India’s D2C and startup landscape is accelerating, funding, omnichannel expansion, open commerce, and fulfillment infrastructure are reshaping how brands scale. In this edition, we break down the biggest market signals from Divine Hindu to Porter, plus a deep-dive case study on how Plix fixed a critical platform-fee visibility issue across Shopify and Uniware. If you’re looking to understand where the ecosystem is heading and how to optimize your own operations, this roundup gives you both the perspective and the playbook.
D2C & Startup Spotlight
The Indian D2C ecosystem is evolving fast, funding, expansion, and modular infrastructure are shaping how brands scale. Here’s the latest:
1. Divine Hindu crosses ₹100 Cr ARR, eyes omnichannel expansion.
The spiritual/devotional products brand scaled rapidly and is now deepening offline reach while exploring international markets.
The signal: Niche, culturally rooted brands can achieve high repeat rates and 9-figure revenues without relying solely on online channels.
2. India’s startups decode cross-border scale at ET Soonicorns Summit.
Founders emphasized that mastering the Indian domestic market is non-negotiable before scaling globally.
The signal: Strong unit economics at home are a prerequisite for successful international expansion.
3. ONDC extends monthly support schemes for D2C, logistics, F&B sectors.
The network’s financial incentives, valid through end-September, reduce operational costs for participating brands.
The signal: Open commerce adoption is accelerating, brands can experiment with low-risk access to new discovery and delivery channels.
4. Porter in the final stretch to close up to $110M in funding.
The logistics/fulfillment startup is securing a large growth round, signaling investor confidence in infrastructure that underpins D2C growth.
The signal: Reliable fulfillment networks are increasingly available for D2C brands without needing to build internal logistics.
5. Gullak raises $7.5M, bets on digital gold savings growth.
A fintech/consumer savings play, can also integrate with commerce brands to drive loyalty and repeat engagement.
The signal: Consumer finance solutions are now merging with commerce, basically offering new ways to retain customers and increase wallet share.
What This Means for Business Owners & Marketers
- Diversified Growth Paths: Niche brands, like Divine Hindu, show that category expertise + customer loyalty = scalable revenue.
- Global Expansion Starts at Home: Domestic mastery remains critical before entering overseas markets.
- Low-Risk Experimentation: ONDC incentives reduce cost barriers to explore new distribution and discovery channels.
- Plug & Play Infrastructure: Funding in logistics (Porter) ensures scalable fulfillment without owning assets.
- Integrated Commerce & Finance: Platforms like Gullak highlight opportunities to blend transactions, loyalty, and savings for higher engagement.
Platform Fee Visibility and Order Flow Challenges
Ever pushed an order to Shopify and wondered why your fees disappeared?
You’re not alone. In this case study, we show how a simple fee visibility issue turned into a full-blown platform challenge, and how smart backend fixes made the difference.
The Challenge
Plix wanted to introduce a platform fee – a small, per-order charge to account for backend costs, tech operations, and logistics. But rolling it out across their ecosystem wasn’t straightforward.
Here’s what they were up against:
- When orders were pushed from their app to Shopify, the platform fee was skipped entirely.
- Shopify Pay flows didn’t reflect platform or shipping fees properly, confusing customers at checkout.
- Uniware, their third-party OMS, showed charges in a lump sum, making it impossible to distinguish between platform, shipping, or gifting fees.
- Customers had no visibility on what they were paying for, which risked complaints and lost trust.
The Fix
To solve this, Plix and their product team built a full-stack solution that ensured platform fees were visible, consistent, and synced across all tools.
1. Platform Fee Logic on Frontend + Backend
Platform fees were embedded directly into the order logic, both in the frontend UI and backend services, ensuring every order included the right fee before it was pushed to Shopify.
2. Charge Mapping with Attributes
Platform, shipping, and gifting fees were passed as structured metadata, allowing Shopify to surface those charges correctly in order details.
3. Uniware Line Item Separation
Uniware was configured to handle and display platform and shipping charges separately. Now, whether an order was placed through Shopify Pay or Uniware, the cost breakdown was fully transparent.
The Results
The changes paid off almost immediately:
- Transparent checkout experience, customers saw every fee clearly
- New recurring revenue from the platform fee on every order
- Consistent fee handling across Shopify and Uniware
- Fewer complaints and support issues related to “hidden costs”
Plix was now capturing more value per order, without disrupting the user experience or losing customer trust.
Key Takeaway
Introducing a platform fee isn’t just a pricing decision, it’s a technical one.
Plix made it work by aligning Shopify, Uniware, and their internal stack around one goal: transparency that scales.
Founder’s Note
Most brands still rely heavily on on-page SEO, but that alone is no longer enough. The brands that surface in conversations on platforms like ChatGPT are the ones with strong digital visibility, fueled by social presence, community conversations, and constant comparisons online. Niche brands, too, can carve out this space by actively driving shopping-related queries and generating authentic customer reviews. These signals not only build trust but also increase the chances of being referenced when users look for recommendations or alternatives.
If you’d like to take this a step further, we’ve put together a 10-step AEO (Answer Engine Optimization) strategy specifically for ecommerce brands. So, just hit reply to this email, and we’ll send it your way.
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