D2C Benchmarks India

Most benchmark content is a table someone copied from someone who made it up. Ours comes with the working: where a number is from a public dataset we name the dataset, where it is from our own engagements we say so and give the sample size, and where the honest answer is “it depends on your contribution margin” we show the dependency instead of hiding it.

Six years, 160+ brands and ₹150 Cr+ of managed spend sit behind these pages — that is the record the 3.8× average ROAS is drawn from. Start with the metric that is currently hurting, then use the calculators at the bottom to run your own numbers against the bands. A benchmark you cannot act on is trivia; the point of all of this is to find the lever.

Acquisition

• The Shizz D2C Spend Index — India benchmarks, Q3 2026

  The quarterly one-page index of every benchmark below — each figure labelled by basis and traced to its source.

• Incrementality testing for Indian D2C brands: beyond ROAS

  The holdouts, geo tests and standing calendar that measure what your ads actually cause.

• MMM-lite: marketing mix thinking without a data science team

  The five-sheet system that turns experiment results into budget decisions between tests.

• CAC benchmarks for D2C food brands in India

  What acquiring a food customer costs, and why affordable CAC is set by contribution, not category tables.

• ROAS benchmarks for D2C food and beverage brands in India

  The ROAS ranges that matter by margin profile, and the published movements behind our average.

• D2C conversion rate benchmarks in India

  What a good conversion rate looks like for an Indian D2C store, by traffic mix.

• Why your Meta ROAS fell in 2026 and what fixes it

  The platform shifts behind falling Meta ROAS this year, and the fixes that work.

• Festive CPM inflation: what Diwali does to ad costs

  What Diwali does to CPMs, with the planning maths to budget through it.

• How long before performance marketing shows results?

  The honest week-2, week-6 and month-3 gates, channel by channel.

Order economics

• AOV benchmarks for Indian D2C brands, by category

  Average order values by category, and the pack-architecture levers that move them.

• COD, returns and your real ROAS in Indian D2C

  Platform ROAS counts orders placed; your bank counts orders kept. Computing net ROAS.

• RTO rates in India: benchmarks by category and region

  RTO benchmarks by category and region, and what actually moves the number.

• D2C Marketing Budget in India: How Much to Spend

  The 30–50 / 20–35 / 15–25 budget bands by stage, and the method underneath them.

• What ROAS Should a Snack Brand Expect? Low-AOV Performance Math

  Break-even ROAS worked at snack baskets: margin, RTO tax and repeat-rate leverage.

Retention and the big picture

• Repeat purchase and retention for D2C food brands

  Repeat-rate benchmarks for food brands, and the cohort views that tell the truth.

• Email and WhatsApp marketing benchmarks for Indian D2C

  Open, click and revenue benchmarks for the two retention channels that matter in India.

• How to reduce CAC for your D2C brand

  The published record: CAC cuts of 28–70% and the levers that produced them.

• The state of Indian D2C in 2026: the numbers that matter

  The wide-angle numbers on Indian D2C in 2026, in one read.

Put it to work

• CAC payback calculator

  Turn AOV, margin and repeat rate into months-to-payback — the number investors ask for.

• Performance marketing

  The service that gets measured against every benchmark on this page.

• Food & beverage marketing

  The category where most of these benchmarks were earned.