India’s beauty market has a recent entrant.

Launching with three strides in a single step, Reliance Retail Ltd. has given the Indian beauty market a very recent twist with the launch of beauty brand Tira — debuting a physical store, an e-commerce site and an app in early April.

India’s beauty and private care market is estimated to generate roughly $16 billion in 2022 based on Euromonitor International. The doorway of Reliance into beauty with Tira has the potential to remodel the sector, industry analysts said, as Reliance is India’s largest retailer, with 17,225 stores across India. 

The corporate also comes with the deep pockets which are needed for sustainable growth. Reliance Retail Ltd. is a subsidiary of Reliance Retail Ventures Ltd., which reported a consolidated turnover of 1,997 billion rupees, or U.S. $26.3 billion, and net profit of 70.55 billion rupees, or U.S. $931 million for the 12 months ended March 31, 2022.

At Jio World Drive, the Tira store is spread across 4,300 square feet, and houses each global and homegrown beauty brands. It was designed by London-headquartered innovation studio Dalziel & Pow. 

“Inspired by the goddess Rati, who symbolizes love, passion and sweetness, Tira’s launch is according to Reliance Retail’s overall vision of bringing top quality products to Indian consumers through multiple retail formats,” the corporate said in a press release, adding that Tira stores shall be a “beauty destination” with a deal with curated services. 

Beauty tech will play a component, with a station for virtual try-on to create customized looks, and a skin analyzer.

Personalization is an enormous focus — with gifting stations to assist consumers make decisions, in addition to a piece called Fragrance Finder, a signature experience that helps consumers match fragrances closest to their preferences.

“With Tira, we aim to interrupt down barriers in the sweetness space and democratize beauty for consumers across segments. Our vision for Tira is to be the leading beauty destination for accessible yet aspirational beauty, one which is inclusive and one which harbors the mission of becoming essentially the most loved beauty retailer in India,” said Isha Ambani, executive director, Reliance Retail Ventures Ltd. (holding company of Reliance Retail Ltd.)

Premium brands have their very own space on the app called Tira Red — where shoppers can browse for prestige and luxury brands including Estée Lauder, L’Occitane, Bobbi Brown, Clinique, etc. Tira’s online platform also showcases shopable videos, blogs, tutorials, personal recommendations and virtual try-on features. The web site showcases products across eight categories, including makeup, skincare, hair care, fragrance, men’s beauty products, bath and body, mom & baby care, in addition to wellness. 

The impact of this launch on the prevailing beauty players is anticipated to be massive, based on analysts. This includes the large players within the e-commerce space like Nykaa, Myntra, Purplle and Tata Cliq Palette, and physical stores like Sephora, Parcos, department store chain Shoppers Stop’s recently launched SS beauty concept, amongst others. LVMH-owned Sephora, which is in India with Bengaluru-based Arvind Fashions Ltd., has greater than 25 stores. 

Nykaa, which began as an e-commerce enterprise in the sweetness space, has been growing fast over the past 12 months, having gone public in October 2021, and growing its revenues from 22.05 billion rupees, U.S. $269 million, for fiscal 2021 to 31.94 billion rupees, U.S. $390 million, within the financial 12 months ending March 31, 2022. 

“If [Reliance is] in a position to crack the sweetness model, they may go big — they’ve done it with jewelry, fashion and other verticals. When you have a look at the footprint of the Reliance stores, they go for largest coverage,” said Pankaj Renjhen, chief operating officer and joint managing director, real estate services company Anarock Retail, emphasizing the shift happening from unorganized retail to a more organized sector. “As customer maturity grows, in search of higher products and more personalized content has change into a habit. Grooming also has also taken center stage, and with all of this the sweetness category offering has grown hugely, with a number of segmentation.”

While the Tira app reaches 100 cities, it is basically expected that these cities shall be the primary targets for opening physical stores, together with metro cities. Typically, the offering of brands and store sizes varies with the catchment areas that change based on the patron profile.

Beauty can also be expected to grow as a component of the general retail growth in India in the approaching years, keeping pace in double-digit increments. 

In accordance with a report by Anarock Retail and the Retailers Association of India, the retail market size is anticipated to succeed in $2 trillion by 2032, growing from $690 billion in 2021, facilitating 25 percent compound annual growth rate for the organized retail sector. E-commerce can also be more likely to gain further momentum, triggered by convenience and acceptance across the country. About 25 million square feet of recent mall space are more likely to be added across the highest seven cities in the approaching years, based on the report.

As Renjhen put it, beauty retail is certainly one of the fast-growing segments, particularly after COVID-19, with consumers making a shift toward more self care, in addition to a much higher propensity to spend. 

“The wonder and grooming sector is continuous to grow as certainly one of the fastest categories,” he affirmed. 

Nonetheless, as Tira makes its first foray into the market, industry analysts are clear that this may be just the start of the true change for beauty in India, with much more retail options than ever before, in addition to price advantages to consumers.