Ishan Sukul

This perfume startup made ₹1.5 crore in 60 days by doing the one thing every D2C founder FEARS And that one thing is refunds. (Sounds crazy, right?) But that’s exactly how BLABLIBLU cracked trust. Their playbook is simple: → Sell a discovery pack of 4–6 perfumes. → If you don’t like it, get a full refund. → If you love it, upgrade to 100ml and your trial amount gets credited back. Refunds in India usually = P&L nightmare. For them, refunds = conversion. And the results are wild: ✅ Revenue: ₹1.5 crore in 60 days ✅ Refund rate: ~3% ✅ Upgrade rate: ~20% That’s a moat. Because today’s consumer doesn’t trust your ad copy. They trust experience. Pricing. Packaging. Refund logic. Delivery. Every detail is part of the product. Blabliblu solved one of the biggest anxieties in D2C: “What if I don’t like it?” But none of that matters if the delivery itself fails. If the discovery pack arrives late, crushed, or smelling like damp cardboard… You lose the customer before they even try the product. The “trust loop” dies at the doorstep. That’s the part most D2C brands miss. The funnel doesn’t stop at “buy now.” It stops when the box lands on time, intact, and exactly as promised. And that’s exactly what we’re building at Zippee. Because bold refund models, daring marketing, and consumer-first playbooks all collapse if your ops aren’t airtight. Blabliblu removed the fear of “what if I don’t like it.” Zippee removes the fear of “will it even arrive right.” One kills anxiety at trial. The other kills anxiety at delivery. That’s how trust compounds.

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Idea for Indian D2C brands: Start doing "Founder WhatsApp Broadcasts. Build a broadcast list of 5,000 customers Send 1 personal voice note per week from the founder Share behind-the-scenes, new products, why you built this People buy from people, not from brands. But most D2C marketing feels soulless. Create a direct to founder channel communication. Very low effort experiment.

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Blinkit is asking ₹25K per product listing. Yes… you heard that right :) ₹25,000 per product just to get it listed and gain some visibility. This money is credited to your ad wallet. For early-stage founders, this is a big deal. Here’s why👇🏻 → High upfront cost: Listing 4 products? That’s ₹1 lakh just to get started. For bootstrapped startups, this is a serious capital decision. → Marketing exposure, not guaranteed sales: The fee goes toward driving traffic via ads, not giving you direct access to buyers. Without proven demand, ROI is uncertain. → Risk vs. reward: Unlike commission-based models, you pay before seeing sales.If your product-market fit isn’t strong, you may burn cash without returns. → Platform fit matters: Quick commerce platforms like Blinkit work best for impulse buys or daily essentials. Niche or high-consideration products may struggle to see meaningful ROI. → Hidden costs: Remember, Blinkit also charges commissions (10–25%) on sales. Factor this into your pricing strategy to avoid surprises. Think before you list. Upfront fees matter, but product-market fit matters even more. What do you think about this fee? Is it too much or normal? ****** P.S. At @AY Ventures, we have helped founders raise over 85.2 Cr. Fill this form to get a free consultation call with our funding experts👇🏻 https://lnkd.in/gjqKsyb8

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🚨 PhysicsWallah has filed an updated DRHP for an Rs 3,820 crore IPO. And its filing gives clear numbers on why ed-tech companies have been pushing for an offline presence. PhysicsWallah's offline business accounts for nearly half of the revenues now. Its online transacting users increased from 1.68 million in FY23 to 4.13 million in FY25, a 2.5-fold rise. But the average collection per online user remained modest, from Rs 3,107 to Rs 3,683. Offline enrolments rose faster, from 80,000 in FY23 to 330,000 in FY25, up more than 4 times. But more importantly, the average revenue per offline user is 10x as compared to online. It increased from Rs 34,467 in FY23 to Rs 40,405 in FY25. PhysicsWallah’s offline average revenue per user far outpaces online, even as online scale drives rapid volume expansion.

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Indian D2C has a fraud problem no one is talking about.. Everyone knows about returns. Fashion: ~30% return rate. Electronics/Health: ~20%. BPC: ~10% But, industry data shows: ~15% of returns are fraudulent. For a brand with 30% returns, that means 4-5% of total orders are fraud. It could be a return that comes back with the product used, damaged or even missing from the box. The worst thing I ever saw was my capsules replaced by gems and sent back 😂 The difference? Returns cost you just shipping with a product that can be reused. Frauds cost you the entire product + shipping + processing. The 3 Types of Return Fraud: 1. Wardrobing Order for wedding/event → Wear once, keep tags on → Return claiming "didn't fit" Fashion brands report: 15-20% of returns are worn items 2. Bracketing Order 4 sizes of same item → Try at home → Keep 1, return 3 Problem: Each return costs ₹100-150 in logistics. Customer pays nothing. 3. The Swap/Scam Order new laptop/phone → Return old/broken one in new box → Claim "defective" Electronics brands lose lakhs annually to serial number swaps alone. Let’s talk numbers: For a ₹10 Cr revenue fashion brand: Return rate: 30% = ₹3 Cr in returns Fraud rate: 20% of returns = ₹60 L fraudulent Cost per fraudulent return: - Forward shipping: ₹40 - Return shipping: ₹60 - Processing: ₹50 - Product: ₹1,000 (can't resell worn/damaged items) = Total loss: ₹1,150 Annual fraud loss: 6.9% of revenue. That's more than most D2C net margins. One of the reasons it's exploding is because of many people putting this as “Instagram hacks” or "Order outfits for events, return after". But, also because our ecommerce customers have not matured. Making return fraud = "smart shopping." While "7-day no questions asked return" is marketing advantage for brands, it’s getting fatal with these smart hacks. The sad part is that there's no good solution. - Industry-wide blacklist? Won't happen (anti-competitive) - Stricter policies or charge for returns? Lose to competition but the most likely to actually happen. - Better detection? Expensive, always lagging - Accept the loss? Kills margins Until fraud is culturally stigmatized again, D2C economics will stay broken. Are you guilt of doing this?

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Amul India clocked ₹90,000 cr revenue in FY25 yet spends <1% on marketing, how the hell does this work?? (Less than 1%!!) While every other FMCG brand is out burning crores on ads and influencers, Amul’s just… chilling. And still, it’s India’s most iconic food brand. Here’s what they got right: 1. They sell Amul instead of products Butter, cheese, milk, paneer - it doesn’t matter… you buy it because the pack says Amul. That’s the kind of brand trust most startups dream of. 2. They made slogans that stick. “Utterly Butterly Delicious.” “Amul Doodh Peeta Hai India.” Try saying them out loud without smiling. Now try forgetting them. Exactly. 3. They created the most consistent mascot in Indian history. The Amul Girl is more than a cartoon. She’s commentary, culture, and recall, all packed into one frame. 4. Topical ads that go viral without spending a rupee. They run conversations instead of campaigns One news cycle, one witty line, and your entire WhatsApp group is sharing butter jokes. 5. Paid media? Nah. Their ads are so good, they don’t need boosting…. People want to share them. It’s not about spending on marketing but earning mindspace. Amul grew because it outlasted trends, outsmarted formats, and stayed human through it all. They built trust, not noise. And now that trust prints ₹90,000 crore a year. So next time someone says “we need a bigger marketing budget,” tell them about the brand that built a legacy on milk, wit, and 1% ad spend.

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Today, phones sell out in seconds. PS5s vanished in minutes. Electronics, which was once a high-involvement, deeply-researched category, are now being bought on impulse. In 2024, nearly ₹11,000 crore worth of electronics sales shifted from offline to online, driven largely by the rise of quick commerce. I always thought of electronics as a pure GMV driver, but recent shifts in consumer behaviour have challenged that. What’s unfolding is a deeper change, driven by growing trust, evolving habits, and rising aspiration. To unpack all this, I spoke with Smrithi Ravichandran, VP at Flipkart, who leads the platform’s Mobiles category, one of the fastest-moving and most competitive spaces in Indian e-commerce. Smrithi brings rare clarity on how Indian consumers make decisions, what urgency does to conversion, and where the real opportunities lie as Q-comm moves from groceries to gadgets. This is an episode for anyone building for speed, scale, and the next wave of commerce: https://lnkd.in/gRU34-wJ

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In 2015, everyone said launching a ₹1 candy in a 50-paise market was business suicide. 8 months later, that "suicidal" candy hit ₹100 crore in sales without spending a rupee on advertising! When DS Group launched Pulse, industry insiders thought it wouldn’t survive. A hard-boiled candy with a raw mango shell and a spicy core? Priced at ₹1 when 86% of the market was still at 50 paise? It sounded risky. But Pulse wasn’t just candy. It was an experience. Within 8 months, it hit ₹100 crore in sales. By its second year, ₹300 crore. Today, it’s a ₹750 crore brand with a 19% market share in India’s ₹4,000 crore hard-boiled candy market (PTI, 2025). Here's what made it work: → Consumer-first insight: Raw mango already accounted for 26% of India’s hard-boiled candy market. Pulse added a spiced core, giving people a surprise element. → Zero advertising: Not a single celebrity endorsement in the early years. Word of mouth turned it into a ₹100 crore brand in just 8 months. → Smart scarcity: Launched in select states, creating chase value. People were asking shops for Pulse long before the supply could catch up. → Retail leverage: Retailers rationed stock and earned higher margins, so they pushed Pulse harder than its rivals. Fast forward, Pulse has sold over 5,000 crore candies. It dethroned Parle’s Mango Bite, forced competitors like ITC Limited and Perfetti Van Melle to launch spiced variants, and is now expanding into new categories and even overseas. To me, the biggest learning from the Pulse success story is that FMCG disruption doesn’t always come from larger ad budgets. It comes from sharper instincts and execution discipline. What’s one FMCG brand you think cracked the market with just insight? Fitspire - Health | Wellness Nidhi Jain Hinah Sawhney #pulse #dsgroup #success #startupindia #knowledge #fitspire

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