Why D2C brands are opening physical stores, and what it takes to run them well

A decade ago, the pitch for a direct-to-consumer (D2C) brand in India was simple: skip the shops. Sell directly online, keep the margin that would have gone to distributors and retailers, and use social media to find customers. No rent, no store staff, no inventory sitting on shelves across the country.

Today, many of those same brands are signing leases. Eyewear, mattresses, cosmetics, fashion, footwear, home goods and electronics accessories: brands that were born online are opening stores on high streets and in malls. According to property consultant CBRE, D2C brands leased about 5.95 lakh square feet of retail space in India’s major cities in the first half of 2025, around 18% of all retail leasing, up from about 8% a year earlier.

This article looks at why online brands want physical stores, the formats they use, what changes when a digital brand starts running shops, and what this means for retail staff.

Why online brands want stores

D2C brands go offline for a mix of reasons. Most come down to one fact: some things are hard to sell through a screen.

• Touch, try and trust. Customers want to feel a mattress, try on glasses, test a lipstick shade or check the fit of shoes. Stores remove doubt, and often reduce returns.
• Rising online costs. Finding new customers through online ads has become more expensive as competition has grown. A well-located store can act as a billboard and a sales channel at once.
• Brand building. A beautiful store makes a brand feel real and permanent in a way a website can’t.
• Reaching new customers. Many Indian shoppers, especially outside the metros, still prefer to buy in person, or to see first and buy later.
• Omnichannel service. Stores become pickup points, exchange counters and service centres for online customers.

The formats they choose

Format	What it is	Good for
Exclusive brand outlet (EBO)	The brand’s own store, full range, brand-designed	Brand experience, full control, high-traffic locations
Experience store	A store designed mainly for trying and discovering, sometimes with limited stock and online ordering	High-consideration products like mattresses, furniture, eyewear
Shop-in-shop	A branded section inside a department store or large retailer	Testing a city with lower cost and risk
Kiosk	A small counter in a mall or airport	Impulse categories, accessories, sampling
Multi-brand retail	Products sold through other retailers, beauty chains, electronics stores	Reach without running stores
Franchise	Stores run by local partners under the brand	Faster expansion, especially in smaller cities

Using online data to choose locations

D2C brands have one big advantage when they open stores: they already know where their customers live. Online order data shows which cities, and even which neighbourhoods, buy the most. Many brands use this to pick their first store locations, often starting in areas with strong online sales.

This is also why D2C stores are appearing beyond the metros. Online sales revealed demand in cities that traditional retailers might have overlooked. With large amounts of new retail space coming up in Tier 2 and 3 cities, as we discuss in retail’s growth in Tier 2 and 3 cities, D2C brands have more options than ever.

What changes when you run a shop instead of a website

For digital-first teams, running stores is a shock. A website can be changed in minutes, works 24 hours a day and doesn’t take sick leave. Stores are different.

Online, a brand worries about

• Website speed and design
• Ad costs and conversion rate
• Warehouse stock and delivery times
• Returns and reviews
• Customer service chats

In stores, it must also manage

• Rent, lease terms and fit-out costs
• Hiring, training and keeping store staff
• Stock in many locations, not one warehouse
• Visual merchandising and store upkeep
• Cash, billing, shrinkage and safety
• Opening hours, rosters and local rules

People become the product experience

Online, the website is the brand’s voice. In a store, the staff are. A rude or uninformed associate can undo years of careful brand building in a single conversation. D2C brands that do well offline invest heavily in hiring and training store teams who understand the brand’s story and products.

Inventory gets complicated

Online brands are used to one central stock pool. With stores, stock is spread across many locations, each needing the right sizes and colours. And stores often fulfil online orders too, so stock accuracy in each store affects online customers. See omnichannel retail for store teams.

The store has to look right every day

A D2C brand’s website looks perfect at 3 am. A store looks how its team left it. Visual merchandising, keeping displays full, tidy and on-brand, becomes a daily discipline. Our guide to visual merchandising for small stores covers the basics.

What D2C brands look for in store staff

For retail job seekers, D2C stores can be great places to work. They’re often new, design-led and growing fast, and many offer a chance to learn both online and offline retail. They tend to look for:

• Brand storytellers. Staff who can explain why the brand exists and what makes its products different, not just recite prices.
• Deep product knowledge. Customers who discovered the brand online come in with detailed questions. See learning product knowledge fast.
• Digital comfort. Using tablets, apps, WhatsApp and online order systems is part of the job.
• Customer data habits. Many D2C stores collect customer details (with permission) to connect online and offline experiences.
• Consistency. Following brand guidelines for displays, greetings and service closely.

The challenges

• Costs add up fast. Rent, fit-out, staff and stock can make stores much more expensive than expected.
• Slower learning loops. Online, you can test a change in a day. A store layout change takes weeks to judge.
• Staff turnover. Retail attrition is high, and a brand experience built on well-trained staff suffers when people leave.
• Channel conflict. Customers try in-store, then buy online for a discount. Incentive schemes must handle this fairly.
• Location mistakes. A store in a mall with weak footfall can lose money for years.

A sensible path for D2C brands going offline

Going offline step by step

1. Start with dataUse online sales to identify the two or three strongest cities and areas.
2. Test before committingTry shop-in-shops, pop-ups or kiosks before signing long leases.
3. Hire for the brandHire people who connect with the brand’s customers, and train them deeply on products and story.
4. Build store operationsOpening and closing routines, cash, stock accuracy, VM standards and safety, from day one.
5. Connect the channelsLet customers order online in store, pick up in store and return anywhere.
6. Measure honestlyTrack store profit, not just sales, and include the online sales stores influence.

Store operations are where many digital brands struggle most. Our guides to the opening and closing checklist, retail KPIs and onboarding new store staff are good starting points.

The first 90 days of a new brand store

The first three months of a new store decide a lot: whether customers come back, whether the team stays and whether the brand opens a second store. A typical arc, and what to watch:

Launch to day 90

1. Weeks before openingHire and train the team. Set up displays to brand standards. Test billing, payments and online order systems.
2. Launch weekHigh curiosity footfall, often from existing online customers. Capture feedback. Watch for queues and stock gaps.
3. Weeks 2–6Footfall drops after the launch buzz. This is normal. Focus on conversion, service quality and getting customers to return.
4. Weeks 6–10Patterns appear: best hours, best products, common questions. Adjust rosters, range and displays.
5. Around day 90Review honestly: sales, profit, conversion, returns, staff retention and online sales from the store’s area.

Questions to ask before joining a D2C brand store

For retail job seekers, a new D2C store can be an exciting place to start, but it’s worth asking a few questions first:

• How many stores does the brand have, and how long have they been running?
• How will I be trained on the products and the brand’s story?
• Do incentives include online sales influenced by the store, and online orders the store fulfils?
• Who will I report to, and is there an area or regional manager with store experience?
• What happens to staff if the brand decides to close a store?

Good answers to these questions are a sign of a brand that takes its stores, and its store teams, seriously.

What this tells us about the future of retail

The D2C move offline is a reminder that, in India, stores aren’t going away. The question was never online or offline. It’s how the two work together. Research firm Redseer has noted that omnichannel adoption in India is growing, led by categories like fashion, with stores increasingly used to fulfil online orders. Brands born online are learning what traditional retailers always knew: people like to see, touch and talk before they buy.

For retail workers, that’s good news. Every new store, whether from a 50-year-old retailer or a five-year-old D2C brand, needs skilled people on the floor. The skills that matter most, product knowledge, customer service, stock accuracy and a comfort with digital tools, are the same everywhere.