Why Does This Episode Matter?
Why Does This Episode Matter?
India's retail market is a $1 trillion opportunity today and is projected to touch $2 trillion by 2030. The brands that will capture that growth are not the ones spending the most on Meta or building the fanciest app.
They are the ones building omnichannel with intention — knowing when to go offline, how to do it efficiently, and how to make every channel speak the same brand language to the same consumer.
Learn why the VC’s have been backing these brands before most people knew this playbook existed. This conversation is a front-row seat to how that thinking actually works.
India's retail market is a $1 trillion opportunity today and is projected to touch $2 trillion by 2030. The brands that will capture that growth are not the ones spending the most on Meta or building the fanciest app.
They are the ones building omnichannel with intention — knowing when to go offline, how to do it efficiently, and how to make every channel speak the same brand language to the same consumer.
Learn why the VC’s have been backing these brands before most people knew this playbook existed. This conversation is a front-row seat to how that thinking actually works.
Ankur Khaitan
Principal at Fireside Ventures
Omnichannel Is Not About Channels. It's About the Consumer.
Omnichannel Is Not About Channels. It's About the Consumer.
The first thing Ankur said that stuck with me, and I've been thinking about it since — is this: omnichannel is not about being present in multiple channels. It's about being present where your consumer wants you to be, in the way they want to interact.
That sounds simple. It isn't. Most brands still think channel-first. They ask "should we be on quick commerce?" before they ask "what does our consumer need right now and where are they most comfortable getting it?"
Every brand they invest in is eventually an omnichannel brand. It's not a question of if — it's a question of when, how fast, and with what playbook.
The first thing Ankur said that stuck with me, and I've been thinking about it since — is this: omnichannel is not about being present in multiple channels. It's about being present where your consumer wants you to be, in the way they want to interact.
That sounds simple. It isn't. Most brands still think channel-first. They ask "should we be on quick commerce?" before they ask "what does our consumer need right now and where are they most comfortable getting it?"
Every brand they invest in is eventually an omnichannel brand. It's not a question of if — it's a question of when, how fast, and with what playbook.
The Gynoveda Story — Offline as a Category Unlock
The example Ankur walked through that hit hardest was Gynoveda — a women's health brand combining Ayurveda with technology, focused on fertility.
They started online. Consultations, health coaches, digital assessments. And it was working. But there was a ceiling. A significant group of potential customers were fence-sitters — they wanted to talk to an actual doctor, a gynaecologist, someone who could look them in the eye in a non-judgmental, empathetic setting.
So Gynoveda opened their first clinic. And then 60-65 more in three years. In healthcare, that kind of offline expansion velocity is almost unheard of.
The insight? The right channel for that conversation was never online. And recognising that — and acting on it — is what unlocked the next phase of growth entirely.
The Tech-First Approach
The Anand Vihar Railway Station story is one of the most compelling moments in the episode, and worth telling properly.
It was December 2019. Aastha and her two co-founders walked into a government tender presentation alongside large, established international retail companies.
They were at least 20 years younger than everyone else in the room. Not wearing suits. The smallest team there.
But when the head of IRSDC heard their pitch, he said something that stuck: every other brand had given him spreadsheets. NewShop was the only team that had built their own technology infrastructure first, and had a solution for what happens when five or six hundred people arrive at a platform simultaneously when a train departs.
They got the station. No tender required. They were profitable in month one.
That first win set the template for everything that followed.
The Gynoveda Story — Offline as a Category Unlock
The example Ankur walked through that hit hardest was Gynoveda — a women's health brand combining Ayurveda with technology, focused on fertility.
They started online. Consultations, health coaches, digital assessments. And it was working. But there was a ceiling. A significant group of potential customers were fence-sitters — they wanted to talk to an actual doctor, a gynaecologist, someone who could look them in the eye in a non-judgmental, empathetic setting.
So Gynoveda opened their first clinic. And then 60-65 more in three years. In healthcare, that kind of offline expansion velocity is almost unheard of.
The insight? The right channel for that conversation was never online. And recognising that — and acting on it — is what unlocked the next phase of growth entirely.
When Should a Brand Go Offline?
This is the question every D2C founder is wrestling with right now. And Ankur's answer is more nuanced than most people expect.
Offline is now part of the PMF conversation, not something that comes after it. The playbooks exist. Mall operators are actively seeking new-age brands — they have woken up to the fact that these brands are the new anchors driving footfall, filling the vacuum that multiplexes once occupied.
But going offline recklessly is just as dangerous as going too late. Ankur's framework is clear: start with a cluster approach. One city. Multiple stores. Test for cannibalization. Build the operating engine — training, inventory, analytics, standardization — before you expand across cities.
The first store is always founder-led. The fiftieth has to be system-led. That gap is where most brands break.
When Should a Brand Go Offline?
This is the question every D2C founder is wrestling with right now. And Ankur's answer is more nuanced than most people expect.
Offline is now part of the PMF conversation, not something that comes after it. The playbooks exist. Mall operators are actively seeking new-age brands — they have woken up to the fact that these brands are the new anchors driving footfall, filling the vacuum that multiplexes once occupied.
But going offline recklessly is just as dangerous as going too late. Ankur's framework is clear: start with a cluster approach. One city. Multiple stores. Test for cannibalization. Build the operating engine — training, inventory, analytics, standardization — before you expand across cities.
The first store is always founder-led. The fiftieth has to be system-led. That gap is where most brands break.
Understanding the Payback Period
One of the most practical parts of the conversation was the breakdown of store payback periods.
Ankur's benchmark: a good payback period is 12 months, with 18 months being acceptable in most categories. That clock starts from the day you open — covering capex for setup, plus the loss funding during the ramp-up period before the store reaches breakeven.
Once a store stops consuming cash and starts generating profit, that's when the payback calculation begins. And once your playbook is established, payback periods compress — the fifth store learns from the first two, the fiftieth from the first fifteen.
The COCO vs franchise question also came up. Ankur's personal view: the first 50 stores should ideally be company-owned, company-operated. Not because franchising doesn't work — it does — but because the real playbook only gets built when you're close enough to the consumer to see what's actually breaking.
The Omnichannel Play Underneath It All
What makes New Shop genuinely interesting from a marketing and technology perspective is the infrastructure they have built beneath the surface.
With 300+ stores, 60,000 orders per day, and 10 million active users, New Shop has built a single franchise dashboard that does something remarkable, it tells each store owner what they are about to run out of, predicts demand for the next week, and allows them to place restocking orders directly through an integrated e-commerce portal.
The supply chain is direct. The brand goes straight to a consolidated purchase order and is delivered to the store. No distributor in the middle. This gives New Shop complete visibility into what is selling, when, by which age group, and which products are most likely to be bought together.
They are now piloting an AI interface, where franchise owners can simply ask "how do I increase my sales by 20% next week?" and get category-specific recommendations based on data from nearby NewShop stores.
Retail media is another major pillar — contributing 35% of the company's profit — and they share 50% of retail media earnings with franchise partners. In practice, this means a franchise owner's retail media income can cover their rent from month one.
Understanding the Payback Period
One of the most practical parts of the conversation was the breakdown of store payback periods.
Ankur's benchmark: a good payback period is 12 months, with 18 months being acceptable in most categories. That clock starts from the day you open — covering capex for setup, plus the loss funding during the ramp-up period before the store reaches breakeven.
Once a store stops consuming cash and starts generating profit, that's when the payback calculation begins. And once your playbook is established, payback periods compress — the fifth store learns from the first two, the fiftieth from the first fifteen.
The COCO vs franchise question also came up. Ankur's personal view: the first 50 stores should ideally be company-owned, company-operated. Not because franchising doesn't work — it does — but because the real playbook only gets built when you're close enough to the consumer to see what's actually breaking.
The Four Journeys Every Brand Has to Navigate
The Four Journeys Every Brand Has to Navigate
At the end of the conversation, Ankur brought it all together cleanly. Building an iconic consumer brand in the omnichannel world comes down to four journeys running simultaneously:
The product journey — testing the proposition, building the NPD pipeline, understanding what the consumer keeps coming back for.
The channel journey — finding the right channels, making them complementary, ensuring every channel is value-accretive to the business.
The capital journey — stage-wise deployment, store economics, knowing when to hold and when to scale.
The organisation journey — transitioning from a founder-led business to one with the right people, processes, and systems to scale without the founder in every conversation.
Get these four right, and the brand compounds. Get even one badly wrong, and the others can't save you.
At the end of the conversation, Ankur brought it all together cleanly. Building an iconic consumer brand in the omnichannel world comes down to four journeys running simultaneously:
The product journey — testing the proposition, building the NPD pipeline, understanding what the consumer keeps coming back for.
The channel journey — finding the right channels, making them complementary, ensuring every channel is value-accretive to the business.
The capital journey — stage-wise deployment, store economics, knowing when to hold and when to scale.
The organisation journey — transitioning from a founder-led business to one with the right people, processes, and systems to scale without the founder in every conversation.
Get these four right, and the brand compounds. Get even one badly wrong, and the others can't save you.
The biggest takeaway from this episode?
The biggest takeaway from this episode?
Omnichannel starts with the consumer, not the channel — be where they want you, the way they want you.
Omnichannel starts with the consumer, not the channel — be where they want you, the way they want you.
The first store is a lab, the fifth is a playbook, the fiftieth is a system — don't confuse which stage you're in.
The first store is a lab, the fifth is a playbook, the fiftieth is a system — don't confuse which stage you're in.
Managing channels instead of the customer is the fastest way to break the journey you spent years building.
Managing channels instead of the customer is the fastest way to break the journey you spent years building.
https://yt.openinapp.co/storetech_suren_dilseomni
This is just the beginning. If you’re ready to understand how AI and Omnichannel thinking work together, and hear real stories from people building the future
This is just the beginning. If you’re ready to understand how AI and Omnichannel thinking work together, and hear real stories from people building the future
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Talks with Saurabh Agrawal
Talks with Saurabh Agrawal
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