The past few years are proof of the burgeoning D2C sector in the Indian business ecosystem. There is no dearth of the success stories of these homegrown D2C brands that have decoded the mantra of eliminating the middlemen and engaging directly with customers, altering the traditional business model in a big way.

A report by eMarketer in 2021 claimed more than 400 direct-to-consumer (D2C) brands operating in India today. It also said that the web traffic to D2C sites has doubled in the last two years.

Speaking at a recent industry forum, many trailblazers from the D2C ecosystem talked on their individual journeys, challenges, learnings and future focus. Deepak Gupta, COO, Bombay Shaving Company shared how they started six years back as a purely D2C-driven brand. "Our initial focus was on subscriptions. We thought men would come back but they didn't. We found out Indians do not like blocking their money on subscriptions. But we also realised that if you are able to please them, they will stay with you for long. We used D2C as a more personalised platform. We also made our platform a destination for gifting that made it easy for women to choose gifts for men."

For Pankaj Vermani, Co-founder & CEO, Clovia, it was perhaps a category-specific thing. "When we launched, there revolved apprehension around selling lingerie online. It wasn't a matter of choice whether we want to go online or offline. We chose online because the bodies change every 100 km. So, even the standard size varies. Our thesis was based on the need to disrupt the whole ecosystem. 

As for the challenges, our biggest one was to educate customers to try and buy lingerie online. To cross this barrier and focus on tier 2 and 3 cities was the next one. For us, giving a high-quality product that comes with price control, this intersection was important to achieve," he explained.

Heads Up for Tail's CMO, Samriddh Dasgupta, on the other hand, mentioned how they didn't really start as a D2C company. "D2C was more to fulfill a strong emerging need. The aspiration factor in pet-care category has emerged only now. For us, D2C became important when we fulfilled the lifesyle needs."

Talking of the challenges, he agreed how they are still struggling in tier 2 cities. "Along with educating them, we want to ensure absolute discoverability and solve for an audience who are looking for a better choice and who can trust us."

From a service provider's point-of-view, Archana Vohra, Director GBG Scaled and SMB India, Meta spoke on how the company is lending a hand to these D2C businesses to grow in India. Citing a few examples, she endorsed how Meta ensures better and a more personalised reach to brands. "83% of customers find a new brand on Meta. The idea is to use the space effectively to drive the brands' objectives. Further, we have also built an entire brand strategy for some brands on Meta that have helped them build value and bring ROI."