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February 2, 2026
Sakshi Sadashiv, MINT
Bengaluru, 02 Feb 2026
BRND.ME, a roll-up commerce company, expects to complete its reverse flip (change of headquarters) from Singapore to India by March, clearing a key regulatory hurdle as it prepares to tap Indian public markets with an IPO.
Despite the rise of private labels from quick-commerce giants such as Swiggy Instamart and Zepto, CEO Ananth Narayanan remains confident. He argues that BRND.ME’s core categories—spanning complex, value-added products such as specialized haircare and niche party supplies—possess a level of brand loyalty and complexity that is difficult for generic retail labels to replicate. While private labels are currently displacing national brands in high-frequency, simple categories like dairy and staples, Narayanan believes the company’s core categories remain protected from this encroachment as they drive searches.
Having shifted its strategy from aggressive acquisitions to organic scaling, the company is now doubling down on its four largest brands: MyFitness (peanut butter), Botanic Hearth (haircare), Majestic Pure (aromatherapy), and PartyPropz (celebration supplies).
About 10-15% of BRND.ME’s India business currently comes from quick commerce, a channel the company plans to scale, Narayanan said. The company is the leader in party supplies on quick-commerce platforms, benefiting from impulse-driven demand. “People forget birthdays and anniversaries, so it’s a classic category to build a brand on quick commerce,” he said. The category contributes about ₹200 crore of revenue. The company also leads the peanut butter category through MyFitness, with a 30% market share on all quick commerce platforms and annual revenue of ₹270 crore.
The company’s revenue run rate stands at about $200 million. Male consumers worried about male-pattern baldness now account for about 35% of haircare sales. The company aims for a 10-fold jump in aromatherapy and haircare sales from $6 million to $60 million within four years, led by Majestic Pure and Botanic Hearth.
Drawing on his experience running Myntra, Narayanan said that private labels typically have a ceiling. “Even when we pushed hard on private labels at Myntra, they never went beyond 25-30% of the overall portfolio. That tends to remain the case as the categories we operate in are very hard to displace because we drive searches.”
This dynamic is already visible across several quick-commerce categories. The peanut butter segment is heavily consolidated on Blinkit, with Pintola and MyFitness together accounting for about 73% of sales, according to data from Datum Intelligence. Similar patterns have emerged in other categories. Blinkit’s popcorn segment, for instance, has rapidly consolidated into a duopoly, with 4700BC and Act II controlling 99% of sales.
Private labels muscling in
While Blinkit has consciously avoided launching private-label products on its platform, Swiggy has done so through Noice, and Zepto through Relish and Daily Good. For established brands, these private labels are becoming harder to ignore. Swiggy has scaled Noice aggressively, expanding the portfolio from about 200 to 350 stock keeping units (SKUs) and onboarding more manufacturing partners while moving beyond staples into categories such as beverages and ready-to-cook foods. These products are aimed at delivering significantly higher margins of 35-40%, compared with 10-15% on third-party brands, Mint reported earlier.
Private labels now contribute an estimated 6-8% of quick-commerce sales, up from 1-2% two years ago, according to data from 1digitalstack.ai, though penetration in perishables remains limited because of supply-chain complexity and quality concerns. A broader push into fresh categories could lift private-label share to 10-15%. Noice has already captured 3.4% of wafer sales and 1.9% of biscuit sales on the platform within months of its launch, according to 1digitalstack.ai data. The two categories are dominated by Lay’s and Britannia, which have a market share of about 35% each in their respective segments.
Zepto’s private-label push spans multiple everyday categories, including Relish for meat products, Daily Good for staples, Chyll for ice cubes and juices, and Aaha! for snacks, sweets, cereals and batters.
This growing presence creates a structural ‘trap’ for digital-first brands. Devangshu Dutta, chief executive at Third Eyesight, a consultancy firm, said, “Brands that are overly dependent on a single sales platform remain structurally vulnerable to being replaced by the platform’s own private labels, which are designed to capitalise on product opportunities that already have proven demand.” Platforms, he explained, tend to dominate high-frequency purchases, often undercutting brands on both price and visibility.
Persistently high online customer acquisition costs add to the pressure, particularly if the customer relationship is owned by the platform rather than the brand. “This has been one of the significant friction points for all digital-only brands, and weighs especially heavily on companies that have online-heavy portfolios with multiple brands in play,” Dutta added.
(Published in Mint)
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November 13, 2025
Saumyangi Yadav,Entrepreneur
Nov 13, 2025
India’s consumer landscape is undergoing a decisive shift in 2025. While D2C brands that once thrived on digital-only distribution are now aggressively building an offline footprint, legacy FMCG majors are simultaneously acquiring digital-first brands to strengthen their portfolios and tap into new consumer behaviours.
As analysts suggest, these trends signal a maturing phase for India’s D2C ecosystem, one that blends physical retail and strategic consolidation.
Offline Push Accelerates
According to a recent CBRE report, ‘India’s D2C Revolution: The New Retail Order’, D2C brands leased nearly 5.95 lakh sq ft of retail space between January and June 2025, accounting for 18 per cent of all retail leasing during this period, up sharply from 8 per cent in the first half of 2024. Fashion and apparel dominated the expansion, contributing close to 60 per cent of D2C leasing, followed by homeware and furnishings and jewellery at about 12 per cent each, while health and personal care brands accounted for roughly six per cent. The shift is equally visible in the choice of retail formats: 46 per cent of D2C leasing went to high streets, 40 per cent to malls, and the remaining to standalone stores, reflecting the category’s growing focus on visibility, trial and experiential discovery.
Experts suggest that it represents a strategic pivot to blended engagement.
As Devangshu Dutta, CEO of Third Eyesight, notes, “India’s D2C surge is powered by digital-first consumers, tremendous improvement in seamless logistics, and low-cost market entry, supported subsequently by substantial amounts of investor capital chasing those startups that stand out from the competition. Yet, lasting success demands a more holistic view: the divide between online and offline is a business construct, not a consumer reality. The larger chunk of retail sales still happens through physical channels and, for brands that want to be mainstream, an omnichannel presence is absolutely essential.”
This also aligns with the broader market outlook. The India Brand Equity Foundation (IBEF), in its Indian FMCG Industry Analysis (October 2025), estimates the value of India’s D2C market at USD 80 billion in 2024, with expectations of crossing USD 100 billion in 2025. Much of this growth is being led by categories that combine frequent purchase cycles with strong digital discovery, beauty, personal care, and food and beverage segments where consumers are open to experimentation but demand authenticity, transparency, and a compelling product narrative.
“The Gen Z and millennial consumer cohorts value newness but also authenticity and unique product stories, which are best communicated in spaces that are controlled by the brand,” Dutta added, “In the launch and growth phases, this could be the brand’s digital presence including website and social media, but over time this can include pop-up stores, kiosks, shop-in-shops and even exclusive brand stores.”
CBRE’s data reflects this shift clearly, with D2C brands increasingly opting for flexible store formats and high-street locations to maximise traffic and visibility.
M&A Gains Momentum
Parallel to the offline push is a noticeable wave of consolidation. Large FMCG companies are accelerating acquisitions to capture emerging consumer niches and strengthen their digital-native capabilities.
In recent years, Hindustan Unilever has acquired Minimalist; Marico has bought Beardo, Just Herbs, True Elements, and Plix; ITC has taken over Yoga Bar; and Emami has secured full ownership of The Man Company. These deals, reported widely across business media in 2024 and 2025, point to the need for established companies to fast-track entry into high-growth, ingredient-forward, and youth-focused categories without the lead time of in-house incubation.
“Legacy FMCG companies are acquiring D2C brands to rapidly gain access to new consumer segments, product innovation, and digital-native capabilities, including direct engagement and insights. Such deals enable large companies to diversify portfolios, accelerate entry into trending segments by-passing the initial launch risks, and rejuvenate their brands with modern digital marketing expertise,” Dutta explained.
Challenges and Risks
But the acquisitions do not come without risk and challenges, analysts warned.
“However, integrating D2C operations also poses challenges, including cultural differences, the risk of stifling entrepreneurial agility, and the need to harmonise data and omnichannel strategies. The ability to nurture acquired brands without diluting their distinctive appeal will determine acquisition success,” Dutta added.
Yet even as the ecosystem expands, challenges remain. Offline stores add operational complexity, inventory planning, staffing, last-mile logistics, and real-time data integration. Still, the bottom line is that India’s D2C sector is moving into a hybrid era defined by tighter omnichannel integration, sharper product storytelling, and portfolio realignment through acquisitions.
(Published in Entrepreneur)
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October 24, 2025
Entrepreneur India
Oct 23, 2025
Indian consumers are increasingly opting for private labels and in-house brands over established ones, and retailers are taking note. According to EY’s ‘Future Consumer Index 2025’, more than half of India’s consumers are now choosing in-house brands over legacy labels.
The report highlights that 52 per cent of Indian consumers have switched to private labels for better value, while 70 per cent believe these in-house brands offer comparable or superior quality. Backed by this shift, retailers from BigBasket to DMart, and quick-commerce players like Zepto and Blinkit, are doubling down on their private label strategies, viewing them as a path to higher margins, stronger brand loyalty, and greater pricing control.
“Indian consumers’ growing preference for private labels reflects both short-term price pressures and a longer-term structural evolution in retail,” said Devangshu Dutta, CEO of Third Eyesight, speaking to Entrepreneur India.
Trending globally
The surge isn’t unique to India. A recent report by the Institute of Grocery Distribution (IGD) notes that globally, private labels now account for over 45 per cent of grocery volume and are expanding faster than legacy brands.
In India, this shift is becoming increasingly visible in-store. The EY report found that 74 per cent of consumers have noticed more private label options where they shop, and 70 per cent say these products are now displayed more prominently, often placed at eye level, signalling a strategic retail push.
Commenting on this trend, Angshuman Bhattacharya, Partner and National Leader, Consumer Products and Retail Sector, EY-Parthenon, said, “Consumer behaviour has traditionally evolved in response to changing economic situations, but the current shifts appear to be more permanent. Retailers are confidently launching private labels and allocating prime shelf space to them, while technology is enhancing the shopping experience by providing consumers with limitless options and the ability to compare products.”
From price-fighters to power brands
According to Dutta, private labels are no longer just “copycat” alternatives meant to undercut national brands.
“For retailers, not just in India but globally, lookalike private labels used to be tools at the opening price point to hook the customer, who saw them as credible, affordable alternatives to national brands,” he explained, adding, “However, as retailers have grown, they have gained both scale and expertise to widen and deepen their supply chains.”
Over time, he said, investments in formulation, packaging, and quality consistency have increased consumer trust.
“Private labels now compete on functional benefits rather than only on price, particularly in food staples and apparel, but also in brown goods and white goods, and increasingly in personal care and other FMCG categories,” he added. [Must read: “Private Label Maturity Model”]
Retailers scale up private labels
As demand for in-house brands grows, retailers are scaling up their strategies across sectors.
BigBasket, one of India’s largest online grocery platforms, reported that 35–40 per cent of its FY24 sales came from private labels like Fresho, BB Royal, and Tasties. The company aims to push this share closer to 45 per cent through expansion in frozen foods and ready-to-eat categories.
DMart’s private label arm, Align Retail, has reportedly more than doubled its sales in two years, touching INR 3,322 crore in FY25. The retailer’s in-house brands in staples, apparel, and home essentials have helped boost margins in a highly competitive retail landscape.
Zepto, the quick-commerce player, is taking private labels into the 10-minute delivery domain. Its brand Relish, focused on meats and eggs, has achieved INR 40 crore in monthly sales.
Meanwhile, Reliance Retail has also expanded its portfolio of private labels, including Good Life, Enzo, and Puric, across groceries, personal care, and household products, strengthening its broader FMCG play. In 2024, Reliance Retail’s Tira Beauty also announced the launch of its latest private label brand, Nails Our Way, signifying a major expansion in its beauty offerings.
Capturing a lion’s share in retail
Dutta noted that in India, private labels will remain a core pillar of modern retail strategy rather than a cyclical response to cost pressures.
“Consumers increasingly view retailers as brand owners rather than intermediaries. As private labels mature in branding and innovation, their growth aligns more and more with brand equity development rather than just opportunistic cost-saving,” he said.
From a retailer’s perspective, private labels deliver higher gross margins and greater strategic control, Dutta said. [Must read: “Private Label Maturity Model”]
Another report by the Private Label Manufacturers Association (PLMA), using Circana data, found that in 2024, private-label sales in food and non-edible categories grew faster than bigger brands globally. While figures vary by region and quarter, the pattern remains consistent: private labels are outpacing traditional FMCG growth.
Collectively, these shifts show that private labels are becoming a major revenue driver for retailers in India, and are fast evolving from value alternatives into brands with genuine consumer pull.
(Published in Entrepreneur India)
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October 10, 2025
Pooja Yadav, Exchange4Media
10 October 2025
Over the years, India’s e-commerce market has been dominated by the duopoly of Amazon and Flipkart. These platforms have not only captured consumer attention but also shaped how brands spend their marketing budgets. In parallel to this, the concept of retail media networks (RMNs), marketplaces selling ad placements to brands directly, has also grown rapidly. Not only this, it is emerging as one of the fastest-growing channels in digital advertising.
As a result, the industry is witnessing a wave of new retail media platforms entering the market. From grocery and pharmacy marketplaces to Q-comm platforms, D2C marketplaces, and ONDC pilots, all are attempting to carve out space for themselves. Yet despite these new entrants, Amazon and Flipkart continue to command the lion’s share of shopper-marketing rupees, leaving little oxygen, even for challenger players like eBay, even as it retools its India strategy.
Retail media is now outpacing social and video in growth, and in India, this expansion remains concentrated around these two dominant players. According to several experts e4m spoke with, Amazon and Flipkart dominate because of their massive logged-in traffic at the point of purchase, first-party data, and closed-loop attribution linking impressions directly to GMV. These platforms succeed by combining large logged-in audiences, direct attribution from impressions to sales, and first-party data insulated from signal loss-advantages most challengers cannot match.
Adding to this, Shradha Agarwal, Co-Founder & CEO of Grapes, highlighted the key hurdles brands face when allocating budgets to newer networks like ONDC or eBay. She noted that brands consider three main factors: whether the network can deliver the same sales efficiency, whether it reaches new users or just shoppers already accessible on Amazon, and whether the scale is meaningful. Quoting an example, she said if a brand is already generating 10 crore on Amazon, it may question whether investing in a new platform that delivers only 25 lakh is worth the effort.
Vaibhav Jain, Head of Media at First Economy, pointed out, the biggest barriers to scaling budgets across newer retail media networks like eBay or ONDC or any other, are fragmented infrastructure, limited data maturity, and inconsistent measurement. Many platforms still lack robust first-party data systems and unified reporting standards, making it difficult for brands to validate ROI at the level provided by Amazon or Flipkart.
Everyone’s building a network – but is there room?
Despite the dominance of Amazon and Flipkart, the retail media landscape is attracting new entrants, including grocery and pharmacy marketplaces, Q-commerce platforms, D2C marketplaces, and ONDC pilots, all attempting to carve out space for themselves. Among these challengers, eBay has recently re-entered India with a markedly different approach focussing on building technical and export-led capabilities rather than competing directly in the domestic consumer market.
Against this backdrop, eBay has reopened its India chapter with a Global Capability Centre (GCC) in Bengaluru, planning to host over 300 engineers across AI/ML, product, design, and data analytics. Unlike its previous consumer-facing stints in 2005 and 2013, this pivot is capability and export-led, not a direct battle with domestic marketplaces. Globally, eBay earns revenue through Promoted Listings and other advertising products, but in India, it has historically lacked domestic shopper scale and first-party data, the two critical ingredients that make retail media profitable.
This time, eBay appears to be betting on cross-border trade, technology-led capabilities, and potentially new ad-tech opportunities a model that could differentiate it from established players like Amazon and Flipkart.
Speaking on this, Lloyd Mathias, business strategist and angel investor, said, “Retail media takes off only when you have a large front-end site like Amazon or Flipkart, where advertisers want to reach shoppers at the point of purchase. I don’t think retail media is going to be a big revenue driver for eBay at all.”
Adding to this, seasoned e-commerce analyst and Datum Intelligence advisor Satish Meena noted, “Retail-media economics depend on domestic shopper traffic and first-party data both of which eBay currently lacks in India. The realistic play is export-facing promotions, enabling Indian sellers to advertise SKUs to international buyers on eBay’s global sites. That’s valuable but niche, and unlikely to rival Flipkart or Amazon’s India-scale retail-media businesses.”
Devangshu Dutta of Third Eyesight stated, “On the trade front, the company appears to be prioritising exports from India rather than competing in the domestic market, which is already hypercompetitive and price-driven.”
Until eBay establishes a stronger consumer-facing presence, retail media will not be a priority, as per experts. In the near term, its strategy is likely to focus on export-facing ads, promoting Indian sellers to global buyers. Looks like this approach is unlikely to challenge Amazon or Flipkart in India.
What it would take to break the duopoly
While eBay’s strategy has been called smart, opportunities remain. Harish Bijoor, Founder, Harish Bijoor Consults Inc, noted that communication formats are evolving. with peer-to-peer engagement gaining reliability over top-down approaches. Amazon and Flipkart follow top-down models, whereas eBay could differentiate itself through 1:1 consumer interaction.
After two failed attempts at cracking India’s consumer market, eBay’s third innings (as some may call) is fundamentally different. It is no longer chasing domestic consumers but enabling Indian sellers to export globally, leveraging eBay’s global logistics, trust programs, and buyer base. The company is also partnering with government export initiatives, MSME councils, and logistics providers, while buildin technical, analytic, and product capabilities through the Bengaluru GCC.
Mandar Lande, co-founder of Waayu, a platform working with ONDC and MSMEs to enable digital commerce, said that eBay is unlikely to build a traditional retail media business in India without a large consumer marketplace. “eBay lacks the first-party shopper data and traffic scale that power retail media networks like Amazon Ads or Flipkart Ads. However, it could still build a niche ad-tech play focused on export sellers, cross-border insights, and global buyer intent analytics essentially an “export intelligence and seller marketing’ platform rather than a domestic retail media business. While it won’t rival Amazon Ads in India, it can carve out a high-value B2B media niche rooted in cross-border commerce rather than local eyeballs.”
For challenger brands like eBay aiming to break into India’s retail media landscape, success will depend on proving incremental sales rather than just impressions, offering unique audiences, maintaining pricing flexibility, and providing ease of buying through self-serve tools and standardised metrics.
Experts told eam that while retail media and ad-tech may not be immediate revenue drivers, eBay’s export-first strategy allows the company to build scale, technology, and credibility, setting the stage for potential consumer-facing or advertising initiatives in the future.
Jain mentioned, “Closed-loop measurement is central to shifting brand spend beyond Amazon and Flipkart. It offers verifiable proof of performance, linking ad exposure directly to sales. Challenger retail media networks that can deliver credible attribution and comparable ROAs will gain traction faster. Measurement sophistication isn’t just an advantage; it’s the entry ticket to serious brand consideration.”
Speaking about how self-serve tools, standardised metrics, and competitive CPC/CPM rates influence a brand’s willingness to experiment with challenger retail media networks, Jain told e4m that these elements are critical for encouraging experimentation. They simplify campaign management, enable agility, and allow brands to benchmark performance fairly against established players.
From a brand execution perspective, Agarwal emphasised that the availability of self-serve tools is crucial for experimentation. Advertising on commerce platforms was previously cumbersome, but self-serve options now allow brands to launch campaigns at any budget, large or small, providing flexibility and control. When pricing is competitive and reporting is standardised, brands are more willing to test new networks. Early experiments have shown that allocating even a portion of retail media budgets to challenger platforms can deliver meaningful incremental sales, although such cases remain limited.
Reality check for 2025 plans
Brands in India are increasingly looking to diversify their retail media spend and reduce costs, but in a market dominated by Amazon and Flipkart, certainty still drives allocation decisions. Amazon Ads India revenue surged to 8,342 crore in FY25, a 25% year-on-year increase, while Flipkart Ads has grown 600% since 2020, capturing a significant share of marketplace marketing budgets. Until challengers can match these giants on shopper intent, identity, and attribution, most retail media budgets will remain top-heavy.
While many new entrants are trying to add variety at the edges by offering niche audiences, alternative ad formats, and export-focussed solutions, However, breaking into the core of India’s retail media market requires domestic scale, robust attribution frameworks, and access to unique audiences that cannot be replicated elsewhere.
Experts point to several structural barriers for newer networks. Fragmented infrastructure, limited first-party data, and inconsistent measurement make it difficult for brands to validate ROI at the level provided by Amazon or Flipkart.
(Published in Exchange4media)
admin
September 22, 2025
Christina Moniz, Financial Express
22 September 2025
It is already the largest player among organised fumiture makers with over 15% of the market. With 1,000 stores, it has the widest retail store footprint among organised players. The 102-year-old brand is also the second-largest revenue con-tributor to the parent enterprise.
So why is Interio tinkering with its name, logo and colour attributes?
“We want to move away from being viewed as a functional brand to more of a design-led lifestyle one. We have a wider range of offerings that are more modular and aesthetic,” says Reshu Saraf, head of marketing communications at Interio by Godrej.
As a first step, it has a new logo and name change – from Godrej Interio to Interio by Godrej. The brand has earmarked ₹50 crore towards an integrated campaign across TV, digital, outdoor and in-store branding to promote its new proposition over the next year. Overall, it will invest ₹300 crore in expansion and technology with the goal to more than double revenues to ₹10,000 crore by FY29.
Younger consumers don’t see furniture as utility but as lifestyle, observes Puneet Pandey, strategy head and managing partner, OPEN Strategy & Design. “By moving from ‘solid and sturdy’ to ‘stylish and aesthetic’, the brand earns the right to play at higher price points as well. Design-led positioning will also unlock repeat purchase since people no longer wait a decade to change their furniture based on utility; they want constant upgrades to refresh their living spaces as their tastes evolve,” he notes, adding that Interio needs to make the marketing leap from “catalogue to culture”.
Saraf says the brand is also building differentiation with its customer experience. “We’re using digital tools for store walkthroughs and visualisers to help visualise our products in the home. Our product portfolio, which is deeply personalised ane tailored for Indian sensibilities, it is a major differentiator that few other brands offer,” she points out.
E-commerce is also a focus area with the brand looking to increase the revenue share from 15% to 20-22% by 2029. The company is leveraging Al to improve the search functionand sharpen personalisation. Saraf adds the that offline too, the brand will have large format experience centres to help people envision what their rooms could look like, along with mid-size and small-format stores.
Interio also plans to widen its retail store footprint from 1,000 to 1,500 by 2029.
As per industry estimates, the Indian furniture market is set to grow at 11% annually to reach $64.1 billion by 2032 from $30.6 billion in 2025. It is this growth momentum that Interio is looking to cash in on.
Built-in differentiation
Although a significant chunk of Interio’s business comes from its home remodelling services, within the furniture category, it competes with global players like IKEA and digital-first brands like Pepperfry. The challenge for Interio in this market is to embed the design-led positioning in its productsandcus-tomer experience, says Nisha Sam-path, managing partner at Bright Angles Consulting.
One of its biggest advantages is the Godrej brand. “The Godrej brand stands for many values prized in interiors such as quality, trust, reliability and durability with a ‘Made in India’ tag. However, the brand has not been so successful in building an image of cutting-edge design and innovation. These are new values that can make the brand more contemporary,” she remarks.
Devangshu Dutta, CEO of Third Eyesight concurs, pointing out aside from nimble competition, Interio’s key challenges also come from the dual pressures of increasing consumer expectations for rapid delivery and customisation on the one hand, with aggressive price competition on the other.
(Published in Financial Express – Brandwagon)
