D2CX C4 | Program Handbook by Inc42 Media

Why D2CX?

In the dynamic landscape of India's D2C market, poised to reach a staggering $100 billion by 2025 and captivating over 350 million online shoppers, a revolution is underway. Over 1,100 D2C brands have emerged, collectively securing over $3 billion in funding, heralding an era of unprecedented growth and opportunity.

At the forefront of this transformative wave, Inc42 has been a pivotal force in Every year on the India's D2C Industry we produce:

All of this has influenced and connected more than a million D2C startup founders, operators, investors, and enthusiasts. We've not just observed the D2C evolution; we've actively moulded it.

Yet, amidst these milestones, we recognise a persistent challenge: the need for robust support for early-stage D2C startups who have achieved their PMF and now looking to scale. These burgeoning ventures require more than just capital; they need strategic guidance to scale, expertise in fundraising, and assistance in establishing a strong omni-channel presence.

Addressing this vital need, Inc42 is proud to launch D2CX, a transformative 12-week program designed to supercharge India's D2C ecosystem.

Master The Growth Playbook To Scale Your D2C Brand From India’s Top 1% D2C Leaders & Experts

Cohort 4 Starts In Feb End 2025

What Sets D2CX Apart?

Live & Hybrid

Personalised Learning Experience

Learn From India’s

Top 1% D2C Leaders

Hybrid Learning

Experience

Comprehensive Mentorship, In-Depth Workshops & Assignments

Hands-On Mentorship & Practical Assignments

Become Part of a Lifelong Community

Exclusive Access to India’s Startup Ecosystem

Comprehensive Hands-On Workshops

Join A Vibrant D2C

Community

In-Person Convocation & D2C Showcase

Personalised Growth Model

Exclusive Benefits and Investor Connects

Past Speakers & Mentors

Noise

Lahori Zeera

Founding Partner

Huddle

Umair Mohammed

Cofounder & CEO

Nitro

Knya

Rohit Chawla Founder & CEO Innovist

Rajat Jadhav Founder & CEO

Bold Care

Raul Rai Cofounder Nicobar

Adarsh Sharma

Juicy Chemistry

Cofounder & CEO

TagZ Foods

WOW Skin Science

Flo Mattress

Just Herbs

Founder Miduty

Harini Sivakumar Founder & CEO

Earth Rhythm Dot&Key

Saptarshi Prakash Director of Design Swiggy

MasterChow

Beyond Snack

Head, Consulting & Research

Schbang

Dr Shashank Sinha

CEO

Drools

Commercify360

Company Secretary

Contlo

Flipkart

Brego Business

Weekly Schedule

Core Sessions

Weekly, Live Sessions Taken By D2C founders and experts.

Saturday 11:00 AM - 2:00 PM (IST)

Sunday 11:00 AM -2:00 PM (IST)

Progress Reviews

Weekly Assignments, Reviews And Feedback Sessions

Assignment Briefing

Tuesday

8:00 PM - 9:00 PM (IST)

Session Follow-Ups

Thursday

Doubt Clearing Sessions Taken By Instructors & Experts

Wednesday 9:00 PM - 10:00 PM (IST)

8:00 PM - 10:00 PM (IST)

Week 0

In-Person Orientation & Kick-Off

Join us at the in-person Orientation Day Event in Delhi NCR. Meet D2CX Team and network with your fellow D2C founders.

Program Curriculum

Product Is King + Value Prop Canvas

The Art of Branding and Storytelling

Delivering A World Class Product & Customer Experience

D2C Marketing — Content, Brand Awareness, Social Media & Influencers

D2C Marketing — Performance Marketing, Conversion

Building A Loyal Customer Base (Retention, CRM & Support)

Nailing Operations, Supply Chain, Delivery

Omnichannel Growth — Tapping Into Online Marketplaces

Omnichannel Growth — The Offline Play

Customer Experience & Building

Your 0 To 1 Team

Budgeting, Financing & Growth Modelling

Showcase your D2C brand to Investors, Founders & Reatil Leaders in-person and establish valuable connection with the who's who of the D2C ecosystem at the in-person convocation. APPLY NOW

How Is The 12 Week Journey Structured?

Each week of D2CX is structured and crafted to help you build a profitable D2C brand in 2024. Master the Art of 10x growth in 12 weeks. Week 0

In-Person

Orientation & Kick-Off

Join us at the in-person Orientation Day Event in Delhi NCR. Meet D2CX Team and network with your fellow D2C founders.

Product Is King + Value Prop Canvas

Welcome Note

Fireside

Welcome Address By

Inc42

1. What D2CX is all about

2. How to make the best of the program

3. What to expect from the next 12 weeks

How To Achieve Pmf At Scale: How To Not

Build

A "Me Too" Product

1. Defining the core value proposition of your product

2. How to assess if you have achieved PMF

3. Are you solving for the right consumer pain points

Decoding The Product Launches Frameworks

Masterclass Fireside Product Development 101 For D2C Brands

1. Decoding the strategies for Vertical and Horizontal scale

2. What's the right time to launch a new product for your D2C brand

3. Understanding the TAM, SAM, SOM for your D2C brand

4. Importance of processes and frameworks to automate existing product marketing, iteration and scaling process

1. Deep dive into NPD frameworks

2. Expanding product lines for Omnichannel Scale

How Brands Go About Product Launches

1. Learn from hands on experiences of the top 1% D2C founders

2. How experts in F&B, Fashion and Beauty scaled their D2C brands

3. Why now is the best time to build a D2C brand in India

4. D2C landscape, opportunities and challenges

The Art of Branding and Storytelling

A-to-Z Of Elevating Brand Building For D2C Brands

1. Understanding the fundamentals of branding – product design and product comms

2. Why brand guidelines are critical

3. Case studies on top D2C brands acing product branding, design and comms

Crafting Your Brand's DNA

1. The ABCs of brand marketing for D2C brands

2. How to measure impact of Brand Marketing

3. How to evaluate the success of your brand marketing campaign – Brand marketing metrics!

4. Learn different brand marketing frameworks and strategies to get the most for your D2C brand

5. Channels for brand marketing – Identify the right channels for brand marketing

6. How to buiild an organic pull through brand marketing

Secrets To Creating A Cult Brand

1. Secret saunce to building trust with your customers through your brand

2. How to communicate brand promise

3. How to position your core value proposition to communicate your brand positioning

4. Lean how to build long term brand campaigns, evalue your brand campaign's success

Week O3 Delivering A World Class Product & Customer Experience

Workshop

Building A World Class Website Experience

1. Design customer-centric UX for enhanced website interaction and conversion

2. Conduct thorough audits of key pages to boost conversions and optimize communication channels for effective user engagement

3. Evaluate and refine your tech stack for a seamless user experience, focusing on page speed and traffic optimization

Panel

How India's Leading D2C Brands Built Product & Customer Experience

1. Learn top frameworks that have helped top Indian D2C brands maximize their conversions

2. How to build organic growth and adoption for your website

3. Solving for UX beyond the website.

4. Leveraging WhatsApp, Social to build customer loyalty

Week O4

D2C Marketing — Content, Brand Awareness, Social Media & Influencers

Masterclass Tapping Into Community Power For D2C Success

1. How can you help users who love your products become brand ambassadors

2. Identifying levers to drive organic growth through community

3. How to build product offerings that connect with the user

4. Case studies on brands that have leveraged community to scale their D2C brands

5. Identify the right channels to build a community –Blogs, Social, Instagram, Facebook, WhatsApp

Masterclass Unlocking Organic Surge: SEO Strategies For D2C Brands

1. Learn the ropes of SEO for D2C brands

2. Case studies on SEO best practices and impact on organic growth

Masterclass D2C Brands Guide To Cracking Social Media Marketing

1. Leveraging Social Media to amplify your brand voice

2. Cracking the ideal multi-channel strategy to build your brand

3. How to build an organic growth funnel with Social Media

4. Deep dive into channel level strategies – Youtube, Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn

Panel

Cracking Influencer Marketing: D2C Brands' Handbook To Campaign Strategies, Negotiation & More

1. Master evaluating brand metrics and stages to initiate influencer marketing

2. Discover how to select and source the perfect influencers for your brand

3. Learn to price content collaborations and budget for influencer campaigns effectively

4. Gain insights from top D2C influencer strategy case studies and develop a hands-on playbook for channel-wide mastery

Crafting Your Instagram Brand Strategy: A Guide To Content Creation And Engagement

1. Understanding the scale of Youtube and its impact on brands

2. Learn the nuances of scaling your brand voice and getting organic growth via Youtube

3. How to build an organic content engine for your brand on Youtube

4. Case studies of top brands who have aced the Youtube branding game

Week O5 D2C Marketing — Performance Marketing, Conversion

Masterclass Mastering The Marketing Funnel: A D2C Brand's Guide To Building, Utilising, And Scaling

1. Master the performance funnel playbook to maximize conversions

2. Understanding the metrics that drive key performance marketing channels

3. Benchmarking your performance against industry standards

4. Understanding content format, design and engagement trends that drive conversions

Fireside

5. Case studies on different stages and D2C segment on how they drive ROI from performance ads

Masterclass A Guide To Meta Ecosystem: A Guide To For D2C Brands

1. Master the Meta playbook to scale your D2C brand, including comprehensive strategies for Instagram and Facebook ads

2. Dive into Instagram marketing essentials, from ad copywriting to best practices and bidding strategies for optimal results

3. Customize reports in Meta Ads Manager, understand key KPIs, and conduct A/B tests for continual ad optimization

4. Learn to set up dynamic ads and product catalogs for e-commerce, alongside advanced retargeting and remarketing strategies

Masterclass Google 1-0-1 For D2C Brands: Mastering Search Console, Ads, And Analytics

1. Optimize Google Merchant Center for effective Google Shopping campaigns and ensure compliance with Google Ads policies.

2. Integrate Google Ads and Analytics for deep performance insights, leveraging strategic bidding and A/B testing to enhance ROI.

3. Craft compelling ad copy and visuals across Google's ecosystem, from search to display and video ads.

4. Employ advanced retargeting and remarketing strategies alongside Google Ads Manager for actionable insights and continuous campaign improvement.

Week O6 Building A Loyal Customer Base (Retention, CRM

& Support)

Masterclass D2C Brands' Guide To Customer Loyalty: Strategies For Enhancing Customer LTV & Retention

1. How to crack retention through automated journeys (post-purchase, cart abandonment, product view, welcome, re-stock, review)

2. How to do churn analysis, win-back campaigns & incentivise repeat purchases

3. Learn how to do retention cohort analysis and build user journeys to solve for your casual, core and power users

Masterclass

Unlocking Insights: Engagement And Retention Frameworks

For Customer Loyalty

1. Master tools for automating personalized user engagement and retention journeys

2. Utilize cohort analysis for enhanced repeat purchase metrics through targeted communications

3. Adopt a multi-channel strategy for retention, integrating Email, WhatsApp, and SMS

4. Craft tailored website experiences for repeat users, from behavior analysis to landing page optimization

Nailing Operations, Supply Chain, Delivery

Mastering Efficient Operations: Streamlining Delivery & Identifying The Key Metrics

1. How to optimise operations and supply chain to boost margins

2. Enhancing margins through continuous operational improvements

3. Leveraging the latest tech and systems in WMS, WH & LMD stack for operational efficiency

4. Audit and refine your WMS setup for optimal packaging and delivery

5. Enhancing customer experience with superior tracking and feedback mechanisms

Masterclass Decoding Last-Mile Delivery For D2C Brands: Navigating Partners, Costs, and Effective Strategies

1. Evaluating last mile delivery partners for optimal performance

2. Costing, metrics, CFC optimization to optimise LMD costs

3. Enhancing efficiency and lowering return rates for COD orders

4. Case studies on expanding delivery reach across pincodes

Strategies For Raw Material Sourcing & Vendor Negotiation

1. Understand the A-Z of D2C manufacturing & NPD

2. Product sourcing, setting up R&D and budgets

3. Case studies on manufacturing in India

Week O8

Omnichannel Growth — Tapping Into Online Marketplaces

Masterclass Navigating Amazon Ecosystem: D2C Brands' Guide To Listing, Advertising, Warehousing & More

1. Master organic growth strategies on Amazon

2. Navigate paid promotions: sponsored listings, advertising campaigns, and search/display ads

3. Choose the best marketplace for scaling with key evaluation metrics

4. The standard optimisation checklist: video quality, bullet points, images, and reviews

Masterclass

Nailing Amazon Advertising for D2C Brands

1. Master organic growth strategies on Flipkart

2. Navigate paid promotions: sponsored listings, advertising campaigns, and search/display ads

3. Choose the best marketplace for scaling with key evaluation metrics

4. The standard optimisation checklist: video quality, bullet points, images, and reviews

Masterclass Scaling Your Brand On Myntra & Nykaa: A Guide To Platform Listings, Advertising & Categories

1. Master organic growth strategies on Nykaa

2. Navigate paid promotions: sponsored listings, advertising campaigns, and search/display ads

3. Choose the best marketplace for scaling with key evaluation metrics

4. The standard optimisation checklist: video quality, bullet points, images, and reviews

Omnichannel Growth — The Offline Play

Fast-Track To Sales: Leveraging Quick Commerce For D2C Brands

1. Grasp the potential of quick commerce platforms like Zepto, Instamart, Blinkit.

2. Navigate paid advertising strategies on quick commerce platforms.

3. Identify optimal SKUs for your brand on quick commerce platforms based on key metrics.

Panel

Cracking Offline Channels — Finding The Right Avenues & Success Parameters

1. Explore the strategic benefits of incorporating offline retail into D2C sales strategies.

2. Understand the unit economics of offline stores, including investment, expenses, and revenue.

3. Determine the best timing and approach for offline expansion, considering market and brand dynamics.

4. Identify success factors for offline stores, including location, design, staffing, and inventory management.

Week 10

Building Your 0 To 1 Team

Essentials Of Team Building, Processes, And Documentation

1. Building a strong founding team with a focus on core functions essential for D2C success

2. Master the organizational blueprint for D2C brands, identifying key roles and scaling strategies

3. Enhancing hiring, recruitment, and onboarding processes to secure top talent specifically for D2C startups

4. Strategising budget allocation and utilize HR software to streamline processes, ensuring alignment with organizational values and legal standards

How To Build Your Personal Brand

1. Personal branding's impact on business growth, investor relations, and public image

2. Kickstarting personal branding by pinpointing a founder's strengths, passions, and values

3. Tailoring your brand to your audience's needs for effective market positioning

4. Enhancing your personal brand online and offline with authenticity & consistency, utilizing tools for perception analysis

Mastering The Art Of Public Speaking

1. Overcoming public speaking fears and learn effective structure, storytelling, and delivery techniques

2. Utilising voice modulation, body language, and visual aids for engaging presentations

3. Applying Neuro-linguistic programming (NLP) and persuasion for impactful communication

4. Tailoring speeches to the audience, mastering Q&A sessions for dynamic interaction

Mastering D2C Business Finance Fundamentals

1. Mastering strategic decision-making with MIS, including P&L analysis and forecasting

2. Grasping financial management basics and Tally for effective accounting & budgeting

3. Navigating GST/taxes and cash flow management to maintain financial health and support business expansion

4. Optimising product margins (CM1, CM2, CM3) and understand fixed & variable cost impact for D2C success

5. Mastering D2C EBITDA and category-level analysis to project growth and manage costs efficiently

Budgeting, Financing & Growth Modelling

Masterclass How To Go About Business Modelling

1. Grasping business modeling essentials and its impact on D2C brand success

2. Identifying key business model components to craft a compelling value proposition and strategy

3. Learning to innovate and adapt your business model for market competitiveness

4. Mastering strategies for diversifying revenue and managing costs for brand sustainability

The A To Z Of Term Sheets

1. The significance and essentials of term sheets in funding

2. Analysing term sheets through a commercial and governance lens

3. Navigating term sheet negotiations from an investor's perspective

4. Understanding cap table intricacies and negotiation best practices

Seal The Deal: Perfecting Your Fundraising Strategy

1. Navigating fundraising from seed to Series C, understanding each stage's nuances

2. Identifying when your brand is funding-ready and learn to calculate needed capital

3. Decoding the investor landscape to align with their interests and investment strategies

4. Preparing for due diligence and crafting a targeted investor list

Showcase your D2C brand to Investors, Founders & Reatil Leaders in-person and establish valuable connection with the who's who of the D2C ecosystem at the in-person convocation. APPLY NOW