Falguni Nayar on Distribution Moats

The decision to hold inventory rather than operate a pure marketplace was the central strategic choice: it traded gross margin for control over authenticity, a trade that mattered more in beauty — where counterfeit risk is high — than in horizontal e-commerce.

The post-IPO pivot toward Nykaa Fashion and the eBZ retail-store buildout reflected a preference for owned channels over a marketplace extension, preserving margin control at the cost of slower scaling.