Hallyu👋

Korean Wave, Snail Mucus, Shopee, Hair Color

Hey there!

We know you were not expecting us today! Don’t worry, your calendar is not off (it’s not you, it’s us).

Staying true to our first name ‘Global’, we keep exploring new & exciting consumer brands, not just in India but also internationally. It’s mind-boggling to see the innovative and creative journies that new-age brands have had abroad. We recently had a eureka moment when our team realized that we should be sharing our finds with the D2C Pulse audience, who are also D2C nerds like us!

Here’s a bite-sized mid-week newsletter where we will cover:

• Exciting local products in the budding e-comm economies of the world

• Developments in online marketplaces globally

• Fun facts about the consumer products ecosystem

With the intro out of the way. Let’s get going…

🌎 Global To Local: KOREA

Consumers worldwide, particularly young adults, are high on Korean culture right now: K-pop, K-dramas, K-beauty, Squid Game…a phenomenon popularly termed as Hallyu Wave.

Local e-commerce in Korea is blowing up too with sales amounting to USD 136.5 bn in 2020, 5th highest (whoa!!) globally after China, US, UK, and Japan. Given the prominence of Korea in the E-comm space, we take a look at the most quirky and trending products in Korea right now:

🧴 Clean yourself with Snail Mucus that has become K-beauty’s favourite ingredient in recent years. Power-packed with many antioxidants, it makes the skin plumper and younger-looking! Find the list of the best snail creams that you can easily get your hands on here!

👩‍🦱 Spice up your boring hairstyle with a pop of one-day hair color! Korean hair dye Bu:tiPure is a hair cream that instantly colors your hair midnight blue, groovy orange & what not! Just shampoo it off when you get bored and change into a different color.

🤖 BackKeeper, a Smart IoT Cushion, maintains one’s posture while sitting. BackKeeper app cross-checks the posture as one sits on the cushion and suggests corrections if it notes an odd reading, by giving out mild vibrations.

♻️ Continew is making bags, shoes, and accessories by upcycling leather seats, belts, and airbags from cars. As car seat leather is made to withstand adverse temperatures. Continew develops lasting products using this material.

🥩 Zikooin is making meat out of imperfect grains, nuts, and oats. Its products include sliced beef, meat dumplings, sausages, etc.

🐕 Lastly, check out this super-adorable pet robot that can keep your dog active & serve him treats while you are off to work!

Want some Korean products in India? check out KoriKart! We challenge you to try the 2X Spicy Noodles!

🗞 Global Marketplace Updates

D2C brands got no chill or geo boundaries. In this section, we highlight all the major updates from the global marketplaces and social channels. We have a simple theory, what’s trending internationally right now will most likely blow up in India soon. D2C founders, we hope you got a pen to take notes!

👛 Shoppable Livestreams: 2021 is the year of adding Instagram-like Stories & TikTok-like feeds to platforms. As for 2022, it’s going to see attempts to add shoppable live streams. After Youtube, Twitter announced last week that Walmart will be its guinea pig as it debuts into live shopping service. Twitter will use its existing live-streaming service and Shop Module to create the magic.

👓 Snapchat’s holiday surprise: Can’t make it to your local holiday market in person this year? Go shopping on Snapchat! Snapchat is featuring immersive AR experiences from brand partners like Coca-Cola, who have a dedicated storefront for users to browse and deal with each brand.

🛒 Shopee is challenging Amazon-Flipkart duopoly in India: Singapore’s Shopee launched in India with zero fanfare a month ago, has already clocked 100,000 orders a day with over 1 million app installs, per Money Control.

🌿 Uber Canada is flying high: Uber users would be able to place orders for cannabis on the Uber Eats app. Can we expect Uber Eats back in India? (Waitaminute - It’s called Zomato now right?) Also, will it deliver a bottle of Stranger & Sons with Arrabbiata Pasta!

🗞 Graph-iti Of The Day

Source

That’s all for today! We hope you enjoyed this mid-week treat. If you liked it, give us a ❤️ below, if you hated it send an angry message. Either way, don’t just leave us on ‘read’!

Also, if there is any specific country you want us to cover next week, do let us know in the comments section. We have a bad habit of checking it every 2 hours, hoping to get some attention.