The bustling marketplace of India is constantly evolving. For the last decade, e-commerce has been the buzzword. The rapid proliferation of the Internet and COVID-19 has pushed customers towards e-commerce platforms. India has the third-largest shopper base in the world. The growth of digital infrastructure has seen the emergence of a plethora of D2C brands. According to a report by RedSeer Strategy Consulting Indian brand creation is at an inflection point where brands are multiplying in numbers and most of them prefer online mode

SMB Connect‘s Bharat D2C meet-up is an enabler for the Direct-to-Consumer ecosystem. The meet-up sets out with an agenda to unite manufacturers, startup founders, logistics and delivery facilitators, exporters & importers, SMBs, and D2C Brands and help them collaborate by leveraging analytics, automation, and emerging techs to foster an environment to successfully launch and scale D2C brands.

The event saw several insightful sessions, panel discussions and Q&A rounds, around the future of the D2C sector and India’s D2C start-up ecosystem. It was a three-leg event with touchpoints in Chennai on the 16^th of April, Bengaluru on the 19^th of April and Delhi on the 17th of July. Each leg was a daylong event with insightful sessions. on Embracing Cutting-Edge Technology, Financial Empowerment, Optimizing Offline Operations, Expanding Networks, Building Digital Resilience, cultivating operational excellence, fostering a Strong Workplace Culture and Riding the D2C wave.

“The community is growing with a lot of businesses going directly to the consumers, we are very keen to connect with them and understand how they are doing it and expand the reach of the Bharat D2C platform beyond the metros in small cities. Young entrepreneurs are coming up with brands in smaller cities like Agra, and Varanasi, we attempt to bridge the knowledge gap between them and people in large cities,” said Sandipan Ray Founder and Director of SMB Connect.

The D2C meet-up Included eminent personalities, policymakers and industry leaders like Amit Singhal Founding Partner of Fluid Ventures, Pallavi Keshri Founder of Eyass, Deepak Goel Director of Digitally Next, Shubham Maheswari Founder of Being Chef, Vivek Loganathan of Social Growth, Mangal D Karnad Co-founder Fable Square, Arindom Roy of Epson India, Shanker Kr. Singh Vice-president and Sales Head Assidus Global Inc., Varun Jhaveri Managing Partner Evernile, Vittal Shetty Member of Board of Advisor Suco Bank, Indraneel Dutta product manager Novopay, Saibal Biswas SVP and Head of Marketing Medibuddy, Ajit Belani of Epson India, Saurabh Gupta Co-founder and CEO of VeriSmart Ai, Akash Snagwan Marketing and Strategy Lead ZYOD, Rajeev Banduni Co-founder and CEO of Growth Enabler Global, Mahesh Ramachandran Founder CIGS Tech Innovation, Samriddhi Bhattacharya Country Director, Small Business Solutions Dell Technologies.

While discussing the scope of the D2C landscape in India and the diverse categories of products that have emerged Sandip Hazra Director of PWC India noted “If you just think about that sometimes a consumer is not the customer for example any pet care product where the actual consumption of the product is being done by an animal, but the customer is someone who is paying. How the market has evolved, so many niche players who did not get a chance in the age of the marketplace earlier, where a certain category was emphasized more. But this is the age where uniqueness and a lot of distinctive value will fly high.”

According to the start-up intelligence platform The Kredible in 2023 alone as many as 177 D2C brands generated $4bln in revenue. Indian D2C startups have attracted over $5bln in funding across 520 deals since 2021.

Leading D2C brand Lenskart which accumulated $1.12bln in the last four years is a platform which operates both online and offline. Next followed by the online meat delivery platform Licious which raised $587.1 million. Other notable brands include The Good Glamm Group, Boat, Health Kart, Sugar, Fresh to Home, mamaearth and Bira.

Despite the scope and positive financial ecosystem, a lot of D2C brands are lagging behind in making a profit. The report collated by Kredilble took stock of 177 leading D2C Brands out of which only 24 companies were profitable, among them the top is Kushal’s, followed by Caratlane, Ozivia, and Rarerabit. It is worth noting that top brands like Good Glam, Licious, Bira, and Fresh to Home are all incurring losses.

While talking to SMB Connect about the D2C landscape in India, Pallavi Keshri founder of D2C brand Eyass said “There is a perception that D2C is digital. But in my perception, D2C is about reaching the customers. Yes, it is digital first, but as long as you reach your customers it does not matter whether it is online or offline”

According to a study by Redseer, 63% of people confirm online stock availability before going out to buy, and 95% of holiday shoppers researched online before visiting a store. It is evident that brands must evolve to an omnichannel approach as they scale. India will be a $2Tlns of retail market by 2030 yet 90% of it will be offline. Hence D2C brand must find a blend of online and offline to reach consumers.

In contrast to the established D2C players like Mamaearth, Licious, Sugar Cosmetics and Boat newcomers are adopting a mixture of online and offline approaches.

In a nutshell, the D2C landscape is booming. They are playing a significant role in job creation, technology adoption and supply chain innovation.  This boom can be attributed to the Digital Infrastructure growth, change in consumer behaviour and the pandemic. The government is also consistently pushing to create a positive ecosystem for the growth of D2C startups. All these have culminated in a new retail ecosystem challenging the traditional model of the marketplace.