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February 11, 2026
Vaeshnavi Kasthuril, Mint
Bengaluru, 11 February 2026
Sales of winter wear were underwhelming for the second year in a row as an unusually delayed and milder winter disrupted demand for heavy winter wear, particularly in north and west India, executives at two of India’s top clothing retailers said. Initial optimism for a bumper season this year compounded the disappointment for retailers.
While early signs of a La Niña—a weather pattern typically known for bringing freezing temperatures to India—triggered some early buying in the previous quarter, the season remained unusually mild, leaving stores with a surplus of winter clothing. Excess rainfall and cyclonic activity during the festive period in parts of eastern and southern India further weighed on seasonal buying, compounding the pressure on winter sales which are typically front-loaded.
This slump is particularly painful because winter sales are the industry’s largest annual driver. These months coincide with India’s massive wedding season, when spending peaks. Together, they account for roughly 20% of total yearly revenue for apparel companies, according to industry estimates. India’s apparel market was estimated to be worth more than ₹1.9 trillion in FY25, of which 41% was organised, credit ratings firm CareEdge said in January 2026.
V-Mart: margin over volume
Lalit Agarwal, managing director of V-Mart Retail, said, “Northern India saw a delayed or milder winter initially, leading to dispersed demand for heavy winter wear. Winter demand was definitely delayed a little bit—it didn’t get lost, but it was erratic.” He added that while festive demand held up, “demand visibility was uncertain, particularly in winter-led categories, and we consciously chose to protect margins rather than chase volumes.”
V-Mart’s revenue grew a little over 10% year-on-year to ₹1,126.4 crore in Q3 from ₹1,023.7 crore a year earlier and ₹889.05 crore in the third quarter of FY24, but this growth was largely driven by wedding and festive-season clothing, executives at the company said.
Anand Agarwal, chief financial officer of V-Mart Retail, said despite forecasts of a strong, early winter, “peak winters were delayed across North and West India, leading to a lull post-Diwali.” He added, “While the festive period went off reasonably well, winter demand did not pan out as anticipated,” attributing the softer sales to fewer peak winter days and unusually warmer temperatures.
Despite the delayed demand, the company managed to avoid a build-up of unsold inventory during the quarter. “Inventory health remained strong despite the delayed winter, and in some categories we were even short of inventory,” said Anand Agarwal, indicating that the eventual dip in temperatures led to a sudden pick-up in demand in select winter categories rather than excess stock.
Winter-led assortments continue to account for a sizeable share of the company’s quarterly sales, underscoring its sensitivity to weather patterns. “Winter and pre-winter categories accounted for about 40-45% of the overall mix during the quarter, and this share rose to over 60% during peak winter weeks in December,” said Agarwal during the third-quarter earnings call. The higher share of winter wear sales during peak weeks helped cushion margins, even as volumes remained below expectations. Lalit Agarwal said the company refrained from aggressive discounting amid uncertain demand. “Higher full-price sell-through during the winter quarter supported margins, as we did not undertake aggressive discounting,” he said.
Vishal Mega Mart: the late recovery
Gunender Kapur, managing director and chief executive officer of rival Vishal Mega Mart, said delayed winters usually force retailers to push promotions to ensure that they don’t carry forward all that merchandise, because the next opportunity to sell it would be the following year.
Despite this, the company’s performance held up, he said, highlighting that winter sales achieved robust double-digit same-store growth for the entire season and the full quarter, effectively overcoming the sluggish demand during December. Kapur noted that demand for winter clothing increased significantly in January, adding, “Winter merchandise is still selling well, both in our stores and in other stores, we believe.”
Vishal Mega Mart reported revenue growth of about 17% to ₹3,670.3 crore in Q3 FY26 from ₹3,135.9 crore in Q3 FY25 and ₹2,623.5 crore in Q3 FY24, largely on the back of wedding and festive-season demand.
Kapur said the company was unsure whether there would be significant unsold winter merchandise at the end of the season, adding that maintaining pricing discipline helped protect profit margins. “Merchandise that sells in December typically fetches a higher price than January merchandise for winter because sales often begin by late December or early January,” he said. “In our case, there was no problem. We achieved same-store sales growth of over 10%, even with the winter merchandise we purchased for the autumn-winter season.”
V2 Retail: the outlier
In contrast, V2 Retail recorded strong performance in the third quarter, largely driven by winter wear. Revenue surged nearly 60% year-on-year to ₹929.2 crore in Q3 from ₹590.9 crore a year earlier. This is perhaps because V-Mart and Vishal Mega Mart are more concentrated in north and central India, where winter demand was more uneven this season, while V2 has a stronger presence in eastern and north-eastern markets, including Bihar, Jharkhand, Odisha and Assam.
Managing director Akash Agarwal said the early onset of winter led to a “very good season” for the company. He noted that winter garments typically command a much higher average selling price (ASP) than summer products, which resulted in a visible bump in average bill value during the third quarter, led by higher sales of jackets and sweaters. Agarwal said this high-ASP, high-margin category accounted for the bulk of Q3 sales and was a key driver of the company’s same-store sales growth.
A worsening problem?
Two straight years of sluggish sales because of erratic winters highlight broader challenges around climate change for apparel retailers, which peg their inventory based on weather patterns and demand.
“Seasons have always been inherently unpredictable, and retailers have never been able to forecast with certainty how cold or warm a winter will be or how long it will last,” said Devangshu Dutta, founder of Third Eyesight, a consulting firm. However, he said that the challenge has intensified over the past 15-20 years as apparel businesses have scaled up and expanded their store footprints nationwide, stretching product development and supply chains over several months.
“No matter how hard you work on the plan, your forecast will always be wrong. You will either overshoot or undershoot,” Dutta said, adding that this leaves retailers grappling with either shortages or excess stock. Winterwear, he said, is particularly vulnerable because it has a higher value per unit, a much shorter selling window, and a smaller market, factors which together create a “humongous problem” for retailers.
Data from a World Meteorological Organisation report published on 16 January showed that 2025 was among the three warmest years on record worldwide, continuing a decade-long streak of exceptional heat despite the cooling La Niña phase. This is a clear sign that background warming from greenhouse gases is overwhelming natural variability, the report said. It suggested that climate change will intensify seasonal shifts and extreme weather in the years and decades ahead, making industries tied to seasonal patterns, such as winter apparel, increasingly vulnerable to unpredictable weather swings and weaker cold spells.
(Published in Mint)
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December 1, 2025
Priyamvada C, Mint
1 Dec 2025
A wave of investor capital is flowing into India’s laboratory-grown diamond (LGD) segment, as fastscaling brands tap rising consumer adoption in a market now worth well over $300 million. New-age brands have raised multiple rounds of capital on the back of growing market share and improving margins.
Actor Shilpa Shetty-backed Limelight, which is in talks to raise its second round of capital this year, joins the growing list of other small brands such as Onya, Giva, Jewelbox, Lucira Jewellery and Aukera, among others, who have snagged monies in recent months. Limelight has appointed Ambit Capital to raise about $20 million to fund its expansion plans, two people familiar with the matter said.
Confirming the fundraise, the six year-old company’s co-founder Pooja Madhavan said the funds will be used towards store expansion and brand building as it looks to touch 100 stores over the next year. “We are in final talks with growth PE funds and reputed family offices (for the fundraise),” she told Mint.
Other similar fundraises include Onya’s ₹5.5 crore in a pre-seed round led by Zeropearl VC last week, Aukera’s $15 million raise led by Peak XV Partners and Aditya Birla Ventures-backed Giva raised ₹530 crore in an internal round led by Premji Invest, Epiq Capital and Edelweiss Discovery Fund, as it looks to scale up its lab-grown diamond offerings.
Nine pure-play lab grown diamond startups collectively raised a record $26.4 million in 2025, compared with $4.7 million across eight startups last year, data from market intelligence provider Tracxn showed.
The development comes as India’s lab-grown diamond jewellery market, valued at about $300-350 million in 2024, expects to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 15% over the next decade, as per consultancy firm Redseer’s estimates. As the market evolves, several prominent jewellery brands will gradually pivot from exclusively natural/mined diamonds in favour of lab-grown alternatives, alongside high-end jewellers incorporating the lab-growns into their select collections, which will drive sales volumes and act as an affordable entry point for consumers.
This segment has particularly picked pace in the last five years, with millennials and gen Z leading this shift, driven by better value, trendier designs from new-age brands, and growing comfort with lab-grown diamonds as a certified, high-quality product. This category has also widened beyond occasional fashion to gifting, daily wear and increasingly bridal, reflecting sustained consumer confidence and a willingness to treat them as a mainstream jewellery option, Rohan Agarwal, partner at Redseer told Mint in an emailed statement.
He further added that new-age brands have steadily gained market share in the mid-ticket gifting and daily wear segment with many trying to push into premium ranges. While the competitive landscape is still evolving, incumbents have already started responding by launching LGD lines of their own, although the extent to which they can challenge remains to be seen.
Major Indian brands that are considering a foray into this category include Malabar Gold & Diamonds, Senco Gold, which has launched the subbrand Sennes and Tata’s Trent, which launched its brand Pome in Westside stores.
Devangshu Dutta, founder and chief executive officer at Delhi-based consulting firm Third Eyesight, echoed the sentiment. He explained that new-age lab grown diamond players are forcing traditional jewellers to introduce LGD options or risk losing younger customers. “Not just precious jewellery brands, even those that started as fashion jewellery are expanding their range with LGD designs.”
“Down the road, there is potentially scope for consolidation as investors tend to prefer a handful of scaled platforms with strong brand recall and robust economics. So, as the category matures, there may be strategic acquisitions by large jewellery houses and corporates, as well as mergers among funded startups,” he added.
Those startups that can combine in-house manufacturing, design capabilities and data-driven retail expansion would be at an advantage, Dutta said. “Key future growth areas for LGD startups include omnichannel retail presence within India, with offline stores especially in demand-dense locations such as the metros and Tier 1 cities, export markets both with potential cost advantages and brand expansion, and extending into fashion jewellery, everyday wear, coloured lab grown stones and even luxury collaborations that position lab grown as aspirational rather than merely budget friendly.”
(Published in Mint)
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November 13, 2025
Saumyangi Yadav,Entrepreneur
Nov 13, 2025
India’s consumer landscape is undergoing a decisive shift in 2025. While D2C brands that once thrived on digital-only distribution are now aggressively building an offline footprint, legacy FMCG majors are simultaneously acquiring digital-first brands to strengthen their portfolios and tap into new consumer behaviours.
As analysts suggest, these trends signal a maturing phase for India’s D2C ecosystem, one that blends physical retail and strategic consolidation.
Offline Push Accelerates
According to a recent CBRE report, ‘India’s D2C Revolution: The New Retail Order’, D2C brands leased nearly 5.95 lakh sq ft of retail space between January and June 2025, accounting for 18 per cent of all retail leasing during this period, up sharply from 8 per cent in the first half of 2024. Fashion and apparel dominated the expansion, contributing close to 60 per cent of D2C leasing, followed by homeware and furnishings and jewellery at about 12 per cent each, while health and personal care brands accounted for roughly six per cent. The shift is equally visible in the choice of retail formats: 46 per cent of D2C leasing went to high streets, 40 per cent to malls, and the remaining to standalone stores, reflecting the category’s growing focus on visibility, trial and experiential discovery.
Experts suggest that it represents a strategic pivot to blended engagement.
As Devangshu Dutta, CEO of Third Eyesight, notes, “India’s D2C surge is powered by digital-first consumers, tremendous improvement in seamless logistics, and low-cost market entry, supported subsequently by substantial amounts of investor capital chasing those startups that stand out from the competition. Yet, lasting success demands a more holistic view: the divide between online and offline is a business construct, not a consumer reality. The larger chunk of retail sales still happens through physical channels and, for brands that want to be mainstream, an omnichannel presence is absolutely essential.”
This also aligns with the broader market outlook. The India Brand Equity Foundation (IBEF), in its Indian FMCG Industry Analysis (October 2025), estimates the value of India’s D2C market at USD 80 billion in 2024, with expectations of crossing USD 100 billion in 2025. Much of this growth is being led by categories that combine frequent purchase cycles with strong digital discovery, beauty, personal care, and food and beverage segments where consumers are open to experimentation but demand authenticity, transparency, and a compelling product narrative.
“The Gen Z and millennial consumer cohorts value newness but also authenticity and unique product stories, which are best communicated in spaces that are controlled by the brand,” Dutta added, “In the launch and growth phases, this could be the brand’s digital presence including website and social media, but over time this can include pop-up stores, kiosks, shop-in-shops and even exclusive brand stores.”
CBRE’s data reflects this shift clearly, with D2C brands increasingly opting for flexible store formats and high-street locations to maximise traffic and visibility.
M&A Gains Momentum
Parallel to the offline push is a noticeable wave of consolidation. Large FMCG companies are accelerating acquisitions to capture emerging consumer niches and strengthen their digital-native capabilities.
In recent years, Hindustan Unilever has acquired Minimalist; Marico has bought Beardo, Just Herbs, True Elements, and Plix; ITC has taken over Yoga Bar; and Emami has secured full ownership of The Man Company. These deals, reported widely across business media in 2024 and 2025, point to the need for established companies to fast-track entry into high-growth, ingredient-forward, and youth-focused categories without the lead time of in-house incubation.
“Legacy FMCG companies are acquiring D2C brands to rapidly gain access to new consumer segments, product innovation, and digital-native capabilities, including direct engagement and insights. Such deals enable large companies to diversify portfolios, accelerate entry into trending segments by-passing the initial launch risks, and rejuvenate their brands with modern digital marketing expertise,” Dutta explained.
Challenges and Risks
But the acquisitions do not come without risk and challenges, analysts warned.
“However, integrating D2C operations also poses challenges, including cultural differences, the risk of stifling entrepreneurial agility, and the need to harmonise data and omnichannel strategies. The ability to nurture acquired brands without diluting their distinctive appeal will determine acquisition success,” Dutta added.
Yet even as the ecosystem expands, challenges remain. Offline stores add operational complexity, inventory planning, staffing, last-mile logistics, and real-time data integration. Still, the bottom line is that India’s D2C sector is moving into a hybrid era defined by tighter omnichannel integration, sharper product storytelling, and portfolio realignment through acquisitions.
(Published in Entrepreneur)
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October 24, 2025
Entrepreneur India
Oct 23, 2025
Indian consumers are increasingly opting for private labels and in-house brands over established ones, and retailers are taking note. According to EY’s ‘Future Consumer Index 2025’, more than half of India’s consumers are now choosing in-house brands over legacy labels.
The report highlights that 52 per cent of Indian consumers have switched to private labels for better value, while 70 per cent believe these in-house brands offer comparable or superior quality. Backed by this shift, retailers from BigBasket to DMart, and quick-commerce players like Zepto and Blinkit, are doubling down on their private label strategies, viewing them as a path to higher margins, stronger brand loyalty, and greater pricing control.
“Indian consumers’ growing preference for private labels reflects both short-term price pressures and a longer-term structural evolution in retail,” said Devangshu Dutta, CEO of Third Eyesight, speaking to Entrepreneur India.
Trending globally
The surge isn’t unique to India. A recent report by the Institute of Grocery Distribution (IGD) notes that globally, private labels now account for over 45 per cent of grocery volume and are expanding faster than legacy brands.
In India, this shift is becoming increasingly visible in-store. The EY report found that 74 per cent of consumers have noticed more private label options where they shop, and 70 per cent say these products are now displayed more prominently, often placed at eye level, signalling a strategic retail push.
Commenting on this trend, Angshuman Bhattacharya, Partner and National Leader, Consumer Products and Retail Sector, EY-Parthenon, said, “Consumer behaviour has traditionally evolved in response to changing economic situations, but the current shifts appear to be more permanent. Retailers are confidently launching private labels and allocating prime shelf space to them, while technology is enhancing the shopping experience by providing consumers with limitless options and the ability to compare products.”
From price-fighters to power brands
According to Dutta, private labels are no longer just “copycat” alternatives meant to undercut national brands.
“For retailers, not just in India but globally, lookalike private labels used to be tools at the opening price point to hook the customer, who saw them as credible, affordable alternatives to national brands,” he explained, adding, “However, as retailers have grown, they have gained both scale and expertise to widen and deepen their supply chains.”
Over time, he said, investments in formulation, packaging, and quality consistency have increased consumer trust.
“Private labels now compete on functional benefits rather than only on price, particularly in food staples and apparel, but also in brown goods and white goods, and increasingly in personal care and other FMCG categories,” he added. [Must read: “Private Label Maturity Model”]
Retailers scale up private labels
As demand for in-house brands grows, retailers are scaling up their strategies across sectors.
BigBasket, one of India’s largest online grocery platforms, reported that 35–40 per cent of its FY24 sales came from private labels like Fresho, BB Royal, and Tasties. The company aims to push this share closer to 45 per cent through expansion in frozen foods and ready-to-eat categories.
DMart’s private label arm, Align Retail, has reportedly more than doubled its sales in two years, touching INR 3,322 crore in FY25. The retailer’s in-house brands in staples, apparel, and home essentials have helped boost margins in a highly competitive retail landscape.
Zepto, the quick-commerce player, is taking private labels into the 10-minute delivery domain. Its brand Relish, focused on meats and eggs, has achieved INR 40 crore in monthly sales.
Meanwhile, Reliance Retail has also expanded its portfolio of private labels, including Good Life, Enzo, and Puric, across groceries, personal care, and household products, strengthening its broader FMCG play. In 2024, Reliance Retail’s Tira Beauty also announced the launch of its latest private label brand, Nails Our Way, signifying a major expansion in its beauty offerings.
Capturing a lion’s share in retail
Dutta noted that in India, private labels will remain a core pillar of modern retail strategy rather than a cyclical response to cost pressures.
“Consumers increasingly view retailers as brand owners rather than intermediaries. As private labels mature in branding and innovation, their growth aligns more and more with brand equity development rather than just opportunistic cost-saving,” he said.
From a retailer’s perspective, private labels deliver higher gross margins and greater strategic control, Dutta said. [Must read: “Private Label Maturity Model”]
Another report by the Private Label Manufacturers Association (PLMA), using Circana data, found that in 2024, private-label sales in food and non-edible categories grew faster than bigger brands globally. While figures vary by region and quarter, the pattern remains consistent: private labels are outpacing traditional FMCG growth.
Collectively, these shifts show that private labels are becoming a major revenue driver for retailers in India, and are fast evolving from value alternatives into brands with genuine consumer pull.
(Published in Entrepreneur India)
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May 23, 2025
By Kunal Purohit and Ananya Bhattacharya, Rest of World
Mumbai, India, 23 May 2025
Online retail continues to elude India’s richest man.
The Shein India app, launched by Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance Retail in partnership with the Chinese fast-fashion giant, has struggled to gain traction in a market where Amazon and Walmart have been fighting neck-to-neck for nearly a decade. Downloads for Shein India nosedived from 50,000 a day shortly after its launch in early February to 3,311 in early April, according to AppMagic, a U.S.-based app performance tracker.
In April, when U.S. tariffs hit China, the app saw renewed interest as it was in the news, but experts are unclear on whether this growth is sustainable.
“Unlike earlier times, now … [the] market is saturated with multiple options and offers, and user interest can quickly dwindle,” Yugal Joshi, partner at global research firm Everest Group, told Rest of World.
Kushal Bhatnagar of Indian consulting firm Redseer, however, sees the late-April spike as a healthy sign, given that Reliance has yet to run paid marketing campaigns for Shein.
Reliance Retail declined to respond to Rest of World’s queries about its partnership with Shein.
Reliance launched Shein for India five years after the original Shein app was banned in the country over border tensions with China. But the Shein that has returned is entirely separate from Shein’s global platform: Rather than selling made-in-China clothes and accessories directly to consumers, Shein now operates as a technology partner, while Reliance Retail handles the heavy lifting — from sourcing and manufacturing to distribution. All consumer data is managed by the Indian company.
The partnership is part of Ambani’s broader effort to overhaul his retail business, whose valuation fell to $50 billion in 2025 from $125 billion in 2022. Although the company has made a push into digital platforms like JioMart, Ajio, and most recently Shein India, the bulk of its retail revenue still comes from its 18,000 physical stores.
Lagging behind Amazon and Walmart-backed Flipkart, which together control nearly 60% of India’s e-commerce market, Reliance has spent years trying to break into the sector. Between 2020 and 2025, Ambani’s group acquired majority stakes in companies spanning digital services, online pharmaceuticals, and quick commerce. But the investments have yet to position Reliance as a serious challenger to Amazon and Flipkart.
Analysts say the Indian behemoth hopes to leverage Shein’s artificial intelligence-powered trendspotting and automated inventory systems to pursue an ambitious goal: capturing a major share of India’s e-commerce market, projected to hit $345 billion by 2030.
According to Kaustav Sengupta, director of insights at VisionNxt, an Indian government-funded initiative that uses AI to forecast fashion trends, such a model is likely to make good use of Reliance’s humongous customer data sets: more than 476 million subscribers for its Jio telecom brand, 300 million users for e-commerce platform JioMart, and 452 million subscribers for its news and entertainment portfolio, consisting of 63 channels, a streaming service, and digital news outlets.
“With these data points, Reliance wants to now sell fashion products, so all it needs is a system where it can feed all these data points,” Sengupta told Rest of World. He said the model would be able to predict best-selling products and suggest the right prices for them.
The original Shein app uses AI-driven models for intelligent warehousing and to spot customer trends before manufacturing a new product. It scales the manufacturing up or tweaks the designs based on the feedback. At any given time, the Shein website has a catalogue of more than 600,000 items. Its Indian iteration does not match up, according to reviews on the Google Play store. Several customer reviews for Reliance’s Shein app are critical of higher prices and reduced options. The app’s rating hovered at 2 out of 5 until February; in May, it climbed to 4.4, but reviews were still a mixed bag.
Reviews of the Indian app highlight the disparity with Shein’s global version, criticizing higher prices and a reduced selection of categories and styles.
As of April 25, Reliance Retail said only 12,000 products were live on Shein India, a stark contrast to the 600,000 items available on Shein’s global platforms. While Shein is reportedly set to debut on the London Stock Exchange this year, Ambani’s years-old promise to take Reliance Retail public remains unfulfilled.
Reliance Retail, which accounts for around 30% of the conglomerate’s overall business, is facing a slowdown in annual growth. Its sales rose just 7.9% in the fiscal year ending March 2025, down from 17.8% the previous year. Meanwhile, shares of rival Tata Group’s retail and fashion arm, Trent, have soared by 133%.
“Reliance would have looked at reviving that momentum and riding on it, while for Shein, adding India back on its portfolio of markets could be a plus point before its proposed public listing,” Devangshu Dutta, founder of Third Eyesight, a brand management consultancy that has worked with various global e-commerce brands including Ikea, told Rest of World.
A Reliance Retail official privy to information about its fast fashion expansion plans told Rest of World the partnership with Shein also hinges on global manufacturing ambitions as the Chinese company is trying to “source its products from other countries like India” to meet the “additional demand that is coming from newer markets.” Reliance Retail has tapped a network of small and midsize Indian manufacturers to locally source products, and its subsidiary Nextgen Fast Fashion Limited is leading the charge. “We need to first scale up our domestic manufacturing, before our partnership starts manufacturing for global markets. Let us see how that goes, first,” the official said, requesting anonymity as he is not authorized to share this information publicly.
India’s Gen Z population is at 377 million and counting, and their spending power is set to surpass $2 trillion by 2035, according to a 2024 report by Boston Consulting Group. Every fast-fashion retailer wants to capture this market, but it “is very new even for Reliance,” Rimjim Deka, founder of Indian fast-fashion platform Littlebox, told Rest of World.
Deka said smaller brands like hers “just see [a trend] and implement it,” which could take a large conglomerate months to do, by which time the trend may have lost relevance.
Reliance’s previous attempts to attract young shoppers with clothing brands like Foundry and Yousta failed to find much success. Anandita Bhuyan, who works in trend forecasting and product creation for fast-fashion clients like H&M and Myntra, told Rest of World the company has struggled to effectively leverage consumer data and target India’s youth.
According to the Reliance Retail official, the company is confident that if “there are 10 existing brands, the 11th brand will also get picked up as long as there is value and there is fashion.”
“Shein already has a recall among the youth. It gives us yet another brand in our portfolio through which we can cater to the youth,” the official said.
Shein was built in China on the back of more than 5,400 micro manufacturers — a scattered and loosely organized network of small and midsize factories.
In January this year, on a visit to China, Deka met with manufacturers working for Shein and Temu. On the outskirts of Guangzhou, Deka saw factories set up in areas that appeared residential, with “women sitting inside houses” making clothes.
“The tech is built in a way that somebody sitting there is able to see that, okay, next 15 days or next one month, how much I should be making … that is the kind of integration they have done,” Deka said.
Deka told Rest of World this model is easier to replicate at a smaller scale. “Me, coming from [the] supply chain industry, I understand that it is much easier for a brand like us because we are at a very smaller scale. We can still go to those people, we can still build it in a very unorganized way and then pull it off,” she said. Her company’s annual net revenue is 750 million Indian rupees ($8.6 million).
“[But] somebody like Reliance, they just cannot go haphazard here. … It has to be always organized,” Deka said.
Shein moved its headquarters to Singapore sometime between late 2021 and early 2022, a strategic departure to distance itself from its Chinese origins and facilitate hassle-free international expansion amid the U.S.-China trade war.
India is part of Shein’s wider strategy to diversify its supply chain — one that also includes a newly leased warehouse near Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam, and efforts to establish alternative manufacturing hubs in Brazil and Turkey.
But in India, Reliance needs Shein as much as Shein needs Reliance for its global pivot. According to Bloomberg, Reliance Retail is focusing on creating leaner operations to weather a wider consumption slump in the Indian economy.
“It remains to be seen whether the Reliance-Shein combine can deliver on the brand’s promise with a wide range of products, fast and on-trend,” Dutta said. “In the years that Shein has been absent, the Indian market has evolved further, competition has intensified, and past goodwill is not enough to provide sales momentum.”
Kunal Purohit is a freelance journalist based in Mumbai, India.
Ananya Bhattacharya is a reporter for Rest of World covering South Asia’s tech scene. She is based in Mumbai, India.
(Published in Rest of World)
