Direct-to-consumer (D2C) brands with a digital-first approach have gained popularity as the latest technologies and their advantages have influenced consumer behaviour to a large extent. The recent surge in ecommerce in the wake of the pandemic is a case in point. Offline retailers have also leveraged this trend, growing their businesses digitally and engaging with customers more meaningfully.
According to an Inc42 report titled The State Of Indian Ecommerce Q1 2023; In Focus: Omnichannel, D2C was the most-funded ecommerce sub-sector in 2022, bagging $1.7 Bn out of the total $4 Bn (43%) raised by the ecommerce sector. Funding has opened up many opportunities for this fast-emerging space to speed up technology, marketing and production decisions aligned to omnichannel growth.
This is essential, as retail is still a phygital market, and hybrid shopping is estimated to reach $55 Bn by 2027, a 5x rise from the current $11 Bn.
Going omnichannel is also crucial in a customer-centric retail industry, as consumers today look for a well-integrated online-offline experience for a seamless shopping journey. Inc42 and Google Cloud recently hosted a roundtable titled Cracking The Omnichannel Code: D2C Brands’ Guide To Scale to explore this trend further and address all related issues. The session explored many critical areas such as:
- How a brand’s offline presence can help strategise its online marketing and vice versa
- How technology can help enhance consumer experience in the D2C landscape
- How AI tools can help solve order placement challenges
The roundtable was moderated by Kshitij Shah, founder and CEO of Digital Strategy Works, a company specialising in building product, go-to-market and fundraising strategies for fintechs and D2C brands.
The session saw the participation of founders and technology leaders from diverse industry segments such as lifestyle, retail and ecommerce. The attendees included Nirdosh Chouhan, CTO of Melorra; Vanda Ferrao, CMO of WOW Skin Science; Harsh Vaidya, cofounder and CEO of WareIQ; Niraj Patel, product head at DaMENSCH; Veena Ashiya, founder of Monrow Shoes; Hemir Doshi, cofounder and CEO, BeepKart; Prathamesh Mise, cofounder and CEO of Omniflo, and Debasis Bhattacharya, customer engineering leader at Google Cloud India.
How To Strike The Perfect Balance Between Online And Offline
In the new normal, creating a seamless customer experience across all touchpoints – online and in-store – is essential for sustainable growth. In a country like India, where offline retail still rules the roost, a brand’s physical presence not only enhances its credibility but also meets the need to touch and feel the products before making a purchase.
“Our website acts like a kitchen that dishes out a lot of things first. We gain insights into which products perform better and then try to stitch in some statistics from offline,” said Veena Ashiya of Monrow Shoes.
“For instance, we discovered [online] that Patna has an appetite for colourful shoes. So, whenever we launch a colourful capsule (product), it is a no-brainer for that set of products to go to Patna [stores]. Our net promoter score (NPS) from ecommerce channels is also helpful. We refine our products based on crowd-sourced NPS before taking them offline,” she added.
People’s online purchase behaviour, how it differs from offline shopping and how brands strike a balance to increase their sales through all possible channels are also intriguing.
“Our bestsellers are uniform across all channels. Even in physical stores, people are interested in products featured online. If consumers have seen a certain ad on YouTube or Facebook and see the same product in a chemist’s shop or a supermarket, they pick it up,” said Vanda Ferrao of WOW Skin Science.
Watch the roundtable on Cracking The Omnichannel Code: D2C Brands’ Guide To Scale for more insights into unlocking customer behaviour and leveraging those for omnichannel strategies.
