India, Aug. 7 -- Nykaa was once called the "Amazon of beauty". And it wasn't an unfair comparison to some degree.

Like Amazon, Nykaa built its business on a wide assortment, partnerships with leading brands and the convenience of buying it all in one place. Except Nykaa was never really a marketplace, at least not in beauty.

Most Indian ecommerce marketplaces were chasing scale on asset-light models, without holding stock. Nykaa did the opposite.

It buys stock from brands outright, holds it in its own warehouses and sells it on its own account. For context, in Q1 FY27, it spent Rs.1,757.9 Cr buying traded goods, a 21.7% YoY jump. In the early years, that was what set it apart.

That strategy is what the rest of the business is built on...