🍟 Waffles, Beer & Fries

It's Belgium this time

👋 Hello!

Welcome to mid-week D2C Pulse: A bite-sized newsletter where we cover e-commerce space in different countries every week. With over 10 issues already out, we are getting closer to completing our Global Jig-Saw! (Still a long way ahead)

Before we get to it, an important announcement for all our D2C obsessed audience - The Biggest confluence of D2C Founders is happening in Delhi with industry experts and founders discussing their journey, growth hacks, and more! All informal no presentations. You will see our GlobalBees folks there too. Know more and register here! (on April 9th)

🌎 Going Global: 🇧🇪🇧🇪

In today’s issue you will travel with us to the tiny, often overlooked, country that is named in the Guinness Book of World Records (for a country that has functioned without a government for the longest time) - Belgium! Beyond the pleasures of waffles, beer, and fries, Belgium now allows citizens to choose a 4-day workweek.

Diving into its e-commerce growth, digital commerce has accelerated with 4 in 10 Belgian online merchants starting their business in 2020. In 2020, online purchases reached a turnover of USD 10.4 bn, approx 31% of Belgium’s total enterprise turnover. The Belgian e-commerce market is in the acceleration stage with consumers increasingly growing their spending online.

Let’s take a quick look at a few of the many interesting Belgium start-ups that caught our eye:

👖 Jeans age like fine wine and HNST is using material from worn-out denim to make new pairs. It also uses 95% less water than usual brands in its manufacturing process. The pair has no microplastic and polyester; in fact, even the labels are printed behind the pocket to avoid putting unnecessary labels.

🔒 Shinn has come up with a solution to irritation in intimate areas after waxing, or dry skin/burning sensation after swimming/biking - an intimate oil spray with olive oil as the hero ingredient.

🎨  Wunder provides an opportunity for investors to co-own digital artworks and for creators to monetize and collaborate on their artwork. With the power of blockchain and NFTs, art creators and owners can earn income from the art pieces when corporations and hotels display their digital art in lobbies.

👩‍🎤 This is a unique one, Retrofashion is an online clothing store that specializes in retro, vintage, swing, and sparkly dresses along with shoes, handbags, and accessories. Woohoo! Always in for recreating Dimple’s clothes from the movie Bobby.

🎧 Loop offers ring-like earplugs that fit into your ear canal and allow you to reduce noise by 4x. Now, reduce noise in comfort & Style!

🥜 This brand called Drive Me Nuts will literally drive you crazy with its butternut offerings: gingerbread almond, hot chocolate peanut, and the cherry on top is its cool brand merchandise. Check it out here!

❓Quiz ‘o’Clock

1. Which motorcycle brand launched ‘LIVEWIRE’, its first production electric motorcycle?

2. This brand has launched models like Bandit, Intruder, Hayabusa.

3. Which cosmetics major has an augmented reality app called ‘Modiface’? Hint: 5 problems, 1 solution.

🗞️ Global Marketplace Updates

• Shopee, launched in India in October 2021 as part of an international push, and then took a U-turn ‘in view of global market uncertainties’.

• Zomato wants to pull off 10-minute deliveries. Wow! Mumbaikers are ROFLing to the idea!

• Shopify has entered the link-in-bio territory with Linkpop, enabling creators to launch storefronts and sell directly from their social page (linked to the Shopify store).

  • Link-in-bio has gained much traction, so much so Linktree raised USD 110 mn to keep developing new features.

• Cars, Mars, and now Media! Elon Musk is considering starting his own social media platform. As if spending all that time on Twitter wasn’t satisfying… on the other hand, actually maybe it was too satisfying.

• Snapchat is going big on Meta - and acquired brain-reading tech "NextMind" to make its AR glasses.

• The Head of Instagram says that adding hashtags does not increase views or distribution. Wait whaaaaa?

  

📊 Graph-iti Of The Day

There is enough and more coverage on B2C marketplaces in India. Here’s a quick reference shot for you to keep track of all the B2B marketplaces in India:

Also, for all the content creators in our audience… you’re welcome!

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PS: Quiz Answers:

1. Harley Davidson

2. Suzuki Motors

3. L’Oreal

That’s all for today! We hope you enjoyed this mid-week treat. If you liked it, give us a ❤️ below! Also, if there is any specific country you want us to cover next week, do let us know in the comments section.

Bye!