Live Commerce is largely a creator economy where content consumption happens via influencers or brands that people are engaging with on a personal level and who trust each other in a close-knit community.

Payment touches every consumer and small business in India and with all the available options one has to give the customers the option to choose how they want to pay.

The user journey has changed many folds. Google with its set of product suites like Google My Business, Youtube, cloud platforms, shopping platforms, etc. is enabling retailers to make that transition towards manifesting a digital transformation.

Last mile delivery roughly would comprise 40-50 percent of the transportation costs making it the most expensive and time-consuming element of the logistics chain for any e-commerce player.

A makeover revolution of sorts is unfolding in India's D2C beauty and personal care space. A cohort of clean, culturally rooted, and ethical brands are making their presence felt with beauty recipes out of kitchens, forests, and the wonders of Ayurveda. 

The digital age makes it easy to burn money and it simultaneously makes it difficult to build and sustain a profitable brand.

Firms need to consider a company-wide perspective - a cross-functional relationship truly powered via technology that benefits every pocket - internally as well as externally.

While the success and scalability of the D2C route might vary for brands depending upon their category, D2C e-commerce still holds its ground strong enough for any business that wants to strengthen and control its sales and customer relationships.

As competition gets fierce, D2C brands will be required to strategically play their cards in an ever-evolving and competing an online marketplace.

Social Commerce' has become an axis point for businesses to drive their content, community, commerce, and lower costs of customer acquisitions.

D2C scaling requires a nuanced and integrated understanding of consumer channels and deep-diving over a period of time into the metrics to fuel growth and expansion.

Most mattresses that are available in the market are composed of memory foam, spring, or latex – however, the mattress by The Sleep Company consists of a completely new material made from hyper-elastic polymer.

Brands are better off if they prepare themselves with a nascent Metaverse strategy.

So what does all of this eventually lead to or if we flip the question around, what does the future of retail really look like for businesses and consumers?

Direct-to-consumer (D2C) business model or strategy eliminates middlemen/ intermediaries between producers and consumers. It gives producers/ manufacturers larger control over pricing, consumer data, direct relationship building, and higher margins.

According to Juniper Research, the use of voice assistants will be at 8 billion by 2023, from 2.5 billion in 2018.

The question retail brands should be asking is not when's the right time to enter the Metaverse, but rather how well are they prepared to unleash a parallel economy?