India’s beauty and personal care market is undergoing a major shift — and Myntra has positioned itself squarely in the middle of it. The platform’s beauty business is now growing at nearly twice the pace of the broader online category, clocking over 50% year-on-year growth in the last two months alone. Beauty now contributes one in every five orders on Myntra, fuelled by explosive adoption among Gen Z and Tier-2/Tier-3 customers.

What began as an extension of fashion has become a core strategic vertical. Beauty today brings in 30% of Myntra’s annual active shoppers and accounts for 20% of new customer acquisition. The shift is being powered by ingredient-led skincare, experimental formats, global labels, and a new generation of consumers who expect personalised guidance, immersive shopping and instant fulfilment.

In this exclusive interview with Fortune India, Nandita Sinha, CEO – Myntra, breaks down how social media, content-led discovery and tech-first personalisation are rewriting India’s beauty consumption playbook — and why she believes this is just the beginning of the category’s fastest growth phase yet.

Beauty in India has shifted from trend-based consumption to a more informed, ingredient-first approach. What changes in consumer behaviour stand out most today, and where do you see the next phase of growth emerging?

Over the last five to seven years, beauty has become far more intentional. Post-Covid, themes like health, wellness and self-care have pushed consumers to expand their beauty routines—from around five products earlier to nearly 10 to 12 today. Social media has made education, aspiration and experimentation extremely accessible, especially for younger audiences. Platforms like ours have democratised availability, enabling consumers across cities and income brackets to explore formats like serums, solid fragrances and actives-led skincare.

The next wave of growth will come from specialised routines, ingredient-based products and differentiated formats. Immersive, tech-enabled shopping journeys — from virtual try-ons to shade-matching tools — will play a major role, along with the continued rise of D2C brands building for gaps that still exist in the market.

Myntra Beauty is now growing at almost double the pace of the wider market. What factors are driving this acceleration?

Three forces are powering this momentum. Gen Z, which now forms 60% of our beauty user base, is highly experimental and spends nearly twice as much as other cohorts. Tier-2 and Tier-3 cities are also outpacing metros, with growth rates that are almost 50% higher. And finally, new segments like K-beauty, J-beauty, fragrances and derma skincare are witnessing strong traction.

All of this is strengthened by our content-led discovery ecosystem, speed through M-Now and M-Express, and immersive technology that makes the online beauty experience engaging and confidence-driven.

With one-fifth of Myntra’s orders now coming from beauty, how central is this category to Myntra’s long-term strategy?

Beauty is now a core pillar for us. It helps define Myntra as a complete lifestyle platform rather than only a fashion destination. It is also one of the strongest entry funnels for young customers—especially Gen Z and first-time online beauty buyers. It builds loyalty because it’s a high-frequency category, with consumers often returning every 60 days. And importantly, beauty customers show a significantly higher lifetime value.

Beauty brings in 20% of Myntra’s new users. How do you convert those first-time beauty shoppers into long-term platform users across categories?

The conversion starts with creating confidence and delight. Immersive tech tools like virtual try-ons or skin analysers, personalised sampling and premium delivery experiences build trust from the first transaction. Once a user is engaged, we use personalisation and cohort intelligence to surface products and categories most relevant to them—including fashion. Because beauty purchases are frequent, this relationship deepens faster, leading to natural cross-category migration.

With Gen Z contributing 60% of your beauty base, how has this shaped your assortment, marketing and overall experience?

Gen Z influences everything—from the brands we onboard to how content appears on the app. We prioritise ingredient-led, performance-driven brands and experimental formats like serums, lip oils, hybrid skincare-makeup and sunscreens. Our partnership with Sugar to co-create Molten, and our recently launched brand Be Mine, are both built specifically for Gen Z.

Gen Z also discovers through creators, not catalogues. That’s why our content engine—Glamstream, UGC and influencer ecosystems—plays a pivotal role. On the platform, the experience is dynamic, video-driven and personalised, mirroring how Gen Z consumes media.

Sixty percent of your beauty shoppers now come from non-metro regions. What trends are emerging from these markets?

Consumption patterns outside metros are evolving rapidly. Legacy national brands remain strong, but new-age D2C brands are driving what I call “affordable aspiration.” Interestingly, search demand for formats once associated with metro shoppers—like actives, lip oils and serums—now comes heavily from smaller cities.

Influencers and video-first content are playing a huge role in shaping awareness and confidence, and access is no longer the barrier it once was.

With over 4,000 brands live, discoverability can get overwhelming. How do you maintain curation and ease of navigation?

The answer is personalisation. More than half the platform experience today is personalised — from product surfaces to feed-based exploration. This ensures that first-time users don’t see the full scale; they see relevance. Our logistics and speed engine also help by prioritising what’s available fastest in a specific pin code. And finally, brands can target their most relevant user cohorts through our tools, which maintains hygiene and prevents clutter.

International beauty labels are growing faster on Myntra than other online segments. What’s fuelling this demand, and how important will this segment be going forward?

Premiumisation is a major driver. Consumers — especially urban and affluent cohorts — want to upgrade every step of their routine. Categories like fragrances, derma skincare and Korean and Japanese beauty are scaling quickly. We work with marquee global brands including MAC, Estée Lauder, Huda Beauty, Prada, Dyson and newer cult favourites like CosRX and CeraVe.

International beauty is strategic for us because it brings aspirational shoppers, higher repeat rates and strong brand affinity. M-Now gives us an added advantage, because customers can get these products with quick-commerce speed.

The online beauty market is seeing strong competition. What differentiates Myntra Beauty in this landscape?

Our differentiation lies in three strengths. First, Myntra is the only platform where a customer can seamlessly build a fashion and beauty look together. Second, immersive tech — whether it's VTO, content commerce or personalised feeds — makes selection simpler and more enjoyable. And third, speed: M-Now and M-Express bring quick delivery to premium beauty, something consumers deeply value.

You’ve emphasised technology-led personalisation as the future of beauty commerce. How soon will these experiences become mainstream, and how transformative will they be?

They’re already embedding themselves into mainstream behaviour. One in four active users engages with beauty content on-platform, and around 10% of platform revenue today is driven through content commerce. With nearly four million creators contributing across fashion and beauty, discovery is increasingly personalised, visual and insight-driven.

The next leap will come from conversational commerce — where guidance feels intuitive and human. As beauty in India moves toward becoming a $40–45 billion market in the next four to five years, online will play an outsized role, and we expect personalised, tech-led experiences to be at the centre of that growth.

Myntra may have entered beauty as a complementary category, but it now sits at the heart of the company’s strategy, customer acquisition engine and technological innovation roadmap. As younger shoppers embrace skincare literacy, experimentation and global formats—and as Tier-2 and Tier-3 India widens the demand base—beauty is emerging not just as a fast-growing vertical, but as a cultural shift in how Indians define lifestyle and self-expression.

For Myntra, Sinha says, this is only the beginning. “We want to lead—not follow—the next phase of India’s beauty evolution.”