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Why premium D2C brands are falling out of love with Cred Store

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October 04, 2023  |  14 Min Read
Cred Store, once known for its highly-curated and exclusive D2C offerings, is shifting to a more mass-market approach. As it pushes sellers to sell more low-end items, though, it’s diluting its upmarket USP and potentially driving away premium brands.

Key Takeaways

  • Cred Store, which once touted itself as an exclusive, curated marketplace for high-end brands is ditching its premium roots
  • Instead, the platform appears to be shifting towards more mass-market, affordable offerings
  • While this will allow Cred Store to drive sales volumes it risks diluting the platform’s USP, turning it into just another e-commerce platform
  • Even though Cred Store runs the risk of alienating the very brands that once made it appealing to users, the new approach has monetisation upsides

Update: The CapTable received inputs from CRED after the publication of the original story. In the interest of presenting a more accurate picture of the CRED Store, the story has been updated to include some of CRED’s inputs.

In 2020, when one direct-to-consumer (D2C) brand was invited to sell on the newly launched CRED Store, it seemed like a match made in heaven.

Fintech firm CRED, founded by Kunal Shah, was a premium play, targeted at the creamy layer of India’s consumers—credit card users with high credit scores. Its swanky CRED Store platform began with the aim of curating premium, high-quality products for these top-of-the-pyramid users, who typically spend up to 40% more than the average customer.

For the D2C brand, whose products typically sell for upwards of Rs 5,000, this was an enticing prospect. Apart from the obvious overlap between its target demographic and CRED’s user base, selling on a curated, members-exclusive store would only bolster its premium credentials. Some brands say they even mentioned selling on CRED Store in their investor pitches to highlight their premium-ness.

The only catch, says the founder of the D2C brand, was that the CRED Store required brands to offer high discounts to its users. This, though, seemed a fair trade-off to gain recognition among India’s most affluent consumers.

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