Prior to its initial public offering (IPO), last-mile delivery firm ShadowFax has appointed Bijou Kurien, Ruchira Shukla, and Pirojshaw Sarkari as independent directors to its board. The company statement claims that the new additions would improve its governance framework and solidify its place in the changing direct-to-business (D2C) and e-commerce markets.
According to Abhishek Bansal, cofounder and CEO of Shadowfax, the new hires will contribute extensive industry knowledge and strategic perspectives that complement our goal of revolutionising third-party logistics (3PL) in India. As we continue to dominate the logistics industry, their advice will be crucial. The recently hired independent directors at Shadowfax have a variety of backgrounds in addition to specific knowledge in the logistics industry.
Kurien has worked in the retail, consumer durables, and fast-moving consumer goods industries for over 35 years. He was also a founder member of Reliance Retail and Titan Industries. He works as a professional advisor for startups and private equity funds at the moment. At the moment, Shukla serves as managing partner and cofounder of the STEM-focused venture capital firm Synapses.
She has over twenty years of expertise in investment banking, strategic consulting, private equity, and venture capital in India, the US, and Europe. Her areas of expertise include edtech, health tech, consumer internet, B2B e-commerce, and climate tech. Sarkari, who was previously the MD and CEO of Gato Allcargo, contributes his experience in the logistics industry. He currently works with Inflection Point Ventures as an angel investor. He was the CEO of Mahindra Logistics as well.
Business Operations of Shadowfax
Bansal and Vaibhav Khandelwal founded Shadowfax in 2015, and it offers last-mile delivery services to D2C brands and e-commerce platforms. In addition, it provides value-added services to its customers, such as package exchange, reverse logistics, and expedited delivery choices.
Among its customers are Mamaearth, Nykaa, Flipkart, Meesho, and others. The move follows the Flipkart-backed startup’s announcement last year that it would seek INR 2,500–3,000 Cr through an initial public offering (IPO). Through its public listing, the business is considering a valuation of INR 5,000 to 8,000 Cr.
Recent Developments at Shadowfax
The IPO-bound business collected INR 34.24 Cr on February 3 from its current investors, Nokia Growth Partners and Mirae Asset. The business has raised $213 million since its founding and is supported by investors such as Eight Road Ventures, International Finance Corporation, Qualcomm Ventures, and others.
In order to further broaden its capabilities by implementing extensive and bespoke delivery services throughout the nation, the Bengaluru-based startup last week purchased the transportation and logistics company CriticaLog India Private Limited. In the fiscal year that concluded on March 31, 2024 (FY24), the company reduced its net losses from INR 142.6 Cr in FY23 to INR 11.8 Cr, a nearly 92% decrease. During the year under review, operating revenue increased 33.19% to INR 1,884.8 Cr from INR 1,415.1 Cr the year before.
FreshToHome, a D2C meat firm, has joined the fast commerce trend by offering a delivery service in a few Indian locations that takes 10 to 20 minutes. Although FreshToHome typically delivers orders in 60 minutes, the speed of delivery will rely on how close the customer is to the closest dark store. Shan Kadavil, the founder of FreshToHome, told a media channel that the company started providing speedy delivery around two months ago.
Operations and Financial Outlook of FreshToHome
The direct-to-consumer fish and meat company was established in 2015 by serial entrepreneurs Kadavil and Mathew Joseph, and it is presently present in 27 cities in the United Arab Emirates and 160 cities in India. Additionally, it sells its goods through rapid commerce marketplaces like Swiggy Instamart and Blinkit, which are owned by Zomato, as well as e-commerce sites like Amazon and Flipkart.
In certain places throughout the nation, the startup charges a platform fee of INR 4 for every order in addition to the money it makes from product sales. To date, FreshToHome has raised around $377 million in investment. In its most recent round of fundraising, which was headed by Amazon Sambhav Venture Fund and included participation from E20 Investment, Mount Judi Ventures, and other current investors like Investcorp, it raised $104 million.
The D2C brand’s standalone net loss for its India operations decreased from INR 313.17 Cr in the previous fiscal year to INR 149.73 Cr in the financial year 2023-24 (FY24), a 52.18% decrease. Revenue increased from INR 24.91 Cr in FY23 to INR 369.55 Cr in the fiscal year under review, a 15X increase. FreshToHome faces competition from companies such as Zappfresh and Licious in the Indian direct-to-consumer meat sector, which is expected to reach a value of $119.36 million by 2030.
India’s Quick Commerce Sector has Become New Battle-Ground
Several firms in the nation are adopting the rapid commerce model at the same time as FreshToHome’s entry into the 10–20 minute delivery market. Giants like Flipkart Minutes, Nykaa, and Myntra have entered the market in addition to established players like Zepto, Swiggy Instamart, and Blinkit.
Amazon declared Tez and Myntra introduced “M-Now,” while Flipkart ventured into fast commerce with “Minutes.” Now, every major company is concentrating on the quickly expanding fast commerce business, due to the demand and broad adoption in tier-2 and tier-3 cities as well as metro areas.
According to the Tracxn study, the rapid commerce industry had a notable increase in funding in 2024, raising $1.37 billion in equity capital from seven rounds, primarily owing to Zepto, which raised $1.355 billion in three $300 million rounds. Redseer, a consultancy firm, projects a 40–45% GMV CAGR for q-commerce over the next three years. All players have now increased their services beyond only grocery and food to include toys, Dhanteras gold, cosmetics, fashion, and electronics, among other things.
In order to expand the brand’s reach across demographics and customer cohorts, actor and content maker Bhuvan Bam has joined direct-to-consumer (D2C) company Peppy as a cofounder and investor.
Entrepreneurs Devansh Agarwal and Shyamal Gupta launched the sexual wellness and pleasure company last year. It was entirely funded by bootstrapping until 2024, when it raised its pre-seed round from outside angel investors. With a current valuation of INR 50 crore, it intends to attract further money in the seed phase.
“Peppy, in my opinion, offers a chance to promote a much-needed shift in India’s views on sexual pleasure. Even though society has changed a lot, people are still held back by the taboo around physical closeness. It hinders candid conversations about personal needs, underscoring the importance of establishing forums for such dialogues,” Bam stated. Through his partnership with Peppy, he hopes to assist people in overcoming these social conventions and enabling them to confidently and easily embrace their path to intimacy.
Global and India’s Sexual Wellness Market
Among the angel investors in the pre-seed round were Bam, Ruchi Gupta, and Rohit Raj, the founder and CEO of BBKV Productions. According to the firm, it is now increasing its seed round in order to broaden its market reach and sales channels.
The global market for sexual wellness was assessed by Allied Market Research to be worth $20.6 billion in 2023 and is projected to increase at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 4.7% from 2024 to 2033, reaching $32.5 billion. By 2030, the Indian sexual wellness industry is projected to have grown from $1.15 billion in 2020 to $2.09 billion.
The increasing number of health concerns about sexual dysfunction and well-being is the main factor driving the sexual wellness market in India. This is because the prevalence of sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) like herpes, chlamydia, and HIV is rising nationwide. In addition, the Indian government is implementing programs and efforts pertaining to comprehensive sex education, which is improving the market’s outlook.
Positive government and independent non-governmental organisation actions encouraging the appropriate use of contraceptives are also driving the market. In addition, there are a growing number of direct-to-consumer (D2C) businesses in the nation that provide sexual wellness products and services, such as sexologist consultations and diagnostics, to help clients enhance their sexual and reproductive health through discreet product deliveries and free online consultations.
Peppy’s Operational Roadmap
In India, intimate wellness has sometimes been overlooked, although it is undeniable that having a satisfying sexual life is essential to one’s general pleasure and wellbeing. Peppy is breaking down boundaries and normalising conversations about pleasure with the distinctive inventiveness and interpersonal skills of Bhuvan and Rohit.
According to Agarwal, Peppy is about changing India’s perspective on intimate happiness, not just about selling goods. Peppy wants sexual wellness items to be as common (and guilt-free) as your favourite food or beauty products. With its superior quality and user-friendly, body-safe designs, the brand aims to make sure that everyone, regardless of age, gender, income, or background, can obtain what they need to feel good.
A recent poll by MMA India and Publicis Commerce found that 63 percent of direct-to-consumer (D2C) enterprises are not profitable at all, and 80 percent have not yet achieved profitability. Twelve percent of Direct-to-Consumer businesses have declared profitability, according to the survey on March 6, 2024. Twenty-five percent of those same enterprises claimed they don’t track profits since they’re part of bigger ecosystems. Businesses and customers alike have taken notice of the Direct-to-Consumer (D2C) model in recent years due to the improved convenience and individualization it promises in online purchasing. As conventional retail outlets were forced to close or experience significant interruptions due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Direct-to-Consumer brands unexpectedly benefited. New data, however, cast doubt on the viability of the once-booming Direct-to-Consumer market.
People began spending more time online to purchase and have their customized goods delivered to their doorstep after the COVID-19 pandemic hit. This marked the beginning of the rise of the D2C market. During that time, Direct-to-Consumer enterprises seemed to be having a blast. They provided user-friendly digital platforms and encouraged direct communication with customers. There was a spike in demand for D2C products as a result of consumers going online to fulfill all of their purchasing needs during the nationwide lockdown.
In addition, Direct-to-Consumer businesses fostered client engagement and loyalty via individualized service, tailored products, and focused marketing. New evidence reveals that Direct-to-Consumer businesses may not have been as successful as expected, even though the pandemic presented a fantastic opportunity for them to solidify their position in the market.
A growing number of D2C brands have emerged in the past few years. The result is a saturated market where new players are finding it tough to carve out a niche for themselves. The proliferation of products and services available to consumers has made it more challenging for upstart businesses to win their trust and business. A pricing war has ensued as a result, making it more difficult for upstart brands to compete with more established ones that can take advantage of economies of scale.
Total Addressable Direct-To-Consumer (D2C) Market in India From 2015 to 2025
Cost Plays a Crucial Factor
The rising cost of acquiring new customers has made it more challenging for D2C firms to do so affordably in recent years. Brands have to spend more money on ads to stand out from the crowd when the competition heats up. This can be particularly challenging for up-and-coming firms without the resources to compete with more well-known names in the industry.
Brands now pour a lot of money into marketing and advertising to attract new customers. Many Direct-to-Consumer firms are new and have little marketing budgets, so they have a hard time getting their names out there and reaching people through paid advertising. To combat the high cost of acquiring customers, Direct-to-Consumer firms should prioritize increasing brand recognition through organic marketing channels, influencer marketing, and content marketing. To reach their target market, brands need to establish a distinct visual identity, craft a compelling brand story, and use social media to communicate with consumers. A great way to increase exposure and fuel expansion is to cultivate a group of dedicated consumers who will go out of their way to promote your business.
Due to their smaller product catalogs, Direct-to-Consumer firms can increase their exposure and attract more customers by teaming up with similar brands. To further broaden their consumer base, businesses can investigate other distribution methods like online marketplaces or pop-up stores. If they could be more adaptable, they could better respond to shifting market conditions and discover unanticipated opportunities for growth.
Minimal Means of Distribution
Brands that sell directly to consumers may have a smaller audience since they distribute their products through their channels. Many brands have a hard time growing their consumer base, in contrast to the few that have become industry leaders. Particularly for firms dependent on niche markets, which could be tough to expand into, this might be a significant obstacle.
When it comes to general trade in India, distribution is not as straightforward as simply putting a product out there and hoping for the best. Many years have been spent by businesses on the development of their distribution systems, which have become sources of competitive advantage for the major players in the industry.
The Way to Renovate and Recreate
Despite the difficulties, the direct-to-consumer approach is not even close to being extinct. To overcome the challenges that direct-to-consumer firms are currently facing, they need to innovate and adapt. Putting money into a process that is completely seamless in functioning is one possible technique. There is a lack of clear strategies among brands, which may be the reason why they are unable to effectively control their costs at present.
D2C brands ought to place more emphasis on product quality. It is also possible that a major cause of a brand’s collapse is the poor quality of the product, which does not meet the buyer’s expectations.
This article has been contributed by Sanjay Kalirona, CEO and Co-founder, Gizmore.
In the rapidly evolving business landscape, the rise of direct-to-consumer (D2C) and e-commerce models has revolutionized the way companies connect with their customers. These digital platforms provide unprecedented opportunities for businesses to engage with their target audience directly and create lasting relationships.
However, with intense competition and an abundance of choices available to consumers, it has become more important than ever to implement effective strategies for customer engagement and retention. The success of D2C and e-commerce ventures hinges on their ability to engage customers effectively and retain their loyalty, ultimately driving growth and profitability.
Loyalty programs are an effective tool for customer retention. By providing incentives and rewards for repeat purchases, businesses can foster a sense of loyalty and encourage customers to continue buying from them. Loyalty programs can take the form of points-based systems, tiered membership levels, additional discounts, pre-booking of smartwatches at exclusive pricing, or exclusive benefits.
To design an effective loyalty program, businesses need to ensure that the rewards and incentives offered align with their target audience’s expectations. Customers should perceive the program as valuable and worthwhile. Additionally, the program should be simple and user-friendly, ensuring easy participation and redemption of rewards.
Seamless Customer Service
Exceptional customer service is a cornerstone of customer engagement and retention. Businesses must prioritize providing prompt and effective support across multiple communication channels. Customers should be able to reach out for assistance easily and receive timely responses to their inquiries or concerns.
Offering live chat support, responsive email communication, and dedicated customer support phone lines is essential for building strong relationships. Additionally, employing chatbots and automated systems can ensure 24/7 availability and provide immediate assistance for common queries.
Social Media Engagement
Social media platforms like Instagram, Twitter, and Snapchat have become powerful tools for customer engagement. Businesses can actively engage with their customers through these channels, respond to comments and messages, and address customer queries or issues publicly. Social media also provides opportunities for running contests, polls, and interactive campaigns to encourage customer participation and foster a sense of community around the brand.
By maintaining an active social media presence and engaging with customers authentically, businesses can create a positive brand image and build strong relationships.
User-Generated Content
User-generated content plays a significant role in building trust and credibility in the D2C and e-commerce space. Customers trust the opinions and experiences of their peers more than any advertisement. Encouraging customers to share their experiences through reviews, testimonials, and public posts can generate valuable content that showcases the brand’s value and authenticity.
Businesses can actively seek customer reviews and testimonials, leveraging them on their websites and social media platforms. Providing incentives or running campaigns to encourage customers to leave reviews can help increase participation. By highlighting positive customer experiences through UGC, businesses can attract new customers and reinforce loyalty among existing ones.
Email Marketing
Email marketing remains a powerful tool for customer engagement and retention. By regularly communicating with customers through personalized emails, businesses can provide updates on new products, exclusive offers, and valuable content. Segmenting the email list based on customer preferences and purchase history ensures that the messages are relevant and targeted.
An effective email marketing strategy involves crafting compelling subject lines, designing visually appealing templates, and delivering valuable content that resonates with the audience. Personalizing the emails based on the customer’s past interactions and preferences can significantly increase open rates and click-through rates. By staying connected through email, businesses can nurture customer relationships, encourage repeat purchases, and drive engagement.
Post-Purchase Follow-up
The post-purchase phase provides a valuable opportunity to engage with customers and foster long-term relationships. Sending a personalized follow-up message to express gratitude, check for satisfaction, and gather feedback demonstrates that the business values the customer’s experience beyond the transaction. It also provides an opportunity to address any potential issues or concerns the customer may have.
Asking for reviews and ratings is an effective way to encourage customers to share their experiences and provide social proof. By actively engaging with customers after a purchase, businesses can reinforce loyalty, resolve any concerns, and gather insights for continuous improvement.
Continuous Improvement
To ensure long-term customer engagement and retention, businesses must continuously seek customer feedback and act upon it. Analyzing customer data, conducting surveys, and listening to customer suggestions are vital for understanding evolving needs and preferences. By actively seeking feedback, businesses can identify areas for improvement and make necessary adjustments to their products, services, and overall customer experience.
Demonstrating a commitment to continuous improvement builds trust and shows customers that their opinions matter. Communicating the changes made based on customer feedback reinforces the value placed on their satisfaction. By consistently striving to enhance the customer experience, businesses can retain customer loyalty, attract new customers through positive word-of-mouth, and differentiate themselves from competitors.
Summing Up
In the D2C and e-commerce landscape, customer engagement and retention are critical for success. Engaging customers on a personal level, providing exceptional support, and leveraging digital platforms for interaction are key to building brand loyalty.
By incorporating these strategies, businesses can not only increase customer retention but also foster brand advocacy, drive revenue growth, and establish a competitive edge in the D2C or e-commerce space. Embracing customer-centric approaches is crucial to navigating the ever-evolving digital landscape and creating a strong foundation for long-term success.
Company Profile is an initiative by StartupTalky to publish verified information on different startups and organizations. The content in this post has been approved byARATA.
People around the globe are switching to chemical-free & non-toxic personal care products. The new trends in personal care brands show that over 40% of consumers are inclined to the products and brands that fit into their healthy lifestyle and contain wellness benefits without any chemicals.
ARATA is an honest personal care brand that offers chemical-free, plant-based skincare products for healthy skin and hair. Read to know about its founder, products, and the startup story of ARATA.
ARATA is a personal care startup that offers trustworthy and credible skin care and hair care products. The vision and mission of the Company are to make clean labels, high-performing, safe, and effective hair care solutions. Arata is an environment-friendly startup that uses not only non-toxic ingredients, for their products but its packaging is also 100% recyclable.
ARATA – Industry
The market and industry size is about INR 25,000 crores, which is a total addressable opportunity for hair care.
ARATA – Founders
The founders of Arata are Dhruv Madhok & Dhruv Bhasin.
Dhruv Madhok
Dhruv Madhok – Co-founder of ARATA
He has completed his graduation from the University of Southern California – Marshall School of Business. Earlier he has worked with KPMG and PVR limited. He is the Director of ARATA.
Dhruv Bhasin
Dhruv Bhasin – Co-founder of ARATA
Dhruv Bhasin completed his Master’s in Management from the University of Surrey, and B.Sc in Business Studies from Lancaster University.
ARATA – The Idea and Startup Story
The idea for starting up came when (Dhruv) Bhasin’s mother was boiling flaxseeds to make a natural hair gel for him to use. He sent Dhruv Madhok a sample, and he loved it. And that’s how they realized there is an opportunity for safe styling products. They also discovered that the opportunity is significantly larger, not only limited to styling but in general hair care and other categories.
Arata products belong in the beauty, personal care or FMCG CPG, and consumer packaged categories.
ARATA – Name, Tagline, and Logo
ARATA Logo
ARATA means fresh and new in Japanese. The founders thought this was very apt for their brand personality.
ARATA – Products
ARATA Products
The innovation and USPs are that the products are plant-based, non-toxic, vegan, cruelty-free, naturally derived, sustainable and inclusive, with a premium choice of ingredients and fragrances, product packaging, branding and design.
ARATA – Business Model
The business model is essentially selling the products online to the customer, directly to the consumers, on its website, and through different marketplaces.
ARATA – Customer Acquisition
The first hundred customers were all acquired from Google, Facebook, Instagram, and through advertising. And then, they scaled up through different marketplaces and through multiple online and digital campaigns.
The most important thing that has worked for them to attract and retain customers is focusing on niches and having a set target audience and not being all over the place in terms of the product offering.
The biggest challenges they face can be divided into two parts.
One challenge was raising capital during the pandemic as it was very hard.
And two, essentially trying to break through the clutter of being a digital-only brand.
So the challenge was how to look beyond performance marketing?
And now, they are doing that by creating engaging content, having an engaging social channel, and focusing on customer retention, CRM, content creation and the likes.
ARATA – Most Successful Marketing Campaign
The most successful marketing campaign till now has been the launch of the Arata Advanced Curl Care range with Taapsee Pannu.
ARATA Marketing Campaign with Tapsee Pannu
ARATA – Growth
ARATA revenue exceeds INR 2.5 crores per month. Its estimated annual revenue is INR 30 crores.
And the repeats are looking strong, with more than 50% of customers coming back every year to buy for the second time and more.
ARATA – Funding
They have received multiple rounds of funding. They received funding of INR3.5 crores in December, 2018. They raised INR 7 crores in 2021.
Direct to Consumer (D2C) is a great way for brands to penetrate the market without the involvement of a third party. Using this route Brands can directly communicate with their customers and understand their needs. Due to COVID-19, the D2C market has expanded and many brands are using this method.
Did you know the Indian e-commerce market will grow by 21.5% in 2022? The expected revenue by 2025 can be USD 188 billion. The market size of the online retail industry in India is expected to reach USD 73 Billion in 2022. This shows the potential of the D2C market in India. To stay ahead of the competition we have brought you effective strategies to expand your D2C brand worldwide.
Effective Strategies to Expand Your D2C Brand Worldwide:
If your customers are getting confused then it will impact your sales. Providing a large variety of products is a good thing, but you should simplify and categorise all your products properly. Eliminate all the unnecessary choices and focus on providing excellent products to your customers.
Understand what the majority of your customers want and make your products accordingly. You can also try combining some features of 2 products to deliver all in one product to your customers.
2. Use Social Media Effectively
Social media is very important in today’s world. According to research in 2020, 3.96 billion people are actively using social media in the world. This shows that if you use social media effectively, it will positively impact your brand. You should use the following social media strategies to skyrocket your sales:
Influencer Marketing:
Collaborating with influencers will increase your customer base. Influencers usually have a huge audience to whom they can convey about your product. If they give positive reviews about your product, people will consider buying it. If you are just starting, you may not have a huge budget for Influencers. In this case, you should collaborate with micro-influencers in your niche. Connect with the people who have a decent amount of followers and create brand awareness.
Use infographics and memes:
Memes have become a sensation and many people use Instagram just for scrolling memes. Delivering your brand purpose or your products in a meme format can increase your following. Users tag each other in memes, so if your memes are good, the reach of your brand will automatically increase.
Why are your products best? What benefits do you offer? Why should people buy only from you? We highly recommend you use infographics to answer these questions.
3. Provide Testimonials
You can ask your customers to speak about the brand. Instead of just you speaking, provide opportunities to other users as well. It is seen that people believe more what the other users say about the brand.
So, if a lot of people on social media and your website speak positive things about your brand, the goodwill of your company will increase. People will trust your brand more and your sales conversions would eventually increase.
4. Give Freebies to Your Customers
Would other users or your customers make content for your brand? Making content would only benefit your brand and not the customers. You need to provide incentives to your customers. You can conduct various contests, give shout-outs to your customers and give them prizes. You can follow this sharing strategy:
10 shares: Shout-out
25 shares: Discount Coupon
40 shares: Free Product
Like this, you can create different ways of rewarding your customers.
D2C Market in India
5. Offer Free Return Policy
Having a free returns policy ensures your customers that your brand is trustable and gives them the confidence to purchase from you. This strategy is adopted by many prominent e-commerce companies like Amazon, Flipkart, etc. If people are not familiar with your brand free and hassle-free returns will ensure that they will buy something from you. Ensure that you provide excellent customer support for exchanging or returning products.
6. Focus on Organic Growth
It is good to run paid campaigns but, you should essentially focus on maximising organic traffic. To increase organic traffic you should focus on providing a memorable experience to your customers. Give them a high-quality product. Make a unique website, and an engaging social media account to drive organic traffic.
You should opt for an omnichannel approach providing customers with a seamless shopping experience whether they are shopping from a desktop, mobile or any other platform.
7. Use an Effective SEO Strategy
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is still one of the most effective ways to generate traffic to a website. An effective SEO strategy will help you to rank higher in Google Search Results. If you rank number 1 on search results you will generate a lot of organic traffic.
Create an amazing user-friendly website with a good landing page to attract customers. Hire an experienced SEO Team or you can do SEO by yourself. This is one of the cost-effective solutions to expand your brand.
8. Provide a Memorable Experience to Your Customers
For any business, it is essential to maintain a good customer relationship. You should connect with your target audience and understand their needs. After understanding, it is important to uniquely fulfil them. Apart from providing them with a high-quality product, you must treat them well from start to end. Your after-sales service should be excellent.
Make sure that your team answers all the calls, if they miss any they should call them back. Answer all the emails within 24 hours and reply to all their queries politely. Take their feedback positively and work on your mistakes. Try to constantly improve your products or services. If you have made any mistake then apologize or explain to them why that particular thing went wrong. If they make positive memories with your brand then you will stay in this race for a long period.
Conclusion
As the D2C Market is growing rapidly you need to be alert and make changes to your business at the right time. The above strategies will surely help you to expand your D2C Brand. Add your creativity and come up with out of the box strategies. The Golden Rule is to connect with your target audience and provide them with a memorable experience.
FAQs
How do you market a D2C brand?
Hire micro-influencers, Leverage social media, try to simplify product choices, and focus on your customer’s pain points.
How do you build a D2C strategy?
Leverage technology, be up to date with the ongoing trends in the D2C market and employ different marketing strategies.
First things first, the brands and companies that produce their goods on their own premises and distribute them through their own supply chains and distribution centers are called the D2C brands. This is basically an abbreviation for the term ‘Direct to Consumer’.
These brands are flexible to operate in any given industry and they market their products through various ways such as e-commerce platforms, social media as well as retail stores.
An example of such a brand is that of California’s Daou Vineyards and Winery which manufacture their own original wine and distribute them both offline as well online. They have their own retail stores where they sell their wines offline for the customers as well as online, through e-commerce platforms.
Another example can be considered as that of Patanjali, the Indian origin ayurvedic brand founded by Baba Ramdev. They manufacture a wide array of their own original FMCG products which are mostly herbal and ayurvedic in nature and sell them through retail stores of their own brand, through other anonymous retail stores as well as through e-commerce platforms. This is how flexibly these brands work.
Given the fact that today social media is where people spend half of their day, not just D2C brands but almost every company is into social media marketing and studies have proven that it is a great place to market products.
People from different backgrounds can find their desired products with just one click of an advertisement that might have popped up. However, D2C brands mostly comprise new businesses and startups. Thus, social media marketing/selling is the most effective and efficient option for them. Let us have a look at how these D2C brands utilize social media for their marketing.
To Reach a Large Audience
It is important for brands to recognize their audience group. For instance, if a brand like boAt, which deals in audio products, mainly targets the young customer group, they will have to strategize accordingly. They will have to make social media posts that attract the young generations.
The D2C brands like boAt also endorse their brands through social media celebrities, YouTubers, models, actors, cricketers, and influencers to promote their products, who have a large follower base.
In this case, boAt has hired the Indian cricketer Hardik Pandya and the Bollywood actress Kiara Advani as their brand ambassadors who have a huge number of followers on their Instagram profile. This way they can attract the attention of their targeted audience group.
boAt Celebrity Endorsers
To Grow the brand
While social media marketing, it is important to know what we want to achieve for our brand. Whether it is an increase in sales or an increase in brand recognition. Depending on how the advertisements are made, the posters are designed.
D2C brands generally do not follow a mix of marketing techniques to uplift their branding or increase their turnover. The social media advertisements help the brands to follow a cost-saving mechanism in promoting their brand.
Proving Brand Authenticity
Social media is a place where you cannot lie regarding your products. Today the consumers are well informed and in a ‘caveat venditor’ business environment, D2C brands always get an upper hand once they resort to social media marketing. People believe them.
Brands have to be authentic about the information related to their products and this authenticity brings in a lot of customers. This is a form of confidence that the brands show and market.
For example, the American lingerie brand ThirdLove connects with its customers by creating campaigns where they capture unfiltered and raw footage of women of all shapes from different parts of the world. This is how they break stereotypes and they make people believe what they believe i.e., to sell comfortable lingerie for everyone. This is how brands can connect to their audience through their authenticity.
Moment Marketing
One of the trendiest ways of the social media marketing that brands use is moment marketing. Moment marketing is the process of marketing products on the basis of taking advantage of a recent event that has earned a lot of attention. One of the great examples of this is the topical advertisement strategy of Amul. They make their ads on the basis of trending topics that are mostly in limelight.
Amul Moment Marketing
Customer Feedbacks
There are many D2C brands that approach customers to share their experience with their products and put that up on their social media feed so that new customers and buyers can have an idea about the product and its quality. This is a common practice in social media marketing.
Points D2C Brands Should Remember While Marketing on Social Media
The Volatility Factor
The D2C brands that utilize social media for their marketing are very much aware of the fact that social media is a very volatile place and the trends change every now and then. What is trending today might not be trending tomorrow and the strategies have to be changed accordingly.
Also, it is important to note that the same strategy would not work for every brand. Different brands with different product backgrounds need to incorporate varying strategies to stand out from the others.
Social Media Criticism
Social media is an independent platform where people express their thoughts independently and without any fear. Therefore, any wrong step from any brand would make itself vulnerable to the audience and might receive a lot of criticism.
For example, the American fashion biggie H&M received a strong backlash in early 2018 when they featured an African American young boy in a green sweatshirt and captioned it as the “coolest monkey in the jungle”. The brand had to immediately take the post off and had to apologize to the audience since this was extremely offensive and racial.
Cultural Factor
The brands should be aware of the social factors before they market something related to cultural values. For example, Mcdonald’s once had created a campaign during the Halloween captioned “Sundae Bloody Sundae” and had received some criticism on Twitter and had to put it down.
This was originally related to a massacre in 1972 when some British soldiers brutally killed some of the unarmed Irish protestors. The original slogan “Bloody Sunday” relates to this massacre.
Therefore, the brands should be aware of what they are conveying to the masses.
Connection Factor
It is not important that the campaigns have to be polished and beautifully aesthetic always. Sometimes calling out ugly truths and touching the dirt around the world can also form a connection with the young and rebellious generations.
For example, Ugly is a brand that often calls out stuff that is going wrong around the world through its social media advertisements. This way they make a stand for themselves as well as for what they believe in. This makes the young audience connect to the brand and its ideology.
The article is contributed by Mangesh Panditrao – CEO and Co-Founder, Shoptimize.
Propelled by the incumbent pandemic, online shopping has gained immense traction over 2020 and 2021, and the positive ripple effect is still being seen in the e-commerce industry. Throughout this period, e-commerce and omnichannel businesses innovatively leveraged the digital avenue to manage their offline stores and sustain themselves in the pandemic-battered business environment. However, with the rising competition, the next phase of success for e-commerce companies will be led by a deep understanding of the target market and meaningful connections with the customer. This is where data comes into effect.
Significance and Benefits of Data in E-commerce
Data Assist Brands Stay Updated With Crucial Business Insights
The overarching goal of every business is to increase its revenue. To accomplish that, the brand must make the right decisions at the right time, which can be done efficiently by analyzing data. Insights driven from consumer-centric data can help brands understand how the company is being perceived by customers, how the brand is performing in different markets, and the improvements required to maximize profits. This allows businesses to serve consumers, grow revenue, and improve operations.
Enables Brands to Provide Personalized User Experiences
Understanding how customers interact with your company is critical to determining what appeals to them. As a result, e-commerce companies might leverage data analytics to better understand their customers’ needs and improve their end-to-end purchasing experience through personalization. For instance, various platforms use data to understand customer demographics and tailor their marketing messages to suit different cohorts of consumers.
Helps in Making Data-Driven Decision
Customers’ needs are constantly changing, and with many brands available, they have more options than ever before. And to keep up with the ever-evolving needs of the consumers’ D2C brands will need to focus on improving their capabilities. Hence, data-driven decision-making is necessary for success. Brands may track their customers’ preferences through data and analytics based on factors such as location, demographics, and online behaviour. An evidence-based data enables brands to make informed decisions and thoughtfully prepare to achieve their objectives.
How Brands Can Leverage Data to Increase E-commerce Sales
Converge Data From Various Platforms and Channels
Ever since doing business went digital, the amount of data it has been generating on the side continues to get bigger and bigger every day. Analyzing this data to make critical decisions becomes overwhelming for internal teams and marketing companies. It requires a highly specialized skill set and cutting-edge technology to gauge insights and aid quick, efficient decision-making. E-commerce analytics helps brands quickly and easily gather data in one place, break down data silos, and increase productivity, efficiency, and business agility.
Join the Dots Between Your Customers and the Numbers
Simply collecting data and not being able to use it results in wastage of money and time. After the data is collected, data analytics gives a detailed view of the big picture; it also looks at relationships and patterns among several of its components before delivering business insights. Hence, one way of achieving this is through unified data analytics. Unified data analytics is basically a process that merges data processing with cutting-edge artificial intelligence to deliver business insights and outcomes.
Know When to Take Action
Seasonality and trends can play a significant part in your efforts to provide your consumers with the most seamless experiences possible. As a result, it’s essential to consider and maintain a close check on trends to take timely action. Understanding seasonal patterns & trends might assist you in determining how things will pan out throughout the year. As a result, you’ll be able to focus on the right products that are available at the right time so that customers’ expectations are met.
Reading Data to Understand Websites Shopping Behavior Flow
To understand the website’s shopping behaviour flow, you can monitor how a customer lands on your site, browses through products, adds them to the cart, and checks out. Sifting through this data will help you understand your website’s purchasing behaviour flow and reveal where customers are more engaged and which paths lead to conversions. Furthermore, it will draw attention to what isn’t working. This will allow you to read your visitors’ minds by observing their behaviour and better cater to them.
Use Data to Track Your Product Performance
It’s critical to look at detailed product data for both marketing and sales tracking. It helps in understanding the price band for different consumer segments. How are individual products performing & figuring out the bestsellers and the low-performing products. This allows businesses to devise the marketing campaigns accordingly. Furthermore, keeping track of returns and refunds helps improve the product’s quality. This approach can help an e-commerce business improve its services and quality, increase revenue, and improve operations.
Conclusion
Data is critical for businesses to thrive in this digital age. So, it’s high time that companies start making data-driven decisions to succeed at online selling. Integrating e-commerce analytics across the customer lifecycle is essential for creating a competitive customer experience. These findings will help brands improve the discovery, acquisition, conversion, retention, and advocacy process.
The startups today are revolutionizing the entire world’s marketplace. The technology used by startups not only brings profit to the company but also eases up various activities for people.
Startups can be of various kinds. For example- lifestyle, food, small and large businesses, social, etc. One of the most popular and lucrative startups is a food startup. Food is something, the need of which will always remain in the market. So, taking advantage of this need is always a good idea for a startup.
Nowadays another concept is gaining great popularity. These are D2C (Direct to Consumer) startups. In this, the brands sell directly to the customers. Many food startups are now indulging in this model.
In India, we have now various food D2C startups. For example- Dotshot, NatureBox, Evo Foods etc.
D2C stands for Direct-to-Consumer. In simple words, D2C is a type of business model. So, a startup that follows this model is a D2C startup. There are various business models. These include B2B (Business to Business), B2C (Business to Consumer), C2C (Consumer To Consumer), C2B (Consumer to Business).
The D2C startups are gaining huge popularity in the present times. In this, a company or brand produces its product and also sells it itself. This creates a direct connection with the consumers. In short, it cuts the role of middlemen.
D2C model can work in almost every industry. The days when businesses were completely dependent on the distributors are gone. Now, the businesses depend on the producers as well. With various technologies and digitalization, the producers can also be their own distributors. Thus, a D2C model of business is super lucrative for startups. All this has helped the model to gain huge popularity in recent times.
What is a D2C Food Startup?
A food D2C startup produces products and sells them to consumers without middlemen. These startups don’t rely on other platforms for their distribution.
They establish their website or application for this purpose. Food D2C startups cut the role of middlemen or middle platforms. This enables a food brand to have a direct connection with the customers. Also, this makes for a lucrative model for a food startup.
The D2C food startups are becoming a trend these days. Keeping up with the trend, various D2C food startups have come up in India. These are:
Nature’s Box
Nature’s Box Homepage
Nature’s Box is a food-tech startup. The founders are Gautam Gupta, Dilpreet Singh, and Kenneth Chen. They started this with the D2C model. The company delivers natural snack foods to the customers on monthly basis.
With this startup, Gautam aimed to bring healthy changes in people’s life. Nature’s Box is a great place for people to find themselves a healthy snack.
Nature’s Box is a great example of a D2C food startup that has constantly evolved itself with the changing times. It started with the mere D2C model. Later it indulged in corporate subscriptions. Following the pandemic, it provided automated solutions for delivering personalized snack packs to corporate employees.
Dotshot
Dot Shot Homepage
Dotshot is a startup that deals in anti-hangover drinks. Founded by Viraj Patel in the year 2016. Dotshot is a drink made with herbs with a zest of lemon.
Dotshot is the ultimate solution for people who take regular drinks. This prevents them from getting any hangover effects the next morning. These drinks are anti-ageing, anti-oxidant.
This is another startup that works with the D2C model. It is the producer as well as the distributor of its products.
The Whole Truth Foods
The Whole Truth Foods Homepage
The Whole Truth startup came into existence in 2019. Shashank Mehta is the founder of the startup. The company produces protein bars. These bars are free from sugar, preservative, artificial flavoring, or colouring agents.
The main idea behind the startup was to promote healthy eating with easy-to-eat bars. This health food startup delivers its products directly to the customers.
In the future, the food-tech D2C startup plans to expand its food areas. They will be launching new food categories soon with ensured taste and quality.
True Elements
True Elements Homepage
The food startup manufactures plant-based healthy food items. The startup was founded in the year 2014 by Puru Gupta and Sreejith Moolayil. The company works with a Direct-to-Consumer model.
The company offers a variety of breakfast cereals, grains, raw and roasted seeds, snacks, and others. Their products are made with hundred percent whole grains.
This D2C food startup has gained huge popularity for its variety of healthy and tasty snacks.
Evo Foods
Evo Foods Homepage
This Indian food startup produces a vegan substitute for eggs. It was found by Kartik Dixit and Shraddha Bhansali in 2019.
The startup aims to give the optimum egg proteins through green proteins. They follow the D2C business model. More people now want to turn vegan. Evo Foods bring the egg proteins to the greens. This concept has gained the startup great popularity in the Indian market.
Gourmet Garden
Gourmet Garden Homepage
This Indian food startup was founded in the year 2019. The founders are Arjun Balaji and Vishal Narayanaswamy. The startup offers fresh and pure fruits and vegetables. These are grown with great care without any contamination or chemicals.
Gourmet Garden is another startup that has a Direct-to-Consumer business model. One can get fresh fruits and vegetables delivered to their doorsteps. You can order them on their official website.
The Pandemic and the Rise of D2C Food Brands in the Industry
The concept of D2C is not a new one. It has always existed in the market. But the pandemic gave a boost to the growth of D2C startups. Due to the pandemic, people were shifting online for their needs. Be it clothing, food, or other essentials.
During the pandemic, the markets got disrupted. The connection between wholesalers, distributors, and retailers could not function well. This made various brands realize the importance of making direct sales to consumers.
Many brands decided to keep the middlemen out and make direct sales to the consumers.
Conclusion
The entire marketplace got disrupted during the pandemic. Manufacturing companies kept on producing but the delivery issues remained. The connection and coordination between producers, middlemen, and consumers got shaken.
This is one of the main reasons that gave rise to the Direct-to-Consumer model. D2C model has now become super popular. More businesses have started to think about its inclusion in their business model.
The D2C model of startups removes the role of middlemen. This makes it perfect for both the brand and the customers. The customers get to have the products at a lower price. The brands on the other hand get to enjoy more profit.
FAQ
What is a D2C food startup?
A D2C food startup is a startup that produces products and sells products directly to consumers without middlemen. These startups don’t rely on other platforms for their distribution.
What are some of the top food D2C startups in India?
Dot Shot, Evo Foods, The Whole Truth Foods, and Gourmet Garden are some of the top D2C food startups in India.
Nitin Konde
