How an Indore Company is Using the 'Oneplus' Name to Sell Trimmers

India’s grooming market has thrown up an unusual success story, one that underscores both the scale of opportunity and the quirks of doing business in the country.

According to a LinkedIn post by Varun Gupta of Bombay Shaving Company, trimmers branded “OnePlus” have rapidly climbed the charts on e-commerce platforms.

In his post, Gupta noted that the label is now the third-largest trimmer brand online and ranks among the top ten overall in India, with an estimated 3–4% market share. “One out of 25 trimmers sold in India typically are OnePlus,” he estimated.

The twist: the multinational smartphone maker OnePlus has nothing to do with it.

Indeed, upon closer examination, the differences become obvious.

The Trimmer brand name is 'One Plus' (with a space) instead of 'OnePlus', the Chinese brand. The product does not carry a logo but as can be seen on the product's website (oneplustrimmers.in), the brand's logo carries OnePlus' familiar red hue but is distinctly different. And the company's address at the bottom of the website is 'Kiratech Innovations' with its registered address shown as Siddharth Nagar in Indore.

But these differences are not at once visible to the casual online shopper who may purchase the product thinking it belongs to the famous Chinese multinational.

As Gupta puts it, the dynamic is stark: “The Chinese giant puts people into the funnel," using the marketing term used to describe people at various stages of awareness about a product or brand. "The Indori businessman harvests them at the bottom.”

The episode highlights both the opportunities and legal grey zones that consumer brands face in India, which, Gupta lightly notes, “is not for beginners.”