Behind the closed doors of retail, the D2C e-commerce has gained prominence in the pandemic due to the business’ ability to directly interact with the customers, provide a customised shopping experience, receive customer insights and gain entire control of operations with no interference of middlemen like wholesalers, distributors and retailers. The D2C channel has led to the rise of several small and medium business to address most problems faced by the consumers that remained long unanswered by the big brands. In the quest to reach directly to consumers, conglomerates like Adani, Marico and Amul etc are too following the D2C suit.
India’s D2C landscape currently consists of more than 800 D2C brands and is poised to be a market worth $100 billion by 2025 according to a study by Avendus Capital. Given the statistics, and the quantum of enthusiastic investors willing to fund the D2C startups, these are the five trends that D2C businesses need to look for in 2022.
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India’s D2C landscape currently consists of more than 800 D2C brands and is poised to be a market worth $100 billion by 2025 according to a study by Avendus Capital.
The road ahead for the D2C businesses in 2022
Here are the top trends
The rise of the niche categories: The D2C segment has become a competitive segment and has been bringing new and innovative offerings to meet customer’s expectations and bring a point of difference. High disposable incomes and aspiring to lead a better life is giving impetus to customers to try out new products and effectively address their problems. Some of the niche categories include nutrition and wellness, sulphate-free personal care, men’s grooming range, women’s hygiene, eco-friendly and organic products and inclusive fashion.
Focus on enhancing the mobile apps: Mobile apps of D2C businesses are the first point of contact and will be a major factor in acquiring customers. With lesser footfalls in physical stores apps will play a pivotal role in offering an immersive, personalised and interactive shopping experience that in turn will retain customers and build a loyal customer base.
Expanding to new consumer cohorts: D2C businesses are increasingly collaborating with micro-influencers who are delivering content in vernacular to penetrate deeper into the lower-tier cities for decent growth as the buying behaviour of consumers in tier-1 cities has reached the saturation point.
Going Headless : This trend has nothing go to do with humans. Most e-commerce or D2C companies are looking for headless architecture meaning the front-end and the back-end are will be separated, this separation will allow more room for flexibility and endless customisations thereby creating ample opportunities for growth. With the advent of smartwatches and smart devices such as Amazon Echo and Google Home online purchases can now be made through such devices that do not have a screen. Keeping this in mind the e-commerce is adapting to headless architecture to enhance existing websites with new features and performance levels. They can operate the storefront with distributed servers irrespective of locations with a simple click.
Go Omnichannel: According to a survey by Accenture 91 percent of the consumers are likely to shop more from brands that have a shelf presence. Brands like Peesafe, Licious, Mamaearth and Wow Skin Science are aggressively extending their presence into the offline channel.
Lastly, in 2022 the brands are not limiting themselves to online storefronts and are increasingly reaching their presence offline to reach new markets and customers other than the metro cities. Apart, from that, the trends are also towards focussing on sustainable packaging and health-conscious products nudged by the outbreak of the virus.
