Behind Broadway’s Bid To Rewire The Omnichannel Route For D2C Brands

It’s hardly a secret that India’s D2C story began online, but omnichannel is the way forward as brands and startups look to get closer to the consumer. 

But as more and more Indian D2C players try to hop the omnichannel train, they hit a wall. Not only are startups unable to find the right retail space, but there is a clear lack of a bridge which connects the online brand-building to the offline retail channel. 

A plethora of D2C brands, such as Firstcry, Bombay Shirt Company, Lenskart, Rage Coffee, Mamaearth and Giva, are bullish on the omnichannel route but when they get there, they realise that malls, modern retail stores and general trade outlets lack the infrastructure that new-age D2C startups crave. 

And when it comes to exclusive brand outlets, not many startups have the scale and the presence to make full use of the capital expenditure involved. Even fighting against legacy retail and FMCG players is an uphill task as these have well-established networks with retail channels. 

So even as brands love the retail and omnichannel modes for the hands-on experience that they enable, there is a gap in the market. And this is the niche that Broadway wants to occupy. 

Founded in March 2023 and with its first store now launched in Delhi NCR, Broadway claims to have cracked the modern retail formula for new-age D2C brands. 

Conceptualised and launched by venture studio Think9, actor Rana Daggubati, real estate giant Anarock chairman Anuj Kejriwal and Salarpuria Group executive director Apurva Salarpuria, Broadway calls itself  “A Theatre for Brands” allowing consumers to look, feel and interact with D2C brands in ways thus far unexplored.

In fact, Think9, being a venture studio, has co-created several brands, which are among the launch partners for Broadway in Delhi’s Ambience Mall, with two more outlets planned in Mumbai and Hyderabad.  

Speaking to Inc42, Salarpuria said that while Broadway is the brainchild of Think9 cofounder Vivek Biyani, all four entities bring a unique edge to the table. Salarpuria’s experience in investing in the ecommerce and D2C space for the past decade, Daggubati’s star power and his brush with investments and creating retail spaces as well as Anarock’s real estate experience all play a key role for Broadway. 

So what exactly is the Broadway play? 

The Inception Story

Having backed brands such as Paper Boat, Bira, Epigamia and others in the past decade, Salarpuria has seen the growth of the D2C segment up close. And naturally, he is well aware of the problems many of these brands faced when going offline. 

“There was a realisation that while brands can scale up to INR 50 Cr top line by just online, the cost of doing business becomes fairly flat post that. There is no economies of scale on the selling side and for brands to operate in a meaningfully profitable way, these brands needed to bring in a mix of online and offline streams,” he told Inc42. 

Online-first brands have a steep learning curve when it comes to offline retail. With the D2C enabler thesis at its core, Broadway is looking to create an environment that could potentially offer brands the right ingredients for offline success. 

As Salarpuria pointed out, department stores and large malls haven’t evolved meaningfully in tandem with the changing times. With a plethora of online offerings coming into play in recent times, consumers now often step out of their houses to gain meaningful experiences and not just buy products. And that’s something D2C brands are well aware of, given this is exactly how they build their online presence. 

But bringing this to the retail space is not possible without reinventing the concept of a department store. “For the new age consumers, the experience of going to a department store is not as exciting as it was pre-ecommerce boom in India. The experience hasn’t picked up as it could, and that’s where we felt that Broadway could fill in a gap. With this, we are bidding to create a new era of experiential shopping in India,” he added. 

Broadway Reimagines Omnichannel

 

Having visited the Broadway outlet in Delhi NCR on opening day, one could immediately see why Salarpuria claims to have reimagined the space, creating a mall within a mall. Salarpuria explained that Broadway at its core wants to introduce a social element to retail, which is why all brand aisles feature screens where brands can emphasise their key features and USPs. 

Besides this, there is an experiential element such as a mini food court and a bar at the Delhi outlet where F&B brands get showcased unlike any other mall or retail outlet in the past. New products can be launched on a stage right inside the store, and D2C brands can have dedicated zones within Broadway to set up mini stores within this space. 

“We are looking at live shows and gigs which can feature stand up comedians, live music, among others where brands can intersect with entertainment acts unlike ever before,” Salarpuria added. 

To start with, Broadway is launching with 115 brands, but new brands will be added on a daily basis and the founders claim to have made it much easier for new brands to come onboard. 

Besides entertainment, shoppers have an opportunity to interact with people behind the brands housed in the stores, from founders of D2C brands to investors, which is again a first when it comes to the omnichannel mode.  

“There are multiple layers adding on to the experiential shopping experience that we are looking to create. Besides in-house live events, food and drinks, we are creating an influencer program within the store in a setting called “Broadway Studio”, where influencers can come in and promote merchandise within the store and interact with consumers. This can allow brands to churn out fresh content every week with good quality influencers at a very low cost,” he explained. 

While the first store in Delhi is set up inside a mall, Broadway is building a bigger, standalone outlet in Hyderabad at the moment which will span 45,000 sq ft. This particular outlet can accommodate 250 brands, and is envisioned as an arena for showcasing India’s D2C startups. 

The Broadway Advantage For D2C Brands

So what kind of brands is Broadway looking to collaborate with and will Think9’s brands be given a preference over others? Salarpuria said that the responsibility to curate the list of brands is with Think9’s Vivek Biyani, the nephew of Future Group founder Kishore Biyani. 

“Of course, there are a lot of better-known brands we specifically wanted to have to give people familiarity with them. Nonetheless, we’ve had a ton of brands applying to us, and we’ve been trying to curate to make sure we have a healthy mix of different kinds of products,” Salarpuria claims. 

Given the background of the Biyani family, Broadway can rely on their expertise of running a retail giant in India. This critical know-how along with the fact that Think9 has built brands in a hands-on manner, will be a key competitive advantage for Broadway. 

As Kishore Biyani told Inc42 on the launch day, “One can never stop innovating and this is going to be a game changer for modern retail in India. Nowhere else can consumers directly speak to some of the founders running these brands, so this creates a different kind of impact on the shopper.” 

So how easy is it for brands to come on-board? Broadway claims any brand can set up their presence within a day, and they can experiment with Broadway for a few months and even opt out if the model is not for them. Salarpuria claims this will allow Broadway to constantly have a fresh set of brands and catalogue, which is again key for the kind of consumer these brands want to attract.

Modern consumers are willing to pay more, which explains the premiumisation wave in the Indian D2C space, and they also have a propensity to experiment with new brands. Which is why Broadway’s easy-come-easy-go approach might be great for brands testing the omnichannel waters.  

The question of course is whether brands will continue to rely on Broadway when they scale up. Often brands want to establish a strong brand offline and go for exclusive stores to achieve that. With Broadway, they get a relatively cost-efficient go-to-market strategy for omnichannel, but sticking with Broadway in the long run requires a lot more proof about whether this will work for scaled up brands. 

Salarpuria is clear that these are early days. “We are very cognizant of the fact that as more and more consumers come in, we will get a lot of data about what kind of brands are seeing higher traction and what areas we need to improve on. There will be lots of things which we will have to change and the challenge for us is adapting quickly.” 

Soon after our interaction, Salarpuria jumped into another call with the key people at Broadway to pick out learnings from the opening weekend. “We want to be adaptive to whatever feedback we are getting from the D2C ecosystem.”

In many ways, Broadway is the new social commerce for D2C brands in the omnichannel space. 

[Edited By Nikhil Subramaniam]