While the Indian market sees the emergence of multiple retail formats from fast fashion to premium boutiques, V-Mart’s relevance lies in its deep understanding of value retailing.
V-Mart Store
What began in 2003 as a retail venture to serve value-conscious consumers in India’s smaller towns has grown into one of the country’s most resilient and adaptive fashion retail success stories. Founded by Lalit Agarwal, V-Mart aimed to bridge the divide between urban and rural retail by offering affordable, durable, and fashion-forward clothing to consumers often overlooked by mainstream retail.
Fast forward to FY25, the company has clocked INR 3,254 cr in revenue, reflecting a 17% year-on-year growth from INR 2,784 cr in FY24. Behind this performance lies a transformative strategy: a conscious redirection to youth-oriented branding, expansion into omnichannel retail, and a strategic sharpening of its core proposition-value retailing.
A key driver of V-Mart’s recent growth has been its targeted efforts toward capturing the Gen Z segment. From communication style and product curation to store aesthetics, every aspect of the customer experience has been recalibrated to reverberate with younger consumers.
As Lalit Agarwal points out, Gen Z now makes up 32% of V-Mart’s customer base, up from 20% just a year ago. “We’ve worked on building a brand that appeals to their sensibilities; fashionable yet affordable, digital yet rooted,” he says. This shift has not only changed footfall dynamics but also elevated brand perception in a highly competitive landscape.
While the Indian market sees the emergence of multiple retail formats from fast fashion to premium boutiques, V-Mart’s relevance lies in its deep understanding of value retailing. Catering primarily to households earning INR 20,000– INR 40,000 per month, mostly across Tier II, III, and IV towns, V-Mart has crafted a retail experience that mirrors the aspirations and constraints of Bharat’s real middle class.
These consumers shop infrequently, two or three times a year making each purchase a researched, utilitarian decision. Affordability is non-negotiable, but not at the cost of style, quality, or cultural relevance. “They want something that lasts, fits local tastes, and doesn’t strain the wallet,” says Agarwal.
The company’s success lies in curating collections and store formats that reflect these needs right down to festival-driven inventory, vernacular store touchpoints, and the personalized service ethos of mom-and-pop shops.
Despite crossing the 500-store mark, V-Mart has made it clear that it’s not resting on its offline benchmarks. Over 92% of its revenue still comes from physical retail, but the company is laying down strong digital infrastructure, catalyzed by its 2023 acquisition of LimeRoad.
The move was both defensive and strategic. “COVID showed us that digital retail isn’t optional,” Agarwal notes. LimeRoad, with its tech stack and fashion-forward urban customer base, provided a platform for V-Mart to deepen its omnichannel play while gaining a foothold in digitally active markets. Interestingly, the company found a 60% overlap in consumer profiles, allowing for seamless integration.
While V-Mart watches the D2C trend with interest, it isn’t diving in just yet. “D2C is rising, especially in categories like personal care, footwear and boutique apparel,” says Agarwal. However, for V-Mart, LimeRoad serves as its digital interface with fashion-forward consumers and they are not looking to enter the D2C segment now.
Agarwal’s views on e-commerce and quick commerce are pragmatic. E-commerce, he believes, will endure but only for businesses that are creating real value and are on a clear path to profitability. “Businesses that are burning cash without a path to profitability will struggle,” he states candidly.
Quick commerce, often criticized for its thin margins and high burn, also gets a fair evaluation from him. “Don’t go by sentiment; go by the model,” Agarwal advises. He acknowledges that some players are fine-tuning operations, and with the right execution, the format can find sustainability.
Looking ahead, V-Mart is betting on its core strengths rather than new experiments. The company plans to add 60 new stores annually, tapping into over 3,000 underserved towns across India. With a revenue growth target of 17–18% for FY26, its expansion will be primarily organic.
No new acquisitions are on the table for now. “We see enough headroom for growth within our current model. The market is huge, and our blueprint is working,” Agarwal affirms.
V-Mart is no longer just a value retailer; it’s a value creator. In a country where affordability, aspiration, and digital discovery collide, the brand’s evolution stands as a case study in knowing your consumer deeply and scaling sustainably. As competition intensifies in every direction, from D2C upstarts to quick commerce experiments, V-Mart’s clarity of vision and execution will be worth watching.
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