Gen Z is 60% of Myntra beauty buyers, half beyond metros: report

Shoppers aged 14 to 29 now make up 60% of the people buying beauty products on the fashion platform Myntra, and half of them live in Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities, according to a report the company released on October 19, 2026. The report, titled "Beauty in the Age of Gen Z", is based on Myntra's own buying, demand and search data from August 2025 to August 2026. It also says the platform's direct-to-consumer (D2C) beauty segment has grown 68% so far in the 2025-26 financial year.

India's beauty market has long been shaped by a few large brands and by what was available in city shops. Online platforms have changed that. A young woman in a district town can now order the same serum or sunscreen as a shopper in Mumbai, often on the day she reads about it. The report's finding that half of Myntra's young beauty buyers are outside the big metros shows how far that shift has gone.

The figures also point to who is building the industry. Direct-to-consumer brands sell mainly through their own websites and online marketplaces rather than through distributors and shops. Myntra says it hosts about 700 such pure-play beauty brands and around 3,000 emerging D2C names. If young shoppers are more willing to try such brands, as Myntra says, that widens the market for small founders who could never afford national shelf space.

The habits described in the report are practical. Young buyers keep their routines short, with about 80% sticking to three products, and they search by ingredient, naming items such as Centella asiatica, a plant extract common in Korean skincare, and azelaic acid, an acid used for uneven skin tone. Sunscreen has become a year-round product rather than a summer one. The 200% jump in K-beauty demand shows that Korean products have moved from a niche to a mainstream choice for young buyers on the platform.

A word of caution: this is a company's own data about its own customers. It shows what is happening on one large platform, not the whole Indian market, and the company has an interest in showing growth. Industry reports cited in coverage put India's beauty market at about $23 billion, rising to about $40 billion, and note that Indians spend about $15 per person a year on beauty, against $38 in China and $383 in the United States.

Short-term: Beauty brands, especially smaller D2C labels, are likely to put more effort into sunscreen, ingredient-led skincare and Korean-style products during the festive season, and to target buyers in smaller cities.

Long-term: If young shoppers in Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities keep buying online, more of India's beauty spending may move to platforms and to home-grown brands, giving small founders and manufacturers a bigger share of the market.

Who is affected: Young shoppers across India, D2C beauty founders, established beauty companies, Korean brands entering India, and skincare professionals who advise on ingredient-led products.

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