Death by a Thousand Cuts

Back in 2017, when SUGAR Cosmetics was still mostly an online-only brand – I remember when in one of our irreverent flights of fancy we started fantasizing about the brand crossing the chasm between the digital and physical worlds of retail. It was tantalizing as it was petrifying – simply because we knew nothing about the vagaries of running a physical shop in the cut-throat battlefield of Indian retail.

I remember the words of one of our advisors who couldn’t have articulated it better:

“Setting up a physical distribution network in India for a young brand is death by a thousand cuts. The malls will charge you an arm and a leg. Well-funded competitors will undercut your prices. The on-ground team you will try to recruit will never take you seriously plus forget about making any money in the first 2 years. Why can’t we just be an online-only brand?”

Fast-forward to April 2019.

Charge, they did.

Undercut, they do.

And yet, here we are – delightfully drunk on the heady response to our first store in Kolkata that launched just two months ago – at the shores of yet another new beginning. Last weekend we connected two new dots in our constellation for hungry, foolish greed –

Greed to negotiate with India’s biggest malls.

Greed to stand tall against a floor full of heritage beauty brands.

Greed to earn the respect and love of customers, fans and competitors alike.

Proud of my colleagues who worked tirelessly to launch our 2nd exclusive brand outlet at Orion Mall, Bengaluru last weekend. If you’re ever in this part of the country, please consider this a personal invite to visit this labour of love.

Beer/coffee’s on me the next time we meet :)