Mon, 23 Feb 2026

Mon, 23 Feb 2026 How budget fast fashion is taking small-town India by storm

More Indians in small towns are now shopping for affordable brands instead of unlabelled goods in the bazaars.

* In Sangli, western India, geriatric care worker Alka browses through a collection of Indian ethnic-wear kurtas at Reliance Trends outlet.
* Budget brands like Trends and Tata's Zudio offer goods at low prices with improved shopping experience, driving growth in organised fast-fashion industry.
* Quarterly numbers for Trends are not publicly available but Zudio's growth has outpaced global high-street titans like Zara and H&M.
* In 2018, Zudio had seven stores across the country and clocked $12m in revenue; today it has expanded to 765 stores with revenues crossing $1bn by mid-2025.
* "It's a classic bottom-of-the-pyramid strategy - go big by going mass," says Kotak Securities about Zudio's success, adding that pricing is key factor.
* Consumers are shifting their purchases from mom-and-pop stores to branded outlets due to improved shopping experience and affordability.
* Budget brands like Zudio and Max have brought "trendification" of affordable fashion for the first time by trawling latest fads in Paris and Milan.
* The growth has come at a cost to local mom-and-pop stores on high street, which are facing competition from e-commerce websites like Meesho.
* India's apparel market is estimated to be between $70bn to $100bn but growth has been tepid, with spend per-capita lower than China, US or Indonesia.
* The rise of fast-fashion is accompanied by growing worries about the sector's ecological impact, including textile industry being third-largest contributor to dry municipal solid waste in India.
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