Flip Flop Bounce 😵‍💫

Instagram’s Flip Flop, E-comm policy, G for Genius fudge and July marketing trends

Hey👋Good morning!

A big shout out to our readers who signed up last week.

While we tried to get through the sale days’ hustle and the rain-induced traffic in the past 7 days, here’s an interesting note on what someone can accomplish in 11 days.😲

What’s sizzling hot? 🔥

⚔️Instagram’s Flip Flop

On Wednesday, Zuckerberg announced that recommended posts and accounts in feeds currently account for about 15 percent of what you see when you browse Facebook, (an even higher percentage on Instagram) and that by the end of 2023, that figure will be around 30 percent.

What does this mean? This tweet says it all…

Meg Watson @msmegwatson

The new Instagram update really understood what I was looking for: - none of my friends’ content - reposted TikToks from meme accounts I do not follow - 100x more ads - everything played at full volume against my will

Net-net, content from the social graph will be impacted with Meta rearchitecting FB and IG to place an emphasis on short videos and posts that its system recommends to people.“What’s the use of building followers now?” asked many social media managers over multiple beers. D2C brands now need to spend more and up their content game to come up more frequently in the feeds.

Wait! This story is not over!

To top this, Meta also tested some features that opened full-screen photos and images that caused another backlash. Luckily, Insta is rolling back its plans to look more like TikTok after criticism from the influencer sisters. Go Figure.🤷

👮‍♂️Ecommerce Policy Getting Stricter

With the upcoming e-commerce policy, the government is looking to bring a proper distinction between the marketplace model and the inventory-based model of conducting sales online.

Under the inventory-based model, the inventory of goods and services is owned by the e-commerce entity itself and is sold to the consumers directly. The marketplace model means the e-comm entity is simply providing a digital platform and acting as a facilitator between the buyers and sellers. New e-commerce policy will allow only third party items on e-marketplaces.

These models were already made a part of Indian Foreign Regulations some years back, that eventually led to break up goliath B2B players like Cloudtail and E-Retail.

🚀There’s No Stopping Amazon

Amazon sales increased 7.2% to $121.2 billion in the period ended June 30. Amazon’s advertising services were at $8.76 billion for the quarter, an increase of 18% YoY. With online sales slowing, the CEO is seeking new sources of revenue. Earlier this month, Amazon announced it would buy primary-care company One Medical in a cash deal with an equity value of $3.49 billion. Amazon is going full throttle in with multiple initiatives in India - signing up kirana stores, and partnering with Tata for 5000 EVs.

Speaking of EVs…

In a first, Bengaluru-based two-wheeler EV manufacturer Bounce Infinity recently announced that it is ready to start selling its E1 model on Flipkart. It will be a pivotal moment for India’s e-commerce if two-wheelers sales start happening online.

Multiple estimates are looking at India with 7 million EVs on the roads by 2030 (on the higher side). Online marketplaces are hoping to lap up some of the sales.

🍪 D2C Bites

• Just weeks after its launch, Sudo, the brand offering you ‘pseudo’ meat, has completed its seed round funding.

  • Due to the recent rapid spike in the popularity of vegan food, FSSAI has just brought in its first-ever vegan food regulations, setting out the standards products must conform to in order to be labeled as vegan.

• Bollywood actress Shilpa Shetty has made an undisclosed investment in D2C nutraceutical brands, Fast&Up and Chicnutrix that run under the parent company Fullife Healthcare.

  • Here are D2C Nerd’s quick 2 cents on Celebrities’ entrepreneurial bug.

Brands that caught our eyes 👀

🍪G for Genius Fudge

Bombay Canteen and its sister brand Brand Sweet Shop are known for their quirky, out-of-the-box menu and brand collab (sometimes alcohol even). They recently partnered with Parle G to design Geniously Sweet Sweets Collection including a Parle G Fudge! By doing this BSS and Parle G will leverage each other's strengths to deliver a unique consumer experience. How many times do we see an new-age brand collaborating with an almost 100-year-old legacy brand.

✅Choose your fibres right

Kandhi had a simple proposition “developing fashion from natural resources and creating a value system for artisans”. They achieved this by making sustainable bags range using Jute Fiber. The Fiber is extremely soft and is widely used to make burlap, hessian or gunny cloth. 

📈Trend of the week: Edible Cutlery 🍴

In a pushback against the “greenwashing efforts” around ‘recycled plastic’ & “biodegradable packaging”, eco-companies are pumping out cutlery that are edible after you use them — no need to recycle.

Few brands in India that got our attention as they attempt to revolutionize the way we eat our food by replacing single-use plastic with edible cutlery:

Reads and Recommendations 📚

• Trend Hunter: Top 100 Marketing Trends in July

• Digg: The Most Popular Consumer Brands Around the World.

• Is the party for 10 min delivery over?

• Flipkart has integrated virtual beauty try-on in a larger push toward becoming a go-to beauty retailer.

That’s all for this week!

Stay tuned for more insights about the D2C ecosystem in India.

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