By Saugata Gupta, MD & CEO, Marico
Every few years, the consumer economy crosses an invisible threshold. From where I sit, these shifts are often visible before they are fully named. What began as accelerated digital adoption during the pandemic years has now settled into something more permanent. Consumers did not simply add new channels to their buying journey. They reconfigured how they discover, evaluate, and trust brands. That reconfiguration, in many ways, is still unfolding.
Today, a consumer’s journey resembles a braided river rather than a straight line. Discovery often begins online, shaped by content, reviews, and peer validation. Familiarity and reassurance are still sought offline, through physical presence and habitual touchpoints. The distinction between channels matters far less than the continuity of experience across them. Information, convenience, and trust have emerged as the three anchors guiding choice.
Against this backdrop, direct-to-consumer (D2C) models have evolved beyond their early framing as a disruptive alternative. D2C represents a structural shift in how brands build relevance, test ideas, and understand demand. Over the last year, one insight has stood out clearly: sharper consumer insight and faster response cycles are no longer optional capabilities. They are now beginning to shape categories themselves, marking a move from reactive adaptation to deliberate design.
As Peter Drucker once observed, “The best way to predict the future is to create it.” D2C brands have done precisely that by collapsing the distance between intent and execution.
India’s D2C ecosystem has entered a phase of scale and sophistication. Industry estimates place the market at approximately $100 billion by the end of 2025, with projections of $185 billion by 2032, growing significantly faster than traditional FMCG segments.
Yet the momentum behind D2C is not driven by channel economics alone. It is driven by how these brands are built. At the core lies the ability to test ideas at small scale and respond quickly. Products are launched in limited runs, refined through real-time feedback, and recalibrated without long development cycles. This lowers the cost of being wrong while increasing the probability of being relevant.
Equally important is the use of feedback as a strategic asset. Reviews, repeat-purchase behaviour, customer service interactions, and social engagement together form a continuous loop of insight. Instead of waiting for quarterly research readouts, brands learn directly from consumer behaviour as it unfolds.
Many D2C brands also succeed by focusing on specificity rather than breadth. They address sharply defined consumer needs rooted in lifestyle choices, health considerations, regional preferences, or evolving value systems. The rise of science-led beauty, functional nutrition, and condition-specific personal care brands in India illustrates this well. These categories were always present, but digital discovery made them visible and viable at scale.
Community engagement plays a critical role in this growth. Early consumers become participants in the brand’s evolution, creating momentum that is difficult to replicate through traditional marketing alone. At the same time, digital behaviour itself is expanding categories by revealing needs that were previously latent.
The result is a market where new entrants bring agility and focus, while established players bring scale, trust, and operational discipline. Together, they raise the bar for product quality, relevance, and choice across the industry.
Perhaps the most enduring impact of D2C lies not in market share, but mindset. Digital-native brands approach innovation through the lens of behaviour rather than convention. This shift has shortened innovation cycles and sharpened propositions. Products evolve faster, communication becomes more transparent, and consumer feedback is incorporated continuously. Innovation moves from being episodic to being ongoing.
As these practices spread, the wider FMCG ecosystem benefits. Richer insight replaces broad assumptions, and experimentation becomes more disciplined. The emphasis shifts from predicting demand to responding to it with precision. In many ways, D2C has acted as a catalyst, accelerating changes the industry was inching towards. Its influence is now visible well beyond the digital shelf.
The rise of D2C has also reshaped how established FMCG companies think about growth. Over the past five years, nearly two-thirds of acquisitions by FMCG firms have been in the D2C space, reflecting a clear intent to engage with emerging demand early.
These partnerships are rarely about short-term financial returns alone. They are about capability building. Established players seek to integrate agility, digital-first thinking, and new-age formulation approaches into larger systems.
Digital-first brands, in turn, benefit from access to robust supply chains, quality frameworks, and distribution reach. This support allows them to scale responsibly while preserving the attributes that made them relevant in the first place.
When aligned well, such collaborations create a balanced ecosystem where early-stage innovation meets executional strength. The outcome is not disruption for its own sake, but accelerated category growth built on complementary strengths.
As the consumer landscape continues to evolve, leadership will depend on a distinct set of capabilities.
The first is a sharper reading of micro consumer needs across regions and communities. In a market as diverse as India, scale is built through relevance over uniformity.
The second is transparency. Consumers are increasingly informed and expect clarity on ingredients, sourcing, and values. Trust will be earned through consistency and openness rather than messaging alone.
The third is coherence across touchpoints. Brand building must seamlessly integrate digital influence with in-store experience. Consumers do not differentiate between channels, and brands that do risk appearing fragmented.
The D2C wave has expanded what is possible for the FMCG sector. Scale, trust, and deep distribution remain indispensable foundations. When paired with digital agility and insight-led decision-making, they unlock a more competitive and creative industry.
The future will not belong exclusively to digital natives or legacy giants. It will belong to those who can combine speed with discipline, insight with scale, and innovation with consistency.
At Marico, the most enduring progress has come from staying close to how consumer expectations are shifting, while remaining anchored in quality, trust, and purpose. From iconic brands like Parachute and Saffola to newer digital-first offerings such as Beardo, Plix, and True Elements, this approach has enabled us to serve evolving needs while building on our legacy. As the sector moves towards an ecosystem where digital-first thinking and established strengths work together, one principle will define leadership: staying close to consumer intent and moving at the pace it demands.