D2C Brands That Are Proving To Be The Future Face Of India’s Consumer Market

One of the most exciting aspects of running a D2C brand is when a company directly has an interface with customers (both existing and potential buyers) at every touchpoint. From building brand awareness and nurturing user engagement to optimising customer acquisition, the entire funnel calls for out-of-box thinking and excellent execution.

Covid invited business disruptions and paradigm shifts in consumer behaviour, but it only facilitated the growth of the D2C sector. In fact, the pandemic acted as an accelerant for the already existing consumer behaviour trends. The customer shift to digital and democratization of commerce post-pandemic has created an opportunity for brands to reach new markets. Opportunities abound in the activities of measurement, identification and targeting of consumers. 

Here, let’s take a quick look at 6 D2C brands that are proving to be the future face of India’s Consumer Market:

OZiva – OZiva is India’s leading certified clean, plant-based nutrition and wellness brand that aims to empower people to be healthier & better. The brand is India’s first certified Clean Label Brand that offers an inspirational range of holistic plant-based nutrition, beauty and health products along with a fully digitized ecosystem intended to enable millions of Indians people towards living a healthier and better life. Oziva has a turnover between 150-200 cr Annualized net and recently, raised $12 million in Series B funding. OZiva Kids is all set to go live in October, under this category, they will have specialised products for growing kids providing holistic nutrition.

Ayouthveda – Ayouthveda is India’s leading Ayurvedic personal care brand combining Ayurvedic rituals and ultra-modern technologies. It aims to help millions of people to switch from harmful chemical-based personal care products to safe and wonderful Ayurvedic products. The brand creates authentic, high-quality personal care products and has a wide collection of face care, hair care, bath & body care and intimate hygiene care products. Established in 2020, Ayouthveda is the brainchild of Dr. Sanchit Sharma, and has been derived from the expertise of its parent company, AIMIL Pharmaceuticals. Within a year after its launch, Ayouthveda has already managed to rake in 12 crores in annual revenue while recording a (Q-o-Q) growth of 30% and a return customer rate of 22% in FY 2020-21. Ayouthveda is in the process of penetrating the retail segment across West, East & South India, having already made a significant impact across the Northern region.

UCS Wellness – UCS Wellness brings innovative products and services around general wellness and healthy living to the doorstep. It is the only company manufacturing bottled oxygen with zero human touch process and has its product and Noida-based manufacturing facility listed with USFDA. From manufacturing tin-bottled oxygen, UCS Wellness has now launched the second generation of the product gO2 therapy in aluminum-bottled cans with a capacity of up to 18 litres giving approximately 900-950 inhalations. It endeavours to make gO2 cans a part of every first-aid kit in Indian households by continuously improving it and making it more user-friendly.What commenced as a garage start-up, today has emerged as the only Indian company in this domain that has attracted Foreign Direct Investment in June 2020. UCS Wellnesseventually envisions becoming the most innovative and best quality wellness products company in the world.

Aadvik Foods – Aadvik Foods is India’s 1st camel milk brand founded in 2016 by Hitesh Rathi. After a few months of inception, Shrey Kumar joined the company as the Co-founder. As a disruptor in the Indian camel milk industry, Aadvik foods have a bouquet of camel milk-based products including camel milk powder, chocolates, and skincare range. The brand was created with the knowledge that camel milk has superior health benefits that surpass all other dairy alternatives in the market. The milk  is suitable for lactose intolerant individuals and  beneficial for those suffering from chronic diseases, such as diabetes and autism, and also boosts general immunity. They deliver their products pan India and globally and have recently forayed into goat milk and donkey milk as well. The turnover of Aadvik Foods in 2020-21 was INR 8 Cr and the promoters are optimistic of doubling it soon. They procure close to 20,000 litres of camel milk from Gujarat and Rajasthan through 200 farmers.

Zlade – Zlade is a D2C startup that offers a comprehensive line of men and women grooming products. The brainchild of Suraj Chaudhari, Mihir Vaidya, and Harish Amritkar of Zlade was founded in a bid to make premium quality razors and blades affordable and accessible to the common Indian Man. As the company embarks on the next phase of its brand evolution journey, Zlade envisions becoming India’s most-loved grooming brand, synonymous with premium, high-quality shaving and grooming products that are easy-on-the-pocket. While the company’s USP lies in world-class grooming products for men at honest and affordable prices, it has now forayed into the women’s shaving and hair removal product category with the launch of a new brand named ‘Summer by Zlade’. Zlade has also introduced men’s intimate hygiene and body hair removal solutions under its ‘Ballistic by Zlade’ sub-brand to focus on Direct to Consumer (D2C) retail.

Go Desi – Go Desi is a popular homegrown packaged food brand inspired by Indian specialities. They have a variety of products in different Indian flavours like Tangy Imli, Kaccha Aam, Real Aam and Khatta Nimbu, etc. A Bangalore based D2C startup has a manufacturing setup in a town in Karnataka where they employ more than 200 rural women. Their products are manufactured by micro-entrepreneurs, farmers cooperatives, and self-help groups. Go Desi considers itself a Retail first brand and has consciously taken a omnichannel route. It is getting into the bigger league as it is scaling up to become one of the strongest D2C players in the space.

WiZ: Safe, innovative, refreshing, and handcrafted – these are the terms that WiZ, India’s one of the fastest-growing brand for personal care and hygiene products, represents. Incepted in 2001, WiZ is a subsidiary of Cossmic Products, a brand that is renowned for its extensive experience, focus and expertise in high-quality, affordable personal care and hygiene products since 1978. Founded by Mr Reetesh Dhingra and Mrs Manisha Dhingra, WiZ’s ‘Be Clean, Be Happy’ vision lays the foundation for its customer-centric approach and its attitude towards colleagues, and stakeholders. Advocating and practising top-notch hygiene standards, ethics, convenience, lawfulness, accountability, and transparency, WiZ’s best-in-class product range incorporates advanced manufacturing facilities to maintain consistency. The fast-growing brand’s vast product range includes Hand Wash, Hand Sanitizers, Disinfectant Wipes and Sprays, Vegetable and Fruit Wash, Body Wash, Wet Wipes, and Shampoos.