Nykaa appoints ex-Instamart COO Ankit Jain to lead Nykaa Now
Ankit Jain will head Nykaa’s rapid-delivery arm, Nykaa Now, while also serving as EVP of supply chain for Nykaa Beauty. The service offers more than 1,000 brands across 13 cities, with deliveries in 30–60 minutes.
What happened
Nykaa appointed former Instamart COO Ankit Jain as Nykaa Now business head and Nykaa Beauty supply-chain EVP. The rapid-delivery service offers 1,000-plus
Key facts
- More than 20 years of operations, planning and supply-chain experience
- Just over 1 year as Swiggy Instamart COO
- Nearly 6 years at Flipkart
- Over 20,000 people led at Flipkart
- Over 14 years at Unilever
- More than 1,000 brands available on Nykaa Now
- 30 to 60 minute delivery
- 13 key cities
- FY2029-30 expansion target
Why this matters
Hiring an ex-Instamart COO gives Nykaa valuable quick-commerce operating expertise and could improve its leverage in logistics, dark-store and delivery-platform partnership discussions.
What to watch
- Expansion in city count, dark-store footprint and stated delivery-pin-code coverage.
- Disclosure of Nykaa Now order growth, average order value, repeat rates, contribution margin or fulfilment costs.
- Whether the assortment moves materially beyond 1,000 brands and into higher-margin exclusive or premium labels.
- Brand partnerships offering Nykaa Now-only launches, samples, bundles or guaranteed rapid availability.
- Changes in competitive beauty assortment and delivery promises from Blinkit, Zepto, Instamart and Tata Neu/BigBasket.
- Evidence that Nykaa’s supply-chain investments are being shared across Beauty, Fashion and Nykaa Now rather than built as a duplicative network.
- Add city-level dark-store or micro-fulfilment capacity, beginning with high-frequency beauty markets.
- Expand 30–60 minute eligible assortment toward replenishment-heavy categories such as skincare, haircare, personal care, fragrances and cosmetics essentials.
- Use Nykaa Beauty’s supplier relationships to negotiate rapid-delivery exclusives, launch-day access and inventory commitments.
- Integrate Nykaa Now prominently into the main app with personalised urgency prompts, replenishment reminders and loyalty benefits.
- Test bundled economics: minimum-order thresholds, paid membership delivery benefits, sampling and cross-sell from premium beauty.
- Build tighter demand forecasting and inventory allocation between warehouses, stores and quick-commerce nodes to prevent stock-outs and markdown leakage.