WHY NYKAA FASHION WANTS A PREMIUM FIT

The fashion arm is stepping out of beauty’s shadow with a new playbook

- Sowmya Ramasubramanian

Ask a beauty shopper where they would buy a Charlotte Tilbury lipstick or a Rare Beauty blush, and chances are Nykaa will feature on top of the list. Ask the same shopper where they would buy a dress, and the answer is far less predictable.

For years, this gap in consumer perception has defined the challenge facing the company’s fashion marketplace, Nykaa Fashion. While the company’s beauty business became synonymous with reliable cosmetics and global brand launches, its fashion arm struggled to become the first destination consumers thought of when shopping for apparel.

But for the first time in a while, there are signs the vertical may be making progress.

Fashion’s gross merchandise value (GMV)—the value of all goods sold before discounts, returns and other adjustments—grew 30% in 2025-26 to ₹4,954 crore, while GMV in the March quarter rose 29% to ₹1,334 crore compared to the year-ago period.

The business remains far less profitable than the beauty division, but losses have narrowed sharply, offering the first meaningful evidence that management’s strategy may be gaining traction. During the quarter, Nykaa Fashion reported a positive Ebitda margin of 0.3%, its strongest profitability performance to date and a sharp improvement from roughly -10.2% a year earlier.

Ebitda is short for earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization.

The focus on fashion is not new. When Nykaa’s parent FSN E-Commerce Ventures Limited filed for its initial public offering (IPO) in 2021, the company positioned fashion as its second major growth engine alongside beauty. At the time, Nykaa Fashion housed more than 1,400 brands and 2.8 million stock-keeping units.