The D2C Summit Is Here! Unveiling The Agenda For India’s Largest D2C & Ecommerce Conference

If the Covid pandemic in 2020 pushed many tech-shy Indians towards a digital life, 2021 has been the year where that transition has become a near-permanent thing. This year has been unprecedented when it comes to startup funding and new unicorns, but one particular sector that has seen a massive uptick is ecommerce and within this the direct-to-consumer (D2C) has become the darling of the tech industry.

But even D2C is evolving and beyond brands and startups, we are seeing sellers of all kinds going direct to consumer, bypassing the traditional distribution models. While we have been on the D2C scene from the very beginning, the evolution in 2021 has seen countless merchants who want to scale their businesses and go the D2C route.

This is why after hosting India’s largest ecommerce conference earlier this year, we are back with an even bigger 2nd edition of The D2C Summit. Our goal is to enable India’s D2C businesses and online sellers to scale up, reach new heights with insights, advice and tips from the who’s who of the ecommerce industry.

“Direct-to-Consumer (D2C) selling is becoming more popular as firms look for more cost effective and secure ways to reach consumers. The online selling landscape is becoming increasingly individualised, and D2Cs must find new ways to create tailored experiences that will thrill and engage a discriminating customer base,” said Sakshi Chawla, founder of payments solutions startup Pay10.

The D2C Summit is part of our mission to foster a community of over 1 Mn+ digital entrepreneurs and empower them with insights, knowledge and upskilling opportunities.

Today, India is a thriving market of small and medium digital businesses, with over 50,000 digital-first brands and more than 15 Mn active online sellers. The stage is now set for the next phase in the D2C revolution. Presented by Trell and Inc42 Plus, The D2C Summit will feature over 5,000+ attendees and a star-studded lineup of 100+ expert speakers. This edition is co-presented by Pay10, Karix and powered by Salesforce, Shiprocket and Dukaan and supported by MongoDB.

This edition of The D2C Summit is all about surfacing proven strategies and tactics from global ecommerce leaders and D2C experts. We are going beyond just brands and bringing in global ecommerce giants, ecosystem enablers and leaders from the wider ecommerce world to decode the challenges and trends for online sellers, ecommerce marketplaces, enabler ecosystem, service providers and agencies and traditional retailers going online.

“D2C 2.0 summit will have bigger access to brands in metros and remote places alike. It will enable a seamless trading network that can also be used to support practical information exchange between sellers and commerce platforms,” believes Trell cofounder Pulkit Agrawal.

Join 100+ speakers — from founders to brand marketers to online selling experts to investors — and 100+ brands for the second edition to take the experience to the next level. Here’s a look at the key agenda points for the second edition of The D2C Summit.

Fireside Chats: Decoding The Latest D2C Trends — From Celebrity Investors To The Thrasio Model

One of the biggest trends in the D2C world is the ecommerce roll-up model popularised by US-based behemoth Thrasio. With Indian startups also adopting this model and turning into unicorns, who better to delve into this trend than the OG roll-up?

Get to know the ‘real’ Thrasio from CEO and cofounder Carlos Cashman, and the journey of the company over the past 18 months, where it has blazed a trail in the ecommerce world. Understand the model that makes Thrasio tick, how it scales up brands and the culture that drives one of the hottest tech companies today. Appearing in an Indian ecommerce conference for the first time ever, Cashman’s fireside chat has already got India’s D2C players buzzing.

Another emerging model in India is the house of brands approach, which has been adopted by the likes of publicly-listed Nykaa and unicorn Good Glamm Group. Health and wellness startup Wellversed is also on that track, backed by former cricketer Yuvraj Singh. The startup’s founder Aanan Khurma and investor Singh will take us through India’s health & wellness ecosystem from the POV of Wellversed, how celebrity engagement works in the D2C arena and the strategy behind attracting more brands to Wellversed’s universe.

One of the earliest D2C disruptors in India was Paperboat, which tapped into childhood nostalgia associated with fruit juices to challenge the biggest players in the beverages market.

From the branding principles that have held Paperboat’s parent company Hector Beverages in good stead through its decade-long journey, to the evolution in Indian retail over the years and now competing with newer D2C players, Paperboat founder Neeraj Kakkar will discuss it all with Nikhil Vora, founder of Sixth Sense Ventures.

Investors are eyeing every slice in the D2C pie, but through an Environmental, Social, and Governance or ESG lens. ESG investing essentially boils down to investing in companies that have high environmental and societal responsibility values and Kanwaljit Singh, founder of Fireside Ventures, will help us navigate the challenges and areas of development in ESG investing.

Panel Discussions: The Best Of India’s D2C In One Place — Scaling Up Brands, Going Global And Cracking The Growing Categories

It’s perhaps the biggest question on every new D2C brand’s mind. Scaling up a D2C brand is not just about creating the best product, but finding the right brand story, cracking the sales channels that work and bringing customers back for more. Malika Datt Sadani, founder of The Moms Co, Melorra founder and CEO Saroja Yeramilli, Wakefit founder Chaitanya Ramalingegowda and Trell cofounder Bimal Kartheek Rebba will dive into the scaling-up problem with Arjun Vaidya from Verlinvest as the moderator.

Beauty and personal care is a massive opportunity in India and new brands are emerging every month in India, if Instagram ads and social media content is to be believed. But beating FMCG giants is a whole different story. What checkboxes do beauty & skincare brands need to cross off, tapping data and analytics, leveraging influencers and creators, going beyond organic and solving the problem of personalisation.

Plum founder Shankar Prasad, Minimalist cofounder and CEO Mohit Yadav, Khadi Essentials cofounder Shreedha Singh and Nitin Passi of Lotus Herbals will take a crack at the burning questions in the beauty space with Sequoia India MD Sakshi Chopra as the moderator.

Beyond beauty, fitness is another area that has caught the fancy of the D2C players. How do Sameer Maheshwari, founder and CEO of HealthKart, Oziva cofounder Aarti Gill, Yoga Bar cofounder Suhasini Sampath, and Tata Consumer Soulfull’s Prashant Parameswaran view this category? Kannan Sitaram, venture partner, Fireside Ventures will look to extract the insights from this fitness brigade.

India’s $43 Bn fashion market has naturally attracted a slew of D2C players, and the growing reach of marketplaces and digital payments has solved many of the typical online fashion shopping dilemmas. But there’s a lot more to be unearthed within the fashion space. Vedang Patel, cofounder of The Souled Store, Cashkaro cofounder Swati Bhargava, Hopscotch’s Rahul Anand, and FableStreet cofounder Ayushi Gudwani, will discuss this and more with EY’s Ankur Pahwa.

Do subscriptions work in the D2C space in India? Will consumers change their mindset and consumption patterns when it comes to D2C brands?  Nua CEO Ravi Ramachandran, Ajith Karimpana, founder & CEO of House of Kieraya, Flinto chief Arunprasad Durairaj, and Ajai Thandi, cofounder of  Sleepy Owl Coffee will go into what works and what does not when it comes to subscription models in D2C.

As home delivery took centre-stage for groceries and essentials through the pandemic, even the meat delivery players are not eyeing significant growth in the years to come. But meat delivery has its own set of challenges that make it far different than groceries. What goes into creating and scaling up the supply chain for this category, how brands are tapping the ready-to-eat trend, and why packaging and quality checks matter more in meat than grocery.

TenderCuts founder Nishanth Chandran, Deepanshu Manchanda, founder of ZappFresh, Freshtohome founder Shan Kadavil, and Abhishek Sinha, cofounder & CEO of GoodDot will discuss the $60 Bn+ meat opportunity in India with Ankur Capital cofounder Ritu Verma.

Besides these, we have several panel discussions that dive deep into retention strategies for brands, expanding to international markets (featuring Vahdam founder Bala Sarda, WOW Skin Science CEO Manish Chowdhary) fundraising from family offices and business houses that are eyeing the D2C segment as well as the challenges in payments and fulfilment or deliveries.

Masterclasses: Lessons From D2C Leaders — Fundraising, Social Commerce, Payments Experience & More

While thousands of new D2C brands have emerged in the past couple of years, let’s get one thing straight: launching a D2C startup is no child’s play.

Sanil Sachar, founding partner of early-stage accelerator Huddle, delves into why D2C brands fail — from misplaced focus on scale rather than customer experience to the importance of content and other critical areas like product testing, ecosystem partnerships and more.

The D2C world is currently attracting attention from all kinds of investors. We have seen several different funding avenues emerge, including equity, venture debt, revenue-based financing, roll-ups and more. What are the metrics that investors look for and how to find the right match for your D2C startup? VC firm Lightbox’s partner Sandeep Murthy will delve into the fundraising basics for D2C.

Acquiring customers can be a pain point for new D2C players, but getting repeat business is perhaps the biggest challenge. Communication is the first step towards effective acquisition and retention. Digital first brands need to leverage automation, technology, customer data analytics and more to stay ahead of the curve. Join Sonia Kaul, VP of product marketing and digital enablement at messaging and communications provider Karix to know all about the best ways to attract and keep customers.

The payments experience can make or break a D2C brand especially with so much competition coming up. How can brands choose the right payment gateway and what are the best practices to make the payments journey frictionless? Sakshi Chawla, founder of Pay10, will answer these questions and more.

Content is a critical cog in the D2C machine. Whether it is content-driven commerce or social media engagement, it’s vital to hook the consumer at the right point. Angad Bhatia, founder of content commerce platform MensXP, will have all the answers on accelerating D2C growth and creating a cult following by leveraging content marketing.

The growth of social commerce in India has coincided with the rise of D2C. Bimal Kartheek Rebba, cofounder of Trell, will take the audience through the ins and outs of working with social commerce platforms and how D2C brands can expand their reach.

When it comes to D2C in India, it’s not just about selling natively. Omnichannel is the name of the game and marketplaces are a key touchpoint for D2C brands besides their native channels. GlobalBees Damandeep Singh Soni will chart the marketplace course for new brands in India and why this channel can be a rich source of business for D2C startups.

Note: We at Inc42 take our ethics very seriously. More information about it can be found here.