When you want to sell your own products in India, the first thing you want to know isn't market size -- it's "where do we need to put it for people to buy it." Yet Japanese-language information tends to stop at market growth rates and consumer characteristics, without naming actual sales locations. So we counted, from official store guides, which malls the Japanese brands that have already entered India have set up shop in.
Uniqlo's official store locator lists 20 stores in India (as of September 19, 2026). Its first store in India was the Ambience Mall (Vasant Kunj) store in Delhi, which opened on October 4, 2019, and it has grown to 20 stores in about 7 years since.
| Area | Number of stores | Malls/facilities where it has opened |
|---|---|---|
| Delhi | 5 | Ambience Mall Vasant Kunj / Connaught Place (Hamilton House) / DLF Avenue Saket / Pacific Mall Tagore Garden / Vegas Dwarka |
| Gurugram (Haryana) | 2 | Ambience Mall Gurugram / DLF Cyber Hub |
| Noida (Uttar Pradesh) | 1 | DLF Mall of India |
| Bengaluru | 3 | Orion Mall (Brigade Gateway) / Phoenix Mall of Asia / Phoenix Market City |
| Mumbai | 4 | Inorbit Mall Malad / Oberoi Mall Goregaon / Phoenix Marketcity Kurla / Phoenix Palladium |
| Pune | 2 | The Pavilion Mall／Phoenix Avenue of Stars |
| Lucknow (Uttar Pradesh) | 1 | Lulu Mall |
| Chandigarh | 1 | Elante Mall |
| Zirakpur (Punjab) | 1 | Dhillon Plaza |
Combining Delhi, Gurugram, and Noida, the Delhi capital region has 8 stores. Of the 20 stores, 40% are concentrated in this area. The rest are spread across other major cities -- 4 in Mumbai, 3 in Bengaluru, 2 in Pune -- with Lucknow, Chandigarh, and Zirakpur as exceptions.
Of the 20 stores, only the Connaught Place store in Delhi could be called a street-level store; the rest are all inside malls or commercial complexes. Looking at the names further, they are concentrated among a few specific developers: 5 stores under the Phoenix group (2 in Bengaluru, 2 in Mumbai, 1 in Pune), 3 under DLF (Saket, Cyber Hub, Mall of India), and 2 under Ambience.
Because its stores are concentrated among specific developers, you can narrow down who to approach. However, unit availability, category restrictions, and leasing contacts differ by facility, so you need to go through the operating company and then confirm details facility by facility.
MUJI's store count in India is disclosed by Ryohin Keikaku in its earnings materials. According to the Q3 databook for the fiscal year ending August 2026, as of the end of May 2026 there were 3 stores. Over the 1 year and 9 months from the end of the August 2024 fiscal year to the end of May 2026, the store count has remained flat at 3, without change.
Care is needed in how you count. The official website's store locator returns 4 results, but this is a mechanism for listing "locations that support in-store pickup," not a list of stores. The fourth entry, K-Square (Padgha, Thane district, PIN 421101), is the address of a logistics park in Bhiwandi near Mumbai, with no floor, unit number, or mall name given. Counting this as a store gives the wrong actual number.
| Store | Location | Size |
|---|---|---|
| Jio World Plaza | Mumbai (Bandra Kurla Complex) | About 12,000 sq ft. The largest in India |
| Phoenix Palladium | Mumbai (Lower Parel) | 1st floor, West Zone |
| DLF Mall of India | Noida (Uttar Pradesh) | The only store in the Delhi capital region |
MUJI is a joint venture between Ryohin Keikaku and Reliance Brands, and opened its first store at Palladium in Mumbai in August 2016, entering India three years earlier than Uniqlo. It subsequently opened stores in Bengaluru and Delhi as well, but currently it has 2 stores in Mumbai and 1 in Noida, and there are no stores within Delhi city or in Bengaluru. According to the IR figures too, the most recent quarter saw one opening and one closure, for zero net growth.
MUJI entered three years earlier, yet there's now a gap of 20 stores versus 3. Neither company has disclosed the reason, so we'll stick to presenting the facts here. MUJI has leaned toward taking a larger floor area per store rather than increasing the number of stores, and its Jio World Plaza store in Mumbai is about 12,000 sq ft.
Centered on where the two companies above have opened stores, here is a list of facilities in the Delhi capital region where Japanese brands actually have a presence.
| Facility | Location | Character | Japanese brands present |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ambience Mall Gurugram | Gurugram (along NH-8, Ambience Island) | A large general-purpose mall | Uniqlo |
| DLF Mall of India | Noida Sector 18 | 7 floors, 5 zones (per the official website) | Uniqlo, MUJI |
| Ambience Mall Vasant Kunj | Southwest Delhi | Uniqlo's first store in India (opened October 4, 2019) | Uniqlo |
| DLF Avenue | Delhi, Saket District Centre | Part of the cluster of malls in Saket | Uniqlo |
| DLF Cyber Hub | Gurugram, DLF Cyber City Phase 2 | A dining- and entertainment-focused commercial zone in the middle of the office district | Uniqlo |
| Pacific Mall | West Delhi, Tagore Garden | About 600,000 sq ft. Around 50,000 people visit per day (Delhi Tourism). The nearest station is Subhash Nagar on the Blue Line | Uniqlo |
| Vegas | Delhi, Dwarka Sector 14 | A mall in an up-and-coming residential area | Uniqlo |
| Select Citywalk | Delhi, Saket | Opened in 2007. A leading commercial facility in South Delhi | (a former MUJI location; not listed in the current official locator) |
The fact that Select Citywalk, DLF Avenue, and MGF Metropolitan stand next to each other in Saket makes it an efficient place to visit on a research trip. Vasant Kunj is similar, with Ambience Mall, DLF Promenade, and DLF Emporio close together. If you want to see multiple price tiers in a single day, it's realistic to focus on one of these two areas.
Malls in India fall into two types: developer-owned and investment-fund-owned. DLF, Phoenix Mills, and Ambience are real estate developers that own and operate their malls themselves. Meanwhile, in May 2023, Nexus Select Trust listed as India's first publicly traded retail REIT. As of the end of June 2026, it had 19 facilities across 15 cities, with about 10.7 million sq ft of retail space and more than 3,200 tenant stores. Select Citywalk (Delhi) and Nexus Elante (Chandigarh) are part of this portfolio, and rank as the top two by asset valuation.
When looking for an event space or pop-up slot, if the same company owns multiple malls, you can start the conversation at the level of the operating company. That said, actual availability and terms are decided facility by facility, so you'll ultimately need to confirm with each mall's leasing contact.
You can tell which malls are gaining momentum from the opening announcements of the brands moving into them. Here are examples from Bengaluru since the start of 2026.
Uniqlo chose Phoenix Mall of Asia for its second Bengaluru store, and two months later the UK's NEXT announced it would also open there. A facility where multiple international brands overlap serves as a signal that it's seen as a place that can draw customers in that area. When deciding where to visit, you can use this kind of overlap as a clue.
If you want to gauge reactions before placing your product permanently, one option is to use a mall's event space. There are four things to check.
Some malls rent out a central atrium, while others only have kiosk slots in the corridors. The route for bringing in goods, the power supply, and whether you can bring in your own fixtures all vary in terms by facility.
Facilities next to office districts (such as DLF Cyber Hub) see people during weekday lunch and evening hours. Malls in residential areas see traffic concentrated on weekends. Any plan involving tastings or demonstrations needs to be timed to the days when the audience you want to reach is actually out and about.
If you're handling food for tastings or sales, in addition to the facility's own conditions, it becomes a matter of India's food safety approvals. If you're selling an imported product, an importer's license and locally compliant labeling are prerequisites. Import and licensing support we sort out the conditions by product.
India's foreign investment rules for retail are divided into fine-grained categories. Single-brand retail is automatically approved even with 100% foreign ownership, letting your own local entity hold inventory and sell directly to consumers (if ownership exceeds 51%, there's an obligation to source 30% of purchase value domestically from India). Uniqlo, which we counted in this article, takes this form -- its Indian entity is a wholly owned subsidiary of Fast Retailing. Formats that sell multiple brands together are subject to ownership caps and government approval, and wholesale (Cash & Carry), while allowed with 100% foreign ownership, is limited to business customers and cannot sell to consumers.
What actually matters in practice is that a Japanese company with no legal entity in India cannot be the selling entity at all to begin with. Neither the Importer-Exporter Code (IEC) needed for importing, nor a food import license, can realistically be obtained without a business that has a base and a bank account in India. If you're planning to sell at an event, decide first who will be the importer and who will be the selling entity. Realizing this only after securing your booth space will leave you stuck.
We arrange venues for tasting events and other events. This includes using our partner cafes in Delhi/Gurugram as a venue, choosing a location that fits your product and target customers. For more, see Tasting and other events. If you'd like to walk through sales locations in person and check them out, India market visit tour we can put together an itinerary for you.
Its official store locator lists 20 stores in India (as of September 19, 2026). Combining 5 in Delhi, 2 in Gurugram, and 1 in Noida, the Delhi capital region has 8 stores; there are also 4 in Mumbai, 3 in Bengaluru, 2 in Pune, and 1 each in Lucknow, Chandigarh, and Zirakpur. Its first store was the Ambience Mall Vasant Kunj store in Delhi, which opened on October 4, 2019.
3 stores. Ryohin Keikaku's earnings materials (the Q3 databook for the fiscal year ending August 2026) disclose 3 stores in India as of the end of May 2026: Jio World Plaza and Phoenix Palladium in Mumbai, and DLF Mall of India in Noida, with no stores within Delhi city or in Bengaluru. Note that the official website's store locator returns 4 results, but one of them is the address of a logistics site in Bhiwandi near Mumbai and cannot be used as a store listing.
Uniqlo has stores at Ambience Mall (Vasant Kunj/Gurugram), DLF Avenue (Saket), DLF Cyber Hub (Gurugram), Pacific Mall (Tagore Garden), Vegas (Dwarka), DLF Mall of India (Noida), and Connaught Place. MUJI has a store at DLF Mall of India.
Some malls rent out a central atrium, while others only have kiosk slots in the corridors. The route for bringing in goods, the power supply, and whether you can bring in your own fixtures vary by facility, so you need to check individually. When the same company operates multiple malls, as with DLF or Phoenix, starting the conversation at the level of the operating company lets you consider slots across multiple cities at once.
In Delhi's Saket area, Select Citywalk, DLF Avenue, and MGF Metropolitan sit next to each other. In Vasant Kunj, Ambience Mall, DLF Promenade, and DLF Emporio are close together. If you want to see multiple price tiers in a single day, it's realistic to focus on one of these two areas.
If you're selling an imported product, an importer's license and India-compliant labeling are prerequisites. If you're handling food, food safety approvals also come into play. Decide in advance where the selling entity will sit, too. Single-brand retail lets a 100% foreign-owned local entity sell directly (this is the form Uniqlo takes), but a Japanese company with no legal entity in India cannot be the selling entity and cannot obtain the Importer-Exporter Code (IEC) needed to import. How you proceed differs depending on whether you engage a local sales business or set up your own local entity.
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