Pop the kombucha.
Fire up the Shopify dashboards.
Because we just hit Edition #100 of The D2CX Newsletter 🧨
100 breakdowns.
100 case studies.
₹11,000+ Cr in decoded revenue.
And one big obsession: how are successful D2C brands unlocking 10X scale?
Over the last 99 editions, we’ve gone from temples in Kanpur (Phool) to nightclubs in GenZ’s head (NEWME), from energy-saving fans (Atomberg) to pleasure-positive massagers (MyMuse), from bold pants (The Pant Project) to bold parenting (R for Rabbit).
We’ve seen brands start in garages and end up in IPO queues.
We’ve seen revenue graphs go from “lol okay” to “wait, is that ₹500 Cr?”
And we’ve captured it all. Every pivot, playbook, and performance hack.
But this edition? It’s different.
This isn’t just another brand story.
This is the story behind all those stories.
We’ve decoded what India’s most successful D2C founders got right.
And what 90% of others missed.
Welcome to The Ultimate D2C Growth Blueprint 👇
Every breakout D2C brand we’ve profiled started the same way—by obsessing over one pain point.
Not ten. Not a vague category. One. Single. Burning. Problem.
🚿 Pee Safe made public restrooms safe.
👖 The Pant Project made pants that actually fit.
💇 Traya fixed hair fall—not by selling shampoos, but by treating the root cause with Ayurveda + Nutrition + Allopathy.
💧DrinkPrime gave you clean water without asking for ₹25,000 upfront.
👶 SuperBottoms created a cloth diaper that didn’t leak, itch, or give your baby a rash.
These founders weren’t chasing trends.
They were solving problems that people actually wanted solved.
If your brand doesn’t start here, your CAC will always be uphill.
So, forget the pitch decks. Start with a problem that stings.
Offline isn’t the enemy. But scale it wrong, and you’ll bleed.
The best brands didn’t just open stores—they engineered retail experiences that convert.
🧥 Rare Rabbit’s EBOs clock ₹80L+ per outlet with premium footfall + global aesthetics.
🛍️ DailyObjects launched Playground—part store, part art space, zero billing counters.
💄 RENÉE set up 2,500 retail touchpoints but kept 60% of revenue digital.
👘 Foxtale sells in 50,000 stores—but only after getting the unit economics right online.
Offline without retention is retail suicide.
Offline with product-market-fit? That’s your 10X unlock.
Too many brands chase followers and reel views.
The ones that scale chase repeat customers and smart segmentation.
🎯 Slurrp Farm used live WhatsApp chats + AI-powered surveys to double retention.
🔁 MyMuse gamified warranty registration to build first-party data funnels.
💌 Traya runs abandoned cart recovery campaigns with 3.45% conversions.
🛍️ SAADAA dropped RTO by 95% with AI-driven NDR flags + COD fraud detection.
Retention isn’t sexy. But it’s what gets you to ₹100 Cr without burning VC cash.
What separates good brands from great ones?
The ability to turn a scroll into a sale.
🖍️ Paradyes ran a B1G1 campaign and made ₹47L in 24 hours—with static ads, not reels.
💄 Bella Vita Organic’s CEO trolled luxury perfumes on camera—and sold out.
🍜 MasterChow’s “MasterChow Mondays” became an organic recipe series that drives 2X conversions.
🥬 Slurrp Farm’s Anushka Sharma-led “Yes Ka Time” campaign finally gave Indian moms a reason to stop saying no.
They were purchase triggers. Designed for revenue, not retweets.
This isn’t about having a Shopify website. This is about building tech that scales.
💻 The Pant Project uses QR codes to track each custom order from cutting to shipping.
📦 Clovia built an algorithm that predicts bra fit with 70% conversion rate.
📊 Zappfresh tracks cold chain logistics in real-time to reduce wastage + increase LTV.
👟 Atomberg fans show up first on Google for “BLDC fans” with zero paid ads—SEO-first, search-led, sales engine.
Tech isn’t optional. If you want scale without chaos, build the backend first.
You know what no D2C brand can afford anymore?
Negative contribution margins.
The brands that are winning?
They’re not just growing—they’re growing profitably.
📈 Zappfresh hit ₹4.7 Cr profit in FY24 with 60% YoY revenue growth
💸 Traya went from ₹27 Cr loss to ₹8.6 Cr profit
💰 DailyObjects has a 5% EBITDA margin and doubled revenue by cutting SKUs
The message is clear: burn is out. Sustainable scale is in.
It started with a tan.
Back in 2018, Anisha Saraf—an avid swimmer—was struggling to find a sunscreen that could survive chlorine and sun.
The shelves were full of “natural”, “fruity”, “SPF-packed” promises. But none actually worked.
So, like every great D2C story, she built her own.
With her husband Suyash (an FMCG veteran), Anisha founded Dot & Key.
Fast-forward to today, the Kolkata-based brand serves over 60 Lakh customers, has crossed ₹198 Cr in annual revenue, and is on track to hit ₹350 Cr soon.
But this isn’t a story about moisturisers.
It’s about momentum.
Dot & Key didn’t wait for influencers to knock.
Instead of going big-budget with celeb billboards, Dot & Key went where the scrolls never end—Instagram and Amazon miniTV. But this wasn’t your generic hashtag game. Their influencer campaigns are so well-orchestrated they could be taught in a B-school class.
Take their #BreakUpWithAcne campaign.
Aashna Shroff, Debasree Banerjee, Dolly Singh, Ritvi Shah—the skincare Avengers—teamed up to drop content bombs: testimonials, tutorials, before-afters, and Q&As.
But the best part? No filters.
Just real skin, real results, and real people saying, “Cica works, y’all.” On Amazon miniTV, they didn’t just run ads. They took over shows.
They sponsored hits like Jamnapaar and Badi Heroine Banti Hai, integrating Dot & Key into the plotlines like a cameo that sells out in 5 minutes. The result?
🔥 84 Mn+ impressions
🔥 95% video completion rate
🔥 65% jump in Amazon search volume
🔥 100% increase in detail page views for sunscreen & moisturiser
Dot & Key’s influencer strategy isn’t about reach. It’s about relatability.
They mix micro, nano, and macro creators. Why?
Because macro influencers build buzz. Micro creators build trust. And dermatologists build credibility.
They also take the long view.
Instead of chasing one-time sales, they co-create content that educates.
Think Q&A sessions on serums. Skincare routines that actually include their products. Ingredient explainers that demystify acids and actives.
This isn’t product placement. It’s product relevance.
And it’s worked—Dot & Key’s campaigns have directly boosted search volumes, brand recall, and consideration. During one of their miniTV integrations with Amazon, brand recall jumped 65%, and page views in their category doubled.
If the Dot & Key Instagram page feels like your skincare BFF, that’s by design.
It’s fun. It’s fruity. It’s filled with memes, routines, testimonials, and comments that get responses in minutes. Shanaya Kapoor, their Gen-Z ambassador, feels less like a celeb and more like a friend who shares her skincare hacks.
Behind this is a powerful content loop—feedback from the community shapes R&D. A sun stick isn’t launched until they test 60+ prototypes.
Launch videos are tested with creators before going live. And product reviews directly influence what stays on shelves.
During last Diwali, Dot & Key scaled operations in real-time, deploying extra staff to meet surging demand.
Return processing time dropped from 7 days to 4.
SLA compliance rose from 90% to 98%.
And they expanded from 1 warehouse to 4 across regions—all without slowing down customer delight.
That means 60% of their orders now ship within a day, just in time!
In 2021, Nykaa acquired 51% of Dot & Key. By September 2024, they bought another 39%, taking total ownership to 90%.
Why?
Because Dot & Key didn’t just have revenue. They had resonance.
Nykaa’s founder Falguni Nayar summed it up: “They have a differentiated assortment and clutter-breaking packaging.”
But what Nykaa really saw was a scalable brand with:
🔹 A Gen-Z-first community
🔹 Social-proofed products
🔹 Science-backed formulations
🔹 And a deeply profitable engine
Dot & Key was already one of the few D2C brands to turn profitable by Q4 FY23. Post-acquisition, it kept its startup agility while gaining the scale muscle of India’s largest beauty platform.
In a market crowded with clean, conscious, curated skincare, Dot & Key stood out by being the most joyful. The most thoughtful. And the most human.
And that’s why Nykaa didn’t just acquire Dot & Key. They acquired the next playbook for building beauty at scale.
In a world where customer acquisition costs are soaring and repeat rates can make or break your bottom line, most brands chase the next shiny audience segment.
DaMENSCH? They decided to wake up the sleepyheads.
We’re talking 15,000+ customers who hadn’t purchased in 8 to 24 months. That’s a graveyard segment for most brands.
But what if it wasn’t?
DaMENSCH could’ve taken the easy way out — spammy SMS blasts, rehashed discount emails, or another round of Instagram ads.
But DaMENSCH went rogue.
Instead of blowing up inboxes, they went offline to bring people back online.
A glossy, 6-page physical leaflet — complete with product drops, witty copy, and one bold move that made all the difference.
A QR code.
But not just a QR code. A teleportation portal. One scan and you were instantly back in DaMENSCH’s world, with the dopamine hit of new arrivals and exclusive drops.
The result?
🔥 6%+ click-through rate (for a print piece!)
🔥 Over 1,030 transactions
🔥 ₹18.5L+ in revenue
🔥 12.5% bump in AOV
And here’s the real kicker: 55% of those conversions came 4 weeks after the drop
That’s brand stickiness in action. The leaflet wasn’t just a promo—it planted a seed for revenue growth.
Reviving a dormant base is great. But what happens when order volumes surge?
Operational stress breaks the backend before the dashboard shows green.
DaMENSCH knew it wasn’t enough to unlock growth — they had to handle it at scale, without a hitch.
So, they hit the reset button on their entire tech stack.
They moved away from a patchwork of WooCommerce and cloud plugins, and adopted a headless commerce architecture that gave them real-time control over inventory, plug-and-play flexibility for future customisation, and a single source of truth across web, mobile, and in-store touchpoints.
Within months 👇
✳️ Revenue grew by 15%
✳️ Tech costs per order dropped by 30%
✳️ Support tickets fell by 75%
And perhaps the most powerful metric? DaMENSCH became a zero in-house engineering org — full focus on brand and customer, not backend firefighting.
DaMENSCH was feeling the burn.
Failed deliveries. Poor customer experience. Wasted ops bandwidth.
So they opted for a logistics layer that was in fact a customer experience enhancer.
Here’s what changed:
✔️ Smart carrier allocation: No more random courier roulette. Each order was matched with the best-fit logistics partner, in real-time.
✔️ Automated delay alerts: Customers got updates before complaints brewed.
✔️ Branded tracking pages: Every post-purchase touchpoint became a brand-building moment, not just a boring shipping link.
This wasn’t just logistics. This was marketing after the ‘Buy Now’ button.
The results?
✴️ 54% drop in RTOs
✴️ 15% reduction in late deliveries
✴️ 31% drop in customer complaints
✴️ 21% boost in NPS
DaMENSCH’s recent growth story isn’t built on product drops or discounting wars.
It’s built on systems that bring customers back, stack that supports scale, and ops that reduce friction post-sale.
They’re not just selling essentials. They’re building habits.
And the next time you think a dormant customer is lost forever?
Think again. All it might take is a beautifully crafted leaflet, a clever QR code, and a logistics layer that feels like magic.
But, what do all these moves have in common?
They’re not “campaigns.” They’re systems. Systems that convert efficiently at scale, and protect margins at the delivery stage
Every stage of the funnel is tied together — and owned.
Even the QR campaign, as creative as it was, was part of a much deeper strategy: own the reactivation journey. Measure it. Optimise it. Scale it.
Too often, brands obsess over top-of-funnel hacks. The truth? Growth lies in the trenches.
🔹 It’s in the customers you thought were gone
🔹 It’s in how your systems react to a traffic spike
🔹 It’s in those moments after a customer hits “Buy” — when their anxiety is high, and your delivery game must shine
DaMENSCH is proof that you don’t need to scream louder. You need to engineer better.
Every rupee saved on tech stack? Goes into growth.
Every RTO prevented? A revenue line saved.
Every dormant customer reactivated? A CAC-free win.
And that’s what sustainable D2C scaling actually looks like.
This edition of The D2CX Newsletter is not about influencers or performance marketing.
This one’s about shoppable videos — the Miraggio way.
What do you do when your category is the punchline to every bad joke?
You go bolder. Louder. Unapologetically weird.
That’s how Bold Care—a sexual wellness brand—went from an awkward whisper in the ecosystem to 15 lakh+ customers, ₹2.5+ Cr in monthly revenue, and a growth chart that keeps climbing vertically every fiscal year.
In a market that couldn’t even say the word “condom” without discomfort, Bold Care shouted it out—with memes, Ranveer Singh, and even Johnny Sins.
Here’s how Bold Care turned sexual health into one of the most talked-about D2C categories in India—growing 240% in FY23 while breaking every marketing rule in the book.
In 2023, Bold Care onboarded Ranveer Singh as a co-owner.
Not just a brand ambassador.
A stakeholder. A collaborator. A marketing weapon.
Why Ranveer? Because no one else could bring the perfect blend of outrageous charm, cultural clout, and fearless candor needed to shatter taboos.
The results were instant.
🔥 #TakeBoldCareOfHer, their launch campaign with Ranveer, was viewed over 20 Mn times in 24 hours
🔥 Website traffic spiked by 470%
🔥 Ecommerce sales jumped 75% overnight
And then they did the unthinkable.
Yes, for an Indian TV drama parody ad that could only be described as chaotic genius.
The plot: A wife bemoans her husband’s “lack of performance” on national TV. Enter Johnny Sins, as her “doctor” from America, recommending Bold Care.
The ad was:
Satirical
Completely OTT
And impossible to ignore
In an age where most brands play it safe, Bold Care went fully viral with a risky, high-stakes move—and nailed it.
They didn’t just gain eyeballs. They gained trust from younger consumers who crave honesty, relatability, and humor.
In an industry built on shame, Bold Care chose satire.
And that made all the difference.
If Johnny Sins was the mic drop, #Sextember was the remix.
Bold Care declared the entire month of September a celebration of men’s health.
The centerpiece? Co-founder Rahul Krishnan publicly shared his debit card details online and invited users to make transactions under ₹1,000, even providing OTPs to facilitate purchases.
Absurd? 100%
Calculated? 100%
The response was swift.
Users made small purchases across platforms like Swiggy, Zomato, Blinkit, and Amazon. Krishnan kept his promise, sharing OTPs until his bank eventually blocked the card due to suspicious activity.
Despite the abrupt end, Krishnan had shared almost 200 OTPs, and his original post had surpassed 2.3 Mn impressions.
This campaign was a massive hit.
❇️ The brand saw its highest organic traffic month ever
❇️ Instagram engagement tripled
❇️ Retention improved across new customer cohorts
Behind the virality was a tight brand strategy. One built on three key principles:
Bold Care didn’t sell condoms or delay sprays. They sold confidence. A shame-free experience. A health-first mindset.
From clean packaging to expert-backed products to private consultations—they flipped the narrative from “hush-hush” to healthcare.
You won’t find medical jargon or stock photos on their feed. You’ll find memes, reels, Q&As with experts, and Twitter banter.
Their content strategy is rooted in digital behavior. They talk like their consumers talk. No filters. Just facts—with fun.
Bold Care isn’t just a marketing machine. It’s a data-backed D2C engine.
✴️ Over 60K monthly orders
✴️ 50%+ customer revenue retention
✴️ Over 3X revenue growth in 7 months in FY23
This isn’t a brand riding on virality. It’s one built on unit economics that makes the boldness bankable.
This edition of The D2CX Newsletter is not about influencers or performance marketing.
This one’s about shoppable videos — the Miraggio way.
Back in 2019, when Mohit Jain launched Miraggio with just a dream, ₹4 Cr in funding by friends and family, and an eye for handbags, he wasn’t chasing awards.
He was chasing attention.
And today, he’s got plenty of it.
With collections dropping every month, celebrity collaborations, a community of 30,000+ fashion lovers, and ₹29.8 Cr in FY24 revenue, Miraggio has built a brand that doesn’t just trend — it converts.
But while most D2C brands are still stuck chasing the last click, Miraggio’s figured out something far more powerful.
Make people watch. Then make it shoppable.
Let’s set the scene.
Miraggio had everything going for it: a killer product, a polished aesthetic, and a fanbase hooked on their fashion-first reels. Their videos were consistently hitting 400K+ views on Instagram.
But there was a disconnect.
Their website? Clean, sure. But static — scroll, image, add to cart.
No story. No experience. No journey from inspiration to action.
For a brand that thrived on visual appeal and styling cues, this was a missed opportunity.
What happened on Instagram, stayed on Instagram.
Until they flipped the script.
Miraggio decided to bring the social magic to their website.
They didn’t reinvent the wheel. They just added something deceptively simple.
Shoppable videos.
They embedded video carousels, 360° product popups, and influencer clips — all fully shoppable.
What Change Did That Bring, You Ask?
🔹 Homepage, reimagined: Instead of static banners, new users landed on a video carousel highlighting bestselling bags and fresh drops.
🔹 Product pages with depth: Detailed try-ons, 360-degree angles, styling options — shown in short, punchy clips that loaded instantly.
🔹 Collection montages: One video, multiple bags, all tagged with “Shop Now.” Scroll, tap, buy.
🔹 Influencer clips turned conversion gold: High-engagement reels now had direct checkout CTAs. No redirect. No drop-off.
The aesthetic matched the brand. The backend was smooth. And the impact?
Instant.
✅ 10% of total revenue came from shoppable videos
✅ 21,000+ engaged video sessions
✅ ~5 videos watched per user on average
Let that sink in.
Every viewer who clicked one video, watched five more.
More screen time. More product discovery. More revenue.
And all of it, on their own website — not Instagram, not YouTube, not Amazon Live.
Miraggio didn’t just “optimise content.” They rewired the shopping experience.
It wasn’t just about slick UI or video content.
It was about intent.
Fashion is visual. But ecommerce is flat. That’s the core tension.
Shoppable videos bridge that gap by turning passive viewers into active shoppers. And for a brand like Miraggio, where every collection is styled, modeled, and curated with intent, it’s the ultimate conversion tool.
Let’s break it down 👇
❇️ Lower bounce, higher engagement: Users spent more time exploring the site. That’s half the funnel sorted.
❇️ More context = fewer returns: Detailed product visuals mean fewer post-purchase surprises.
❇️ Real use-cases on display: “What fits in the bag?” “How big is it?” “Will it go with denim?” — all answered instantly.
❇️ Emotional storytelling meets functional checkout: That influencer reel? Now it’s a one-tap checkout journey.
Most brands make their best content for social.
Miraggio made it work for sales.
They’re not stopping here.
Miraggio now plans to scale shoppable videos across collection pages, search results, and quick commerce integrations.
And with over 160K Instagram followers, a booming community of ‘Miraggio Muses’ and strong repeat behavior, this strategy isn’t just flash — it’s foundation.
They’re beyond being just a D2C handbag brand now. They’re a fully-fledged content-commerce engine.
Saket Dhankar was scrolling through Pinterest boards of modern homes when a thought struck him: why doesn’t this aesthetic exist for Indian bedrooms?
Fresh off 15 years of experience in fashion and design—including a stint as Fashion Director at Lakmé Fashion Week—he teamed up with Kanupriya Anand to launch a lifestyle brand that would change the face of Indian homes (and nurseries).
Enter Haus & Kinder.
Fast-forward to today, the brand boasts over a million customers, a fiercely loyal base of millennial moms, and a powerful brand identity that screams modern sophistication.
This is the story of how team Haus & Kinder built a sticky D2C business with one of the most underrated weapons in ecommerce: a loyalty engine that helps drive revenue, reduce CAC, and build trust in a category that’s typically price-sensitive and commoditised.
Let’s break it down.
Most D2C brands run point-based loyalty programs and call it a day. Haus & Kinder didn’t just build a program—they engineered habit loops.
They started with the basics: reward points on every purchase. But then layered it with two powerful mechanics:
Customers are awarded loyalty coins that expire in two months. Sounds harsh? Actually, it’s genius. Because those expiry reminders (sent via email and SMS) became conversion triggers.
Customers were nudged to return not just because they liked the products—but because they didn’t want to lose out on their earned value. FOMO became a sales channel.
Result? Redemption rates went up. Inactive users came back. Coins turned into conversions.
Retention isn’t just about points. It’s about how easy you make the journey back.
Haus & Kinder integrated their loyalty stack into the entire customer experience. Their checkout flow allowed customers to redeem loyalty coupons seamlessly—without jumping through hoops.
No coupon hunting. No code copy-pasting.
That single frictionless moment at checkout? It made all the difference.
And on the communication front, integrations helped the brand automate reminders, reward nudges, and expiring coin alerts—delivered across email and WhatsApp.
In short: wherever the customer was, Haus & Kinder’s loyalty loop followed. Silently. Smartly.
For most D2C founders, retention is a nice-to-have. For Saket, it’s the spine of the brand.
Haus & Kinder saw a 70X ROI on their investment in retention tooling.
Yes, 70X.
It’s rare. But it’s a result of compounding three key things:
❇️ Timely coin expiry nudges
❇️ Automated reactivation workflows
❇️ Integrated reward redemption during checkout
And the best part? 12.4% of all customer signups now come through this system. That means the loyalty engine isn’t just retaining users—it’s acquiring new ones.
Because when a brand gives value back, customers become evangelists.
They refer. They rave. They return.
Haus & Kinder isn’t just a home decor brand. It’s a transition brand.
Think about their customer: a 29-year-old woman navigating pregnancy, baby prep, nesting, and nursery setup.
She discovers Haus & Kinder while shopping for muslin swaddles. Then comes back for cot bedding. Then fitted bedsheets. Then home linen. Then baby clothes. Then gifts.
In other words: she’s growing into the brand.
And Saket’s team designed every retention trigger to align with her life stage. Loyalty coins and expiry nudges became a tool to time reorders.
Product suggestions were tied to baby growth timelines. Repeat purchases weren’t “upsells”—they were expected milestones.
Retention wasn’t a number. It was a customer lifecycle.
Every D2C founder talks about predictability in revenue.
Haus & Kinder built it.
With their loyalty program humming in the background, the brand built strong purchase patterns across cohorts—so much so that 12-month LTV projections now drive their category expansion plans.
They know how long a mom takes to go from buying a swaddle to ordering a comforter.
They know when to nudge for a reorder.
They know which customer to not spend ads on.
In a world chasing new eyeballs, this retention machine helps Haus & Kinder double down on old customers—who are now worth more than ever.
With ₹65.9 Cr revenue in FY24 and an aim to hit ₹500 Cr by FY26, Haus & Kinder knows that retention will do the heavy lifting.
But they’re not stopping at coins and coupons.
Here’s what they’re doing next:
✴️ Expanding into baby clothing and serveware categories using loyalty data
✴️ Using loyalty behaviour to personalise on-site experiences for returning users
✴️ Launching tier-based rewards for top customers, with early access to new launches
✴️ Using referral triggers to amplify LTV across family and friend circles
What started as a “program” has now become a brand moat.
Everyone talks about founder grit. But few embody it like the Anveshan trio.
When Aayushi Khandelwal turned to her nani’s Ayurvedic recipes to battle personal health issues, something clicked.
The food felt… different. Better.
She, along with her IIT Guwahati batchmates—Kuldeep Parewa and Akhil Kansal—dug deeper.
The discovery?
Most “organic” food on Indian shelves was all buzz, no backbone.
Adulteration, middlemen, fake claims—consumers had lost trust.
And farmers? They were getting crushed in the chaos.
So the trio did something madly ambitious. They went from IIT grads to village processors. Set up micro-units near farms. Built Anveshan, a full-stack, farm-to-fork food company powered by tech, trust, and traceability.
📈 ₹58.05 Cr in FY24 revenue
🚀 72% projected revenue growth this year
📦 5,000+ farmers directly integrated into the supply chain
🛒 80% growth in quick commerce sales YoY
💡 A laser focus on website-led D2C scale
But what’s truly powering their leap is not just product or purpose. It’s a single overlooked feature on their website – Site Search.
Let’s decode the quiet conversion engine that turned Anveshan’s D2C store into a buying machine.
Let’s be honest. Most ecommerce sites treat the search bar as a checkbox.
Not Anveshan.
Their D2C store sees high intent traffic—consumers looking for ghee that reminds them of childhood, or honey that tastes like authenticity.
But until late, even with this traffic, their conversion rates weren’t matching up.
People were getting lost.
They came with specific needs—“low cholesterol oil,” “tulsi honey,” “wood pressed coconut oil”—but the website couldn’t keep up. The search results threw up irrelevant SKUs.
Discovery was broken. And buyers bounced.
Even worse, the brand had no way to nudge high-margin or fast-selling products through search. All they could do was watch the data bleed.
So they did what sharp D2C operators do. They got obsessive about the funnel! They went on to optimise their search nav. The goal was to offer
📌 Personalised, contextual product discovery
📌 Business-aligned merchandising via search rankings
📌 Real-time recommendations inside the search bar
📌 Intent-led journeys that reduce drop-off
And when they did, they started scaling aggressively!
🧠 When a user searches for “cholesterol oil,” the engine knows it isn’t a product—it’s a health concern. So it shows oils with heart-healthy properties.
🍯 When someone types “sweet honey,” they don’t see all 15 honeys—just the 3 that match that taste profile. The ones people gift. The ones that convert.
🎯 When a user is just browsing, Anveshan now drops its bestsellers and new launches inside the search bar itself, nudging clickthroughs and increasing AOV.
The payoff?
📈 19% jump in overall website conversion rate
🕵️♂️ 513% increase in users leveraging site search
⏱ 4.6% increase in time spent per session
But what made the impact sticky wasn’t just the search upgrade. It was what followed after.
Let’s say a user searched for “ginger-infused honey” and clicked through.
Earlier, they’d get a generic PDP. No context. No reassurance. No support.
Today?
They get nudged with related products (“Good with sore throat!”), see transparent lab test reports, trace the product’s farm source with a QR code, and—if they’re still unsure—get contextual support instantly.
No pop-ups. No dead-end chatbots.
The moment a WhatsApp or email query pops in, support agents get instant context from Shopify.
No tab-switching. No asking for order IDs. Just fast, helpful replies.
Their small CX team handles 2,400+ tickets a month across WhatsApp, email, Facebook, and Insta—with response times that match brands 5X their size.
Most founders obsess over traffic. Anveshan obsesses over what traffic does once it lands.
The founders noticed that highest-intent customers don’t come from ads. They come from search.
Whether that’s Google search or your own site search, these users already know what they want.
The only job is to help them find it—and nudge them faster to check out.
But here’s the kicker.
Good search doesn’t just boost conversion.
It boosts retention.
Because every time a user finds exactly what they wanted, you’ve just taught them to come back.
Again. And again.
Let’s rewind to 2021.
Two founders, a gummy vitamin, and a mission.
Vaibhav Makhija and Sayantani Mandal weren’t chasing wellness as a trend. They’d lived through the burnout. Seen firsthand how good health takes the backseat for hustlers, builders, and late-night warriors.
So they flipped the formula.
Instead of telling people to slow down… they gave them a fast-track.
What’s Up Wellness was born—a daily chewable wellness brand that made taking your vitamins as easy (and tasty) as popping candy.
The product was solid. Vegan. No added junk. It’s actually fun.
But here’s where most D2C brands get stuck: the initial hype fades, the CAC climbs, and suddenly, the business isn’t scalable.
What’s Up Wellness didn’t just avoid that cliff. They built a bridge over it—with retention as the core pillar.
Let’s break down how they made revenue jump by a massive 347% in just one year—without breaking the bank.
When What’s Up Wellness started scaling, they made one decision most brands skip: they didn’t chase top-of-funnel metrics.
They obsessed over the bottom.
What happens after someone buys? How can we bring them back without bombarding them?
Instead of pumping money into new customer acquisition, they built their own internal growth engine. And they went all in on automation.
Here’s what happened next 👇
🚀 400% surge in Add-To-Cart rates
📈 80.8% spike in Revenue Per User from conversions
💸 50.49% average click-through ROI
📬 Email open rates doubled—from 22% to 45%
📱 WhatsApp open rates hit a jaw-dropping 85%
🛒 Conversion Rate optimisation started contributing 27% to overall revenue
💰 Direct revenue from automation journeys increased by 55%
Just smart segmentation, hyper-relevant communication, and data-led journeys that made users feel seen—not sold to.
This no gimmick playbook turned out to be gold.
Most D2C brands treat retention as a thing to “fix later.”
What’s Up Wellness flipped it from the start.
They didn’t wait till paid ads stopped working. They built personalised nudges from Day 1.
Each customer interaction became a data point. That data turned into dynamic journeys—personalised nudges based on user behavior, churn risk, or product lifecycle.
No more one-size-fits-all campaigns.
If you added to cart and dropped off, the next ping wasn’t a generic “Did you forget something?” message.
The follow up was contextual. Warm. Human.
Across product views, checkouts, churn cohorts, high-intent users—every touchpoint became an opportunity for retention-led storytelling.
Every journey ran, measured, refined. In days—not quarters. And this is exactly how they achieved 👇
Every re-engagement push was expected to drive 4X–5X ROI. And it did.
This wasn’t about throwing tech at the problem. It was about rewiring how growth teams think.
Instead of “how do we get more traffic?” the question became: How do we get more out of the traffic we already have?
They moved from campaign-based thinking to system-based execution.
And the compounding effects started kicking in.
Lower CAC. Higher LTV. Better feedback loops. Happier customers.
This is what happens when D2C brands grow with their users, not at them.
You don’t get these numbers from just blasting emails.
WhatsApp became a powerhouse—with a 95% message delivery rate, even under Meta’s message cap limits.
More interesting?
WhatsApp contributed 74% of revenue from journeys.
Email? Still a strong performer at 21%.
SMS? 4%, used strategically.
But each channel wasn’t just a silo. They were stitched together into cohesive journeys.
Context flowed across channels.
A nudge on WhatsApp could follow an email open. An SMS could reactivate a cold lead.
They didn’t fight for attention. They earned it with consistency.
Because timing + tone + trigger > volume.
Vaibhav and Sayantani didn’t just build a brand—they built behavior change.
And behavior change takes consistency, context, and credibility.
They’re now focusing on:
The goal? Not just more orders. But more impact per user.
A brand that blends into your lifestyle like second nature.
There’s a reason you see Adil Qadri’s perfumes everywhere online.
It’s not luck. It’s not a one-time viral moment.
It’s a masterclass in digital marketing execution—one that turned a school dropout from a small town in Gujarat into the king of India’s attar market.
In 2019, when Adil Qadri launched his perfume brand, the odds were stacked against him.
He had no formal education, no industry connections, no big funding war chest.
But he had a deep understanding of digital marketing and an unshakable belief in his product.
Fast forward to today, Adil Qadri is thriving 👇
💰 ₹80 Cr revenue in FY24
📈 80,000+ orders per month
🚀 30 Lakh+ website visitors per month
🔥 ₹250 Cr+ revenue (projected) in FY25
And the craziest part?
He’s outperforming legacy perfume brands that have been around for decades!
Let’s break down the exact strategies that made Adil Qadri an unstoppable force online.
Most brands launch, start running ads, and hope people show up.
Adil Qadri played a smarter game.
Before he even pushed for paid traffic, he made sure that when people searched for “best attar in India”, “long-lasting attar”, or “premium attar”, his brand showed up first.
How?
He built a website that was an SEO powerhouse, filled with:
✅ Keyword-optimised category pages (woody attar, floral attar, musky attar)
✅ Long-form content targeting high-intent searches (best attar for men, premium attar brands in India)
✅ Product pages designed for organic search (high keyword density, rich descriptions, structured metadata)
And then came the masterstroke 👇
While others marketed their products as “Itra”, Adil focused on “Attar”—a term that had 10X the search volume in India.
This one move ensured free traffic from Google long before he spent a single rupee on ads.
Most brands burn cash on Facebook ads to get traffic. Adil? He let SEO do the heavy lifting first.
Once traffic started flowing, the real game began: turning casual visitors into buyers.
Most shoppers don’t buy on their first visit.
They browse, compare, leave—and never come back. Unless you make them.
And that’s exactly what Adil Qadri did.
Anyone who visited the site but didn’t buy would start seeing ads everywhere:
✅ Product retargeting ads reminding them of the attar they checked out
✅ Limited-time offer ads triggering urgency with discounts
✅ UGC-driven ads featuring real customer testimonials
Every abandoned cart got a personalised offer.
Every hesitant buyer got a social proof nudge.
Every bounced visitor got a reason to come back.
This led to higher conversions, lower CACs, and more sales from the same ad spend 📈🔥
This wasn’t just digital marketing. This was a full-fledged psychological funnel designed to make sure no potential buyer was left behind.
Instead of chasing celebrities, Adil built an army of micro-influencers—people with 10K-90K highly engaged followers.
These weren’t paid promotions. These were real users, talking about the product in their own way.
The impact?
💡 Genuine trust from followers
💡 Organic engagement instead of scripted content
💡 Authenticity that converted better than traditional ads
The influencers didn’t just talk about the fragrance. They made attar feel aspirational—something young Indians actually wanted to wear.
Here’s the thing about selling 80,000+ orders per month: you can’t manually talk to every customer.
So, Adil Qadri automated customer engagement with AI.
A chatbot that:
✅ Answered product questions instantly (best scent for summer, strongest fragrance, etc.)
✅ Offered personalized recommendations based on user preferences
✅ Engaged visitors in Hindi & regional languages to cater to Tier 2 & Tier 3 audiences
The impact?
📈 ₹1.1 Cr in additional monthly sales—just from AI-driven customer interactions
📈 90%+ customer satisfaction scores
📈 Faster query resolution, fewer abandoned carts, more conversions
Most founders think they need huge funding or a big retail presence to scale. Adil Qadri proved you just need a smart digital game.
📌 SEO gets you free traffic before you even start ads.
📌 Retargeting ensures no visitor is wasted.
📌 Micro-influencers sell better than celebrities.
📌 AI can replace a 50-person sales team.
This is how modern D2C brands win.
The question is: are you playing the game at this level?
Men’s innerwear is supposed to be comfortable—but shopping for it in India? A nightmare.
Same old brands. Same boring designs. Same stiff, scratchy fabric that turns into a sauna in the Indian heat.
Enter XYXX.
This Surat-based brand didn’t just add more colors to the underwear aisle. They flipped the entire industry on its elastic waistband.
Now, with ₹128 Cr revenue in FY24 and a 50-70% projected YoY growth, they’re fast becoming the brand every Indian man actually wants to wear
Back in 2015, founder Yogesh Kabra walked into a multi-brand store in Surat and couldn’t find what he was looking for.
🚫 Every underwear brand looked the same.
🚫 The “premium” ones were just overpriced versions of the same thing.
🚫 No one cared about fit, fabric, or real comfort.
Having seen global brands like Calvin Klein & Hanro innovate in the US, he knew India deserved better.
So, in 2017, he launched XYXX to give Indian men innerwear that matched their lifestyle—softer, cooler, and not just functional, but aspirational.
And that became XYXX’s edge.
Most innerwear brands slap a logo on cheap cotton and call it a day. XYXX went in the opposite direction.
Their secret sauce? TENCEL™ MicroModal fabric.
✅ 3X softer than cotton
✅ Cooler to touch
✅ 50% more moisture-absorbent
✅ Biodegradable & eco-friendly
Basically, underwear that feels luxurious but functions like a second skin—perfect for India’s climate.
Most D2C brands go all-in on their website. Others focus purely on offline retail.
XYXX cracked both.
📌 50% revenue from online (Amazon, Myntra, Flipkart, Ajio) 📦
📌 15% from D2C & quick commerce 🚀
📌 35% from general trade, modern trade & EBOs 🏬
They’re killing it in quick commerce too.
📌 Launched on BlinkIt (29 cities), Swiggy Instamart & Zepto in Nov 2023
📌 20% MoM sales growth on these platforms
📌 ₹1.5 Cr in sales from quick commerce in Q1 2024
Unlike Jockey (which has a stranglehold on retail), XYXX is making it easier than ever for retailers to stock their products.
💡 22,000+ retail touchpoints across 160+ cities
💡 85+ modern trade counters
Retailers love them because XYXX gives them better margins than legacy brands. On top of that, the trendy, aspirational appeal of XYXX not only pulls in both Gen Z & millennials but also moves off shelves fast.
Convincing men to switch underwear brands is hard.
Solution? Take away the risk.
XYXX launched India’s first-ever risk-free return policy for underwear:
Buy it. Wear it. Return it if you don’t love it. No awkward questions. 100% refund for first-time buyers.
🚀 Result? Mass adoption.
And it wasn’t just a marketing gimmick.
They partnered with Clothes Box Foundation to upcycle returned innerwear into dog beds & useful fabric products—turning potential waste into impact.
And it worked.
🔥 10% social media engagement boost
🔥 50% sales jump post campaign
🔥 3rd highest-selling trunks brand on Amazon
Scaling fast without burning cash on inefficiencies is an art.
XYXX partnered with Unicommerce to streamline inventory across 17+ marketplaces, optimising:
📌 Combo pack sales (bundling for higher AOV)
📌 Real-time SKU updates across platforms
📌 Automated warehouse & fulfillment centers
💡 The impact?
✅ 10X growth in sales
✅ Smooth operations across 43+ facilities
✅ 72% improvement in order processing speed
The XYXX story is a masterclass in how to disrupt a legacy category without burning millions in VC money. While the rest of the industry stuck to safe, predictable playbooks, XYXX rewrote the rules.
By championing fabric innovation with MicroModal, pushing the envelope on omnichannel distribution, and crafting marketing campaigns that actually resonate, XYXX has done what Jockey and Lux never dared to—turn innerwear into an aspirational product.
But their real genius lies in execution. They didn’t just flood marketplaces with discounts or chase unsustainable D2C hype.
Instead, they built a business that thrives across online, offline, and quick commerce, ensuring their growth isn’t just fast but fundamentally sound.
And yet, this is just the beginning.
XYXX is no longer the underdog—it’s the brand to watch.
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