India’s D2C journey: After a rapid scale-up, why it’s now all about discipline

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February 27, 2026

Samar Srivastava, Forbes India
Feb 27, 2026

India’s young consumers are discovering the next big beauty serum, protein bar or sneaker brand not in a mall, but on Instagram reels, YouTube shorts and quick-commerce apps that promise 10-minute delivery. What began as a trickle of digital-first labels a decade ago has now become a full-blown wave. Direct-to-consumer (D2C) brands—built online, fuelled by social media and venture capital—have reshaped India’s consumer landscape and forced legacy companies to rethink everything from marketing to distribution.

India today has more than 800 active D2C brands across beauty, personal care, fashion, food, home and electronics, according to industry estimates and consulting reports. The Indian D2C market is estimated at $12–15 billion in 2025, up from under $5 billion in 2020, and growing at 25–30 percent annually. The pandemic accelerated online adoption, but the structural drivers—cheap data, digital payments and over 750 million internet users—were already in place.

Unlike traditional FMCG brands that relied on distributors and kirana stores, D2C brands such as Mamaearth, boAt, Licious and Sugar Cosmetics built their early traction online. Customer acquisition happened through performance marketing; feedback loops were immediate; product iterations were rapid.

Importantly, these brands are discovered online—but as they scale, consumers buy them both online and offline, increasingly through quick-commerce platforms such as Blinkit, Zepto and Swiggy Instamart, as well as modern trade and general trade stores. The omnichannel play is now central to their growth strategy.

According to Anil Kumar, founder and chief executive of Redseer Strategy Consultants, the ecosystem is maturing in measurable ways. Brands are taking lesser time to reach ₹100 crore or ₹500 crore revenue benchmarks and, once there, mortality rates are coming down. There is also an acceptance that if a brand is not profitable in a 3–5 year timeframe, that needs to be corrected. “There is a lot of emphasis on growing profitably and not just through GMV,” he says.

Big Cheques, Bigger Exits

The D2C boom would not have been possible without capital. Between 2014 and 2022, Indian D2C startups raised over $5 billion in venture and growth funding. Peak years like 2021 alone saw more than $1.2 billion invested in the segment. Beauty, personal care and fashion accounted for nearly 50 percent of total inflows, followed by food and beverages.

Some brands scaled independently; others found strategic buyers. Among the most prominent exits:
> Hindustan Unilever acquired a majority stake in Minimalist, reportedly valuing the actives-led skincare brand at over ₹3,000 crore. For Hindustan Unilever, the annual run rate from sales of its D2C portfolio is estimated at around ₹1,000 crore, underscoring how material digital-first brands have become to its growth strategy.
> ITC Limited bought Yoga Bar for about ₹175 crore in 2023 to strengthen its health foods portfolio.
> Emami acquired a majority stake in The Man Company, expanding its digital-first play.
> Tata Consumer Products acquired Soulfull as part of its health and wellness strategy.
> Marico invested in brands such as Beardo and True Elements.

Private equity has also entered aggressively at the growth stage. ChrysCapital invested in The Man Company; L Catterton backed Sugar Cosmetics; General Atlantic invested in boAt; and Sequoia Capital India (now Peak XV Partners) was an early backer of multiple consumer brands.

Valuations were often steep. boAt was valued at over $1.2 billion at its peak. Mamaearth’s parent, Honasa Consumer, listed in 2023 at a valuation of around ₹10,000 crore. Across categories, brands crossing ₹500 crore in annual revenue began attracting buyout interest, with deal sizes ranging from ₹150 crore to over ₹3,000 crore depending on scale and profitability.

Yet exits have not always been smooth. “While it takes 7-8 years to build a brand most funds that invest in them have a timeline of 3-5 years before they need an exit,” says Devangshu Dutta, founder of Third Eyesight, a retail consultancy. This timing mismatch can create pressure—pushing brands to scale aggressively, sometimes at the cost of margins.

Integration Pains and the Profitability Pivot

For large FMCG companies, buying D2C brands offers speed: Access to younger consumers, premium positioning and digital marketing expertise. But integration brings challenges.

Founder-led organisations operate with rapid decision cycles, test-and-learn marketing and flat hierarchies. Large corporations often work with layered approvals, structured brand calendars and rigid cost controls. Cultural friction can lead to talent exits if autonomy is curtailed too quickly.

Margins are another sticking point. In the early growth phase, many D2C brands spent 30–40 percent of revenue on digital advertising. Rising customer acquisition costs post-2021, combined with higher logistics expenses, squeezed contribution margins. As brands entered offline retail, distributor and retailer margins of 20–35 percent further compressed profitability.

Large acquirers, used to EBITDA margins of 18–25 percent in mature FMCG portfolios, often discovered that digital-first brands operated at low single-digit margins—or were loss-making at scale. Rationalising ad spends, optimising supply chains and pruning SKUs became essential.

The funding slowdown between 2022 and 2024 triggered a reset. Marketing spends were cut by as much as 25–40 percent across several startups. Growth moderated from 80–100 percent annually during peak years to 25–40 percent for more mature brands—but unit economics improved.

Quick-commerce has emerged as a structural growth lever. For categories such as personal care, snacking and health foods, these platforms now account for 10–25 percent of urban revenues for scaled brands, improving inventory turns and reducing dependence on paid digital acquisition.

The next phase of India’s D2C journey will be less about blitz scaling and more about disciplined brand building—balancing growth, profitability and exit timelines. What began as a disruption is now part of the mainstream consumer playbook. And as capital becomes more selective, only brands that combine strong gross margins, repeat purchase rates above 35–40 percent and sustainable EBITDA pathways will endure.

(Published in Forbes India)

Experts Say 2026 Will Reward Discipline, Not Scale, in India’s D2C Sector

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January 6, 2026

Saumyangi Yadav, Entrepreneur India
Jan 6, 2026

After years of rapid growth and a sharp reset, India’s direct-to-consumer (D2C) sector is expected to settle into a more balanced phase. The period of easy funding, aggressive customer acquisition and scale-at-all-costs expansion is clearly over, experts suggest. Now, what lies ahead in 2026 is a shift towards steadier growth driven by better execution, stronger retention and clearer brand positioning.

According to Bain and Flipkart, India’s e-retail market is projected to reach $170–190 billion in GMV by 2030, driven by a growing online shopper base and evolving commerce models. As adoption deepens across Tier-2 and Tier-3 cities, high-frequency categories such as grocery and lifestyle are expected to drive a larger share of growth, making repeat purchase and habit formation critical for D2C brands.

Against this backdrop, 2026 is shaping up as the year when D2C brands are judged less on ambition and more on outcomes.

A Post-Hype Phase of D2C

Industry observers say the D2C ecosystem has clearly moved beyond its hype-driven phase. Devangshu Dutta, Founder and Chief Executive of retail consultancy Third Eyesight, describes the current moment as one of structural correction rather than contraction.

“India’s D2C ecosystem is in a post-hype phase where growth may be slower but structurally healthier,” Dutta says, adding, “Earlier growth cycles prioritised visibility and sales at the expense of profitability and consistency. Now, success is being measured by repeat rates, contribution margins and the ability to fund growth internally.”

Tighter funding is also driving this shift. With D2C investments slowing and overall capital remaining cautious, brands are now being pushed to show predictability rather than promise. Tracxn data shows Indian D2C startups raised USD 757 million in 2024, significantly lower than previous years, while overall PE-VC investments in India remained flat at USD 33 billion in 2025, according to Venture Intelligence.

As a result, Dutta notes that many D2C companies are rationalising portfolios, tightening inventory cycles and optimising supply chains. Marketing strategies, too, are evolving, with greater emphasis on retention, community-building and owned channels instead of discount-led growth.

Uniqueness Will Define Winners

If capital discipline is one defining force, speed is another. Harish Bijoor, business and brand strategy expert, argues that D2C’s next phase will be shaped by how brands respond to a faster, more fragmented commerce environment.

“The e-commerce revolution led to a more refined orientation of D2C, and that has now given way to a q-commerce revolution that is even faster,” Bijoor says, adding, “The D2C revolution is going to be leveraged by speed. A whole host of players will invest time, energy and innovation into this.”

In Bijoor’s view, traditional e-commerce is now the slowest layer in a spectrum where quick commerce is the fastest, and D2C sits in between. In such a landscape, competing purely on price is no longer sustainable. He believes differentiation will increasingly come from uniqueness and premium positioning rather than ubiquity.

“When you know that you get a particular great-tasting biryani at just one place with no branches, you will go to that place. That uniqueness is what will distinguish D2C commerce in the future,” he says.

Bijoor adds that many D2C brands have been trapped in price wars under the guise of differentiation. He also argued that brands that premiumise and resist excessive omnichannel dilution are more likely to build desirability and long-term value.

Consumers Move Beyond Metros

Structural shifts in demand are reshaping how and where D2C brands grow. India now has one of the world’s largest and most diverse online consumer bases, with growth increasingly driven by Tier-2, Tier-3 and smaller towns rather than metros alone. Internet adoption continues to deepen across rural and semi-urban India, expanding the addressable market well beyond early digital buyers.

This widening base is changing the nature of growth. Consumers are becoming more deliberate in how they spend, weighing value, quality and trust more carefully than before.

As Devangshu Dutta notes, Indian consumers have always been discerning, but rising living costs and economic uncertainty have made them even more thoughtful, pushing brands to earn repeat demand rather than rely on impulse or discount-led purchases.

“Value is not just about discounts,” he says. “It’s a balance of price, performance and trust. For D2C brands, repeat consumption has to be earned through consistent quality, transparent pricing and dependable service.”

High-frequency categories such as grocery, lifestyle and general merchandise are expected to drive much of this expansion. Bain estimates these segments will account for two out of every three e-retail dollars by 2030, reinforcing the importance of habit formation and retention-led models.

Quick Commerce Expands Discovery, Not Profitability

Quick commerce has emerged as a powerful but complex growth lever for D2C brands. The format now accounts for a significant share of India’s e-grocery demand and has scaled into a multi-billion-dollar market, becoming a key discovery channel for food and everyday consumption brands.

However, expansion beyond metros remains challenging. RedSeer data shows non-metro markets contribute just over 20 per cent of quick commerce GMV, even as platforms scale to over 150 cities, with breakeven economics in smaller towns requiring significantly higher throughput.

Praveen Govindu, partner at Deloitte India, cautions that while quick commerce has helped many D2C brands gain discovery, particularly in food and beverage, it is not a sustainable growth engine on its own.

“From a customer acquisition standpoint, quick commerce is not fundamentally different from traditional e-commerce,” Govindu says, adding, “It is an expensive channel, and competition will only intensify. Over the long term, brands cannot rely on burning capital there.”

Omnichannel Enters Its Toughest Phase Yet

As digital acquisition costs rise, India’s ad market is projected to grow nearly 8 per cent in 2025 to Rs 1.37 lakh crore, with digital accounting for almost half of the spends, brands are being pushed to diversify distribution. Yet omnichannel presence alone is no longer enough.

“Many brands talk about omnichannel, personalisation and seamless journeys, but in practice these efforts are still disjointed. In 2026, the focus will shift from intent to execution,” Govindu says.

RedSeer projects India’s retail market to cross USD 2 trillion by 2030, with nearly 90 per cent of consumption still happening offline. For D2C brands, this makes offline expansion unavoidable, but success will depend on consistent execution across pricing, inventory, service and communication.

Consumers, Govindu notes, do not consciously differentiate between online, offline or social platforms. “They simply want a consistent experience,” he says. “Even small inconsistencies can erode trust.”

AI-Led Discovery and Experience

Perhaps the most transformative force shaping 2026 will be the evolution of buying journeys themselves. Govindu sees the rise of AI-led and agentic commerce as a major inflection point.

“Conversational platforms and AI-driven assistants will increasingly influence discovery, purchase, fulfilment and post-sales experiences. What earlier happened across multiple touchpoints is now beginning to happen in one place,” he says.

This convergence amplifies the importance of content-led discovery, owned data and deep consumer understanding. Brands that can unify storytelling, commerce and service into a coherent narrative are more likely to build loyalty in an environment where switching costs are low and alternatives are abundant.

Whether growth comes through D2C websites, marketplaces, quick commerce or offline stores, experts agree that the real differentiator will be a brand’s ability to build durable consumer relationships. As investors shift focus from short-term metrics to long-term value creation like retention, margins and brand strength, the next phase of India’s D2C story is less about rapid expansion and more about refinement.

(Published in Entrepreneur India)

Saumyangi is a Senior Correspondent at Entrepreneur India with over three years of experience in journalism. She has reported on education, social, and civic issues, and currently covers the D2C and consumer brand space.

The buy button India never got, keeping social platforms stuck in window-shopping mode

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December 10, 2025

Shabori Das, ET Bureau
Dec 10, 2025

India’s social media platforms are powerful marketing tools but not yet retail destinations. Billions scroll and swipe daily, but few buy directly within apps. Unlike China, India faces regulatory hurdles and a lack of integrated payment systems.

A billion Indians scroll, swipe and double tap every day, but barely buy. Despite Instagram and Facebook Marketplace being in India for over a decade, social media here remains a showroom, not a store. Creators and D2C brands are hustling to convert attention into action, but the holy grail of in-app shopping where discovery, live streaming, and purchase happen seamlessly, remains out of reach.

The question is, what’s stopping India from becoming the next China or the US in social commerce?

Influence-to-Commerce Gap

Globally, social commerce is powered by influencers. In China, influencer Li Jiaqi reportedly sold products worth $2 billion on Singles’ Day on Alibaba’s online marketplace Taobao Live in 2021. Another popular influencer Zheng Xiang Xiang, with over 5 million followers on Douyin (the Chinese equivalent of TikTok), reportedly generated $18 million in sales in a week in 2023. These are numbers India’s creator economy can only dream of, for now.

To be clear, influencer marketing in India is booming. EY estimates the sector at over Rs 3,000 crore and yet, due to regulatory restrictions, social media platforms in India can’t host end-to-end transactions. What India has is content commerce, driven by players like Meesho and Myntra, not social commerce. Globally, social commerce is a $1-trillion market. China alone accounts for over $500 billion and the US, $100 billion. India’s share? Around $10 billion — despite being home to the world’s largest Gen Z population and the second-largest base of internet users after China.

What’s Holding India Back

“Just as quick commerce changed how India buys food, social commerce will change how we shop for fashion and lifestyle,” says Anand Ramanathan, partner, consumer industry leader, Deloitte South Asia.

The idea is simple: Social commerce enables an end-to-end purchase journey within a social media app. But in India, the final sale still happens elsewhere — typically on e-commerce platforms.

“In China, live streaming contributes nearly 20% of total e-commerce revenue. In India, it hasn’t taken off,” says Puneet Sehgal, CEO of D2C apparel brand Freakins. He believes in-app checkout could be transformative. “Our Gen Z audience spends over an hour daily on social media. If the purchase could happen right there, it’s one step less for the consumer — and one step closer to a sale.”

The China Contrast

China’s social commerce revolution was built on three forces — speed, scale and seamlessness. Influencer Zheng, for instance, showcases each product for barely three seconds and moves on. That brevity, combined with integrated payments, drives impulse buying at staggering volumes.

India’s influencer-driven commerce, by contrast, is still warming up. Projected to touch $ 55 billion by 2030, it remains largely limited to discovery and advertising.

The barriers aren’t technological, they’re regulatory. India’s payment rules require clear accountability and settlement tracking, making it difficult for global platforms to enable in-app sales. Meta’s 2023 policy shift also directed purchases off-platform, keeping Instagram and Facebook Marketplace confined to discovery and promotion, rather than purchase. For now, social media in India remains a potent marketing engine, not yet a retail destination.

Experiments and Exceptions

Some Indian players are testing new waters. Myntra’s Glamstream, launched this July, lets influencers host live sessions where viewers can “shop the look” in real time — though the final checkout still redirects you to the Myntra app.

“India’s creator economy influences over $300 billion in annual consumer spending,” says Sunder Balasubramanian, chief marketing officer at Myntra.“That could grow to $1 trillion in the next few years, making India one of the fastest-growing creator economies globally,” adds Lakshminarayan Swaminathan, vice president-product management, Myntra.

The potential is clear. In 2021, Taobao Live hosted a 12-hour live streamed sale with influencer Li Jiaqi in China that clocked $2 billion in presales and attracted 250 million viewers.

Closer home, Sujata Biswas, co-founder of Suta Sarees, recalls Instagram’s shortlived Shop Now feature. “We saw an immediate dip in transactions after it was withdrawn,” she says. “Fashion is about instant gratification. You see it, you want it and buy it right away.”

The D2C Advantage

India’s D2C market, valued at $87 billion as of 2025 by Deloitte, could be the biggest gainer if social commerce does take off. Most D2C brands currently pay 25–35% retailer margins to platforms like Myntra and Nykaa. Social commerce could let them bypass intermediaries and sell directly to their audiences.

“Anything that reduces friction between intent and purchase is gold,” says Sehgal. “If that entire journey — from watching to buying — happens within the same app, conversion rates would shoot up.”

Even so, social platforms come with their own costs. TikTok, for instance, charges promotional, marketplace and fulfilment fees. But for Indian D2C players, the larger hurdle isn’t cost — it’s access.

Open vs Closed Ecosystems

“India’s retail market is far more open than China’s,” explains Devangshu Dutta, CEO of ThirdEyesight, a retail consulting firm. “In China, closed ecosystems like WeChat and Douyin created the perfect environment for social commerce to thrive. In India, where consumers can freely move between Google, Meta and e-commerce giants, those closed loops don’t exist.”

Globally, TikTok Shop, Douyin, WeChat, Pinduoduo, and Taobao Live dominate social commerce. According to Business of Apps, a data provider for the global app industry, TikTok earned $23 billion in 2024, with nearly 23% of it from in-app and commerce purchases.

If similar models are launched in India, e-commerce giants would face direct competition from the very platforms that fuel their traffic.

The Wait Continues

From beauty tutorials to thrift stores, social media spawns thriving micro economies. Yet, true social commerce — where discovery leads directly to purchase — hasn’t yet clicked.

The next big leap for India’s e-commerce may not come from deeper discounts or faster delivery but from social media itself. “The idea of instant gratification is key,” says Biswas. “When the ‘Shop Now’ button comes back, we’ll be the first to use it.”

Till then, India scrolls, likes, shares — and waits.

(Published in Economic Times)

India’s lab-grown dia­monds sparkle as investors rush in

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December 1, 2025

Priyam­vada C, Mint
1 Dec 2025

A wave of investor cap­ital is flow­ing into India’s labor­at­ory-grown dia­mond (LGD) seg­ment, as fast­s­cal­ing brands tap rising con­sumer adop­tion in a mar­ket now worth well over $300 mil­lion. New-age brands have raised mul­tiple rounds of cap­ital on the back of grow­ing mar­ket share and improv­ing mar­gins.

Actor Shilpa Shetty-backed Lime­light, which is in talks to raise its second round of cap­ital this year, joins the grow­ing list of other small brands such as Onya, Giva, Jew­el­box, Lucira Jew­ellery and Aukera, among oth­ers, who have snagged mon­ies in recent months. Lime­light has appoin­ted Ambit Cap­ital to raise about $20 mil­lion to fund its expan­sion plans, two people famil­iar with the mat­ter said.

Con­firm­ing the fun­draise, the six year-old com­pany’s co-founder Pooja Madhavan said the funds will be used towards store expan­sion and brand build­ing as it looks to touch 100 stores over the next year. “We are in final talks with growth PE funds and reputed fam­ily offices (for the fun­draise),” she told Mint.

Other sim­ilar fun­draises include Onya’s ₹5.5 crore in a pre-seed round led by Zeropearl VC last week, Aukera’s $15 mil­lion raise led by Peak XV Part­ners and Aditya Birla Ven­tures-backed Giva raised ₹530 crore in an internal round led by Premji Invest, Epiq Cap­ital and Edel­weiss Dis­cov­ery Fund, as it looks to scale up its lab-grown dia­mond offer­ings.

Nine pure-play lab grown dia­mond star­tups col­lect­ively raised a record $26.4 mil­lion in 2025, com­pared with $4.7 mil­lion across eight star­tups last year, data from mar­ket intel­li­gence pro­vider Tracxn showed.

The devel­op­ment comes as India’s lab-grown dia­mond jew­ellery mar­ket, val­ued at about $300-350 mil­lion in 2024, expects to grow at a com­pound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 15% over the next dec­ade, as per con­sultancy firm Red­seer’s estim­ates. As the mar­ket evolves, sev­eral prom­in­ent jew­ellery brands will gradu­ally pivot from exclus­ively nat­ural/mined dia­monds in favour of lab-grown altern­at­ives, along­side high-end jew­ellers incor­por­at­ing the lab-growns into their select col­lec­tions, which will drive sales volumes and act as an afford­able entry point for con­sumers.

This seg­ment has par­tic­u­larly picked pace in the last five years, with mil­len­ni­als and gen Z lead­ing this shift, driven by bet­ter value, trend­ier designs from new-age brands, and grow­ing com­fort with lab-grown dia­monds as a cer­ti­fied, high-qual­ity product. This cat­egory has also widened bey­ond occa­sional fash­ion to gift­ing, daily wear and increas­ingly bridal, reflect­ing sus­tained con­sumer con­fid­ence and a will­ing­ness to treat them as a main­stream jew­ellery option, Rohan Agar­wal, part­ner at Red­seer told Mint in an emailed state­ment.

He fur­ther added that new-age brands have stead­ily gained mar­ket share in the mid-ticket gift­ing and daily wear seg­ment with many try­ing to push into premium ranges. While the com­pet­it­ive land­scape is still evolving, incum­bents have already star­ted respond­ing by launch­ing LGD lines of their own, although the extent to which they can chal­lenge remains to be seen.

Major Indian brands that are con­sid­er­ing a foray into this cat­egory include Malabar Gold & Dia­monds, Senco Gold, which has launched the sub­brand Sennes and Tata’s Trent, which launched its brand Pome in West­side stores.

Devangshu Dutta, founder and chief exec­ut­ive officer at Delhi-based con­sult­ing firm Third Eye­sight, echoed the sen­ti­ment. He explained that new-age lab grown dia­mond play­ers are for­cing tra­di­tional jew­ellers to intro­duce LGD options or risk los­ing younger cus­tom­ers. “Not just pre­cious jew­ellery brands, even those that star­ted as fash­ion jew­ellery are expand­ing their range with LGD designs.”

“Down the road, there is poten­tially scope for con­sol­id­a­tion as investors tend to prefer a hand­ful of scaled plat­forms with strong brand recall and robust eco­nom­ics. So, as the cat­egory matures, there may be stra­tegic acquis­i­tions by large jew­ellery houses and cor­por­ates, as well as mer­gers among fun­ded star­tups,” he added.

Those star­tups that can com­bine in-house man­u­fac­tur­ing, design cap­ab­il­it­ies and data-driven retail expan­sion would be at an advant­age, Dutta said. “Key future growth areas for LGD star­tups include omni­chan­nel retail pres­ence within India, with off­line stores espe­cially in demand-dense loc­a­tions such as the met­ros and Tier 1 cit­ies, export mar­kets both with poten­tial cost advant­ages and brand expan­sion, and extend­ing into fash­ion jew­ellery, every­day wear, col­oured lab grown stones and even lux­ury col­lab­or­a­tions that pos­i­tion lab grown as aspir­a­tional rather than merely budget friendly.”

(Published in Mint)

Retailers fuel Black Friday frenzy with bumper offers

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November 27, 2025

Viveat Susan Pinto, Financial Express
November 27, 2025

Several of the country’s top retailers, malls and brands have kicked off a shopping extravaganza on the occasion of Black Friday, offering steep discounts across product categories.

A Western import, the day which symbolises the beginning of the Christmas shopping season in the US, the UK and Europe, gained popularity in India over the past two years as a crucial sale window after Diwali.

Domestic retailers, say experts, are using this period to exhaust existing inventory at steep discounts as they gear up for the winter season.

This year, discounts are up to 60-80% across fashion, lifestyle, electronics and cosmetics, higher than the 50% seen last year. E-tailers such as Ajio have pushed the pedal even harder, offering as much as 85-90% on denims, jackets and select products during the sale this year.

Bigger Deals, Longer Duration

“Retailers in India are building Black Friday as an important off-season peak. The participation of brands is growing, deals are getting bigger and the sale days are more,” Devangshu Dutta, founder and chief executive of Third Eyesight, a Gurugram-based retail consultancy, said. That is visible from the intense promotional activity this year. What began as a flash sale event a couple of years ago has now extended to a week-long sale period this year, experts said.

Pushpa Bector, senior executive director and business head, DLF Retail, said that brands this year are ready with strong offers, driven in part by GST cuts and a stable economic outlook. “Early trends show healthy interest across categories by consumers. We expect a strong double-digit uplift over the Black Friday period, setting us up for a strong close to the year,” she said.

Retailer Strategies

While Black Friday typically falls on the last Friday of November, some retailers such as Flipkart, Croma, Vijay Sales, Nykaa and Tata Cliq have kicked off their Black Friday sales last week itself to build on the excitement. For electronic retailers, said Nilesh Gupta, director, Vijay Sales, Black Friday will extend into Cyber Monday next week (falling on December 1), making it even more relevant for them to focus on the occasion.

“We’ve been building Black Friday as a retail property in the last few of years as it fills the post-Diwali void quite well. Black Friday also extends well into Cyber Monday which comes immediately after. While we started with a few categories in the initial years, we now have offers across all our segments. Discounts are up to 45-50% this year in line with last year,” he said.

Rival Croma is also offering up to 50% discount on products this year, executives said.

“Black Friday has become one of India’s most anticipated shopping moments. At Croma, we are focused on delivering value across categories with steal deals, bundled savings, and limited-time offers,” Croma’s CEO & MD Shibashish Roy said.

Croma will also introduce a special late-night shopping window on November 28 at select stores across India. For two hours—from 10 pm to 11:59 pm —these stores will remain open with exclusive additional discounts on some of the season’s most in-demand products.

Nishank Joshi, chief marketing officer, Nexus Select Malls, said it is elevating the Black Friday experience with bigger assured gifts, giveaways and reward points if consumers upload their bills on their Nexus One apps.

Mayank Lalpuria, director, marketing (north, central & west) at Phoenix Mills, which operates Phoenix malls, said that it was expecting double-digit year-on-year growth and strong footfalls during the Black Friday period.

Tanu Prasad, CEO – Malls, Oberoi Realty, said that the firm was seeing far more planned purchases towards premium products and a rise in family-oriented outings. “We are anticipating an encouraging response at the (Black Friday) weekend resulting in a strong kick-off to the (December) shopping season,” Prasad said.

Direct-to-consumer brands such as Inc.5 footwear and NEWME said that they have rolled out big deals for Black Friday. “We’re looking at a 30x surge in orders across both offline and online for Black Friday,” NEWME Co-founder & CEO Sumit Jasoria said.

“Our customers look forward to Black Friday, and this year, we’re excited to bring fresh new launches, curated edits, and our widest range yet,” Rajesh Kadam, CEO, Inc.5 Footwear, said.

(Published in Financial Express)