Recently, a colleague of mine started looking for lip colours. Her online searches took her to e-tailing giant Amazon, beauty retailer Nykaa and fashion platform Myntra-yes, the Flipkart group company also sells beauty products.
On Myntra, she zeroed in on a nude shade sold by MAC Cosmetics, an American cosmetics manufacturer, called 'Powder Kiss Lipstick. She loved playing with a 'virtual try-on' feature. That's a trial room of the online world where augmented reality and virtual reality technologies are used. Over live camera or through a selfie uploaded, one can check exactly how a shade looks and feels.
"Myntra's virtual try-ons are great and addictive; the platform is so well-stocked; the search results are intuitive," the colleague told me.
But, she did not buy from Myntra. She bought the same lipstick from Nykaa.
Why? "I got a 420 discount. The listed price was 2,550. In addition, I also received a MAC cleansing oil free," she said.
Discounts work like magic in e-tailing and this is nothing new. For almost a decade now, Amazon and Flipkart have engaged in a battle to grab a customer at any cost. Many e-commerce companies, who couldn't sustain the ever ballooning costs of customer acquisition, bit the dust.
While that battle was mostly fought for mobile phones, other electronic items and household products, beauty is a relatively newer category. For many years, online beauty shopping was Nykaa's playground.
It's getting crowded.
Last year, the Tata group launched beauty retail platform Tata Cliq Palette; Reliance Retail Ventures launched Tira to sell 'mass and prestige beauty products'; Sephora, a global beauty retailer partnered with a subsidiary of Reliance Retail Ventures to develop beauty retail in India.
Myntra, which became synonymous with fashion shopping online, now sees beauty as its second growth engine.
Bu hikaye Mint Mumbai dergisinin February 14, 2024 sayısından alınmıştır.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber ? Giriş Yap
Bu hikaye Mint Mumbai dergisinin February 14, 2024 sayısından alınmıştır.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber? Giriş Yap
Why You Need To Sort Your Messed Up Sleep Schedule
For a healthy heart, having a fixed bed time is more crucial than the hours you sleep, claims a new study
Winter Likely To Be Mild With Fewer Cold Wave Days, Says IMD
Above-normal temperatures forecast over most of India from December to February
A little attention can build deep connections
To build a life filled with authentic relationships, be proactive, seek out like-minded people, and lend time and care to nurture your tribe
To master the deadlift, go the trap bar way
The trap bar may look clunky but it's a safe bet to practice a deadlift
Long live the revolution of life-altering AI technology
Synthetic biology could lead to several breakthroughs, including drugs that work much better on us
Mauritius is a strategic gateway for our collaboration with Africa
In Mauritius, India has a reliable and uniquely located partner that offers Indian businesses easy access to African markets
COP-29 cop-out: Clean power needs to gain further appeal
The world must help poor countries decarbonize their economies
Don't blame education gaps on policy settings
A divergence in public schooling might well have led India's economy to lag China's. But this should arguably be attributed more to complex social constraints than to any policy design
Our new political-economy consensus needs a rethink
The policies our parties agree upon are not reformist. The challenge is to chalk out an agenda that is
Honey, who shrank the chatbot? Even AI needs to count calories
Shrinkflation is old but what it's doing to artificial intelligence is new—if not all that surprising
