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YourStory’s Brands of New India Mega Summit 2022, kicked off today with a stellar lineup of founders, business leaders, emerging entrepreneurs, and ecosystem enablers from across the country.

Ananth Narayanan, Founder and CEO, Mensa Brands; Vineeta Singh, Founder and CEO, SUGAR Cosmetics; Harshil Mathur, Co-founder and CEO, Razorpay; Bimal Kartheek Rebba, Co-founder, Trell; Nitin Agarwal, CEO, GlobalBees; Gaurav Mangla, Co-founder and CEO, Pickrr; Varun Alagh, CEO and Co-founder, Mamaearth; and more came together at the virtual event to share their thoughts on market dynamics, ecosystem partnerships, product and innovations, and trends that will fuel the next phase of growth of the country’s D2C ecosystem.

You can watch videos from all the sessions from Day 1 of Brands of New India Mega Summit here.

Here is an overview of what transpired at the opening day of the Brands of New India Mega Summit 2022:

Customer delight is the key

The day kickstarted with a panel discussion where Aman Gupta, Co-founder and CMO, boAt Lifestyle; Ananth Narayanan, Founder and CEO, Mensa Brands; and Vineeta Singh, Founder and CEO, SUGAR Cosmetics spoke about the importance of building a customer-brand relationship to ensure success.

“Product is always at the centre of creating a wow factor … [and once you have that] investing in educating your customers and building a community is very critical for the growth of any brand,” said Vineeta.

Ananth mentioned the importance of understanding consumer sentiments. “Brands need to have a purpose and meaning, and need to connect with the customers … Content and community will become more central as you think about brand building,” he added.

“Customers today want to be involved with the brand not just when it comes to buying, [but] feedback is also important,” said Nitin Agarwal, CEO, GlobalBees in a fireside chat on the essentials of building a house of brands.

Women at the forefront of sustainability

An hour-long session on investing in sustainability and the essentials of building a sustainable D2C business with an all-women panel featuring Sahar Mansoor, Founder and CEO, Bare Necessities; Pallavi Utagi, Founder and CEO, Superbottoms; Shauravi Malik, Co-founder, Slurrp Farm; Aishvarya Murali, Founder, The Unbottle Company; and Gita Ramanan, Co-founder and CEO, Design Cafe was the highlight of the opening day.

Shauravi opined that large companies and startups need to work together to build a sustainable future.

“People are going to adopt a sustainable product only if it’s convenient. They are not going to put sustainability over convenience at this stage,” added Pallavi reiterating the ways through which brands can look at a shift in the consumers’ mindsets.

The session was moderated by Dipanjan Basu, Partner, Fireside Ventures who reiterated the importance of thinking about the effects of your business on climate change and said that among today’s increasingly conscious consumers, “iconic brands” will be the “ones which are sustainable and are creating some meaningful impact on society and environment at large.”

The summit also featured a fireside chat with Dhwani Mehta, Co-founder and CEO, Ecovia who spoke about the need for sustainable packaging solutions for modern customers in the backdrop of the booming D2C space in India. She opined that “many new-age brands are advocating for sustainability because it’s taking centre stage in the mainstream e-commerce sector.”

What will power India’s D2C ecosystem further?

With more than 40 speakers talking about the factors essential for the growth of a country’s D2C landscape further, the summit collected quite a few insights for the ecosystem players to build upon.

“Faster deliveries will be the factor of primary importance that will power the D2C engine,” said Gaurav Mangla, Co-founder and CEO, Pickrr.

“The only way to grow and develop is to continue to work on customer delight,” added Shankar Prasad , Founder and CEO, Plum participating in a panel discussion.

“A D2C brand must take proactive steps to win the trust of the customers,” said Venkatesh Sundar, Founder and CMO, Indusface while capturing the key elements of growth of a D2C business and sector at large, in a panel discussion.

“I think the next phase of D2C growth will come from going beyond Tier lll into ‘Bharat,’ and getting them to adopt D2C as a mode to transact,” added Varun Alagh, Co-founder and CEO, Mamaearth.

You can watch videos from all the sessions of Brands of New India Mega Summit here. Don’t forget to tag #BrandsOfNewIndia when you share your experience, learnings, and favourite moments from the event on social media.

For information on future events, collaborations, and information regarding the D2C ecosystem, please visit our website.