From establishing itself as the leader in India’s online beauty and personal care (BPC) space to making a successful public market debut, the last decade has been nothing if not eventful for Nykaa.

However, behind this action-packed streak of 10 years has been the ecommerce major’s beauty and personal care (BPC) vertical, which has shown consistent growth and profitability. For context, Nykaa’s BPC revenues rose 25% year-on-year (YoY) to INR 7,251 Cr in FY25, and its gross merchandise value (GMV) grew 30% to INR 11,775 Cr.

On the other hand, Nykaa’s fashion segment has struggled to shine and shimmer.

Since its launch in 2018, the company has experimented with multiple makeovers, from a strong private label push to premium positioning, as well as a focus on external brands, including both international and Indian D2C labels, but the impact has only been skin-deep.

Compared to the rapid growth of its beauty vertical, Nykaa’s fashion segment closed the fiscal year (FY25) with a GMV of INR 3,800 Cr, up a mere 12% YoY, and revenues of INR 675 Cr, up 19%.

Even as the beauty and fashion ecommerce giant claims that its fashion platform saw a recovery in growth during Q4, the company acknowledges that the overall growth of the vertical was impacted by the muted performance of its owned brands, among other things.

Abhijeet Dabas, business head of Nykaa Fashion, believes, and as he highlighted in the company’s Q4 earnings call, that the segment is headed in the right direction. “As we are playing to our strengths, numbers will continue to look up.”

However, analysts see that Nykaa Fashion’s road is fraught with cracks, which no amount of makeup can hide, at least for now.

To begin with, the overall fashion market in India is witnessing muted growth, with the sub-INR 1,000 category growing more than the premium segment. This unprecedented growth has pushed bigger players into a tight corner, and Nykaa is no exception.

A key casualty of this trend is Shoppers Stop, which recorded a 91.4% decline in its consolidated profit in the fourth quarter of the financial year 2025. The company’s net profit crashed to INR 1.99 Cr in Q4 FY25 from INR 23.18 Cr in the year-ago quarter.

© Inc42