A woman walks past the showroom of fashion store Trent, flagship brand Zudio, in New Delhi, India, April 8, 2025. | Photo credit: PRIYANSHU SINGH
The bottom line is clear: more space means more products that customers can walk out with.
Lifestyle, the fashion and beauty retailer under Landmark Group, is expanding its store formats, especially in metropolitan markets. The company recently reopened its renovated Phoenix Marketcity, Whitefield store in Bengaluru, now spread over 52,000 sq ft. The company has an average store size of 40,000 to 45,000 sq ft in metros, while in smaller cities it is around 20,000 to 25,000 sq ft.
Devarajan Iyer, Executive Director and CEO of Lifestyle, explains the rationale business line“When you enter the store, these clusters come to life for the consumer. You immediately decide what you want to buy, or whether you want something different. The intention is to showcase these collections and bring them to life.”
Lifestyle has already completed the renovation of five stores and plans to upgrade another four stores this year. Eight more stores are scheduled for renovation next year.”
“Our focus is on the best-performing large stores,” Iyer said. Jewelry retailer Tanishq is also aggressively moving into larger stores, using expansions and renovations to introduce more categories and premium experiences.
“Every time we renovate or upgrade a store, we add new facets and categories,” said Arun Narayan, Senior Vice President of Tanishq. “It’s not just old wine in a new bottle, it’s many more options and newer categories, which improves the customer experience and fuels great store growth.”
Most Tanishq stores had an average area of about 3,000 sq. ft. Today, renovated stores start at 6,000 m², with the average trending towards 8,000 m². Many now have an entire floor dedicated to bridal jewelry, a category of high value.
“We have opened very large stores. Some expansions are because a store has hit a glass ceiling, others because they have reached the end of their life and obviously need to be upgraded,” Narayan said.
All-in-one stores
One of the clearest examples of this shift is Zudio, the mass fashion retailer under Trent. Pratik Dantara, Chief Investor Relations Officer and Head of Strategy at Nexus Malls, explained the logic: “We have seen this with Zudio. They previously had stores of 6,000 to 7,000 square feet with fashion only. Now they want 9,000 to 10,000 square feet, and 20 percent of the space is for beauty. The consumer should not have to go to another brand.”
According to him, the trend varies by market type: “In metro and tier-1 cities, brands are asking for bigger stores, something they didn’t even want last year. In tier-2 cities, they are willing to increase the number of stores instead.”
Across all categories – fashion, jewelry, beauty and affordable lifestyle – the statement is converging. Retailers believe that larger stores not only improve discovery and storytelling, but also provide better throughput.
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Published on November 16, 2025
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