🥂Life's short: buy bling, drink a sling
All things noteworthy in the D2C space
👋 Hey!
Welcome to this week’s edition of GlobalBees D2C Pulse! Hit reply and type away if you have any thoughts about what you read here. If you missed our previous editions, check them out here!
The E-commerce space has witnessed a massive uptick across the country in the last few years. However, over 90% of retail sales still happen through physical stores and the key to the brand’s retail success in the near future, therefore, is synergy between the online and offline models of selling; one way that brands are exploring this is by setting up their Experiential Centres where the target customer is - these are curated spaces or events organised for the brand.
You must have come across Fabindia cafes, The Butternut Co. and Wingreen trial stalls while strolling in the mall - these are meant to seed a memory/impression of the brand in customers’ minds by providing them with a full-brand immersion, without pressurizing a purchase. Social media could also be leveraged better when collaborated with these spaces. In today issue, we see how D2C brands are building audiences using these experiential centres!
What’s in the news?
💎 Melorra’s click & brick gets a funding kick
Gold typically brings to mind images of heavy and gaudy jewellery but Bangalore based Melorra is changing this perception. Melorra is introducing light-weighted, fashionable and hallmarked, daily wear gold jewellery across multiple channels (web store, marketplaces, web app and pan-India experience stores) and disrupting the jewellery market.
Driven by fashion, computer-aided design and variety (~10,000 designs), Melorra has recently raised USD 24 mn in equity and USD 10 mn in debt, to grow its tech stack, brand marketing, and pan-India experience centres. It also plans to launch a new collection and 75 new designs every week!
Melorra competes with D2C jewellery brands Pipa.Bella, Voylla, JewelMaze, among others.
Companies in high-value categories such as jewellery (average order value ~ INR 20,000) could build social-first models like Meesho, which could, in turn, lower the trust deficit and increase customer conversion. Keep scrolling to know more about social commerce!
🏃 Sleepyhead straight to success
Did you know India has become the second-largest revenue generator of mattresses after the US, with revenue worth USD 11.8 bn in 2021? To keep the trend going, Bengaluru-based D2C sleep solutions company Duroflex Pvt. Ltd has raised USD 60 mn for its house of brands primarily engaged in the mattress category:
Duroflex, an omnichannel player (including being a B2B partner for clients like Ikea).
Sleepyhead, an online-only brand,
The capital raised will go towards automation of processes, supply chain management, setting up front-end customer stores and strengthening non-mattress categories viz. beds, sofas etc. Duroflex has been striving to make its brands an internet sensation by launching innovative campaigns like ‘100 days free trial’, ‘change your sleep, change your life’ and virtual and physical ‘experience centres’.
Sleepyhead pits against the likes of Wakefit, Kurl-on and Sleepwell among others.
👨👨👦 Swiggy tries its hand at social commerce
Small retailers are finding innovative ways to sell directly to consumers through social networks and social media (“social commerce”). Three models most widely used in India include:
After Flipkart’s Shopsy, Swiggy wants in too! Swiggy is in the process of launching a social commerce vertical named Swiggy Bazaar that will be a community group buying destination for groceries. According to an analysis by RedSeer, the group buying market has been pegged at USD 50 mn as of 2020 in India.
Earlier this year, Meesho also ventured into group buying for groceries through Farmiso. If social e-com is so lucrative, why is Meesho shifting its focus to B2C? keep scrolling to know more!
Swiggy Bazaar will have to compete with commerce startups like Meesho, DealShare, Otipy, and CityMall in the fresh groceries and packaged goods segment.
🍿Tech Bites
Notion, (which many of us love at Globalbees) a workspace software that competes with the likes of Microsoft Office has raised USD 275 mn at an eye-popping valuation of USD 10 bn.
Chingari, a homegrown short-video platform like Tik-Tok, has launched cryptocurrency tokens called $GARI and its own marketplace for non-fungible tokens (NFT). $GARI will enable content creators on the Chingari app to create and monetise content by letting people purchase tokens for watching content from their favourite artists.
Brands that caught our eye!
🧪 A formula that changes with you
Ravel is a haircare products company with an interesting proposition: A customer consults them giving a complete view of things that could impact her hair and scalp; Ravel experts then process these answers and use >150 factors to determine the blend of ingredients needed to treat that customer’s concerns and preferences.
The result is a freshly-bottled unique blend that’s just one of over 50 bn possible outcomes. Tailor-made haircare products with all-natural ingredients will surely make us feel special!
🧼 Skittles for your clothes
Volt offers Skittle look-alike beads that dissolve in water used for laundry. These beads make laundry smell fresh for up to 12 weeks from wash to wear! They are made using a combination of essential oils and fragrances and are cruelty & paraben-free. These beads also have softening features that leave laundry soft and bouncy.
Volt claims that its beads are better than the massive bottles of liquid fabric softeners and conditioners that take up space in our cabinet and leave an artificial sweet smell (even that fades off within an hour of wearing the clothes). Can this transform the way we do our laundry, would you try it?
Trend of the week: Non-alcoholic drinks market🥂
Ditching alcohol, Millenials seek a healthier mix in their drinks!
There is a growing concern over the health impact of alcohol and the hangovers that older people have to deal with. We believe there is a massive opportunity to create non-alcoholic beverages in India that do not taste like Rasna or Limca (we mean, sugary water)!
According to Statista, revenue in the Non-Alcoholic Drinks market amounts to USD 10 Bn in 2021, which is expected to grow annually by 4.57% (CAGR 2021-2026). Here’s our list of non-alcoholic stuff, which one’s your favorite? Hit the reply button and let us know!
Reads & Recommendations
Meesho, Flipkart and the social commerce identity crisis by The Ken
The Future of Commerce in India by Bain & Company
Tips to win at business writing by Marketing Examined
That’s all for this week!
Stay tuned for more insights about the D2C start-ups in India.
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The more I read the more I get convinced that D2C is the way forward for businesses to scale.