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

Twitter usage is at an all-time high courtesy (partly) of the platform itself being the news. Meanwhile, reams have already been written about the blue tick and the $8. Do people want to pay for it or not? Will it come back after being pulled back? Will the official tag be visible? Then there’s a tragic-comic tale of how pharma giant Eli Lilly lost billions because of Twitter Blue.

Enough about Twitter and on to the Quick Commerce sector (that everyone has an opinion about).

What’s sizzling hot? 🔥

Quick commerce is in the news (again!). There’s never a dull moment in this segment. Flipkart has reduced focus on its instant delivery service Flipkart Quick to focus on the next-day grocery delivery model Flipkart Supermart. Launched in 2020,  Flipkart Quick started as 90-minute grocery delivery service and over time the delivery time was reduced to 30-45 minutes.

As of November 12 morning, Flipkart Quick was not serviceable in Bengaluru city, where the service initially started. In the aftermath of this scale-down, some of the Flipkart Quick workforces have been consolidated with Flipkart’s Supermarket service which delivers groceries the next day in a selected time slot.

Zepto kinda went through a similar drill when it got done with 15 min delivery timeline.

Meanwhile Quick commerce startup Dunzo has shut down a few dark stores across cities to optimise cost. Dunzo’s consolidated loss rose 2X to INR 464 Cr in the financial year 2021-22 (FY22) from INR 229 Cr in the prior fiscal year due to the doubling of expenses. The startup saw its operating revenue increase 2.1X to INR 54.3 Cr in FY22 from INR 25.1 Cr in FY21.

But then, here’s the latest statement from Kabeer Biswas, Co-Founder, and CEO of Dunzo“In the next five years, next-day deliveries will be dead. Consumers will want groceries and essential items faster and within hours. This is the future of quick commerce in India.”🤷

🗞️Marketplace Updates

• Pharma-Rocket: A year after the Tata Group picked up a majority stake in healthcare platform 1MG, the company is firing all cylinders to drive growth. The company plans to grow 80-85% year on year and claims to be on track to achieve these numbers. Some data points share by the company shared

  • An approximate 18-20% market share in the e-pharmacy segment

  • 40 million monthly unique users

  • 500 million monthly page views. 

  • Revenue from operations rose 65.7% to Rs 222.10 crore in FY22, while its net loss narrowed to Rs 146.30

The company is aiming for >Rs. 1000 Cr in corporate tie ups in 2 years and expects e-diagnostics to be the game changer

• Myntra faced a backlash for trolling KL Rahul. While many brands made memes to laugh through the pain of India’s performance in the ICC T20 World Cup 2022, Myntra crossed a line, according to netizens.

• YouTube is bringing Shorts-- the 60-second videos on its platform-- to the big screen experience on television sets. If you have a smart TV you will likely have to update the YouTube app in order to see Shorts soon.

• Delhivery's revenue during Q2FY23 came in at Rs 1,796 crore, which is 22% higher as against Rs 1,497.7 crore reported in the corresponding quarter of the last fiscal. However, Delhivery's loss in the second quarter of the fiscal year 2022-23 (Q2FY23) narrowed to Rs 254 crore against the loss of Rs 635 crore clocked in the year-ago period. The company recently acquired Bengaluru-based Spoton Logistics, a move aimed at further strengthening its B2B capabilities.

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• Amazon India is set to deliver third-party e-commerce orders. The service, called Amazon Shipping, offers “extensive reach and the highest reliability – all at the lowest logistics cost,” the company describes on its website. Amazon Shipping “will pick up your parcels 7 days a week, and deliver them to your customers,” the company adds. It has partnered with local firms Shiprocket, Unicommerce, EasyEcom, ClickPost and Vinculum for order and delivery management systems

  • As Amazon expands the Shipping serviceit will be in direct competition to Xpressbees, Delhivery, Ecom Express and even legacy logistics giants including Blue Dart and India Post. Flipkart also began to open its logistics network to third-party firms earlier this year.

🍕D2C Bites

• Vegan Beauty: Halal-certified and PETA-certified vegan cosmetics personal care brand, Iba Cosmetics has raised strategic investment from Singapore-based FMCG company Believe Pte Ltd. The transaction was valued at around $10 Mn.

• Indian Beauty: D2C skincare startup BrownSkin Beauty raised Rs 3.5 crore from Sequoia Capital India. BrownSkin Beauty currently houses 16 products for different Indian skin types in different climatic conditions. The company sells its products out of 12 marketplaces including its D2C website.

• Can’t get enough of beauty: Plenty of action in the BPC segment. We’re not done yet, here’s one more. D2C Ecommerce has acquired personal care D2C brand Luxura Sciences. Through this acquisition, D2C Ecommerce will expand in the personal care and beauty segment, and foray into global markets including US, UK, Middle East, South East Asia and Europe.

• Lenskart FY22 revenue jumps 66% to Rs 1,502 crore. Consolidated revenue from operations grew 66 per cent but company reported losses of Rs 102 crore in FY22 after reporting a profit of Rs 28 crore in the previous financial year. Lenskart is expanding globally and making acquisitions. It recently bought a majority stake in Japan’s direct-to-consumer eyewear brand Owndays.

📢Leader Speak

Get the latest on what D2C Founders and Leaders had to say this week!

Reads and Recommendations 📚

• What the ad folks are saying about the Cadbury Bournvita Ad. This one will get you discussing -just like Twitter blue tick and quick commerce get everyone started.

• How Lululemon didn’t change just activewear, it changed apparel.

• How discounting impacts a luxury retailer’s brand image

• Here are 150+ Copywriting and Content Creation Templates. What’s stopping you now?

For all the WFH folks, here’s something that will help you get even more productive. Check out the Multi-Purpose Portable Laptop Table from our brand Savya Home. Some like to call it a breakfast-in-bed tray. You decide what it’s best for. They come in various colours too-Brown, Silverish, Wood

That’s all for this week! Bye!

Stay tuned for more.

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