not a mainstream concern, is now a category. “People didn’t know the term. Once you give it a name, they identify with it,” he adds.

Dedhia describes the portfolio strategy as 8-2 or 9-1 where eight or nine products are general, incremental variations of core needs, while one or two are “category-building products” that require significant consumer education or product communication but create their own search demand. “That is the only way you get out of the vicious cycle of paying for visibility,” he says. “When people search for your brand directly, CAC comes down.”

Devangshu Dutta, founder of management consulting firm Third Eyesight, says micro-problem framing is “co-created” by consumers and companies. “The fragmentation is real, but the language used to describe it is heavily brand-driven,” he says. Terms like “strawberry skin” or “glass skin” correlate with influencer campaigns but label pre-existing dissatisfactions that mass products did not address sharply.

However, sometimes, in the race to differentiation, brands go for outlandish ideas. Dedhia says brands increasingly approach manufacturers with amusing asks in the quest to stand out. For instance, beard fillers packaged like mascara or plumpers for face and neck.

PRODUCE & PERISH

The problem is that the mortality rate of skincare brands is very high in India. Dedhia estimates that around 60% companies shut down in three years. Many brands burn through capital chasing ads and trends without building repeat customers or a community.

“For a brand to cross over from being a curiosity-driven purchase to being part of a regimen needs a minimum 25-30% of customers showing up as repeats after three months, while truly successful brands reach higher repeat numbers,” says Dutta.

Subscriptions are an even stronger test. “Generic formulations, me-too products and influencer spends can get you first users, but repeats will happen only from the user getting demonstrated value,” says Dutta.

But growth does not equal stability. CAC typically starts low for niche products, rises during scaling-up and stabilises only if organic demand takes over, says Bhatnagar of Redseer. Quick commerce accelerates discovery but compresses margins due to the high commission rates on these platforms, promotional expectations and lower average order values.

Singhal, who says a consolidation phase is underway, adds: “Niche entry can work extremely well if the problem is frequent enough and the solution is demonstrably effective.” Durable brands deliver consistent performance, build adjacencies beyond the first niche and maintain disciplined unit economics.
“If repeat rates don’t stabilise, economics becomes very challenging, very quickly.”

PERSONALISATION AHEAD

For Aparna Saxena, founder of Delhi-based beauty brand Antinorm, the next decade will be defined by even greater personalisation. Her brand has multifunctional products that are timesaving. Saxena says she surveyed about 250 women above 25 years of age and found that five-step routines typically do
not last after two months. Antinorm’s architecture rests on multifunctionality, like a leave-in cream that doubles as heat protectant and promises a “presentable” hair look without a blow-dry. Its most popular product is a spray that cleanses and moisturises, which they dub as “instant shower” or “facial in a flash”.

She says the brand, which launched in July last year, will close next fiscal with about Rs. 25 crore in revenue. Repeat rates are currently under 25% “because the denominator is expanding rapidly”, she adds. “Between 2020 and 2025, customers moved away from incumbents and got used to having options and trying newer brands,” she says. “Now they have routines in place. The next five years will be defined by more and more personalisation and micro-problem solving.” The beauty is about to go really skin deep.

(Published in Economic Times)

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.

The ability of fashion businesses to endure and thrive in the face of stiff competition and changing market dynamics is all about adapting to innovation, customer-centricity, and strategic planning. The correlation between high performing fashion business and product innovation is undeniable.

This panel discussion brings Design and Business Heads together to brainstorm on how fashion companies can devise strategies to drive innovation to remain competitive, meet evolving consumer expectations, and stay ahead of the race.

Moderator: Devangshu Dutta, Founder & Chief Executive, Third Eyesight

Panelists:

• Anshu Grover Bhogra, CBO, Forever New
• Diksha Bhatia, Founder, Gioia Co
• Mansi Lohia, CEO, Black Watermelon
• Rohit Aneja, Director- Grapevine Designs, CEO be-blu! Lake Como
• Sean Ashby, Founder & CEO, Aussiebum
• Swikruti Pradhan, Founder, Rustic Hue
• Yogesh Kakar, Chief Product Officer – Tommy Hilfiger & Calvin Klein, PVH Arvind Fashion

Do you have this feeling that 2018 went by a little too quickly? Well, however quick it seemed, it was certainly momentous for retail in India.

If 2016 was marked by the shock of demonetization, and 2017 by the pains of GST implementation, 2018 highlighted two threads – the obvious convergence of the online and offline world that had been ignored for far too long, and the interest of foreign capital in India’s consumer world.

Walmart bought India’s loss-making ecommerce leader for an eye-popping US$ 20.8 billion valuation, while ecommerce giant Amazon injecting equity into Shoppers Stop, bought Aditya Birla’s More grocery chain (49 per cent through a back-end entity), and held discussions with Future Group to acquire 9.5 per cent in Future Retail. There were rumours of a mega joint venture between Reliance Retail and China’s Alibaba, and media also reported Japan’s Softbank looking at ploughing US$200 million into Firstcry. Both rivals Amazon and Alibaba were reported to be looking at Spencer’s, one of India’s oldest retail chains currently owned by the RP-Sanjiv Goenka group.

Videos of the crush of curious crowds at India’s first, much anticipated Ikea went viral, and the company said it planned to open 40 locations over the next few years, upping its earlier projection of 25. Chinese retailer Miniso basically came out of nowhere and claimed to have clocked sales of ?700 crores in the very first year in the country.

But along with these cross-border “big bangs” we saw domestic confidence also quietly resurging. Indian retailers are not cowering before large foreign retailers and expensive ecommerce advertising splashes; today they are less defensive about their own prospects than they were two years ago. There is also a growing interest among entrepreneurs and corporates to create new retail businesses, which augers well for the diversity of competition and freshness of offerings in the market.

Going into 2019, one thing I can say with certainty is that the weather, economic and political – both in India and elsewhere – will be unpredictable, and might even turn stormy. Externally, retailers should “expect the unexpected”. To ensure that the business remains on track, however rough the track becomes, retailers must centre all major strategies and decisions on the customer. A theme that has been around for centuries, it is surprising how much it gets ignored in this most customer-facing business.

Retailers tend to divide customers into rigid segments. My suggestion would be to look at customers through the behaviour and experience lens and also recognise that the same customer behaves differently at different times and in different contexts – in effect there are no hard boundaries between “segments”.

It is often emphasised is that Indian consumers are “deal-seeking”. I don’t think we should treat this as a uniquely Indian thing: all consumers look for value-reassurance in unpredictable times and in uncertain conditions. Also remember that even in value-seeking, experience still rules. Retailers and brands that are solely focussing on price or price+feature comparisons are turning their business into a commodity. They are missing the long game: of defining the customer’s experience from the first moment of brand contact to the purchase and beyond.

In 2019, if you want to focus on a single competitive strategy, it would be this: for stickiness and sustainability, think about the customer’s experience, and actively design it, in every environment where the customer connects with you.

Lastly, technology is transformative, but tends to get restricted to being the contrast between ecommerce and physical retail. Indian retailers need to embrace technology in all forms, from using the zillions of transactions within the business and with the customer for developing actionable knowledge, to automating processes where unnecessary cost or time makes the business inefficient.

Having said that, keep the previous rule in mind when deploying at customer-facing technology – make customer-interfacing technology as invisible or intuitive as possible. When in doubt, learn from one of the leaders in the sector, Amazon: its 1-click ordering patent 20 years ago gave it a huge advantage over competitors, and it is now aiming to replicate the same seamless, friction-free behaviour physically with its Dash button. Or pick cues even from younger fashion businesses like Rebecca Minkoff, whose focus is on ease and convenience. The key reason for adopting technology is to remove friction for the customer and for processes that serve the customer.

I have no doubt that 2019 will be eventful – let the customer experience be the guiding light to keep our businesses off the rocks and afloat.

(Published in the Financial Express on 4 January 2019, under the title “Retail in 2019: Need for stronger brand-customer connections that go beyond purchase“)