2025: The Year D2C Finally Stepped Out From Screens and Into Stores

Every few years, Indian commerce flirts with transformation and 2025 was one of those years that didn’t just flirt, it committed. After a decade defined by marketplaces, D2C booms, and screen-first scale, the lines between online and offline finally blurred into one seamless, always-on commerce experience.

The early 2010s belonged to marketplaces. The late 2010s ushered in digitally native, D2C brands that rewrote discovery and trust. Instagram became the new shopfront, performance ads replaced billboards, and checkouts lived on screens. By 2020–22, the model peaked. But by 2025, something shifted. Consumers didn’t abandon digital they simply expected more.

From Digital-First to Phygital-Only

What changed wasn’t intent, but expectation. As online discovery matured, consumers began craving reassurance, immediacy, and experience things a screen alone couldn’t fully deliver. The result? Online-first brands began planting serious offline roots.

According to Sharukh Lakhani, Ecommerce Lead at Wavemaker, WPP Media India, D2C brands leased nearly 6 lakh sq. ft. of retail space in H1 2025, accounting for 18% of total retail leasing, up sharply from 8% a year earlier. Fashion led the charge, followed by home, jewellery, and health & personal care.

Brands like Lenskart, with over 450 stores added in FY25 and 620 more planned, and Nykaa, now operating 250+ stores across 80 cities, made it clear: offline wasn’t an experiment anymore it was a growth strategy. Meanwhile, platforms like JioMart raced ahead with dark stores and quick commerce across 1,000+ cities, while D2C names like Snitch, Bewakoof, The Souled Store, and Kidbea accelerated experiential retail rollouts.

Why Brands Took D2C Offline

Physical retail was once seen as expensive and messy—everything digital promised not to be. But by 2025, rising CACs, crowded performance platforms, and trust fatigue made going offline less of a risk and more of a necessity.

Swapnil Srivastava, Co-founder & CEO of kidswear brand Kidbea, says effectiveness has been redefined. It’s no longer just clicks and ROAS—it’s parents touching fabrics, kids trying clothes, and conversations that build confidence. Today, Kidbea’s spends are split across digital performance, offline brand-building, and hyperlocal retail marketing—each feeding the other.

At Boba Bhai, Founder Dhruv Kohli noticed that while online drove reach, loyalty bloomed offline. “Consumers wanted to taste before they trusted,” he said, noting that 55–60% of new customer acquisition now comes from offline walk-ins.

Media Mixes, Rewritten

As commerce converged, so did marketing logic. Performance and brand-building stopped living in separate silos. Manish Sharma, President at Arena India (Havas Media Network), summed it up perfectly: performance is now phygital. A flagship store isn’t just branding it’s a measurable conversion engine that digital fuels.

Brands began planning media around journeys, not channels. Instagram sparked discovery, websites handled education, stores closed the deal and sometimes, the journey ran in reverse. As Vidita Kochar Jain of Jewelbox put it, a channel became effective if it moved the consumer closer to trust.

Stores as Media, Media as Experience

Physical retail is no longer just a point of sale it’s a content platform, a trust signal, and a data engine. From Wacoal to Lucira to Zippee, brands are treating stores as demand generators and education hubs, supported by digital layers that ensure speed, recall, and repeat behaviour.

Media planning is now ecosystem-led. Performance ads, retail visibility, community marketing, hoardings, influencers, and even WhatsApp flows are designed to reinforce each other. The goal is simple: wherever the consumer meets the brand, it should feel familiar and irresistible.

The Takeaway

2025 didn’t invent omnichannel behaviour. It simply made it unavoidable. The brands winning today are the ones that stopped choosing between online and offline and decided to show up everywhere, confidently, consistently, and with just the right amount of charm.