How a lipstick that sold out online is attempting to convert one-time purchasers into repeat purchases, and what its path reveals about the most difficult statistic in Indian D2C.

Every beauty creator in India can teach you how to make your first sale. Run a creator campaign, offer a 20%-30% discount, get featured on Blinkit or Zepto, and watch a new SKU move. Almost no one can confidently tell you how to acquire the second.

That gap between trial and loyalty is likely the defining issue for Indian D2C beauty in 2026. Trust, according to category observers, is the most difficult hurdle: buyers are concerned about skin responses, overstated claims, poor shade matching, and if reviews are real. Industry experts watching the larger D2C ecosystem claim that acquisition-led growth has gradually become unsustainable, as growing ad prices and marketplace fees cut into profits, making retention, rather than acquisition, the metric that now distinguishes brands that grow from those that stagnate. Add a distribution map that now includes Instagram, Nykaa, Blinkit, and general trade, and the question shifts from “how do we get discovered” to “how do we get chosen again.”

RENÉE Cosmetics, a beauty and personal care business, has grown quickly enough to experience these issues firsthand. According to co-founder Ashutosh Valani, the industry gets it backwards.

“Loyalty is built on trust, not discounts,” Valani explained. “When a consumer chooses to repurchase a product because it has become a part of their everyday routine, that’s the strongest validation any brand can receive.”

Renée’s Growth Pillar

RENÉE made its reputation with the Fab 5-in-1 Lipstick, a single product that combined five finishes into one bullet, based on a simple insight: customers want more convenience and value from a single product. Valani explains that this feeling has subsequently become the company’s primary concept.”Our growth has always been driven by consumer-led innovation,” he explained. “We continuously listen to consumer feedback through reviews, social media, and everyday interactions, and use those insights to refine existing products and develop new ones.”

The scoreboard suggests the approach has worked at scale. RENÉE closed FY26 with an operating revenue of ₹440 crore, and Valani frames the brand’s evolution from “challenger” to “mainstream player” not as a single milestone but as a gradual accumulation of trust signals rising search interest, social conversation, retail presence, and direct engagement, with repeat purchase and recommendation as the ultimate test. “The strongest measure of brand health is when consumers come back to the brand, recommend it to others, and actively seek out RENÉE across channels,” he said.

Hero items serve as the retention engine

When you ask Valani what has truly motivated repeat behavior, he will tell you that it is not a loyalty program or a discount cadence, but rather product. The Pink Therapy Skincare Range, Midnight Kohl Kajal, and Bollywood Filter Collection are the brand’s hero franchises, serving as entrance points into the rest of the portfolio rather than standalone bestsellers.”A hero product is more than a bestseller,” Valani explained. “It’s a product that fulfills its promise, earns consumer trust, and serves as the foundation for a long-term relationship with the brand.” When customers have a positive first experience, they are more likely to return and explore what more we have to offer.”

That’s an intentional departure from the industry’s standard script, in which a first purchase is commonly made with a discount coupon and never returned. Valani contends that the difference between a brand that consumers try once and one that they stick with is determined by what happens after the sale, not before it: “Influencers, quick commerce, and promotions can certainly help drive discovery and encourage a first purchase, but that’s only the beginning of the consumer journey. What genuinely defines a brand is the experience that customers have after using the product.”

The complexity of second purchases stems from the fact that the consumer experience no longer follows a linear path. Valani’s answer is to treat consistency, not channel-specific tactics, as the loyalty lever.

“Today’s consumer moves seamlessly across multiple platforms, so brands have to think in the same way,” he said. “Whether it’s social media, marketplaces, quick commerce, offline retail, or our own website, the promise of quality, innovation, and value remains the same.”

On talent, Valani says the choice between a celebrity face and a creator isn’t a hierarchy but a question of fit: celebrities build scale and cultural relevance around a launch, while influencers bring the authenticity and niche-community trust that a national campaign can’t replicate on its own. RENÉE has also pushed into newer formats, including an investment in a microdrama series, a bet Valani frames not as a simple awareness play but as a longer-term effort to build emotional affinity. “It’s a powerful way to build recall, spark conversations, and create stronger emotional connections over time,” he said.

When asked how he would divide a marketing budget today, Valani described a “balanced mix” of performance marketing, brand building, creators, retail media, and retention — one that has shifted significantly in just three years, with more now going toward long-term brand building and consumer engagement as RENÉE has evolved into an omnichannel business.

What the industry still hasn’t resolved

None of this implies that the Indian beauty D2C market has cracked second-purchase economics. The structural challenges are real: quick-commerce platforms now charge commissions high enough to squeeze margins in impulsive categories like lip balms and micro sunscreens, which are designed to foster repeat purchases. Meanwhile, category-wide data reveals that trials have never been simpler to produce and tougher to convert into true loyalty, owing to the fact that so many firms are now using the same influencer-discount-quick-commerce strategy.

Valani’s framing implies that he understands this perfectly. Performance marketing, brand building, creators, retail media, and retention, he says, are now part of a “balanced mix” rather than any single dominant channel, a mix that has shifted significantly in just three years as RENÉE has grown into an omnichannel brand and begun investing more in long-term brand-building and consumer engagement over pure acquisition.

In a sector where the discount can always be matched and the next creative campaign can always be outbid, that shift from purchasing a first item to earning a second, may be the only long-term form of growth available. Valani summarized what he views as RENÉE’s next phase: innovation, accessibility, and customer experience, in that order, with trust serving as the connecting thread between all three.