boAt’s Aman Gupta On Why Omnichannel Is The Way Forward For D2C Brands

Speaking at the first session of Day 1 at Inc42’s The D2C Summit 3.0, consumer electronics startup boAt’s cofounder Aman Gupta stated that direct-to-consumer (D2C) as an industry is evolving but omnichannel is the way forward (for ecommerce).

Talking to Inc42 cofounder and CEO Vaibhav Vardhan, Gupta stated that way back in 2016, the time when he started his online electronics brand, the business model used to be called by different names.

Evolving from an online, ecommerce then Amazon-focussed, to a marketplace-focussed and now an omnichannel D2C brand, boAt has been called by many names. As Gupta highlighted, when they started initially as an online brand, investors were sceptical and did not believe they could even make INR 50 Cr in revenue. But then they reached INR 100 Cr, then INR 500 Cr and now there has been a shift in mindset to an extent that investors are looking for D2C startups to get added to their portfolio.

Further, Gupta stated that consumer behaviour has been constantly evolving. Yet, the majority of Indians shop offline and there is still resistance to adopting ‘online’ mode of shopping. “But there is a convergence. Today legacy brands are coming online and digital-first brands are going offline. In ‘online’, you create a brand – faster and better – and then move offline.”

The idea is to reach the customers and build a business, and it doesn’t matter what model you undertake, the Shark Tank judge said during the inaugural session. He added that offline’s contribution to boAt’s as of now is only 15-20%, but it will go up by 30-40% in the near future.

Founded by Gupta and Sameer Mehta, boAt started as a consumer electronics brand selling earphones on Amazon and Flipkart. The startup evolved into a D2C brand launching its website and subsequently following the modern and general trade route. 

Today, the startup offers nearly 100+ products across headphones, smartwatches, speakers, gaming accessories, personal care appliances and more, where it holds nearly 20% of the wearable watch market in India.

The digital-first brand has served 2 Mn+ users pan-India, shipping its products to over 34 states and UTs. In line with Gupta’s comment on omnichannel brand presence, boAt has an offline presence with 13K+ retail stores and 40+ modern retail/regional retail stores and is distributed by over 40 distributors and over 180 sub-distributors.

Truly, D2C as a concept has evolved over the years. Ecommerce and D2C startups are now divided into three categories – pure-play D2C (only own online website), omnichannel D2C (presence on own website & marketplaces) and omnichannel ecommerce (presence on own website, marketplace & offline retail stores).

As per an Inc42 analysis with 50 D2C startups, boAt ranked among the top 10 D2C Indian startups (based on their sales in FY21). The Inc42 survey with 50 D2C founders found that 50% of Indian D2C brands have an omnichannel presence and 87% of the Indian D2C brands give high importance of running an omnichannel (online + offline) presence. India is home to nearly 180+ funded D2C startups.

Day1 of the Inc42’s The D2C Summit will be focussed on several key themes including how to build, operate, and scale profitable ecommerce businesses in India and solving problems within logistics, marketing, brand building and more.

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