MAM

‘Hyperlocal’ is the latest buzzword for E-commerce sites

Published

4 years ago

October 12, 2021

MUMBAI: The Great Indian Festive sales have gotten underway with every e-commerce platform launching its biggest annual blockbuster sale campaign. The growth in internet users, reduction in data prices, and changing consumer behaviour fuelled by the pandemic have spurred the evolution of online retail to go beyond the metros and tier-1 towns. The rapid growth of Bharat online is re-shaping India’s e-commerce landscape like never before with ‘hyperlocal’ being the new buzzword.

India’s e-commerce market is estimated to record sales worth $ 55 billion during 2021 with the addition of 40 million new online shoppers, as per a recent Indian Retail Industry Report. The number of online shoppers for 2021 is estimated to reach 190 million compared to 150 million in 2020. India is poised to become the third-largest online retail market by 2030 after the US and China with an annual Gross Merchandise Value (GMV) of S$ 350 billion. This changing e-comm landscape is largely driven by hitherto underpenetrated regions in the country, alongside the emergence and growth of multiple e-commerce platforms and D2C (direct-to-consumer) start-ups catering to these lesser explored segments.

The growing popularity of online shopping has led the e-commerce players to further expand their consumer base into the country’s villages and towns, in time for the busy festive season. Online marketplaces have been localising various offerings in the areas of regional language, Voice, and Video in a bid to break the language barrier and make e-commerce more accessible and convenient for customers pan India.

E-commerce giant, Amazon India announced that its website will now be available in Marathi and Bengali in addition to Hindi, English, Kannada, Malayalam, Tamil, and Telugu. The e-tailer plans to expand its regional language offering further with the launch of a voice shopping experience in Hindi. “Our aim is to make e-commerce accessible, relevant and convenient for customers. Every month, tens of millions of customers visit Amazon.in in regional languages and 90 per cent of the customers are from tier-2 and below cities,” said Amazon India director- customer experience & marketing Kishore Thota.

Snapdeal too announced the expansion of its call center capabilities to speak to users in eight Indian languages, making customer support services available in additional local languages. “The pandemic has accelerated the adoption of digital channels, and today people in smaller cities are now purchasing items such as everyday fashion, home decor, kitchenware, and other items online. And as more and more people gravitate towards e-commerce, they will increasingly expect customer services to be in their languages,” said a Snapdeal spokesperson.

Marketplaces like Amazon and Flipkart are leading the hyperlocal agenda by increasing Bharat’s presence into newer as well as niche markets, said WATConsult managing partner Sahil Shah. “E-tailers who are into mass-market products have shifted gears since the pandemic. There is a clear plan to capture the new India that comes from various parts of the country, using the most localised form of experiences that one can create,” he noted.

While events like Big Billion Days and special sales on Independence Day and Republic Day offering were organised earlier too, it is only now that India’s e-tailers have sensed an opportunity in regional festivals like Ganesh Chaturthi or Onam to propel sales in different states.

“E-commerce players are shifting focus to regional activations and are offering region-specific deals as people tend to shop more ahead of their own festivals. To achieve maximum penetration, e-tailers are using vernacular communication channels and deploying social media influencers popular in specific states or regions to promote such events,” said ClanConnect CEO and co-founder Sagar Pushp.

The changes have become more pronounced since the outbreak of the COVID-19. There has been a three-fold rise in the number of influencers being engaged by e-tailers to promote their sale events through personalised messaging.

With the Pujo and Navratri celebration underway, and Dusshera and Diwali just around the corner, lifestyle and fashion e-tailers like Myntra, Ajio, Meesho, Purplle have launched campaigns with distinctive regional flavour and feel in multiple vernacular languages. These shopping marts are trying to outdo one another in grabbing eyeballs and finger clicks onto their platforms with special offers & Pujo Makeup Guides and, exclusive launches, and cash-back schemes for their customers. E-tailers are leaving no stone unturned to increase their brand awareness through creative ad spend. After a brief lull in the April-June quarter, they are going all out to redefine KPIs and cater to the newly emerging consumer segments.

“In terms of marketing spends, we have seen a shift of 20-30 per cent budget being allocated to regional campaigns compared to last year. Focus has moved from generic creatives to specific ones in various vernacular languages to garner more sign-ups,” said cashback and coupons app, CashKaro co-founder Swati Bhargava. Celebrities and brand ambassadors are also picked carefully, with a heightened focus on regional audiences. There also has been a 3x rise in influencer-led digital promotions.

CashKaro has implemented measures like device-level and language-based targeting after studying the data from Tier-2 to Tier-6 cities, from where 45-50 per cent sale is expected. “At CashKaro, for instance, the activation rates for Tier-2 and beyond have shot up by 40 per cent because of integrating regionally popular creators into the pipeline. The organic impact has been massive as we’ve seen an 8x jump in our traffic during this sale time compared to last year,” shared Bhargava.

The rise of micro and macro influencers from small towns has come into the spotlight over the last year, as people looked for somebody they could relate to. To leverage this want, many e-tailers have implemented activation of regional celebrities and influencers to acquire more users.

Myntra’s celeb-heavy campaign features brand ambassadors with a massive regional following like Vijay Deverakonda, Dulquer Salmaan, Mallika Dua, Konkona Sen Sharma and Samantha Akkineni, in addition to those with a national following like Hrithik Roshan, Disha Patani and Kiara Advani. These stars will be seen in region-specific engagements through various content formats such as reels, videos, and stories. Apart from this, over 100 high-impact celebrities and influencers with heavy local presence from the worlds of Bollywood, OTT, reality TV, and digital will drive awareness through pre-buzz and event days for the e-tailer. Other Fashion e-sites like Ajio too have launched campaigns featuring a plethora of celebrities with each of the films voiced in a different regional language, targeting a particular zone across the country.

Meesho released its latest TVCs which will be aired on major regional TV networks, such as SunTV, VijayTV, Gemini TV, AsiaNet, UdayaTV, TV9, and ETV, in addition to YouTube, and OTT platforms in Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, and Malayalam, in order to reach deeper into the Tier 2+ markets. The etailer also plans to leverage regional content creators on multiple alternate channels like – Sharechat, Moj, MX TakaTak, and other favoured content channels for the target group.

Purplle has also rolled out a 360-degree campaign across Television, Print, Digital, and Social Media channels which will see over 3000 regional influencers participating in a bid to reach out beyond metros to the tier 2, 3 towns.

“From onboarding regional influencers who create content in local languages to adaptations of the videos and even static content in local languages, we have personalised offers to drive traffic from these locations,” said digital-first agency Lyxel&Flamingo co-founder and COO Shreyansh Bhandari, adding that the agency also maps traffic and revenue from these new towns. “Across campaigns, we have seen the View through rates, CTRs (click-through rates) have been much better when we have localised content for the TG.”

Brands that were only focused on Tier-1 cities are now seeing exponential growth from smaller towns. What digital has been able to do so well is to provide them access to great content in their language. The confidence of creators, publishers, and OTT platforms is only increasing to keep investing and producing content for them.

“Digital and e-commerce in the last decade were about India– its urban, English-speaking audience. However, this decade is all about Bharat– it’s rural, small-town audiences who prefer to consume content in a language that is native to them,” added Bhandari.

Related Topics:Amazon E-commerce Flipkart hyper-local Meesho Myntra online shopping Purplle Regional

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Netflix India names Rekha Rane director of films and series marketing

Streaming giant bets on a seasoned marketer who helped build Amazon and Netflix into household names

Published

2 days ago

February 9, 2026

indiantelevision.com Team

MUMBAI: Netflix has put a proven brand builder at the helm of its films and series marketing in India, naming Rekha Rane as director in a move that signals sharper focus on audience growth and cultural cut-through in one of its most hotly contested markets.

Rane steps into the role after seven years at Netflix, where she has quietly shaped how the platform sells stories to India. Her latest promotion, effective February 2026, crowns a run that spans brand, slate and product marketing across originals, licensed content and new verticals such as games.

A strategic marketing and communications professional with roughly 15 years’ experience, Rane has spent much of her career building technology-led consumer businesses and new categories, notably e-commerce and subscription video on demand. She was part of the early push that introduced Amazon.in, Prime Video and Netflix to Indian homes, then helped turn them into everyday brands.

At Netflix, she most recently served as head of brand and slate marketing for India from March 2024 to February 2026, leading teams across media and marketing for global and local content portfolios. Before that, as manager for original films and series marketing, she led IP creation and go-to-market strategy for titles including Guns and Gulaabs, Kaala Paani, The Railway Men* and The Great Indian Kapil Show, spanning both binge and weekly-release formats.

Her earlier Netflix roles covered product discovery and promotion in India and integrated campaign strategy to drive conversations around the content slate, product awareness and brand-equity metrics.

Before Netflix, Rane logged more than three years at Amazon in brand marketing roles in Bengaluru. There she handled national and regional campaigns for Amazon.in, worked on customer assistance programmes in growth geographies and contributed to the go-to-market strategy for the launch of Prime Video India.

Her career began well away from streaming. At Reliance Brands in Mumbai, she worked on retail marketing for Diesel and Superdry. A stint at Leo Burnett saw her work on primary research for P&G Tide, mapping Indian shoppers’ paths to purchase. Earlier still, at Orange in the United Kingdom, she rose from sales assistant to store manager, running a team and owning monthly P&L for a retail outlet.

The arc is telling. As global streamers fight for attention in a crowded Indian market, executives who understand both mass retail behaviour and digital habit-building are prized. Rane’s career sits at that intersection.

For Netflix, the bet is simple: in a market spoilt for choice, sharp marketing can still tilt the screen. And with Rane now leading the charge, the streamer is signalling it wants not just viewers, but fandom.

Brands

Orient Beverages pops the fizz with steady Q3 gains and rising profits

Kolkata-based beverage maker reports stronger revenues and profits for December quarter.

Published

2 days ago

February 9, 2026

indiantelevision.com Team

MUMBAI: A fizzy quarter with a steady aftertaste that’s how Orient Beverages Limited, the company that manufactures and distributes packaged drinking water under the brand name Bisleri closed the December 2025 period, as the Kolkata-based drinks maker reported improved revenues and a healthy rise in profits, signalling operational stability in a competitive beverage market.

For the quarter ended December 31, 2025, Orient Beverages posted standalone revenue from operations of Rs 39.98 crore, up from Rs 36.42 crore in the previous quarter and Rs 33.53 crore in the same quarter last year. Total income for the quarter stood at Rs 42.24 crore, reflecting consistent demand and stable pricing across its beverage portfolio.

Profit before tax for the quarter came in at Rs 3.47 crore, a sharp improvement from Rs 1.31 crore in the September quarter and Rs 0.39 crore a year ago. After accounting for tax expenses of Rs 0.79 crore, the company reported a net profit of Rs 2.68 crore, nearly three times the Rs 0.99 crore recorded in the preceding quarter.

On a nine-month basis, the momentum remained intact. Revenue from operations for the period ended December 31, 2025 rose to Rs 117.66 crore, compared with Rs 106.95 crore in the corresponding period last year. Net profit for the nine months climbed to Rs 5.51 crore, more than double the Rs 2.18 crore reported in the same period of the previous financial year.

The consolidated numbers told a similar story. For the December quarter, consolidated revenue from operations stood at Rs 45.06 crore, while profit after tax came in at Rs 2.06 crore. For the nine-month period, consolidated revenue touched Rs 133.57 crore, with net profit of Rs 4.49 crore, underscoring the group’s improving profitability trajectory.

Operating expenses remained largely controlled, with cost of materials, employee benefits and other expenses broadly aligned with revenue growth. The company continued to operate within a single reportable segment beverages simplifying its cost structure and reporting framework.

The unaudited financial results were reviewed by the Audit Committee and approved by the Board of Directors at its meeting held on 7 February 2026. Statutory auditors carried out a limited review and reported no material misstatements in the results.

In a market where margins are often squeezed by input costs and competition, Orient Beverages’ latest numbers suggest the company has found a reliable rhythm not explosive, but steady enough to keep the fizz alive.

MAM

Washington Post CEO exits abruptly after newsroom cuts spark backlash

Leadership change follows layoffs, protests and a bruising battle over trust.

Published

2 days ago

February 9, 2026

indiantelevision.com Team

MUMBAI: When the presses are rolling but patience runs out, even the editor’s chair isn’t safe. The Washington Post announced on Saturday that its chief executive and publisher Will Lewis is stepping down with immediate effect, bringing a sudden end to a turbulent two-year tenure marked by financial strain, newsroom unrest and public backlash.

Lewis’s exit comes just days after the Bezos-owned newspaper announced sweeping job cuts that triggered protests outside its Washington headquarters and a wave of anger from readers and staff. While newspapers across the US are grappling with shrinking revenues and digital disruption, Lewis’s leadership had increasingly come under fire for how those pressures were handled.

The Post confirmed that Jeff D’Onofrio, a former Tumblr CEO who joined the organisation last year as chief financial officer, has taken over as CEO and publisher, effective immediately. In an email to staff, later shared by reporters on social media, Lewis said it was “the right time for me to step aside.”

The leadership change follows the announcement of large-scale redundancies earlier this week. While the Post did not officially confirm numbers, The New York Times reported that around 300 of the paper’s roughly 800 journalists were laid off. Entire teams were dismantled, including the Post’s Middle East bureau and its Kyiv-based correspondent covering the war in Ukraine.

Sports, graphics and local reporting were sharply reduced, and the paper’s daily podcast, Post Reports, was suspended. On Thursday, hundreds of journalists and supporters gathered outside the Post’s downtown office in protest, calling the cuts a blow to public-interest journalism.

Former executive editor Marty Baron described the moment as “among the darkest days in the history of one of the world’s greatest news organisations.”

Lewis defended his record in his farewell note, saying “difficult decisions” were taken to secure the paper’s long-term future and protect its ability to publish “high-quality nonpartisan news”. But his tenure coincided with growing scrutiny of editorial independence at the Post.

Owner Jeff Bezos faced criticism for reining in the paper’s traditionally liberal editorial page and blocking an endorsement of Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris ahead of the 2024 US election. The move was widely seen as breaking the long-standing firewall between ownership and editorial decision-making.

According to a Wall Street Journal report, around 250,000 digital subscribers cancelled their subscriptions after the paper declined to endorse Harris. The Post reportedly lost about $100 million in 2024 as advertising and subscription revenues slid.

While the wider newspaper industry continues to battle declining print advertising and the pull of social media, some national titles have stabilised. Rivals such as The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times have managed to build sustainable digital businesses, a turnaround that has so far eluded the Post despite its billionaire backing.

As Jeff D’Onofrio steps into the role, the challenge is stark, restore confidence inside the newsroom, win back readers who walked away, and prove that one of America’s most storied newspapers can still find its footing in a brutally competitive media landscape.