India’s direct-to-consumer (D2C) market has undergone a remarkable transformation, evolving from a nascent trend to a robust mainstream sector. Today, the country boasts a thriving D2C landscape, with nearly 600+ brands vying for consumer attention.
Significantly, around 65% of Indian consumers have embraced the convenience of D2C purchases, highlighting the widespread adoption of this new retail model. Industry data paints a promising picture, projecting the sector to reach a staggering $100 Bn by 2025, a testament to its exponential growth trajectory.
Several key factors have propelled this D2C boom. First and foremost, the widespread availability of smartphones and affordable data plans has significantly boosted internet penetration across India. This digital revolution has empowered millions of consumers to seamlessly access online shopping platforms, creating a fertile ground for D2C brands.
Additionally, a fundamental shift in consumer behaviour has played a crucial role. Today’s discerning customers prioritise convenience, affordability and personalised experiences – all of which D2C platforms excel at delivering. This alignment between consumer needs and D2C offerings has demonstrably fueled market growth.
Success Strategy For D2C brands
The D2C landscape has evolved. While many brands have embraced the direct-to-consumer model, the focus has shifted from simply launching a D2C channel to implementing innovative strategies for customer acquisition and targeting.
To stay ahead of the curve and achieve lasting success, D2C brands must now explore new approaches.
Let’s delve into what brands can do differently to thrive on their D2C journey:
Insights Into Customer Journey Across Touchpoints
Adopting a D2C approach requires a holistic view of customer interactions, from the initial brand encounter to post-purchase engagement. This calls for a deeper understanding of the customer journey across different touchpoints.
The process should involve gaining insights into customers’ aspirations, preferences, experiences, challenges encountered, etc., during their journey. This strategy will enable brands to create consistent, holistic and personalised experiences that drive customer acquisition and foster loyalty.
Tech-Enabled Customisation And Personalisation Of Services
In today’s digitally driven world, D2C platforms leverage emerging technologies like AI, ML, data analytics, etc., to identify valuable customers and gather insights into their journeys across touchpoints, preferences and pain points.
They use this information to solve the challenges and address the unmet needs of consumers to ensure repeat business. However, they can also use new-age technologies to understand the characteristics of high-value existing customers and find new customers at lower acquisition costs.
In fact, investing in data and analytical capabilities will further help D2C brands offer personalised services based on customers’ preferences. Value additions like customisation and personalisation of services improve customer engagement, satisfaction and loyalty and generate greater sales in the long run.
Modern, tech-savvy consumers want personalised experiences. Facilitating this in the D2C model ensures customer engagement, which can be a powerful marketing tool in the future. When brands offer tailored services and experiences, their customers feel valued and deeply connected to the brand. This leads to increased customer loyalty, repeat purchases and even word-of-mouth recommendations, helping in customer acquisition.
Targeted And Personalised Marketing
Since D2C brands have access to customer data, they can utilise it to conceptualise personalised marketing campaigns, refine existing marketing strategies and enhance the overall customer experience.
With data analytics and AI capturing data at various touchpoints, brands can craft personalised strategies targeting customers according to their needs. They can take the marketing game a notch higher by utilising the attribute of personalisation to segregate their audiences into segments.
This categorisation can be done based on different parameters such as demographics, age group, preferences, behaviours, etc. Brands can then ideate targeted marketing campaigns catering to specific groups of consumers.
With the data collected, they can also create dynamic, relatable content with personalised messaging that resonates with customers, encouraging them to trust the brand and become its loyal supporters.
Influencer Marketing Is The New Norm
Influencers play an important role in shaping purchasing decisions today. 61% of the brands focus on driving awareness and engagement through influencers and 75% of brands in India incorporate influencer marketing as part of their overall marketing mix.
In the future, three out of four brands are expected to leverage influencer marketing, with the market projections to be valued at INR 3,375 Cr by 2026, proving their immense growth potential. D2C brands rely on this new-age marketing channel as an effective way to connect with their customers, drive engagement and achieve growth.
In addition to boosting brand visibility and awareness, brands can expand their reach beyond metros by strategically utilising the power of micro and regional influencers to promote localised content across various channels.
Feedback Is The Key To Customer Acquisition And Retention
Businesses cover a long journey from the bottom up to become D2C brands. Working with a customer-centric approach becomes a part of their DNA and catering to their invaluable customers’ demands remains a priority.
However, listening to customers is crucial, especially when personalising their experiences. Hence, taking customer feedback should be a continuous process to analyse their satisfaction levels, ensure operational excellence, product or service development and evaluate the performance of personalised experiences.
Through surveys, reviews and social media monitoring, they can learn about the improvement areas and fine-tune their strategies. In the long run, analysing customer feedback becomes integral to improving customer acquisition strategies and retention efforts.
In Conclusion
With an online shopping base expected to reach nearly 500-600 Mn by 2030, India’s D2C market is poised to become the world’s second-largest. This rapid growth necessitates innovative strategies for D2C brands to maintain a competitive edge.
Customer-centricity and acquisition are paramount, requiring brands to delve into customer journeys across touchpoints. Technology plays a crucial role, enabling tailored experiences and targeted marketing campaigns.
Influencer marketing can be a powerful tool for brand expansion and fostering deeper customer connections. However, success hinges on actively incorporating customer feedback and reviews. The vast amount of data available necessitates a data-driven approach to inform all aspects of decision-making.
This data will be instrumental in curating engaging content, crafting targeted marketing strategies and nurturing customer loyalty. As the D2C revolution accelerates in India, brands that can adapt to evolving customer needs and technological advancements and deliver value-driven offerings will be best positioned for future success.
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