In a flip forward for the Indian beauty market, Indian department store chain Shoppers Stop, which is just shy of the 100-store mark across the country and a premium beauty destination for global brands, is revamping its fragrance category.

The retailer can also be launching into the wonder distribution space for the primary time, debuting brands like Maison Margiela, Atelier Cologne and Viktor & Rolf in India, with a latest vertical — wholly owned subsidiary Global SS Beauty. 

Other brands being launched this week as a part of the brand new vertical are Prada, Valentino and Mugler, Ralph Lauren and Azzaro, at three Shoppers Stop locations across India — two in Recent Delhi and one in Mumbai.

These brands are being launched in India by the L’Oréal International Division, because it has been growing the fragrance offering in several countries over the past three years. 

“Our collaboration with L’Oréal International Division is according to our commitment to offer Indian customers with the perfect brands the world has to supply,” Venu Nair, managing director and customer care associate at Shoppers Stop, told WWD.

“[It] will allow us to create a premium experience for Indian consumers and in addition serve the rapidly growing market in India. The distribution business for Shoppers Stop is a special vertical and might be at an arm’s length from the retail. The predominant purpose is to herald global brands into India, to have brands leverage the retail reach.”

While this implies redefining the fragrance luxe concept for India at a time when analysts note that Indian beauty consumers are more sophisticated and able to step up their beauty buying, it also comes with the step-up of retail by Shoppers Stop itself, with it planning to open between 12 and 15 shops per 12 months. 

“These proceed to offer a few of the perfect spaces for beauty brands in India, and is part of our continuing transformation into an omni-channel retailer,” said Nair, adding that beauty now makes up roughly 17 percent of the full retail business for Shoppers Stop. 

“We imagine that now the market is at a turning point between retail partners willing to maneuver from a historical background and mindset,” Biju Kassim, chief of beauty at Shoppers Stop, observed. “I feel brands are looking beyond the present distribution network to give you the chance to speed up the expansion — which we see is moving forward progressively.” 

Fragrance continues to be a moving force with the retailer. “It is a big opportunity, because India has traditionally been a fragrance market — the whole evolution of the market began with fragrance. While earlier it was skewed toward more sales of male fragrances, it has evened up recently, closer to 55 percent male and 45 percent female. We’re seeing a change within the prestige and lifestyle categories are fast growing, and expect luxury and area of interest to have strong opportunities in the following three to 5 years,” Kassim said.

The retailer has also stepped up this category dramatically over the past 12 months with the launch of beauty standalone stores — SS beauty — with nine stores already open across India. 

Two flagship stores are as a result of open in the approaching months — a 3,200-square-foot store at Terminal 2, Bengaluru airport, and an 8,800 square feet exclusive beauty zone in Quest mall, Kolkata. 

“We plan to open 15 to twenty doors a 12 months of the newly launched SS beauty concept,” Kassim said. 

The competition is becoming intense with the expansion of online beauty retailer Nykaa, which has also been opening physical stores, and the expected entry of Reliance Retail, one in all the fastest growing retailers out there into this space, in addition to e-commerce site Tata Cliq, owned by the Tata Ltd. conglomerate. Perfumery chains include LVMH-owned Sephora, which is in India through a partnership with Bengaluru-based Arvind Brands and homegrown perfumery chain Parcos owned by beauty distributor Baccarose. 

The Indian beauty market is predicted to grow in high double digits in the approaching years, although the expansion in 2021, with the post-COVID-19 impact was an estimated 9 percent over 2020, in keeping with Euromonitor International. 

The sweetness and private care market is estimated at roughly $16 billion in 2021. 

Shoppers Stop also has a partnership with The Estée Lauder Cos., and operates 130 specialty beauty stores of MAC, Estée Lauder, Bobbi Brown, Clinique, Smashbox, Jo Malone and Arcelia and 23 Airport doors, occupying an area of 4.5 million square feet.

Although the fast growth of the wonder industry is causing fantastic lines of division between players — brick-and-mortar, e-commerce players, distributors, are all switching lines, wearing a couple of hat — many more brands are being launched in India. Biju Kassim observed that the opportunities and challenges in India “are equally strong” and types, retailers and distributors would give you the chance to work through with higher coordination. 

“The standard of retail is evolving, regardless that it still has a protracted option to go,” Kassim said. “The standard of vendors and vendor management, the standard of manpower — it’s a learning phase and going forward I’m sure it would be a lot better. The opposite necessary challenge is consumption, which is continuous to evolve. The Indian story is growing fast and we expect many more brands to are available with more investments.

“Beauty is poised to witness a growth across formats and categories, as consumers have gotten more demanding; aside from the standard metro cities, smaller cities are also eliciting lots of interest in beauty, and it will add as much as the expansion story, across all beauty segments,” he added. “Change is coming, swiftly.”