Adwaita Nayar steers Nykaa ahead, with a fashion-forward attitude

Adwaita Nayar was six months into her consulting job at Bain & Company in New York when her mother, Falguni Nayar, at 50, left her high-profile position in Kotak and took a leap of faith to start Nykaa.

She returned to join Nykaa as co-founder and has since seen the brand rise from its small beginnings, helping to build it at every step in a journey of growth and many successes.

Nykaa, which started as an ecommerce platform for beauty and wellness products, also has separate fashion arm Nykaa Fashion, which Adwaita heads as the CEO.

As of December 2022, Nykaa has increased its physical store count to 141 stores, including three new owned fashion stores, with a total area of 1.4 lakh sq. ft. across 56 cities.

As of March 31, 2022, Nykaa Fashion houses 1,553 brands and over 4.3 million SKUs.

“I studied Applied Mathematics for my undergraduate degree at Yale University and found it challenging. I love the way it made me think about problem structuring. It’s helpful even today,” Adwaita tells HerStory.

With Nykaa from day one, Adwaita helped develop the beauty side of the business and the brand’s foray into the physical stores before she started Nykaa Fashion. In between, she also pursued an MBA from Harvard University.

Building a brand from ground up

Recollecting Nykaa’s early days, she says, “I could call it a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity-building from scratch-the wireframes, launching the website to winning the first set of brands, and building a team of just 5-10 to over 3,000 now.”

She also talks of early rejections from investors and admits it was not a smooth-sailing journey.

“The first few years were difficult, but by the third or fourth year, the business started to click. Some amount of success came through, and we were able to secure our beauty business. It was a crash course in building business leadership, and I enjoyed every minute of learning on the job,” she adds.

Along the journey, Adwaita focused on marketing and the ecommerce side of the business and took initiative in launching Nykaa’s first private label.

She also figured out the brand’s physical store strategy, including creating the concepts of luxe and on-trend.

“I am drawn to new businesses. I always raise my hand to create things from scratch. I am sort of a new business starter within the company,” she adds.

In 2018, she spearheaded the launch of Nykaa Fashion, drawn by the sheer size of the fashion industry, which she points out is five times the size of the beauty market.

However, she was aware that they were not the first movers. Therefore, forming a point of differentiation was important.

“We studied the market closely and realised the need for a slightly more premium, fashion-forward, trendy platform. We wanted to lead with fashion, trends, and inspiration rather than price. The proof is in the traction, the achievement of product-market fit, and clicking with customers,” Adwaita says.

Nykaa Fashion features over 2,000 brands—both national and international—via a property called Global Store. It launched Revolve in India and its own brands like Nykd by Nykaa, 20 Dresses, RSVP, Mixt, Likha, and Pipa Bella.

“We have created a curation called Hidden Gems for emerging labels from across the country, giving a chance to Indian talent to shine. It’s a wide platform, but threaded together by consistency, curation, and trend,” she adds.

Evolving with the customer

Nykaa expanded its journey in fashion and beauty, but how has the customer evolved?

Adwaita believes they are talking to the same customer, but they have evolved in their beauty consumption. For example, someone who only used kajal 11 years ago now uses serums, masks, and concealers.

She attributes it to “the transformation of the country and the increase in richness of consumption,” besides the influence of media, social media, and more Indians travelling abroad.

The launch of the Global Store in 2021 has given Nykaa Fashion’s customers a plethora of iconic brands to choose from.

“The Revolve partnership is the beginning of bringing some amazing American brands into the country. We also have some great Turkish brands and are looking at British, Australian, and Korean brands. The Global Store is a pretty large part of our business and is expanding well,” she adds.

With the rise of an evolving customer base, Adwaita believes there’s an acceptance of new and emerging brands.

She explains, “Both women and men are becoming more open about trying new brands. There’s more brand proliferation, new D2C brands emerging, and local designers are becoming popular. There is also a sustained interest in sustainability, with customers seeking to learn about the concept. These are the trends that will go a long way.”

As for competition, the CEO is quite pragmatic when she says the market is massive enough for a handful of players, and Nykaa has its own spot. “It actually drives your business because you hold yourself to higher standards.”

Creating a culture of building

Adwaita is also optimistic about Nykaa’s business momentum.

“Nykaa Fashion is growing really well. I feel confident about the types of brands we are bringing into the country and the culture we have created within the company. We are efficiently managing all this with our eyes on unit economics and a path of profitability.”

Here, culture includes a deep customer focus, delivering on experiences, and a focus on teamwork and effective communication.

“I like teams that follow a startup, hustle-based rigorous work culture and encourage a hands-on mindset,” she says.

Her leadership style, she reveals, brings an equal measure of a strong mind and a soft heart to every decision, equation, and conversation.

Her mother, Falguni, is her biggest role model—both in the work setting and outside of it. The two big lessons she has learnt from her are risk-taking, especially pushing the company into new verticals, and being a good entrepreneur.

She is also inspired by her love for life—whether her saree collection, building a beautiful home in Alibaug, or a positivity that she calls infectious.

In the third quarter of FY23, Nykaa Fashion’s GMV grew 50% annually to Rs 724.4 crore. Its monthly average unique visitors grew 18% YoY to 19.4 million, while annual unique transacting customers grew 50% YoY to 2.4 million. The orders grew 31% YoY to 1.7 million, while order conversion improved to 1.2%.

Adwaita continues to be focused on building Nykaa as a much-loved brand.

“I am keeping my eye on the profitability targets I have set for Nykaa Fashion. I’m looking forward to building more of our own brands and opening more stores,” she says.

(The story has been updated to include a brand name in the fashion portfolio and add info on Nykaa's store count.)