The inside story: Digging deeper into Nykaa's Nykd with Preeti Gupta

Nykaa was launched in 2012, and in very short order transformed into a powerhouse in the fashion, beauty and wellness products market. In 2018, Nykaa Fashion came into being and launched a line of innerwear, Nykd in 2020.

Preeti Gupta, Business Head, Nykd by Nykaa spoke to Storyboard18’s Indrani Bose about Nykd challenging traditional norms and promoting body positivity. Gupta said at Nykd, it's been a blend of bringing technically strong products and solving everyday women’s challenges and creating products that are unique to the Indian consumer. Edited excerpts:

How is Nykd rewriting the story of the lingerie and athleisure market in India?

Our vision has been to make a meaningful difference in the lives of consumers, to simplify lingerie for them. That's how we started the brand called Nykd. We wanted to start talking about lingerie, educating women on the subject of lingerie. It's a technical subject which people haven't really spoken a lot about even at home, even between families or between friends. It's not a conversation that really comes up naturally, so we wanted to build conversations around the subject of lingerie and around self-care and reminding consumers that it's OK to be comfortable in your own skin.

We launched Nykd about three years back. One of the three reasons why we've been successful is one, we're really offering a range of products that is high-quality and affordable. Secondly, we are really prioritising comfort and style. So it's an elevated style, which is a little bit more modern and appealing in a very feminine way and yet subtle way. And stating that you can get comfort and style both… because so far, I think in India the experience of brands has been that either you get a shape or you get comfort. So we were able to achieve both.

And really, in doing so, also challenging traditional norms and promoting body positivity. If you see, when we launched the brand till even the last campaign that we've done, we've always had all sizes of consumers, all skin tones, all skin types and really never believed in correcting imagery. So it's all very relatable, very accessible brand—that we've created in Nykd.

Could you share some consumer insights and trends you have seen? How is Nykd leveraging them?

Most women have a wardrobe or a drawer that is full of many, many kinds of bras. They will have something which they wore when they were younger, or something which they bought when they travelled abroad, or when they got married, got gifted by some friends, or bought on some trip—there are many, many kinds of lingerie in your drawer.

This is a survey which we've done for the average Indian woman for almost 60-70 wardrobes. Usually, what ends up happening is that on a daily basis, you're only wearing the first four or five products that are there in your drawer. So while you may have 20 pieces in your wardrobe, you wear only the top four, and these are actually called top-drawer favourites. So as a brand, we've always wanted to be the top-drawer favourite brand for Indian women.

To understand how we bring this alive for consumers, we have to first understand what challenges consumers have. Take athleisure, for example. India is a hot country and getting tanned is a big thing. How do you save yourself from that? We have actually done products that are UV-protected T-shirts. We've done perforated cups for bras to ensure they are breathable and they make you sweat less.

There are also some larger women who want to look smaller. How do you make them look smaller? We have really worked hard on these kinds of things. It's been a blend of bringing technically strong products and yet solving everyday challenges of women and really bringing them products that are really unique to the Indian consumer.

Which category is driving Nykd’s business?

Eighty percent-plus of the business is coming from bras and bras are actually the stickiest category. Bras are given the least importance in the intimate-wear wardrobe. Also, once you're comfortable with something, switching brands is not the easiest. Hence, our focus is on the most difficult category to acquire consumers and really build on it.

How much is Nykd’s share in the athleisure market and what’s the target audience?

We're just a three-year-old brand; we have already crossed Rs 100 crore. We are also No. 3 in India in bras on Amazon. We are doing fairly well in most of the trade stores we are present in. We've been doing really, really well compared to the competition and I think we're in a good space.

Where is the sales coming from the most?

This brand has been launched for the Indian consumer and Indian body types. We have been very conscious of the problems of consumers across the country. At Nykd, time and again we have pondered on how we can solve those challenges of Indian women.

Whether it is someone who's staying in Calcutta and they have a certain sort of body type and, hence, a certain kind of challenge, to someone who's in Delhi versus someone in the south. We actually researched for about 18 months before launching the brand. Even today, launching any product, there's a huge amount of work which is done in how the consumer will benefit and what age group of consumers will benefit. What kind of body type will benefit and why? What will our product do that will solve this for the consumer? In doing so, you actually understood that we catch them young and we also catch them old.