Introduction
Some conversations linger long after they end. They make you rethink your work and growth. I recently spoke with Varun Gupta, Category Head (Trimmers) & CGO at Bombay Shaving Company. It was a memorable moment.
Varun and I go back to my days at Too Yumm!. I learned a lot under his leadership. It felt like a crash course in entrepreneurship and big dreams in a corporate setting. It was inspiring to watch him create categories and secure modern trade accounts.
Why Growth Lessons from Varun Gupta is Important ?
He grew a healthy-snacking brand into a ₹200+ crore powerhouse from nothing. Catching up with him years later, after his time at Unilever, RPSG, and The Gift Studio, reminded me that his strength has always been execution.
This conversation came at the right time. Today, traditional FMCG growth models aren’t enough. Consumers have changed. Digital-first behaviors are the norm. Tools like AI and automation are reshaping how businesses connect. Brands that don’t adapt risk fading away.
In this blog, I’ll share lessons and insights from our talk. You’ll see how FMCG fundamentals still matter but need reimagining for the D2C era. GenZ is rewriting the rules of engagement, and AI-powered automation with a human touch is key.
You’ll get a framework to use these ideas in your business. This works for brand founders, marketers, and new grads starting in growth.
To understand the present and anticipate the future, we first need to set the context of what growth meant in the traditional FMCG playbook versus what it looks like today in a D2C-first world.
For decades, FMCG growth was built on distribution. The holy grail was reach: getting your product into every kirana store, every modern trade outlet, every hypermarket shelf.
Execution meant negotiating with distributors, setting up stockists, driving visibility through in-store branding, and creating large-scale Above the Line (ATL) and Below the Line (BTL) activations to influence shoppers at the point of sale.
It was a game of infrastructure and relationships: who had more vans, who had stronger distributor loyalty, who could execute more shelf displays across thousands of outlets.
This approach worked because consumer attention was concentrated. Shoppers discovered products inside stores, exposure was controlled by television and print media, and trust was built over years of consistent presence on shelves and screens. In such an environment, winning meant building a network, scaling supply chains, and creating brand familiarity through mass campaigns.
But the rise of D2C (Direct-to-Consumer) flipped this equation. D2C is not about distribution muscle, it’s about connection. Instead of building shelf visibility across 10,000 stores, the battlefield is digital storytelling on Instagram, personalized emails in inboxes, and WhatsApp messages nudging a refill. Growth no longer relies on negotiating with retailers but on understanding consumer journeys and engaging them directly.
Why does this matter? Because it changes the skillset, mindset, and toolset required to build and scale. In FMCG, cycles were longer campaigns took months, insights came through quarterly reports, and consumer feedback was filtered through retailers.
In D2C, feedback is instant, experiments are rapid, and consumer expectations shift in weeks, not years. The contrast is sharp: one is infrastructure-heavy, the other is insight-heavy. One relies on muscle, the other on agility.
This is where leaders like Varun sit at an interesting intersection. Having built businesses in both worlds, he embodies how FMCG fundamentals (consumer insight, disciplined execution, brand building) remain relevant but need to be re-engineered for a digital-first consumer.
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Market / Behavioral Shift
The most striking change we discussed was not just structural, but behavioral. Consumers themselves have evolved, particularly GenZ, and this is reshaping the entire landscape of growth.
The Indian D2C market is expected to cross $60 billion by 2030. That number alone is staggering, but the real story lies beneath: consumer expectations are accelerating faster than brands can adapt.
GenZ, which is rapidly becoming the dominant consumer segment, doesn’t engage with brands the way Millennials or GenX did. They don’t just buy products, they buy experiences. They don’t wait patiently for brands to get things right; they expect speed, transparency, and accountability.
This generation is digital-native, and their discovery of products happens not in kirana stores or supermarket aisles but on TikTok-like reels, Instagram stories, YouTube reviews, and influencer unboxings.
Their brand loyalty is fragile, but their appetite for authenticity is strong. They’re not impressed by polished advertising, they want realness, relatability, and community.
The rise of subscription models, loyalty programs, and direct engagement reflects this behavioral shift. Unlike earlier generations who were content with buying “whatever is available,” GenZ seeks personalization.
They want brands that know them, remember their preferences, and anticipate their needs. That’s why automation subscription reminders, refill nudges, and post-purchase education are no longer optional. It’s the expectation baseline.
At the same time, the pace of discovery and rejection has never been faster. A single delay in delivery or poor customer service interaction can trigger public backlash on social media. In the past, a complaint might stay confined to a helpline.
Today, it became a viral tweet or a Reddit thread. This transparency forces brands to build not just products but trust systems.
Varun emphasized how even at Bombay Shaving Company, a “trimmer” is no longer just a commodity. The company has redefined it as an expression tool for GenZ, wrapped in storytelling, packaging, and digital-first engagement. That is a direct response to consumer behavior, which no longer tolerates “boring” products but seeks cultural connection.
Problem / Gap Analysis
If this is the shift, then where do most brands go wrong?
The problem lies in assuming that old playbooks can simply be transplanted into new contexts. Many FMCG leaders entering D2C believe that distribution strength will automatically translate into digital dominance. But D2C is not about who can cover more outlets it’s about who can connect with more minds.
The first failure is over-reliance on acquisition. Brands pour massive budgets into paid ads, driving traffic and sign-ups, but ignore retention. This results in a vicious cycle of high CAC (Customer Acquisition Cost) and low LTV (Lifetime Value), making the business unsustainable.
The second failure is ignoring real-time consumer insights. In FMCG, feedback loops were slower and often less critical because distribution momentum covered inefficiencies. In D2C, ignoring feedback is deadly. A poorly rated product on Amazon or a wave of negative reviews on Instagram can kill momentum overnight.
The third failure is automation without humanity. Many brands adopt abandoned cart recovery or subscription reminders but fail to craft them in their authentic voice. The result feels spammy, not delightful. Consumers, especially GenZ, are sensitive to tone—they can sense when a brand is talking “at” them rather than “with” them.
And the risk of not adapting? Irrelevance. We’ve already seen traditional giants lose ground to agile D2C players who understand these dynamics better. The market punishes inertia brutally.
Mechanics / How It Works
So how do modern D2C growth engines actually work?
At the core are the platforms: Shopify or WooCommerce power the storefronts, integrating with CRMs like Klaviyo or HubSpot for lifecycle management. Logistics is managed through APIs with delivery partners. Payments flow through Razorpay or Stripe. But the real magic happens when automation platforms like Make.com or Zapier connect these pieces.
Take abandoned cart recovery. Traditionally, a shopper who left a cart would simply be lost. With Make, the cart abandonment triggers an automated flow: within an hour, the consumer receives a WhatsApp message reminding them of their cart, personalized with the product image.
If they don’t act, an email follows 24 hours later, perhaps with a limited-time incentive. The system closes the loop without human intervention.
Or consider subscription refill reminders. A grooming product like trimmer blades or razor refills has a predictable lifecycle. With automation, a nudge can be scheduled exactly when the consumer is likely to run out, delivered in the brand’s tone of voice, driving repeat purchases without the consumer even having to think.
Feedback collection is another area. Instead of waiting for occasional surveys, an automated flow can trigger feedback requests after every delivery, storing results in a Google Sheet, analyzing sentiment with AI, and alerting the CX team instantly if a negative review comes in. This creates a living feedback loop.
These mechanics aren’t about replacing humans. They’re about freeing humans to do the work that machines can not: crafting stories, building communities, and designing experiences. Automation does the heavy lifting; the brand voice provides the soul.
Optimization / Actionable Steps
In our conversation, Varun emphasized a truth that applies regardless of era: execution beats theory. But execution today requires a new discipline.
The first step is to nail the fundamentals. Growth still begins with Consumer Insight → Product → GTM. No amount of AI or automation can compensate for a product that doesn’t solve a real need or resonate with consumer desires.
At Too Yumm!, the insight was guilt-free snacking. At Bombay Shaving Company, it’s redefining grooming as self-expression. Without this clarity, growth efforts scatter.
The second step is to identify high-impact automations. Not everything needs automation on day one. Start with the three that directly influence retention: abandoned cart recovery, subscription reminders, and post-purchase feedback loops. These are the quick wins that directly impact revenue.
The third step is to humanize automation. An abandoned cart message should feel like a nudge from a friend, not a system ping. Subscription reminders should come with value-add content, not just a transactional push. Feedback requests should acknowledge the consumer’s time and importance.
The fourth step is to layer AI for scale. Use AI to analyze feedback at scale, personalize recommendations, and optimize ad campaigns. But always let humans lead the storytelling. AI can crunch numbers and generate variants; humans must decide the narrative.
This cycle insight, automation, humanization, and scaling creates compounding growth. It’s not glamorous, but it works.
Ranking / Success Factors
Success in this new world is not measured by shelf presence but by trust signals. Authority today comes from transparency, community engagement, and authentic storytelling. A brand that admits mistakes publicly and fixes them earns more loyalty than one that hides behind polished ads.
Content clarity is another factor. Consumers are bombarded with content, so what cuts through is clarity, short videos that educate, authentic posts that resonate, and tutorials that add value. Storytelling replaces static advertising.
Finally, technical and UX performance cannot be ignored. A smooth, mobile-first checkout, instant order tracking via WhatsApp, and responsive CX channels are no longer luxuries. They are table stakes. Poor UX is as damaging as poor product quality.
Tracking & Improvement
The beauty of D2C is measurability. Tools like Google Analytics, Mixpanel, and Shopify dashboards provide real-time insights into how consumers behave. Klaviyo and HubSpot track email performance, retention rates, and cohort analyses.
But tools are only useful if paired with discipline. Tracking CAC, LTV, retention, and NPS regularly creates accountability. Iteration becomes the culture experimenting with messaging, testing drip campaigns, tweaking automation flows.
Varun highlighted that failed experiments often teach faster than successes. A campaign that flops reveals what not to do, sharpening the next iteration. This agility separates winners from laggards.
Conclusion
As I walked away from this meeting, one message echoed in my mind: the fundamentals of growth haven’t changed, but the levers have. Execution still matters. Consumer insight still drives strategy. Brand building still takes time. But the way we execute, collect insights, and build trust has been transformed by D2C models and accelerated by AI and automation.
The brands that will win are not those who choose between FMCG discipline or D2C agility, but those who integrate both. They will take the consumer obsession of FMCG, add the speed of D2C, and supercharge it with AI-powered automation without losing the human touch that builds trust.
For new graduates, the opportunity is immense. This is the best time to build skills in consumer understanding, digital storytelling, and AI adaptability. For founders, the urgency is real adaptation or risk irrelevance. For marketers, the call is clearly to marry purpose with execution, and technology with humanity.
The future belongs to those who execute with consistency and adapt with curiosity.
Key Takeaways
- Execution still matters more than theory, regardless of era.
- FMCG distribution strength no longer guarantees growth in a D2C-first world.
- GenZ expects transparency, speed, and authenticity, not just products.
- AI and automation are powerful tools, but only when humanized.
- Sustainable growth balances short-term sales with long-term brand building.
FAQs
Q1: How is D2C growth different from FMCG growth?
D2C growth is built on direct consumer engagement, content storytelling, and retention strategies, whereas FMCG growth historically relied on distribution and retail visibility.
Q2: What’s the biggest mistake founders make in D2C?
Most founders over-index on acquisition, pouring money into ads, while ignoring retention and CX. This creates unsustainable economics.
Q3: How can AI help in D2C growth?
AI powers consumer insights, personalizes engagement, automates lifecycle marketing, and enhances CX. It enables scale while freeing humans to focus on creativity.
Q4: Is automation enough, or do brands still need human touch?
Automation drives efficiency, but differentiation comes from humanity’s authentic tone, brand storytelling, and transparent communication.
Q5: What should a new graduate focus on to succeed in this space?
Consistency in building core skills: understanding consumers, mastering digital storytelling, and learning how to adapt AI and automation to solve business problems.