India Verlinvest’s Arjun Vaidya To D2C Founders: Let Customers Decide Where They Want To Buy From

Speaking at Inc42’s The D2C Summit 3.0, Arjun Vaidya, Ventures Lead, India Verlinvest said that D2C founders should let their customers decide the sales channel they want to buy their products from.

“I think from the channel perspective, I would say that where the customer is comfortable buying [your product] is the best place,” said Vaidya. It is prudent to mention here that the panel discussion was discussing the right mix of channels for a D2C startup.

“I think my view on that [selecting channels] is that let the customer decide where they want to buy your product. You as a brand need to be available where the customer wants to buy the product,” said Vaidya.

Vaidya was responding to a question about when and how a brand should select the sales channel. He shared his experience of selling a product as a D2C founder while speaking at the session. Vaidya recalled that at that time he did not have a distribution network and the product did not gain traction because it would take 3-4 days for it to be delivered via Amazon.

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The panel discussion also noted that the revenue of a brand is a good yardstick for deciding on sales channels. For instance, Veeba’s Viraj Bahl advised founders to only go offline when they have deep pockets or have an investor with deep pockets. 

Talking more about the challenges of going offline, The Moms Co.’s Malika Datt Sadani, while speaking at ‘Going Omnichannel: Decoding Indian D2C Brands’ Playbook To Success’ on Day 1 of The D2C Summit 3.0 said, “It’s not hard to get your product placed offline. The harder part is how you ensure offtake. We have to understand that online, there is unlimited shelf space but in retail, there is limited shelf space.”

Notably, going omnichannel is one of the hottest topics of discussion among D2C founders right now, with many already having an omnichannel sales network.

According to a survey conducted by Inc42 with 50 D2C founders as part of its latest report, ‘The State of Indian Ecommerce Q3 2022. InFocus: D2C’, 50% of the brands in India have an omnichannel presence.

Further, around 87% of Indian D2C brands give high importance to having an omnichannel presence, underlining the importance of utilising the right mix of sales channels. Per Inc42’s analysis, the direct-to-customer model is set to become a $302 Bn market opportunity by 2030 and without going omnichannel, brands won’t be able to fully utilise the potential of D2C in India.

Recent Inc42 analysis also shows that despite 2 out of every 5 Indian D2C brands recording a decrease in sales from FY20 to ‘21, the overall D2C segments recorded a 39% year-on-year (YoY) surge at the same time, crossing $1 Bn in sales.

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