In order to attract clients and outperform competitors in the rapidly expanding Indian beauty market, Reliance Industries Ltd.’s new business, Tira, is depending on artificial intelligence technologies that can recommend fragrances or cosmetics.
Tejas Kapadia, head of marketing at Tira, a year-old startup with 12 stores across India and a website, says the company also uses electronic vending machines in its stores to give away free samples of skincare products. Tira was launched by billionaire Mukesh Ambani’s conglomerate in April of last year.
In Tira’s first interview following its premiere, Kapadia stated, “Customers love that and they keep coming back for that.” According to him, the goal is to provide “a multitude of experiences” through “some form of AI.”
A “fragrance finder,” which provides perfume recommendations after allowing customers to sample a series of “cubes” containing various fragrance notes, is one example of an interactive in-store experience.
By clicking on a photo, its “skin analyzer” determines a customer’s attributes and suggests products that would work best for them. Customers can add a personal touch to their purchases by etching their names on perfume bottles or makeup boxes at its boutiques, which provide a complimentary engraving service. Additionally, the website offers skincare and makeup tutorials.
Haste to Get in
In the fight for the largest beauty market with the greatest rate of growth in the world, Tira is Reliance’s favorite. Over the past year, the luxury cosmetics retailer Sephora owned by LVMH Group and the skincare brand Kiko Milano’s local operations have been taken over by the conglomerate’s retail division, which is led by Ambani’s daughter Isha. Brands like Nykaa, the market leader at the moment, and Palette from the Tata Group are competitors of Tira.
In September, RedSeer Strategy Consultants and PeakXV released a report predicting 10% growth for the local beauty category between 2022 and 2027. This growth rate is likely to surpass the 7% and 5% forecast growth rates for China and the US, respectively.
For this reason, foreign companies are also pouring money into India. 2023 saw the launch of Selena Gomez’s brand Rare Beauty on Sephora India and a distribution agreement between Shoppers Stop Ltd. and Japan’s NARS Cosmetic, owned by Shiseido. This year, Rihanna debuted her makeup brand Fenty Beauty on Nykaa in India for the first time.
“This is an exciting time to be in the beauty and personal care industry,” McKinsey & Company partner Abhishek Malhotra, who is headquartered in Mumbai, stated. “People’s aspirations, awareness, and disposable income have all increased.”
Over the years, Reliance, under the leadership of the richest person in Asia, has diversified into consumer-facing and technology-driven industries in addition to its roots in oil refining. The latest addition to its growing portfolio, which also includes major refineries, a wireless communications provider, an internet streaming service, and Hamleys toy stores, is the over $32 billion Indian beauty and personal care sector.
Reliance’s Playbook Tira is advertised as “slightly premium,” according to Kapadia. She did not elaborate on if Tira will provide steep discounts to win market share. Tira offers brands ranging from American Smashbox and Estee Lauder to Korea’s Sulwhasoo and domestic rookie Re’equil. Reliance’s historical strategy in a number of industries has been to offer aggressive pricing in an effort to drive out competitors.
Without disclosing revenue or growth figures, Reliance stated in its results report for the December quarter that Tira demonstrated a “strong performance across various operating metrics including sales productivity, average bill value.”
While Kapadia claims that Tira has performed “phenomenally well,” he believes that if Tira wants to get a sizable market share, it will need to continue innovating to stay one step ahead of competitors.
So far, we’ve introduced these fantastic technological features. Naturally, a few other players are now becoming aware of them as well,” Kapadia remarked. “Therefore, we must keep pushing the envelope.”
