How Indian D2C Brands Are Rewriting Their Playbook For Profitable Growth

Indian D2C brands are rethinking their channel strategies, store formats and customer acquisition models as they shift focus from topline growth to contribution margins and sustainable profitability.

Speaking at Inc42’s D2C & Retail Summit in Gurugram, Neeru’s MD Avnish Kumar, Elements Wellness founder Rajesh Chandan and The Bear House cofounder Harsh Somaiya discussed how their brands are adapting to changing consumer preferences while scaling their businesses.

For The Bear House, the focus has been on finding the right role for each sales channel. “We started looking at the channel mix and we started understanding what is the right play for us. We’ve been a marketplace-first brand, we’ve grown our D2C, now it is retail,” Somaiya said.

He explained that the brand initially used online marketplaces for customer acquisition, its D2C platform to gather consumer insights and physical stores to build a stronger brand experience.

At Neeru’s, meanwhile, changing consumer behaviour has prompted a rethink of store formats. After experimenting with smaller 1,000-1,500 sq ft outlets, the ethnicwear brand has returned to larger 5,000-6,000 sq ft experiential stores, Kumar said, as wedding and festive shoppers increasingly seek a wider assortment and in-store experience.

Kumar also cautioned brands against chasing growth through deep discounting or rushing new products to market. He argued that sustainable profitability ultimately depends on protecting gross margins.

“It’s better to make a product for your sale days, like how every brand in the world does a factory outlet,” he said.

For Elements Wellness, the growth strategy has centred on a different customer acquisition model. The Ayurvedic brand has built a top line of more than ₹1,300 Cr without relying heavily on traditional digital influencer marketing, Chandan said..

Neeru’s, meanwhile, has also leaned into regional marketing to drive customer acquisition. Kumar cited a recent campaign in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana featuring actor Sreeleela, alongside a regional song launched during Dussehra.

The campaign delivered a sharp spike in new customer additions, he claimed. “The kind of numbers we did and the kind of new customers that we added to our portfolio in one go in 30 days, we couldn’t have done that in three years,” Kumar said.

The common thread across the three brands is a shift away from growth at any cost, with channel economics, customer acquisition efficiency and gross margins increasingly shaping how D2C companies scale.

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