Pune, July, 2021: Shoptimize, a global D2C eCommerce platform announced a collaboration with G.O.A.T Brand Labs to accelerate growth for D2C brands in India. The collaboration will enable G.O.A.T’s D2C lifestyle brands to leverage Shopitimize’s powerful growth platform and its in-depth sector specific expertise to help digitally-native brands in the lifestyle space (fashion, home, nutrition, beauty and personal care) scale and grow. Shoptimize has successfully grown large enterprises such as Whirlpool, Luminous, and Haldirams, as well as several digital-first start-ups such as Aadyaa, Paio and Iba Cosmetics.
The global pandemic led to changes in consumer behaviour, including a preference for homegrown digital-first brands. The majority of the new crop of consumer-focused brands that followed the direct-to-consumer (D2C) approach saw a significant increase in revenue and sales in 2020 and 2021. Traditional brands have also recognised the potential in this channel and are venturing into D2C. Shoptimize has been working in this space through its growth platform, which provides AI driven real-time insights and recommendations to grow businesses for D2C eCommerce platforms.
On the other hand, G.O.A.T. Brand Labs focuses on lifestyle brands and provides them with funding, seamless data insights and deep expertise in brand building, digital marketing and product development. The collaboration, therefore, can provide these new brands with the perfect mix of technology and working capital to accelerate growth. G.O.A.T Brand Labs was launched by Rishi Vasudev along with Rameswar Misra. While Rishi is the former CEO of Lifestyle International, former SVP and Group Head for Fashion (Flipkart and Myntra), former CEO of Home Center, former CEO of Calvin Klein and former COO of Arrow, Rameswar used to run his own D2C apparel brand called Turms and was an SVP at Voonik prior to that. They also recently announced a fundraise of $36 million, in equity and debt, led by Tiger Global along with Mayfield, Flipkart Ventures and other investors.
Mangesh Panditrao, Co-founder & CEO, Shoptimize, says, “Consumers now prefer online shopping for a wider range of products, from basic necessities to branded goods. We have seen a 300% increase in D2C brand business in the consumer durables, food and lifestyle categories since the beginning of this year. What we also see, however, is that a lot of D2C brands who are just starting out don’t have the funds to grow as they need to. Through this partnership with G.O.A.T Brand Labs and their expertise, we see the opportunity to identify growth drivers and help D2C brands scale exponentially.”
Rishi Vasudev, Co-founder & CEO, G.O.A.T Brand Labs, says “Our purpose at GOAT Brand Labs is to give better choices to consumers, by helping brands and their passionate creators grow and thrive. Through this partnership with Shoptimize, we will enable our brands that we partner with, to leverage tech-driven growth insights and tools that the team at Shoptimize has built. These tools, in combination with the industry expertise, operational experience and an overall ecosystem that we are bringing in, holds potential for huge value creation for brands. “
