Joker & Witch opens its first physical store at Lulu Mall in Bengaluru — after 10 years of D2C, the next move is a "Shuffle" concept aiming for 20 stores in 2026, with half of sales going offline

Indian accessories D2C brand Joker & Witch opened its first physical store on December 23, 2025, in Rajajinagar, Bengaluru, at Lulu Mall Lulu Mall

The news: first store at Lulu Mall on December 23, and "Shuffle"

The new store sits inside Lulu Mall in Rajajinagar, in northern Bengaluru. The store concept name the brand put forward is "Shuffle"— built around the three words Explore, Play, and Self-expression, it foregrounds an experience design of "stop by, touch it, take a photo, and leave," rather than a purchasing experience. Dedicated fixtures for watches and jewelry, a Spin the Wheel zone, a constellation-envelope wall, a seasonal photo corner (decorated for Christmas at opening), a charms corner — every individual device is arranged with an eye toward being Instagrammable.

Chief Brand & Product Officer Maya Varma commented, "This store marks a new level in our journey and allows customers to experience the brand beyond the screen." It's clear the store is positioned not merely as a sales outlet but as a device for social media exposure.

Background: 10 years of accumulated online D2C, and "why offline now"

Joker & Witch is a brand that has built its business online, centered on accessories — earrings, necklaces, bracelets, watches, hair accessories, and small bag charms — with purchases via Instagram serving as a major inflow source alongside its own site and major marketplaces. Precisely because of the review base, repeat-customer base, and brand recall it has built up over nearly 10 years of operation, choosing a location with heavy family foot traffic — rather than a "city-center department store" — for its first offline outlet is strategic: a regional mall (Lulu Mall) Starting there is a design that draws in existing fans while mass-producing new touchpoints through the impressions of mall visitors.

Behind this lies a structural shift common across Indian D2C. India's e-commerce penetration is just 8% (as of 2024), and even by 2030 it is only forecast to reach 10%, leaving over 90% still offline. On top of that, D2C customer acquisition cost (CAC) on Meta and Google has, since 2023, kept climbing 25–40% a year. A strategy of growing through online alone is rapidly becoming unprofitable, forcing a shift toward offline stores' combination of high in-store conversion rates, high AOV (average order value), and the secondary effect of brand awareness.

Company-specific data table: Joker & Witch's store rollout plan

Local reaction: the accessories industry, investors, and social media

• Industry insider (Retail4Growth comments section / paraphrased)"With accessories, trying them on is the decisive factor. D2C fans already know the products, so a strategy of building experiential value in-store makes sense."
• Bengaluru resident (Instagram / paraphrased)"I happened to be at Lulu Mall and ended up in line for Spin the Wheel. It's a flow that even new customers won't just walk past."
• VC insider (anonymous / paraphrased)"The next yardstick for D2C is swinging back to 'how many stores do you have.' We're watching Joker & Witch's pace as a leading indicator for the category."

Impact for readers: 3 lessons Japanese brands should take from the Indian market

First, India's D2C shift offline has entered a phase where stores are opened not because "brand recognition already exists," but "to maintain brand recognition." As online CAC keeps rising, a store becomes necessary as a device to protect the retention of existing fans. When a Japanese accessories or apparel D2C brand considers entering India, at least 1–2 flagship stores alongside online need to be designed in, or the business easily ends up bleeding losses on online CAC alone.

Second, location choice is shifting from "prime real estate in major cities" to "regional malls plus family foot traffic". Lulu Mall is a Malaysian-affiliated mall with overwhelming visitor traffic in South India, and a brand choosing it for its first store is surely assuming a solid repeat-customer base. When a Japanese company builds its first real-world touchpoint in India, a suburban-style mall in Bengaluru, Hyderabad, or Kochi is increasingly the right answer, rather than a Ginza- or Harajuku-style approach.

Third, store design is shifting from "a place to hold inventory" to "a device for social media posts" —a complete shift. Joker & Witch's Shuffle is clearly structured to capture UGC (user-generated content), with the number of Instagram Story/Reels posts per visitor built in as a KPI. Working from the premise that this runs on a different dimension of thinking than Japanese companies' store-design philosophy (fixtures, flow, inventory efficiency), the criteria for selecting local agencies and design firms need to be rebuilt.

Ripple effects on the industry: comparison with Snitch, Lenskart, and The Bear House

The shift offline among online-D2C-born brands isn't a move unique to Joker & Witch — it's a major trend underway across all of India from 2024 to 2026.

Snitch has proven that "stores sell better than e-commerce," Lenskart has proven that "Tier-2 cities are exactly where the profit is," and The Bear House has proven "simultaneous multi-city rollout" — Joker & Witch is trying to follow the path these three companies blazed first, in the low-price-point category of accessories and jewelry— that is the essence of it. Because the price point is low, a design that earns through visit frequency and repeat business is essential, and the decision to place the first store inside a mall is consistent with this hypothesis.

As a related development, India's quick-commerce advertising market has surpassed INR 6,000 crore in ad revenue across Blinkit, Zepto, and Instamart, and the battle for online acquisition is intensifying further. Offline stores are being chosen as the answer to ease this dependence on advertising. At the same time, Charlotte Tilbury opens its first India flagship store in April shows that foreign brands, too, are beginning to share the recognition that "e-commerce alone won't sell in India."

Practical info table: Joker & Witch company data

Summary: 3 actions Japanese companies can take right now

What Joker & Witch's case shows is the conclusion that "even a brand that survived 10 years online cannot design its next 10 years without offline." For Japanese accessories, jewelry, and general-goods D2C companies considering India as their next expansion market, here are 3 moves available.

1. Research candidate regional-mall sites in Bengaluru, Hyderabad, and Kochi during this fiscal period: map out the available test-store slots and per-square-foot rent, mainly across the Lulu, Phoenix, and Forum mall groups. If a standalone store is too heavy a commitment, consider starting with a corner shop inside a local select shop.
2. Commission local designers for fixtures and staging plans dedicated to "the store as a social-media-posting device": consulting a Japanese store-fixture maker won't get you a Shuffle-style store. The priority is to first secure a designer or VMD firm with hands-on experience in India.
3. Build the retention effect of offline stores into management KPIs, on the assumption that online CAC will keep rising: beyond monthly offline sales, new Instagram followers per store, UGC post counts, in-store conversion rate, and the e-commerce repurchase rate of offline customers all need to be redefined as core D2C KPIs.

As a related article, the 42 Indian D2C brands named in Inc42's FAST42 2026 is also worth checking. It gives an overview of where fast-growing D2C as a whole is headed.

Sources: Retail4Growth (December 2025) / StartupTalky, "India D2C Brands Opening Physical Stores" / Indian Retailer industry analysis