A regular dose of D2C-centric resources & tools for Growing Brands, Startups & Entrepreneurs.

♟ Gukesh Dommaraju, the Indian chess prodigy, recently outmaneuvered Ding Liren to clinch the World Chess Championship. What sealed the game? A seemingly small blunder by Ding that Gukesh brilliantly capitalised on. This iconic victory isn’t just a testament to Gukesh’s skills but also a masterclass in spotting and leveraging vulnerabilities.

Much like Gukesh’s sharp eye in chess, D2C brands must learn to identify and exploit operational loopholes to gain a competitive edge. 

When it comes to Ecommerce, every percentage point counts. Margins are slim, competition is fierce, and consumer expectations? Let’s just say they’re the spoiled toddlers 😉 in this equation—loud, demanding, and relentless. 

But what if you could turn the loopholes in the system into your secret weapon? Here are seven loopholes every D2C brand should know…

1. Refunds Are Revenue’s Kryptonite: Push for Exchanges

The Problem: Refunds hit hard. You lose money, inventory, and often the customer.

The Loophole: 

Brands want to reduce losses due to refunds. One major loophole would be to emphasise the "Exchange" option.

Make “Exchange” the hero of your UI.

Highlight it as the default choice while showing lesser focus toward the refund option.

And what else? show users only similar or higher-value items to exchange. Through incentivising at the right junctures, we help increase the AOV, reduce revenue loss and more importantly, retain that customer for the brand 

Real-World Impact: A leading fashion brand reduced refund rates by 66% after prominently pushing exchanges for refund/return requests—a shift that led to a 30% AOV boost. 

Imagine turning a problem into profit 🤷‍♂️

2. Mamaearth’s Unicorn Status Lost: A SKU Blindspot

The Problem: Mamaearth’s offline expansion relied on a superstockist distribution model, but they skipped SKU-level return analytics. This blindspot caused inventory issues and unsold stock piling up on retail shelves—a ticking time bomb of near-expiry products.

Plot holes:

1. Flawed Strategy: The offline pivot revealed a glaring weakness: no product-level return analytics—Relied on a Superstockist model, losing direct control over inventory. 

2. Unsold Stock: Retail shelves filled with near-expiry products, leading to massive returns

3. Data Blindspot: Without insights into which SKUs or regions underperformed, Honasa couldn’t take corrective action in time

The Loopholes:

1. Use return analytics to track product performance by SKU and region 

2. Optimise inventory to avoid wastage and overstocking 

3. Build feedback loops between sales, marketing, and production; for real-time access all around 

Takeaway: With return analytics, brands can identify underperforming SKUs early, minimise wastage, and optimise stock for specific regions. Or, you can keep playing SKU roulette—your choice.

At Pragma , we specialise in helping D2C brands get this visibility—by tracking returns at the product level, we empower brands to make smarter, data-driven decisions that support sustainable growth—online and offline.

3. COD Chaos: Dynamically Disable It for Risky Buyers

The Problem: COD orders account for 60-70% of D2C sales in India, but they also carry a high risk of RTOs (Return to Origin). COD buyers with a history of abandoned deliveries are…plain unreliable.

The Loophole: 

Dynamically Disable COD for high-risk users based on historical purchase data… from D2C brands across India.

Result: Reduced RTO rates by 35% by Dynamically Disabling COD for repeat offenders, saving an avg. ₹15 lakh/month.

4. WhatsApp’s Truncation Drama: Make Five Lines Count

The Problem: WhatsApp cuts off messages over five lines with a “Read More” link. But who can guarantee that the receiver would click it?

1. ALGORITHM DRAMA AHEAD - 

Meta might use ‘Read more’ clicks to gauge engagement, impacting/throttling future message reach in case of fewer clicks.

% of errors like “131049” from Meta will increase (a lot) 🤷‍♂️ 

High click rates? Good. Ignored links? Maybe not so good for future visibility.

But on the bright side…

2. ENGAGEMENT INSIGHTS ('Read more' vs. Ignore) -

The ‘Read more’ click could be a new metric.

The click on ‘Read more’ might soon be trackable. Think of it as a digital hand-raise. 

If customers are reading past the fold, they’re interested. Those who don’t? Maybe they weren’t your core audience anyway.

This greatly helps for a) hyper-targeting, and  b) loyalty programs 

The Loophole: 

Make the 5 lines count—every word must pull its weight. 

Example 1:

🚀 FLASH DEAL ALERT!      (Campaign)

50% OFF - Ends Tonight!     (FOMO)

    (Blank line counts)

On all CARGO & CO-ORDS   (Featuring)

That's not all…                      (Intrigue)

(Read more)

Example 2:

🪔 Diwali Sale Ends!              (FOMO)

15% OFF - Sitewide                (Offer)

 (Again, blank line counts)

Gift sets starting @499           (Featuring)

Grab now!!!                             (CTA)

(No ‘Read more’ in this case 💪)

5. Location Targeting: Drop the Dead Weight

The Problem: Blanket campaigns and same budget allocation for services across India burn cash faster than Heath Ledger.

The Loophole: 

Analyse performance for Marketing Campaign, Returns, Logistics and more—by pincode. Exclude low-performing regions and double down on high-converting ones.

Impact: An apparel brand cut ad spend by 28% by focusing only on regions with CTRs above 10%, saving ₹2 lakhs/month while increasing ROI by ~15%.

6. Competitor Analysis: Swipe What Works

The Problem: Why reinvent the wheel when your competitors have already tested it?

The Loophole: 

Understand what works and what doesn’t for your competitor, and just take the good ones.

Reality Check: Imitation isn’t flattery—it’s strategy.

7. 100% Automated Engagement: Win Instagram Without Breaking a Sweat

The Problem: 

Instagram’s always-on engagement demands human hours you don’t have.

The Loopholes:

Unlimited Automated Comment Replies:

Reply to comments automatically with tailored responses, so you’re always engaging and responsive.

Unlimited Comment-to-DM Automation:

Instantly DM customers who comment on your posts, complete with relevant product details and links.

Result: A beauty brand increased conversions by 72% just by automating comment replies for FAQs.

8. WhatsApp “frequency capping”: The “Retry ON” Loophole

The Problem: Meta's new “frequency capping” hit hard, with OVER 50% of WhatsApp Marketing messages blocked each time, it hurts, especially during holiday sales period.

The Loophole:

We at Pragma, built the ‘Retry ON’ - simple, but effective!

It’s a work around that gets >70% of WhatsApp broadcasts delivered, within the first 48hrs.

💡 Here’s how it works:

1. A message doesn’t get through due to Meta’s caps.

2. Our smart retry intervals kick in, retrying/resending it intelligently at the right intervals, until it gets delivered.

We’ve seen delivery rates jump by 30-40% for brands using our ‘Retry ON’ for their Diwali and other festive campaigns. It’s working 🤷‍♂️

We aimed for increased delivery %, and with it came increased ROAS.

Now every message counts. Literally.

Overall conclusion? “The Art of Capitalising on Loopholes” is key for Indian Ecommerce brands, pick it up, run with it 🤷‍♂️

That’s the end of our talk on “Loopholes for Ecommerce India.”...

☕ See you on the next coffee date!

How did you like our Newsletter? What topic would you like us to cover next?

Reply and let us know! 😊