Hello! 👋

D2C Pulse is a newsletter written by the team at GlobalBees, curating happenings in the direct-to-consumer ecosystem of India.

The first wave of festive sales is finally over, Phew! It kicked off better than anticipated: E-commerce firms sold goods worth Rs. 24,500 crore (USD 3.5 bn) just in the first 4 days of the sale period.

All our D2C buddies, you aren’t the only one firefighting between managing your inventory, marketing, getting the right price, etc., even an established player like Nike is in a tight spot after declaring in its earnings report that it is currently overstocked by 44% due to supply chain headwinds and is suffering a severe GMV blow as a result of ramped up discounts.

🍕D2C Bites

• Spirituality Essentials 🙏: Blending technology with tradition, Poojai raised $1 million in a funding round headed by Billionaire Venture Capital. It offers pooja sets including dhoop sticks, kumkum, sandal powder etc. in gift, corporate and subscription boxes.

  Tailwinds:

  • Increasing demand for high-quality spiritual products for therapeutic and religious purposes in India.

  • Incredible opportunities for exports owing to the popularity of practices like yoga and meditation.

• Klutz-proof clothing 💦: Kidsbea, the patent holder and seller of organic spill-proof and anti-bacterial kidswear, raised funding led by Agility Ventures.

  Ahh! Spill-proof fashionable clothing… I mean why just for kids, we all have our clumsy moments far too often right?

  • Speaking of sustainable fashion, children’s organic wear brand, Greendigo Organic Clothing, received funding from Actress Dia Mirza, last week.

• Strategy flip ⏮️: Online first brand, Good Glamm Group is taking 4 of its acquired brands Sirona, The Moms Co, St Botanica, and Organic Harvest to international markets like Dubai, Qatar, and Saudi Arabia through offline channels (retailing in large physical stores). These regions clock over 90% of total sales in the beauty and personal care segment, from offline spaces.

• Veganomist 🌳: Epigamia raised a debt funding of Rs. 35 crore from Grand Anicut. The brand flaunts actress Deepika Padukone as an ambassador & investor and offers a wide range of varieties across yogurt, smoothies, and ghee-based spreads, online and across 10,000 offline touch points.

🗞️Marketplace Updates

• CRED makes a move 🤑: After entering the lending and insurance space to increase the transactions per user further, CRED has now launched the Scan and Pay feature wherein users can make UPI payments, using any QR code, that is linked to their CRED app. The app seems a bit late to the game (or is it not🤔?)

• Meesho catching up with e-comm platforms 🏃‍♀️: Meesho received $192 million from its parent entity last week. This news comes after it announced a fairly positive Meesho Mega Blockbuster Sale results - processing a record 87.6 lakh orders on the first day itself.

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• Amazon’s Live TV 📺: Amazon rolled out its live commerce feature 'Amazon Live' in India where customers can directly interact with content creators and buy products from links provided during their live streams. With Live chat feature, shoppers and influencers can interact in real-time.

• Walmart’s ambitions 👨‍👨‍👧‍👦: Walmart has reached out to Indian sellers to join its marketplace, aiming to achieve USD 10 bn in exports from India yearly by 2027.

• Mota bhai flips too⏮️: Mukesh Ambani is set to take a bet on in-house JioMart for competing with Amazon & Flipkart, after shelving the plan to launch a new 3P marketplace.

📢Leader Speak

Get the latest on what D2C Founders and Leaders had to say this week! This time we coloured outside the lines.

It's something you can really immerse yourself in. And that can be used in a good way. But I don't think you want to live your whole life that way." - Tim Cook, CEO Apple

“I believe there are a few participants who may not be ready, but that would largely be because of their unwillingness to comply. We don’t believe that we should hold back efforts to ensure customer protection because of such laggards.” - T Rabi Sankar, Deputy governor RBI when speaking about card tokenisation Go Live on Oct, 1st

💗Brands that raised our pulse

🍿Pop it, hog it!

Chocolate Caramel, litchi, blueberry, confetti, hazelnut, cheesy sriracha and the list goes on - we are not talking about flavours of candies but the product line of one Popcorn & Company that makes gourmet popcorn with a wide range of International and Indian flavors.

🍬 The better gum

Your chewing gum contains 'synthetic base': a low-quality plastic made with the same ingredients as tyres & glue. Gud gum has made India's first chewing gum with the sap of a special tree with all natural colours, flavours and ingredients.

Definitely one of a kind in the chewing gum space! 

Reads and Recommendations 📚

• Check out some innovative food inspired beauty products.

• Fate of Ad spends as festive cheer returns.

• The Shark Tank India Effect: A Year On

• What’s happening with roll-ups abroad:

Speaking of roll-ups back in India, check out the Brands at GlobalBees and their product offerings.

DON’T OPEN THIS LINK if you have already exhausted your Diwali shopping budget. The flashy deals are a steal and we can’t guarantee you won’t be tempted to punch in that debit card, once again, One Last Time!

That’s all for this week! Bye!

Stay tuned for more.

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