The Business of Selling Products Nobody Wants to Buy in Public

Not too long ago, buying certain products in India meant preparing yourself for an awkward conversation.

You'd walk into a pharmacy, wait for your turn, lower your voice and hope the pharmacist understood what you wanted without making you say it twice. If there were other people standing nearby, it became even more uncomfortable. Most people weren't embarrassed because of the product itself. They were embarrassed because of how the buying experience made them feel.

For years, that awkwardness quietly shaped an entire industry.

The demand was always there. Relationships existed. Intimacy existed. Curiosity existed. But the experience of buying products around those needs never really changed. The shelves looked clinical, the conversations felt uncomfortable and consumers often preferred avoiding the purchase altogether rather than dealing with the embarrassment that came with it.

Today, that story is beginning to change.

A new generation of startups is looking at these categories differently. Instead of asking how to sell more products, they're asking a much simpler question: How do we make people feel comfortable enough to buy them?

That's where brands like Nooky stand out.

Based in Gurugram, Nooky isn't trying to reinvent intimacy. It's trying to reinvent the experience around it. From its website and product design to its communication, the brand feels more like a modern lifestyle company than a traditional wellness business. Whether it's chocolates, couple games, lubricants or curated date-night kits, everything is presented in a way that feels approachable rather than intimidating. That might sound like a branding decision, but it's actually a business decision.

People don't always avoid products because they don't need them. Sometimes they avoid them because they don't want to feel judged while buying them. Nooky understands that the biggest challenge isn't convincing people that these products exist. It's making the first purchase feel normal. And that's a much harder problem to solve.

What's interesting is that this isn't happening only in sexual wellness. Look around, and you'll notice the same shift in other industries. Mental health platforms have made therapy easier to talk about. Period-care brands have changed how people think about menstrual health. Fertility startups are making private consultations easier to access. Across these categories, the product isn't always the biggest innovation. The experience is.

Consumers today expect more than just a good product. They expect privacy, thoughtful design, honest communication, and a brand that understands them. That's why so many modern startups spend as much time building trust as they do building products.

Nooky is part of that larger shift.

The company isn't simply selling chocolates or wellness products. It's helping remove years of hesitation around a category that most people understood, but very few were comfortable discussing openly. In doing so, it reflects how consumer brands are changing across India. They're becoming less transactional and more human.

Perhaps that's the biggest lesson here.

The next generation of successful consumer brands won't always win because they have better products. They'll win because they create better experiences. Sometimes, changing how people feel is more powerful than changing what they buy.

Startup Unplugged Perspective

Every founder talks about solving problems. But not every problem is visible.

Some of the biggest business opportunities come from solving emotions, embarrassment, hesitation, fear or uncertainty. That's exactly what brands like Nooky are doing. They're proving that when you remove emotional barriers, people don't just buy more comfortably they trust more deeply.

Which other industries in India do you think are waiting for a brand that can make an uncomfortable experience feel completely normal?