Hardeep Singh
What is HYPD Store?
Direct sales to consumers (D2C) are among the most popular start-up and investment businesses. More than 600 firms have already joined the D2C trend in India, projected to reach a $100 billion industry by 2025.
Yet content business is at the heart of this development – another growing industry that helps D2C businesses to develop and communicate their stories easily with their target audience. The HYPD Store, a company established in New Delhi, needs to throw itself in the very heart of this innovation search.
The firm aims to promote brand E-Commerce sales with vibrant images, video material and live interactions, and customers are consuming content in the era of ‘See it, Like it, Buy it’. HYPD Store, the fourth startup company for the founder duo, was initiated at the beginning of the pandemic in April 2020 by Serial Entrepreneurs Ashwarya Garg and Akshay Bhatnagar.
They also tried the waters in the field of the 3D printing segment, as former founding partners of Innov8 (bought by OYO) and Zostel.
“Gen Z’s a hard nut that marketers all across the world cannot break. Almost half of Gen Z and thousands of years ago purchased anything they saw on social networks or on a video feed. You have a social pull such as Instagram, little reward, and a tap like Amazon with HYPD Store,” Ashwarya said.
Early Start and Progress
HYPD began as a platform for companies and content producers to engage in brand promotion and engaging content development, as well as offer a fun element to the audience’s ever-changing and ardent target group.
“Then there was Covid! COVID-19 has caused companies all over the world to cut their marketing and operations expenditure. As a result of study and focus learning process, what began as feedback from one of our clients blossomed into a full-scale MVP, and we switched to HYPD Store,” adds Akshay.
Customers may learn new trends and purchase products in a hassle-free manner with HYPD Retailer, while manufacturers can display their stuff in a storytelling narrative, capitalizing on the impulse purchasing phenomena and minimizing drop costs at checkout.
Additionally, the platform serves as a vehicle for the growth of artists’ economies, allowing them to take on paid projects while still earning a respectable wage. HYPD Stores boasts to have 45,000+ downloads and an average usage length of over 18 minutes with a staff of 15.
The Man Company, Doodlage, Bombay Shaving Company, Khadi essentials, Flatheads, Dmodot, Kaisori, Roadgods, and Trip Machine are among the 100+ prominent Indian D2C businesses with whom it collaborates.
How it works
Pebbles is one of HYPD Store’s most popular items. Consumers may view an endless stream of short material in the form of films and images centred on D2C businesses with attractive scripts emphasising the most recent trends.
Pebbles offers an Instagram-like appeal on the HYPD Store app. While the image/video is playing, the user may like, share, and add the shown product to their basket using a direct ‘Buy Now’ button, and complete the checkout process using only the HYPD Store.
Another interesting feature is the ‘Stay video commerce’ option. Simply put, live promoting a feature that combines the advantages of web-line promoting with reside streaming, allowing customers to acquire and keep everything they view on the feed. On top of that, HYPD generates revenue from content production activities conducted for the model and interacts with content providers.
Competitors and Challenges
Ashwarya recalls the beginnings of product design. One of the primary challenges was to increase the ‘Look to Purchase’ ratio, which encapsulates the elegance of being a discovery-content-destination app in one. The other issue was to deliver an experience that wasn’t comparable to Instagram, TikTok, or any other quick video streaming service.
“One of the most distinctive features of HYPD Retailer is that it brings together the ‘discovery – content material – vacation destination’ in a single location for the ‘brand-content creator-consumer interaction.’ This has never been done in India before, especially with the addition of a layer of curating, since curation isn’t a trait, it’s a product!” Akshay says.
Despite being a market leader in several areas, there is a sense of competition from certain well-known brands. In India, for example, LBB has just moved into eCommerce with their present content material. They consider Taobao (China, Stay Commerce), PopshopLive (the US, Stay Commerce), and Depop (the UK, Content material Commerce) to be competitors on a global scale.
The main challenge for the industry in the next few days will be upskilling a large base of content producers with resources and tools to develop a continuous flow of high-quality content material, aimed at a prosperous audience and enjoyed by city millennials.
Competitors are rising as this industry grows. What do you think about the infrastructure and work ethics of HYPD? Comment down your thoughts.
If you liked this content, then stay tuned to StartupTrak and keep coming back for more content.
