New Trend • Up to 33 percent of sales of direct-to-consumer companies are now offline.
Mumbai
Online retailing companies, which have flourished rapidly in the country, are now opening offline stores. Even direct-to-consumer (D2C) brands are opening retail stores that just got their start on the internet. Beauty retailer Nykaa, eyewear retailer Lenskart, wearables brand Boat, millet snack brand Slurp Farm, Just Herbs and Sugar Cosmetics are among the big D2C brands that have opened physical stores.
Ghazal Alagh, co-founder of Mamaearth, one of the big D2C brands, wrote in a social media post that they now have more than 1.7 lakh retail touch points. Nykaa’s physical stores also increased from 72 to 150 in just 2 years. Offline stores account for more than 33% of Boat’s annual sales of around Rs 4,000 crore.
Market share of big retail stores started increasing
Since branded stores are generally larger than typical traditional stores, the share of large-sized stores in the offline retail market is increasing.
Customers want touch and feel
The facility to touch and feel the product is available only in physical stores. That’s why their growth is high. Pankaj Renjhen, Joint MD, Anarock Retail, said, ‘Customers want product experience. Brands Brands have realized this. That’s why they are expanding physical stores.
Retail store leasing increased by record 47%
According to global commercial real estate service firm CBRE, during 2023, retail leasing of 71 lakh square feet took place in the top-8 cities of India like Mumbai, Delhi. This is a record 47% more than 2022. Despite this, the pace of opening stores of big retailing companies remained slow. This means that D2C brands played a big role in this growth.
Expansion of international brands doubled: According to another report of CBRE, about 24 international brands entered the Indian market last year. Already existing global brands also expanded. Due to this, retail leasing by international brands increased by 25% in 2023. This growth in 2022 was only 14%.
