rarz02t India's D2C Enablers: The Tech Bringing Brands Old & New Ontine LATEST INC42PLUS WTF: STARTUPEQUITY #STARTUPSVSCOVID19 INFOCUS Inc4&+ The Ecommerce Enablers Empowering India’s D2C Rush Shanthi S Inca2 Staff 31 Jul'20 + 15 min read hitps:fincd2.comiplaybooks\inda sue8rarz02t India's D2C Enablers: The Tech Bringing Brands Old & New Ontine LATEST INC42PLUS WTF: STARTUPEQUITY #STARTUPSVSCOVID19 INFOCUS wwoonsy eanne we reauy-Koruse weurmereT software from Shopify, Magento, Ecwid, BigCommerce, Volusion, Wix and others © Multitudes of features such as customisable storefronts and cart analytics, multichannel sales, social media marketing hooks, shipping and delivery estimates, payment processing and payment gateway support have enabled the growth of D2C brands * Ecommerce software platforms have made a big mark in India where ecommerce acceptance is at an all-time high, but for brands looking to go the D2C way, pricing and subscription costs, integration with payment gateways, cloud computing and depth of analytics are the four crucial factors India's D2C Rush ‘As more and more consumer bri digital customers faster and Carve a unique identity, India’s -onsumer (D2C) moment is well an y here. With thousands of brands competing in the D2C space, will this be future of India's retail market? The internet has brought people closer than ever before and even in the pandemic, real-time connections were the one thing that made many lonely days and nights less lonesome. In the Indian context, the explosion of digital communication has been an ongoing process since 2016 when Jio arrived on the scene. But the penetration of mobile internet did not immediately result in the adoption of online services. Well, not in the manner that most would have expected. hitps:fine42.comiplaybooks\ind a-d2c-rushithe-ecommerce-enablers-empowering-indias-d2e-rish 2124rarz02t India's 02C Enablers: The Tech Bringing Brands Old & New Ontine LATEST INC42PLUS WTF: STARTUPEQUITY #STARTUPSVSCOVID19 INFOCUS or other retail outlets. This means a startup had to share margins with wholesalers, dis utors and retailers so as to reach the hands of the consumers. Other than the popular but unorganised door-to-door selling of soaps, detergents, clothes, tea, and others from 1970 till 1990s, the direct rel nship between the manufacturer and the consumer was almost non-existent and even when it did exist, it was more of a person-to-person relation than a brand-to- consumer. Thus, the ability to understand the target market and what consumers want was also significantly lower than what is possible digitally. Today, with the internet turning into a household commodity, we have seen the emergence of direct to consumer (D2C) brands and as a commerce model in the consumer arena. Homegrown players ce Ustraa, Mama Earth, Sunday, Sleepycat, Bombay Shirt Company, Bewakoof, Wakefit and Licious have made a mark for themselves. Post-Covid, the D2C model is seeing more takers and is being looked at as the future of Indian retail, especially when the consumer is getting more and more comfortable with shopping and exploring online. Entry Barriers Razed Innovative and personalised marketing, discounts and quick delivery are the critical factors that drive the ecommerce industry today and that's exactly what D2C brands are riding on. In particular, food brands have tied up with high- visibility online grocery apps such as Bigbasket or even hyperlocal players such as Dunzo to extend their reach. hitps:fine42.comiplaybooks\ind a-d2c-ushithe-ecommerce-enablers-empowering-indias-d2¢-rush 3124rarz02t LATEST INCa2 PLUS India's D2C Enablers: The Tech Bringing Brands Old & New Ontine WTF: STARTUP EQUITY #STARTUPSVSCOVID19 INFOCUS as Amazon, Flipkart have gone on to setup a very robust ecosystem that enables them to provide best in class services from delivery promise, customer service, returns etc, and have now seta very high expectation for any other D2C business to live up to that level of service,” said Ameve Sharma, cofounder and managing director of healthcare and personal care brand Kapiva Ayurveda. However, a decade ago, when India was still new to ‘ecommerce, setting up an online store meant a huge IT team working for months to create a seamless experience. Today, it is a matter of weeks or even days and anyone can do it, thanks to a ready-to-use ecommerce software offered by the likes of Shopify, Magento, Ecwid, BigCommerce, Volusion, Wix Stores and many others. With an average Indian today spending more than one and a half hours on digital platforms today, which is predicted to hitps:fine42.comiplaybooks\ind a-d2c-rushithe-ecommerce-enablers-empowering-indias-d2e-rish 4124rarz02t India's 02C Enablers: The Tech Bringing Brands Old & New Ontine LATEST INC42PLUS WTF: STARTUPEQUITY #STARTUPSVSCOVID19 INFOCUS choice when offline businesses came to a close. And, the .¢ of ecommerce platforms like BigCommerce and Shopify made it simple for them to move online quickly. Digital Buyer Penetration In India oss eeesa8 “On March 17, we closed our retail locations. We didn’t have an ecommerce platform and started to go into panic mode. ‘As we were putting our heads together, @groovecommerce ‘emailed us to say they were there for us. They built and launched a BigCommerce store for us in just 10 days — was the saving grace we needed. By early the following week, we had a ton of orders coming through!”, apparel brand Sara Campbell Ltd shared on Instagram. In India, there have been many similar experiences. Inchmasala, a chai brand that was supposed to launch a D2C channel in December 2019, got stuck due to the pandemic. A month ago, however, they went ahead and launched an ecommerce website in a matter of 15 days by choosing Shopity. “Shopify is an easy to use platform and a lot of friends recommended the same. They also offer modules on what you can do towards marketing ete,” said Apporwa Choudhary, cofounder, Inchmasala, a brand that started its D2C store on Shopify. hitps:fine42.comiplaybooks\ind a-d2c-rushithe-ecommerce-enablers-empowering-indias-d2e-rish 5124rarz02t India's 02C Enablers: The Tech Bringing Brands Old & New Ontine LATEST INC42PLUS WTF: STARTUPEQUITY #STARTUPSVSCOVID19 INFOCUS 6 “We have localised our product in a number of ways. We offer pricing and plans in Indian Rupees, and we give business owners in India the ability to accept payments online with local payment processors. We also offer our product in Hindi,” Nir Zohar, president & COO, Wix told /nc42, while talking about the Indian market. Wix has seen a huge spike in users signing up during the pandemic, globally. Some categories within 500K businesses using it registered over 780% YOY growth in April and May 2020 as compared to 2019. hitps:fine42.comiplaybooks\ind a-d2c-rushithe-ecommerce-enablers-empowering-indias-d2e-rish e124rarz02t India's 02C Enablers: The Tech Bringing Brands Old & New Ontine LATEST INC42PLUS WTF: STARTUPEQUITY #STARTUPSVSCOVID19 INFOCUS Pn 2 (all goo © | 2 & ie setvoustaredn ——_SaveCost vegrae win ——_tgrate vn sean 15:20 days ‘nasties Sooaieda 24) F | @ & o & & 2 @ 3 © cn Inch + Adding D2C Brands To The Cart Ecommerce enablers and software makers have looked to woo the new wave of digital businesses with special offers. Online shopping has entered a stage of hyper-growth, and businesses need the resources to meet this increasing demand. For instance, Shopify is currently extending many offers from partners across categories. Over INR 1 Lakh in partner credits can be saved with these offers from leading technology, solution and service partners such as Razorpay, Paytm, Shiprocket, Adyogi and Delhivery to name a few, claims the company. hitps:fine42.comiplaybooks\ind a-d2c-ushithe-ecommerce-enablers-empowering-indias-d2¢-rush 7124rarz02t LATEST INCa2 PLUS India's 02C Enablers: The Tech Bringing Brands Old & New Ontine WTF: STARTUP EQUITY #STARTUPSVSCOVID19 INFOCUS impacted the way we do commerce and retailers are moving online, quickly. Brands now want a scalable agile platform wherein they can launch their stores within a short span of time. They are actively looking for platforms that offer growth, support automation tools, innovative customer engagement tools and lower running costs,” Anuroop Krishnan, Head of Marketing at Shopify India told us. Some of WooCommerce’s consulting partners called WooExperts have also been offering Covid-19 relief. For instance, one of its partners, Bright Vessel, has reduced the hourly rate from $120 to $90 and 20% discount on maintenance plans. Wix recently introduced new ecommerce solution that provides merchants, entrepreneurs and retail brands of all sizes features such as customisable branded storefronts hitps:fine42.comiplaybooks\ind a-d2c-ushithe-ecommerce-enablers-empowering-indias-d2¢-rush 8124