👋 Hello!

Welcome to mid-week D2C Pulse: A bite-sized newsletter where we cover:

🌎 Exciting products from e-commerce markets of the world

🗞 Developments in online marketplaces globally

📊 Fun facts about the D2C ecosystem

🌎 Going Global: Middle East🏜️

Outside of the West, though less mature, e-commerce is growing rapidly in the MENA region. With GMV of USD 30 bn and the number of marketplace sellers growing by over 50% YoY, Middle East E-comm is poised to reach USD 48.6 bn in 2022. As consumers continue to adopt online retail channels, E-comm now contributes more than 12% of the UAE’s total retail.

Saudi Arabia is a particularly interesting market with 55% of the population being upper-middle-class- that is able to pay a premium for premium services and has a strong appetite for newness, increasing the relevance of e-commerce. Saudi is driving a USD 8 bn e-commerce market with a population of approx 35 mn. 

Let’s look at some women-run brands with powerful ethos, in the UAE (that ranks 11th globally in the World Bank’s annual ease of doing business rankings)

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🐽 Remember to Exhale, Remember to Exist

T-shirts printed with Text can say a lot about a person. While Indian brands like Bewakoof focus on imprinting funny quotes & movie dialogues, Exhale uses T-shirts as tools to break stigmas about mental health and motivate people in the most basic way. Here’s one awe-piring quote from the brand:

“Wherever we go, we take ourselves with it”.

📲 Tinder for mommies & daddies?

Social network app Play:Date (more for expats), promotes social activities for children by providing a platform to discover and connect with other families. Until last year, the company had a community of 3,500 families and over 64,000 swipes.

💊 Party-smart as a concept, not the pill

Drink Dry Store is Middle East’s first premium non-alcoholic drinks marketplace with non-alcoholic options available in every spirit (wine, beer, cocktails etc.) that look and taste like their alcoholic counterparts.

🛍️ Fanny pack for moms

Sometimes the excitement of a new baby leaves parents with little or no plans for postpartum. Mama care makes life easier for the new moms with all the postpartum products under one roof, with offerings like ‘The Birthing Box’ aka hospital essentials, ‘The BFF Box’ (breastfeeding), ‘The V Box’ & ‘The C Box’.

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❓Quiz ‘o’Clock

1. Which Indian textile brand proudly proclaims “Since 1925” in its ads?

2. For the social media managers, how is an octothorpe more commonly known?

3. Check out this colour. It is a brand of milk chocolate that originated in Switzerland in 1901 manufactured by Mondelēz International. In the 1960s the script logo and its lilac packaging were trademarked. ID the brand that will remind you of a 2013 Bollywood movie whose script was written by Prasoon Joshi.

🗞️ Global Updates

• The U.K. wants to ensure consumer protection and competition by essentially targeting fake reviews and killer acquisitions:

  • It will make it illegal to pay people to write fake reviews and will fine platforms.

• Twitter will take a "poison pill" to ward off the Musk takeover.

• WhatsApp’s comin’ for Slack with its new "Communities" feature.

  • Speaking of communities, Tinder launched a new feature called “Festival Mode” that enables users to connect with each other before a big concert or a festival.

• Amazon Updates:

  • Amazon is rebranding IMDb TV to Freevee, an ad-supported free TV. A potential goldmine for advertisers.

  • Amazon’s new feature would like to make some suggestions for your sponsored ads.

📊 Graph-iti Of The Day

Retro is coming back: Retro home decor, Retro apparel, Retro games, Retro kitchen. While the trend is more prominent in the US, we all know, it will soon manifest itself in India too - Scouters, business opportunity alert!

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That’s all for today! We hope you enjoyed this mid-week treat. If you liked it, give us a ❤️ below! Also, if there is any specific country you want us to cover next week, do let us know in the comments section.

PS: Quiz Answers:

1. Raymonds

2. The Hash sign (#)

3. Milka