India’s retail market could reach ₹215 trillion by 2035, lifting retail-tech outlook
Financial Express highlights Eternal, Nykaa, Delhivery and IndiaMART as retail-tech beneficiaries of India’s expanding retail economy. Eternal reported Q3 FY26 revenue growth of 201.9% year on year, while Nykaa grew revenue 27% and continued expanding its physical, rapid-delivery and B2B networks.
What happened
Eternal (formerly Zomato) · India’s retail market could reach Rs 210-215 trillion by 2035. Eternal, Nykaa, Delhivery and IndiaMART are highlighted as
Key facts
- India retail market projected at Rs 210-215 trillion by 2035 versus Rs 90-95 trillion in 2025
- Eternal Q3 FY26 revenue Rs 16,315 crore, up 201.9% YoY; net profit Rs 102 crore, up 102.9%
- Eternal added over 200 net stores
- Nykaa Q3 FY26 revenue Rs 2,873 crore, up 27%; net profit Rs 68 crore, up 156%
- Nykaa operates 276 stores across 94 cities and serves over 4.8 lakh B2B retailers in 1,100 cities
- Delhivery Q3 FY26 services revenue about Rs 2,798 crore, up 18%
Why this matters
Retail-tech platforms should prioritize partnerships or acquisitions in logistics, quick commerce, physical-store enablement and B2B distribution to capture India’s accelerating retail digitization.
What to watch
- Quarterly growth in gross order value, active customers, repeat purchase rates and orders per customer.
- Contribution-margin trends after delivery partner costs, discounts, returns and dark-store or warehouse expenses.
- Rapid-delivery expansion pace, including dark-store density, average delivery distance and basket-size progression.
- Advertising, seller-services and B2B revenue mix growth relative to core transaction revenue.
- Consumer discretionary demand indicators, inflation, urban employment and festive-season spending.
- Competitive pricing actions by large marketplaces, quick-commerce platforms and omnichannel retailers.
- Policy changes affecting e-commerce, gig workers, data usage, foreign investment or platform commissions.
- Prioritize city-level density over national footprint expansion to improve delivery utilization and contribution margins.
- Use first-party consumer data to increase advertising, private-label, financial-services and seller-software monetization.
- Expand omnichannel capabilities selectively, linking physical stores, rapid delivery and marketplace inventory rather than building standalone offline fixed-cost bases.
- Invest in merchant fulfillment, returns management and inventory analytics as traditional retailers digitize operations.
- Maintain cash discipline and disclose cohort-level profitability to distinguish durable growth from promotion-led demand.