Nykaa fashion hits a milestone; how fintechs might help RBI with CBDCs

Nykaa finds its fashion feet

Nykaa touted a major milestone to investors in its annual report for FY22:  Fashion is now 25% of the company’s overall GMV, up from 16% the previous year. 

Fashion is a nascent part of the beauty e-retailer’s overall business, but it grew 168% year on year to $220 million (Rs 17.51 billion) in terms of annual Gross Merchandise Value. Nykaa’s management also said the fashion business acquired 1.6 million customers, up from just 0.6 million the year before. 

Okay, but is that enough? GMV is great, but fashion contributed only 8.6% to Nykaa’s annual revenue (although this went up from 5.9% the previous year) of $41 million (Rs 3.25 billion). That’s a gap of more than  $179 million with the GMV. This is also because Nykaa Fashion operates on various marketplace models, so only commission on sales is logged as revenue (unlike in the core beauty business, which is inventory-led).