Lead
By mid-2025, budget apparel chains such as Zudio and Reliance Trends have accelerated a marked shift in shopping habits across India’s smaller towns, offering branded looks at bazaar-comparable prices with a mall-style shopping experience. Shoppers in places like Sangli now find kurtas, denim and accessories priced mostly between $4 and $15 under air-conditioned roofs and with modern retail services. Zudio’s expansion — from seven stores in 2018 to about 765 and revenues crossing $1bn by mid-2025 — contrasts sharply with older rivals and underlines a broader wallet-shift from unbranded bazaars to organised value retailers. The transformation has buoyed fast-fashion growth while raising fresh questions about local retailers and environmental sustainability.
Key Takeaways
- Zudio expanded from 7 stores in 2018 to roughly 765 by mid-2025, with revenues rising from $12m to over $1bn in that period.
- Most items at these budget chains are priced between $4 and $15, making branded clothing accessible to tier-2 and tier-3 town shoppers.
- Zudio claims inventory turnaround times near 15 days, versus 45–60 days for many rivals — a key driver of frequent store visits.
- Trends and Zudio are shifting customer spending away from unbranded street bazaars to organised retail, a pattern analysts call a ‘wallet-shift’ rather than a clear increase in total consumption.
- India’s apparel market is estimated at $70bn–$100bn, with per-capita spend still below peers; expected healthy growth would be 12–15% in strong years but recent growth has been sub-10%.
- Online aggregators such as Meesho, growing at roughly 35–40% year-on-year, add competitive pressure to local shops alongside brick-and-mortar budget brands.
- The rise of low-cost fast-fashion amplifies environmental concerns: textiles are a leading source of dry municipal solid waste in India and global recycling into new garments remains extremely low.
Background
India’s retail landscape has historically relied on unbranded, informal markets and high-street family shops for everyday clothing. Over recent years, rising aspirations among value-conscious consumers — especially younger shoppers in tier-2 and tier-3 towns — have increased demand for contemporary styles at low prices. Large conglomerates and retail chains have seized the opportunity to bring branded, organised retail to places that previously had limited modern retail presence.
The entry of budget labels run by well-capitalised groups has reshaped distribution and merchandising. Brands use faster design-to-shelf cycles, standardised supply chains and aggressive store rollouts to reach deep into new zip codes. That approach mirrors international fast-fashion playbooks adapted for India’s price-sensitive segments, combining low price points with a curated, trend-led assortment.
Main Event
Scenes from Sangli illustrate the shift: Reliance Trends’ multi-floor outlet displays fusion kurtas, printed tees, denim and accessories alongside services such as trial rooms and loyalty scratch-cards. Customers like Alka, a geriatric care worker in her late 50s, report buying branded garments they previously only saw informally in bazaars. The in-store experience — air-conditioning, attendants and modern merchandising — is cited as a deciding factor for many shoppers.
Zudio’s rapid footprint growth is central to the story. Where it had seven stores and $12m revenue in 2018, the chain reached about 765 outlets and crossed $1bn in revenue by mid-2025, becoming the first Indian clothing brand to hit that revenue milestone. In contrast, Westside (Tata Group’s mid-to-premium chain) had 125 stores and roughly $220m revenue in 2018; it has since expanded but at a slower pace and lower relative revenue growth.
The rollout strategy has combined low price points with trend-conscious designs sourced from global fashion cues and fast inventory turnover. This has driven higher visit frequency: consumers encounter new styles more often, encouraging repeat trips. At the same time, local mom-and-pop clothing vendors face intensified competition both from these chains and from e-commerce platforms that aggregate low-cost sellers and ship nationwide.
Analysis & Implications
Economically, the phenomenon represents a redistribution of existing apparel spend rather than an immediate, proportional increase in total clothing outlay. Analysts describe a ‘wallet-shift’ where purchases move from informal vendors to organised retailers within the same household budgets. For conglomerates, the approach is profitable: scale plus rapid inventory turns allow margin capture even at low price points, and deeper geographic coverage increases market share.
For smaller retailers and local supply chains, the impact is mixed. Some vendors face margin and footfall erosion; others pivot by specializing, focusing on bespoke tailoring or hyper-local assortments that chains do not replicate easily. Online marketplaces add a second front, offering low prices with home delivery and amplifying price sensitivity among shoppers.
The environmental dimension is important and underlines a policy tension. India’s textile sector is a major contributor to dry municipal solid waste, and recycling into new garments remains negligible globally. The growth of low-price, high-velocity clothes raises questions about lifecycle impacts: faster turnover tends to increase volume of discarded garments unless recycling systems and circular-economy practices scale rapidly.
Comparison & Data
| Brand | Stores (2018) | Revenue (2018) | Stores (mid-2025) | Revenue (mid-2025) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Zudio | 7 | $12m | ~765 | >$1bn |
| Westside (Tata) | 125 | ~$220m | ~250* | ~3x 2018 revenue* |
The table contrasts rapid scaling at Zudio with steadier growth at an established mid-to-premium label. Exact current store counts for some chains may vary with ongoing rollouts; Westside’s store count is reported to have roughly doubled while revenue has grown three-fold compared with 2018 figures.
Reactions & Quotes
Retail analysts and shoppers offer grounded perspectives on why the shift matters and what it means for local economies.
Before and after each quote, short context explains the source and relevance.
“Even affordable fashion is a luxury in India’s tier-2 and tier-3 towns — pricing has been a key factor,”
Pankaj Kumar, Kotak Securities (retail analyst)
This comment frames why low-priced branded goods attracted new buyers. Analysts point to price parity with bazaars plus improved service as the combination that convinces shoppers to choose organised stores.
“Consumers are not buying much more; they have shifted purchases from mom-and-pop stores to branded outlets,”
Kushal Bhatnagar, Redseer Strategy Consultants (retail consultant)
Bhatnagar’s observation highlights the wallet-shift dynamic: retail share is changing even when aggregate apparel spend has not expanded at the same rate. Consultancies note that supply-side expansion, not just demand expansion, is driving visible growth in organised retail figures.
“I saw someone at work wearing it and I wanted one immediately for my daughter,”
Alka, customer in Sangli
Customers cite social exposure and aspirational cues as drivers of new purchases; the in-store environment and ease of purchase also matter for first-time branded shoppers.
Unconfirmed
- Exact quarterly revenues and margins for Reliance Trends are not publicly disclosed and were not available for direct comparison with Zudio for the same reporting periods.
- Precise national figures for store-level closures among mom-and-pop cloth sellers attributable solely to budget chains are not confirmed and vary by locality.
- The longer-term effect on aggregate apparel spend (true consumption uplift versus permanent wallet-share shift) remains uncertain and will depend on income growth and broader consumption trends.
Bottom Line
The rapid spread of budget fast-fashion brands such as Zudio and Trends demonstrates how organised retail can capture value in price-sensitive Indian markets by combining low prices, rapid design cycles and a modern shopping experience. For many small-town shoppers this means access to branded, trend-led apparel at prices once limited to unbranded bazaars, driving frequent store visits and high-volume sales.
But the story is double-edged: the shift redistributes spending rather than guaranteeing an immediate expansion of the market, poses competitive challenges for local sellers, and amplifies environmental concerns around textile waste and low recycling rates. Policymakers, corporations and consumers will need to balance affordability and access with measures to manage waste and encourage circular practices as the sector matures.
Sources
- BBC News (news article reporting on retail trends and interviews, primary source for on-the-ground reporting)
- Deloitte (consultancy analysis on fashion, sustainability and recycling estimates)
- Redseer Strategy Consultants (consultancy commentary on retail wallet-shift and market dynamics)
- Kotak Securities (financial services/retail research referenced for analyst commentary)