Reliance is developing a beauty app. Opening in April is Tira’s first store

 Reliance Retail’s beauty app Tira is set to go live for customers in coming weeks after the retailer opened up the app for employees last month. Tira branded stores selling skin care and cosmetic products are set to open, too, with the first store expected to open in Mumbai in April.

Reliance’s entry is set to heat up competition in the beauty retailing market—that for long lacked organized retail chains, leaving consumers to shop for such products from mom-and-pop stores. However, things are different now—an uptick in demand for beauty and personal care products and an explosion of both online and offline retail has livened up the market.

Estimates suggest that the country’s beauty and personal care market is set to touch ₹2.2.trillion by 2025.

“We are bringing it (beauty concept) under the official umbrella of beauty. We have launched Tira for employees, a site called tirabeauty.com,” Subramaniam V., managing director, Reliance Retail Ltd, said on the sidelines of an event organized by industry body FICCI in the capital on Monday. The site will open for consumers “very soon”. The first store will come up by end March or early April in Mumbai, Subramaniam said.

Tira will house more premium brands; while another concept could be underway to cater to mass beauty products. “Tira will be the premium piece of it, non-premium piece we are yet to decide,” he said. To be sure, Reliance Retail already retails beauty and personal care products via its own large network of department store chains.

However, a dedicated beauty store concept is set to plug the gap in company’s retail portfolio—with interests in grocery, fashion and lifestyle, footwear, electronics, medicines and home goods.

The company wants to tap multiple consumer segments across price points selling low-price lipsticks to pricier skin care products. “We will have sufficient stores to take the beauty retail concept pan-India,” Subramaniam added.

Tira’s launch follows the retailer’s attempts to secure rights for global beauty retailer Sephora in India. However, as Mint reported, Reliance Retail’s advanced talks with Sephora did not materialize. The retailer is now close to opening its own stores.