Out of the total online businesses enabled by Instamojo, 40 percent are run by women entrepreneurs, said the Bengaluru-based payments startup in its latest report. The report also highlights that Instamojo witnessed over five lakh women visiting the website in 2021, with increased interest from women aged above 50.
The report titled ‘Indian DTC brands eCommerce outlook 2022’ analyzes trends and developments in the Direct-to-consumer (DTC) space, and has drawn data from over 20 lakh small businesses in 2021.
“As entrepreneurs and small businesses increasingly learn the benefits of selling independently online, we can expect the DTC model to catalyse business growth significantly in the coming quarters,” said Sampad Swain, Co-Founder and CEO of Instamojo.
“In the post pandemic world, the DTC model can be an effective solution to accelerate business recovery. As we witness the shift of DTC businesses to the online medium, we aim to support the growth journey of more than 250,000 small business owners,” added Swain.
The report notes that as consumer conscience grows, their expectations from brands are also on an all-time high. This year, there will be a heightened focus on sustainability, not just for the product but for the entire supply chain. “Consumers are also becoming more aware of ‘where’ the product comes from. There has been an increase in Indians wanting to support local and small businesses over industrialised factory products or from multinational corporate brands,” said the report.
Further, it notes that in most cases, consumers are not actually against sharing their data, what they demand is transparency.
While the brands will be looking to invest in their marketing through SEO, influencer marketing will lead the way with YouTube spearheading this growth, said the report. Further, Instamojo’s report says that 2022 will see massive budget expansions on influencer marketing, especially on micro-influencers as they have a better grip on niche categories. The report finds that DTC brands will likely spend 40% more on performance marketing.
The report added that social media live streams will replicate mall experience for consumers and give a community feeling.
The report notes that with these independent businesses increasing, there will also be a significant shift to revenue-based financing over traditional venture capital. “DTC brands that will successfully scale in 2022 will be the ones that identify ways to reduce dependency on Facebook and Instagram alone,” highlights the report.
