Direct-to-consumer, popularly known as D2C brands are changing the face of Indian eCommerce and setting benchmarks with a new-age digital-first approach.
From fashion to food to décor to beauty, the D2C brands are riding high on the digital transformation wave, coupled with an increased internet penetration into the market causing a rapid shift in consumer behaviour.
According to an INC42 Plus report on the D2C market landscape, the Indian D2C market is expected to touch $100 billion by 2025 on the back of the projection that online shoppers in India will reach 350 million by FY25, up from 128 million in FY21.
Since India is a medley of many markets, the D2C brands can get hold of the fragmented consumer base by modifying their offerings as per local trends. Look no further than the ongoing COVID-19 era to witness the potential of growth in the D2C sector!
However, for the D2C brands to be successful, it is imperative to have a trustworthy payments partner who can ensure a seamless experience for their customers. In this blog, we cover the stories of three D2C brands who trusted Razorpay as their payment partner in their growth journey, especially during the tough times.
1. Exotic Flora
Exotic Flora is a one-stop solution for all gardening needs, with a focus on live plants. This includes a mix of more than 450 species of plants, ranging from flowering to kitchen plants. This D2C brand is solving the challenge of providing the right variety of a plant that a customer might need.
The unique thing about this business is the packaging, that sustains the plants for up to 20 days during transit.
“We designed a unique two-layered packaging that helps sustain the plants for more than 20 days, and are able to deliver fresh plants to the customers all across India, from J&K to Andaman & Nicobar Islands. Our success rate of plants is 95%, which means once the plant reaches the customer, it might appear dull but blossoms and regenerates once taken care of as per the detailed instruction manual we provide along with the plant,” explains Samvith Sunkara, CEO and co-founder at Exotic Flora.
“Ordering plants online is not the same as ordering clothes online. We are talking about a living thing here and hence it is important to assure that the plants live all through the entire transit period,” says Samvith.
The unique packaging technique used by the brand bore fruits during the pandemic especially, helping them scale the most.
“We have catered to more than 40k customers till date, out of which 28K plus customers came in during last one year,” says Samvith.
Founded in late 2018, this D2C business has been using social media marketing and SEO to reach a larger audience base, penetrating into the tier 2 and 3 cities as well.
“We have been able to build a relationship of trust with the customers with our unique packaging, exclusive varieties available with us and also by providing them with a seamless payments experience,” explains Samvith.
Razorpay helped us to reduce the payment failures and improve the conversation rates. And with the Razorpay Payment Links, we were able to collect payments from customers much more easily.
— Sunkara Das Teja, COO and co-founder, Exotic Flora
2. Postcard
Why is a food brand called Postcard, you might wonder! Well, the idea is simple – the places we visit survive in our memories by the local food and travel experiences, and Postcard makes the experience of the local food specialities of such places available and accessible to all.
“We think of a postcard when we travel. We always want to visit and taste the local flavours of the place. And this is what makes our brand unique,” explains Ashish Nichani, CEO & co-founder of Postcard.
Postcard was founded in late 2019 and saw a rise in revenue during the pandemic. “When we started off we focussed on growing our offline business but were going slow on the online front. When the pandemic hit first, the overall sentiment of the people was low and hence our sales were hit too. Logistics had also come to a stop. But after the first lockdown ended, we saw a shift in consumer behaviour – people were now not going into the stores and preferred to shop online. Hence, we moved from being an offline business to going completely online,” says Ashish.
The D2C brand saw not only young millennials but also older people coming to shop online. This is where WhatsApp marketing helped and Razorpay Payment Links solved the payment challenges for Postcard.
Razorpay has been a partner to our D2C growth journey. Our customers, particularly the slightly older folk are accustomed to the interface and reliability, which gives them the confidence to prepay their orders. As a company we particularly value the service support from Razorpay which enables us to grow aggressively.
— Ashish Nichani, CEO
3. Carpets of Kashmir
Kashmir Oriental Carpet Enterprises is a third-generation business founded in 1960. What started as a business of procuring and supplying yarns to the carpet industry has now expanded into a full-fledged business of manufacturing and delivering carpets to not only Indian but international customers as well.
Talking about the journey of the business through decades, Rohit Sharma, Managing Partner, Carpets of Kashmir, says – “We established our flagship store in 1985 at the World Trade Centre in Mumbai, showcasing world-class shawls and carpets. In the early 2000s, the retail operations were led by word-of-mouth publicity and referrals and we had many tourists and NRIs coming to the store, with Mumbai being one of the hotspots for tourist transit. But once other international airports opened across the country, footfall to our store decreased, and this is when we decided to go online with carpetsofkashmir.com .”
The D2C brand was an early adapter in the eCommerce space, and hence when the pandemic struck the world, they were able to embrace the change and challenges.
“We adapted to the online mode of business and this is where digitising payments came in. And when the pandemic hit the world, our D2C brand was ready with the tech and payments infrastructure in place,” says Rohit.
Due to the lockdown we were facing a challenge regarding the payments from our customers and that’s where Razorpay Payment Links came in. With over 80% of our business online we were able to seamlessly accept payments via Razorpay payment links and receive them almost immediately with their instant payment option. We’ve been accepting payments from our customers across 90 countries worldwide via Razorpay and eliminate the complex options such as wire transfers, etc.
— Rohit Sharma, Managing Partner
Are you looking for a zero-coding payment solution that eliminates the need of building a fancy app or a website, and can provide a seamless experience to your customers providing them with more than 100 payment options to choose from? Start your journey with Razorpay today!
We will be covering more inspiring D2C business stories in the next few weeks. Stay tuned!
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