There was a time when online shopping followed a fairly predictable path. You opened a fashion app when you needed clothes, a beauty platform when you wanted skincare, and a luxury marketplace when you were looking for something aspirational. Today, that behaviour is rapidly changing, and so are the platforms serving those consumers. India’s leading digital commerce players are no longer content with owning a single category. Instead, they are competing for something much bigger: a larger share of consumers’ everyday lives.
Myntra is strengthening its beauty business, Tata CLiQ is building a broader lifestyle proposition beyond fashion, and Nykaa continues to deepen its presence across fashion and accessories. What emerges is a clear industry trend of category labels becoming increasingly irrelevant. The new ambition is to become a lifestyle ecosystem where discovery, inspiration, shopping and loyalty happen within the same digital universe.
Shopping today is less about intent and more about inspiration. “More than 75 per cent of Gen Z and millennials now see social media as a primary discovery tool, while video and creator-led content are emerging as key drivers of trust and purchase decisions,” says Sunder Balasubramanian, CMO, Myntra.
For platforms it is no longer about making products available, but about creating moments of discovery that keep consumers engaged for longer. Myntra has heavily invested in content commerce. Through initiatives such as Ultimate GlamClan, KOL programmes and Style Squad, the platform has built a creator ecosystem of more than five lakh active creators. Today, social commerce contributes 10 per cent of Myntra’s platform revenue. According to Balasubramanian, users who engage with influencer and video-led content show a 10 per cent higher conversion rate and lower return rates. “The future of commerce will be shaped by the convergence of inspiration and shopping, where consumers are not only discovering trends through content but are also able to act on that intent seamlessly within the same ecosystem,” he says.
For Tata CLiQ, the ecosystem strategy revolves around offering consumers multiple lifestyle entry points while recognising that different shoppers have different expectations. Through Tata CLiQ Fashion and Tata CLiQ Luxury, the platform caters to both mainstream lifestyle consumers and luxury buyers. While the former seeks trend-led discovery, the latter values curation, exclusivity and elevated service. Yet across both businesses, one principle remains consistent. “Tata CLiQ leads with a storytelling-first approach across every consumer touchpoint, seamlessly integrating it into brand campaigns, content and commerce initiatives, the app experience and thoughtfully designed brand stores,” says Sumit Puri, VP – Marketing & Central Operations, Tata CLiQ.
That storytelling is increasingly being powered by technology. Tata CLiQ is leveraging artificial intelligence to personalise experiences, moving beyond traditional keyword searches towards lifestyle-based and look-based discovery. The aim is to make shopping feel less transactional and more intuitive. The platform is also betting on mobile-first content, video formats and creator collaborations, particularly in categories where education and trust significantly influence purchase decisions. Behind this ecosystem race lies another powerful incentive: loyalty. Acquiring customers has become increasingly expensive. Retaining them is where the real opportunity lies. A shopper who enters a platform for fashion but returns for beauty, luxury, accessories or content is ultimately more valuable than one who visits for a single purchase.
The growing sophistication of these ecosystems is also creating richer first-party data pools. As consumers move across categories, platforms gain a more nuanced understanding of intent, interests and future purchasing behaviour. “First-party data is quickly becoming the foundation of modern marketing,” says Deepshikha Bhardwaj, National Media Strategy Lead at Schbang. According to Bhardwaj, the shift is no longer about analysing what consumers purchased yesterday but predicting what they are likely to purchase tomorrow. “Predictive targeting allows marketers to be more relevant, timely and useful. In a world where attention is scarce, that relevance can be the difference between being noticed and being ignored,” she says.
For advertisers, this evolution is changing the role commerce platforms play within media plans. Historically, retail apps were viewed primarily as conversion channels. Brands would activate them closer to the point of purchase. Today, that thinking is rapidly evolving. “The journey has become non-linear from a consumer perspective,” says Gurpreet Singh, Head of Performance, WPP Media India. “There is no more siloed way of doing marketing efforts.”
Instead, agencies are increasingly treating platforms such as Myntra and Nykaa as full-funnel environments.
That shift is forcing agencies to rethink how audiences are defined and activated. According to Rekha Motwani, Senior VP Media at #ARM Worldwide, the future lies in audience-led ecosystem planning rather than category-based targeting. “Agencies will need to move from category-specific targeting to audience-led ecosystem planning,” she says. “A consumer who buys premium skincare, shops occasionwear and engages with wellness content is signalling their self-image, lifestyle priorities and spend propensity.” Motwani believes the opportunity lies in understanding these combined behaviours rather than treating every purchase category independently. As commerce platforms expand into lifestyle ecosystems, agencies can build more efficient and emotionally relevant campaigns by activating layered behavioural signals instead of relying solely on demographics or isolated category intent.
The media formats themselves are evolving alongside this shift. Shoppable videos, live commerce, creator-led discovery and editorial-style integrations are increasingly becoming part of the commerce experience, blurring the lines between content, entertainment and retail.
Also, Bhardwaj highlights that conversions and app installs will always matter, but they will only tell part of the story. “As commerce platforms become discovery destinations, marketers need to understand how consumers are engaging before they transact.” She points to metrics such as engagement quality, repeat interactions, category exploration, share of search and customer lifetime value as indicators of long-term platform health. She adds that the real question to ask now is: ‘If the consumer chose to spend more time with the brand?’
Motwani adds that with e-commerce penetration deepening beyond metros and into Tier II and smaller cities, customer depth and repeat behaviour will become more valuable than isolated transactions.
The future of commerce, therefore, may not belong to the retailer with the widest assortment or the biggest sale event. It may belong to the platform that best understands how consumers move between interests, passions and aspirations. Because people are shopping for a lifestyle.
