Elaborative SWOT Analysis Of Nykaa – One Of The Largest E-platform For All Your Beauty Needs

Updated on: Oct 13, 2023

Last time we went through the alluring SWOT analysis of Bblunt – An Only Salon Brand Crossed 1 Million Haircuts in India. This time let’s have a look at the SWOT analysis of Nykaa.

With the rise of the e-commerce sector in India, Nykaa has ventured into the world of e-commerce and launched beauty, wellness, beauty appliances, and other products. And today, Nykaa is one of the largest e-platform for all your beauty needs.

Although, it’s not an easy job for a new company to compete in the e-commerce market, which is already dominated by market leaders like Amazon, Flipkart, Jio Mart, and others. But Nykaa has marked its stand in attracting people and in catering to all their beauty and wellness needs.

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Thus this makes us keen to know how Nykaa has gained such success in its industry, here we have done an alluring SWOT analysis of Nykaa. But before starting its SWOT analysis of Nykaa let’s get a brief idea about Nykaa as a company, its products, competitors, financials, and more.

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About Nykaa

SWOT Analysis of Nykaa - Falguni Nayar, Founder & CEO of Nykaa
(Source: Social Samosa)

Nykaa is an Indian e-commerce company that sells beauty, wellness and fashion products across websites, mobile apps and 76 offline stores. It is a kind of unicorn startup, founded in the year 2012 by Falguni Nayar a former managing director at Kotak Mahindra Capital Company. 

Nykaa sells products that are manufactured in India as well as internationally. In 2015, the company expanded itself from online-only to an omnichannel model and began selling products apart from beauty. 

In 2020, Nykaa launched Nykaa Pro and in December 2020 Nykaa Fashion launched its first store in Delhi, intending to make its fashion business omnichannel. It also started retailing over 2,000 brands and 200,000 products across its platforms. This startup is an inspiration for many women who want to start their e-commerce businesses.

 

Quick Stats on Nykaa
Founder Falguni Nayar
Year Founded 2012
Origin Mumbai, India
No. of Employees 2,000+
Company Type Public
Market Cap Rs 1 Lakh Crore (2021)
Annual Revenue Rs 1,860 Crore (2020)
Net Income/ Profit Rs 278 Crore (2020)

 

SWOT Analysis of Nykaa - Products Sold on Nykaa
(Products Sold on Nykaa, Source: Nykaa)


Products by Nykaa

Since Nykaa has come a long way, serving for 9 years, let’s have a look at its products.

  • Beauty
  • Fashion
  • Wellness

What’s new with Nykaa

Check out some current news about Nykaa:

  • Nykaa,CEO Falguni Nayar to spearhead marketing
  • Nykaa posts Rs 5.4 cr profit for Q1
  • Nykaa shares gains 3% on strong Q2 performance

Buyer Persona

Check out the buyer persona of Nykaa to understand their potential customers.

Buyer’s Persona

Name:

Janvi

Place:

Noida

Age:

21 years

Profession:

Student

Motivation

  • Quality Products
  • Huge variety 
  • Ordering in a few clicks

Interest & Hobbies

  • Reading 
  • Photography
  • Travelling

Pain Points

  • Intense competition 
  • Rising Costs 
  • Official apps crashed many times

Social Media Presence

  • Instagram
  • Pinterest
  • Facebook
  • Tinder

Now that we understand the company’s key business, let’s look at the SWOT Analysis of Nykaa.


SWOT Analysis of Nykaa

Talking about the Nykaa business, let’s understand how this corporation can cater to different individuals using SWOT Analysis. SWOT Analysis of Nykaa helps us to understand companies through the lens of internal and external factors. Internal factors refer to strengths and weaknesses, which can be controlled by the corporation.

To better understand the SWOT analysis of Nykaa, refer to the infographic below:

SWOT Analysis of Nykaa - SWOT Infographcis of Nykaa

Now first let’s begin with the strengths of the company from the SWOT analysis of Nykaa.

But, first, we would like you to take a look at this video that covers the story of a $13 Billion startup built by a woman and how it took the Indian market by storm.

Strengths of Nykaa

As strength is an essential component of SWOT. Nykaa has several strengths that make them one of the largest e-commerce companies in the beauty and wellness sector in India.

  • Innovation: Nykaa is constantly adding innovations to its product range and offerings to capture the attention of customers and meet the dynamic business environment by shifting from online-only to omnichannel.
  • Strong Social Media Interaction: Nykaa has been able to attract many social media users as potential customers with regular online campaigns, contests such as Nykaa Beauty Femina Awards, brand endorsement, magazines, and web series etc.

SWOT Analysis of Nykaa - Nykaa Market Cap Crosses 1 Trillion
(Nykaa Market Cap Crosses 1 Trillion, Source: NDTV)

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  • Wide Range of Products: Nykaa has very well managed to showcase a wide range of products in both online and offline stores to prevent customers from migrating away from the brand due to lack of stock.
  • Geographical Presence: Geographic presence in different regions is considered to be one of the company’s greatest strengths. It helps to determine the reach of the company in the target market and ensures easy accessibility.
  • Affordability: As the ability to pay and willingness to buy a factors determining demand. Nykaa also has considered this factor and has priced its product keeping in mind the needs of different classes.
  • Less Charging Suppliers: Access to suppliers that offer raw materials at a lower cost can improve the overall efficiency of the business.
  • Property Rights: A company may own various intellectual property rights that can make the product offering unique and exclusive, making it difficult for competitors to imitate.
  • Successful Market Track Record: Nykaa has a successful track record of launching new products in the domestic market.


Weaknesses of Nykaa

Every business has its positive and negative sides, so Nykaa’s. Though Nykaa is one of the current market leaders in beauty product e-commerce companies in India, many weaknesses can become a nightmare for Nykaa’s growth.

  • Poor Waste Management: Nykaa has been criticized by environmentalists for its poor waste management and inability to integrate sustainability into its business operations.
  • R&D: Low spending on research and development activities may weaken the company’s performance due to a lack of local/international market knowledge.
  • Delivery Charges: It offers free delivery for orders above Rs. 700, which excludes some of the prospective buyers.
  • Customer Care: Nykaa has not been able to resolve customer complaints so effectively.
  • Decision-making Process: Decision-making at Nykaa takes too much time, leading to costly delays in bringing new products to market.
  • Replicable Business Model: Nykaa’s business model can be easily replicated despite of patents and copyrights the firm possesses.


Opportunities for Nykaa

The environment within which our organization operates offers opportunities. An organization can identify such opportunities and enjoy benefits arising from them by planning and executing required strategies.

  • Expanding Reach to Population: The exponential growth of the population and especially the existing or potential customer segments is a great growth opportunity for the company.
  • E-commerce & Networking: The emergence of e-commerce and social media networking as a trend can be a great opportunity for Nykaa. It can ensure a strong online presence on various social networks.
  • Government Subsidies: Government-provided subsidies and other measures that make the business environment friendlier are a positive external environmental factor for Nykaa.
  • Matching Lifestyle of Customers: Improving customers’ lifestyles and standards means more consumption of consumer goods and services and more opportunities to encourage purchases.
  • Business Model: Nykaa’s business model is climbing a new ladder to increase its international reach and boost profits.
  • New Technologies: The development of new technologies to support the production and delivery process of products can be used to integrate innovation into business operations. Advanced Technology integration can reduce costs, improve efficiency, and lead to the rapid adoption of innovative products.
  • Following Trends: The changing needs, tastes, and preferences of customers can be an opportunity if the company has good market knowledge.


Threats to Nykaa

Every coin has two sides, so does Nykaa have.

  • E-commerce Regulations: The altering legal framework and the introduction of new, stricter regulations pose a major threat to Nykaa. The inability to comply with the changing regulations increases the risk of costly litigation.
  • The Rise in Competitors: The increasing number of direct competitors such as purplle, and indirect competitors such as small businesses selling organic and cruelty-free products affects the company’s ability to maintain and expand its customer base.
  • Health Concern: The growing trends of organic and cruelty-free products pose a great danger if the products offered are not environmentally friendly. Nykaa should now focus more on expanding its reach to natural and organic products.
  • Economic Conditions: During the pandemic, the purchasing power declined to an extent and the business got affected in the first phase of lockdown as the economic conditions of people deteriorated.

Before we conclude our understanding of the SWOT Analysis of Nykaa let us have a look at its competitors. Also, have a look at an example of a campaign of Nykaa that faced backlash from viewers.

Tops 5 Competitors of Nykaa

  1. Amazon India: Amazon’s e-commerce platform in India offers a wide range of beauty and personal care products. With its vast customer base and extensive product offerings, it posed significant competition to Nykaa.
  2. MyGlamm: MyGlamm is an online makeup brand headquartered in Mumbai, Maharashtra. Founded in October 2017, MyGlamm is part of the Good Glamm Group— South Asia’s largest content-to-commerce beauty and personal care conglomerate.
  3. Plum: Plum is a science-driven beauty and grooming company that offers vegan and cruelty-free products.
  4. Purplle: Purplle is an Indian beauty and cosmetics e-commerce platform that competes directly with Nykaa. It focused on providing a range of beauty products and services to customers.
  5. Sephora India: Sephora, an international cosmetics and beauty retailer, has a presence in India. While it targeted a more premium market segment, Sephora still competed with Nykaa in the beauty and skincare space.

Example of a Failed Campaign Or Backlash from Viewers  

Social Media Backlash

What was the issue?

The brand has been found guilty by social media trolls for its condom and lube campaign. These products were given the ‘Navratri’ tag by the platform, which also noted that they were being sold at a discount as part of the ‘Navratri Sale’.

What backlash did they face?

Twitter users vented their anger on the social media site, saying that this was an insult to the Hindu celebration. Users have called for Nykaa to apologize for running this commercial in conjunction with the festival.

This ends our elaborative SWOT analysis of Nykaa. Let us conclude our learning below.

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To Conclude

Nykaa has become one of the largest platforms for meeting all the beauty, wellness and fashion needs of customers and has been successful in doing so. 

As we saw Nykaa has strengthened itself in providing products that are affordable and has been able to do well through its omnichannel mode but at the same time, it somewhere lacks in doing R&D which will help its competitors to take Nykaa’s customers away from it.

Nykaa has so many opportunities to become more successful in its venture. But there are many areas where Nykaa still has to work such as reducing the product cost by reducing the internal expenses so that it can be affordable for the majority of people.

It should increase the frequency of marketing digitally with the campaigns globally to create a better digital presence and to cut off the competition by influencing the minds of consumers by frequent advertisement. 

As most people are using digital media, every business needs to make a strong digital presence of its business thus digital marketing is very essential. If you are interested in learning and upskilling, check out IIDE’s 3 Month Advanced Online Digital Marketing Course to know more.  

We hope this blog on the SWOT analysis of Nykaa has given you a good insight into the company’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats.

If you enjoy in-depth company research just like the SWOT analysis of Nykaa, check out our IIDE Knowledge portal for more fascinating case studies.

Thank you for taking the time to read this, and do share your thoughts on this case study of the SWOT analysis of Nykaa in the comments section below

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Author's Note:

My name is Aditya Shastri and I have written this case study with the help of my students from IIDE's online digital marketing courses in India.

Practical assignments, case studies & simulations helped the students from this course present this analysis.

Building on this practical approach, we are now introducing a new dimension for our online digital marketing course learners - the Campus Immersion Experience.

If you found this case study helpful, please feel free to leave a comment below.

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Aditya Shastri

Lead Trainer & Head of Learning & Development at IIDE

Leads the Learning & Development segment at IIDE. He is a Content Marketing Expert and has trained 6000+ students and working professionals on various topics of Digital Marketing. He has been a guest speaker at prominent colleges in India including IIMs......[Read full bio]

3 Comments

  1. Dushyant Kumar

    Any job vacancy for Palwal location please contact me contact no 9306805367

    Reply
  2. Adishree Khamgaonkar

    As someone who follows Nykaa closely, I found the SWOT analysis to be an excellent resource for understanding the
    brand’s strengths and weaknesses, as well as opportunities and threats in the market

    Reply
  3. Pratima yadav

    This blog on swot analysis of Nykaa gives a very comprehensive and nuanced understanding of Nykaa’s position. Excellent work!

    Reply

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