⚔️Ecommerce vs Distributors⚔️
☀️Honasa vs Lakme, Qcomm vs Kiranas, Shein vs Reliance
Hi Surgies 👋
“Meri body mein sensations hotey hain!” Parineeti Chopra’s rapid-fire meltdown from Hasee Toh Phasee is back on everyone's feed, and it accidentally became the perfect metaphor for India’s consumer economy.
SPF lawsuits. Pricing mutinies. Q-comm turning into adtech. Pharma brands losing trust. Everyone’s fighting. Everyone’s performing. Everyone’s sweating. This week, the drama’s not in the headlines. It’s in the margins.
Sansanahat.Pharpharahat…we’ve covered them all.
🗞️ Marketplace Buzz
Remember when ONDC was crowned the Zomato-Swiggy killer? 50% off biryanis, Twitter (Now X) memes and the DPIIT-backed swagger. Fast forward to April 2025, and it's looking less like a revolution. The playbook probably needs a reset. While ONDC built open access, Zepto and Blinkit built habits. Deep incentives drew early traction, but when subsidies shrank, so did demand. Loyalty was borrowed, not earned. Retail is wobbling and is close to rounding off the error… and Koshy, the face of ONDC, just stepped down mid-slide.
From Prayagraj to Puducherry, shopping habits are shifting. Q-comm is eating kirana share not just in metros, but in towns where 30-minute delivery was once unheard of. Behavioural unlock; once you normalise 10-min delivery, you can’t go back to “next day.” It’s not speed anymore. It’s an expectation (or probably a sensation? Note to self - go easy on this metaphor)
FMCG bigwigs are officially done playing nice. The AICPDF is meeting top brands to push back against ecommerce deep discounting. and the message is clear: price wars are burning more than margins. This isn’t just about promos. It’s about control. Because when platforms set the price, brands lose the steering wheel. Will we see price parity rules soon? Or just quieter backroom deals with distributors?
Zepto’s not just winning carts. It’s winning eyeballs. Ad revenue is Zepto’s fastest-growing SKU. Its ad vertical grew 5x YoY, with 500+ brands already queueing up. Forget shelf space- brands now want top-of-app, bringing a new-age media play in a grocery disguise. Quick commerce isn’t just disrupting kiranas. It’s quietly killing banner ads.
🍕 D2C Snippets
SPF just lost its halo. Lakmé fired first, calling out inflated SPF claims from online brands. Honasa’s Ghazal Alagh clapped back: “Welcome to the in-vivo club.” But this isn’t about sun safety. It’s about a ₹2,000 cr sunscreen market where HUL owns offline, and D2C brands dominate online. The subtext is clear: SPF is now a credibility flex. Receipts > reach. Lab tests > legacy. Let the trust war begin.
Jasprit Bumrah’s joined Uppercase as an investor. The luggage brand now has cricketer equity + clean design + India’s obsession with bags-on-wheels. Travel is back. Trolleys are cool again.
Athleisure brand Agilitas just added jersey no 18 VK as a backer. Not just as an ambassador- as an investor. Because when you’re pitching “performance-first gear,” better have the real thing on your cap table. Not just influencers in dry-fit. That’s landing credibility.
Because caffeine is non-negotiable, speciality coffee chain Nothing Before Coffee is now backed by institutional money. All of $2.3 million. It’s betting on India’s growing love for ritual, routine, and Instagrammable caffeine. What started as a status symbol with Starbucks is now a culture shift.
Freezers, get ready- NOTO bags ₹21 cr. Guilt-free, low-cal ice cream is no longer niche. It’s an everyday indulgence. NOTO’s raise shows investors believe there’s serious scale in wellness-dessert land. Next up? Distribution blitz. Think impulse buys near gym counters and office canteens.
Shein’s desi dream hits a speed bump. The fast-fashion comeback story might be getting hemmed at the edges. Reports suggest Shein is renegotiating its India partnership with Reliance Retail, just months after relaunch. Why? Control, compliance, or culture clash- take your pick.
📚 Reads & Recos
Branded pharma’s power play is losing potency. India’s ₹2T pharma market still runs on branded generics- 87% of the pie. A must read article to understand the pharma in the country.
Creators are quietly rewriting the rules of performance marketing- one 15-second scroll-stopper at a time. Raw beats polished, real beats perfect, and short-form isn’t just for awareness, it’s closing. If your CAC is climbing and CTRs are tanking… your next media buyer might just be a creator with a ring light.
Niraj Singhvi’s LinkedIn post quietly drops a stunner: while everyone’s chasing supplements, value-added dairy is sneaking in the gains. Whey, yoghurt, and even good ol’ paneer are turning into performance food, with mass appeal. It’s not a fitness niche anymore. It’s grocery aisle evolution. D2C founders, take note: Protein isn’t hiding in powders. It’s chilling in the fridge.
All ye budding entrepreneurs entering the beverage space, read this cautionary note by Naman Seth. The cold fact: Most new beverage brands don't die because they taste awful - they die gasping for financial oxygen!
A federal judge ruled that Google was in fact playing real-life monopoly with online advertising. It adds to the mounting pressure on Google as its core search business is also in danger of being dismantled. In August last year, the Alphabet-owned company was found guilty by another US federal court of having an illegal monopoly in the search engine market.
🔥That’s all for this week! As always, share this with your fellow D2C hustlers, and let’s keep the community growing.
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