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A pair of heels, a saree or a kurta bought for Diwali could easily be worn again at a wedding or a family function. Similarly, a skin or haircare product picked up during a festive sale may end up becoming part of the shopper’s daily routine. But there is no guarantee that the shopper that stumbled upon new brands during the festive season sale will return to that same brand again and again. So brands often find themselves back at day zero, fighting for attention all over again and spending money to reacquire users after the festive season bows out. This raises a simple question: how can brands retain users beyond the festive season? Making Customers Reopen Their Wallets Inc42’s conversations with D2C brands around this year’s festive marketing playbook point to a broader shift in how companies are thinking about growth beyond the festive season. Retention and remarketing are emerging as critical levers for brands looking to turn festive shoppers into repeat customers. Brands need to track what the shopper bought and what they might need next. Most brands we spoke with see smart product recommendations and discovery as a key way to drive repeat purchases and build. The first step is communication and messaging. Having scaled up to ₹270 Cr in operating revenue over the past nine years, Bengaluru-based The Bear House is now seeking a larger contribution from denim, trousers and complete outfits. The brand’s scale thus far has come from building a business weighted towards topwear or shirts. Cofounder Harsh Somaiya said this journey to selling more jeans starts as a communication challenge. “For example, if someone comes to us for shirts, the next conversation shouldn't be, ‘Here is another shirt.’ It could be, ‘If you liked this, here's how you can complete the look,’” he told Inc42. Libas founder and CEO Sidhant Keshwani takes this one step further and added that personalisation in communication greatly improves the chances of getting the second purchase. According to him, customer segmentation is vital to enable personalisation at scale. The brand separates customers by product interests, age, location and season, which allows the marketing team to tailor WhatsApp messages and other communication accordingly. Escaping The Discount Trap Personalisation allows brands to retain new customers at higher margins rather than a discount-driven play. This is also why most brands are constantly experimenting with low discount phases even during peak season. The real test of festive retention is not whether customers buy again but whether they come back without another discount. A customer who returns only when the brand cuts prices is boosting repeat orders but doing little for profitability. Higher purchase frequency may therefore conceal a risk in which the brand keeps surrendering margin to secure the next order. Women’s occasion wear brand Koskii encountered that pressure while expanding online. Cofounder Umar Akhtar recalled that its stores had largely sold at full price, but last year’s online push involved more discounting than the company wanted. “You have some brands where they launch at a 70% discount. Nobody will buy them at 50% because 70% is a standard discount,” said Akhtar. In 2026, the startup plans to control incentives more closely and focus on sharper product pricing, rather than become associated with a permanent sale. The risk also extends to how customers perceive the original price. Speaking to Inc42 earlier, Aukera founder Lisa Mukhedkar highlighted how large markdowns can raise doubts about pricing and quality. This is why separating repeat demand from festive purchases requires a clear starting point. Segmentation has to cover each stage of the customer journey from registering interest to placing the first order to finally returning for another purchase. Each of these has to be treated as a different stage and requires specific processes to help grow retention. Akhtar recalled that Koskii’s September 2025 bridal campaign attracted approximately 10,000 registrations, of which 864 participants subsequently bought. At an average order value of about ₹17,000, the campaign generated roughly ₹1.5 Cr in directly attributable revenue, with purchases continuing into August 2026. But this success only captures prospective customers becoming buyers, not buyers returning for repeat purchases. Assessing the campaign immediately after the festive season would have missed revenue arriving later through repeat purchases, and there is the risk that some of the delayed conversions would be treated as retention and this would overstate repeat customer data and behaviour. This is why a 90-day repeat-purchase assessment should trigger after the customer places their first order. Each category’s buying cycle can then inform how such an assessment should be interpreted. Don’t Bet Before You Test But simply following customers throughout this phase is not for every brand. Only brands that can afford a large campaign to stay visible through this 90-day assessment period should look to formalise such a process. The choice entirely depends on how much capital is available to stay on the customer’s radar and how quickly the business needs evidence that its retention strategy is working. Koskii’s Akhtar highlighted this distinction when discussing the limits of broad offline advertising. He recalled that roughly 60% of Koskii’s media budget once went towards non-digital channels, even though an overwhelming majority of customers identified online channels as a discovery source. This feedback gave the company a reason to reconsider its allocation. That does not mean low-cost experiments will not work. They offer a different proposition. Akhtar added that Koskii is testing pop-up shops in apartments and corporate parks to improve visibility. While these experiments are early, their appeal is partly rooted in the limited budgets required to execute this given the high visibility the brand will get in return. The same test-before-expansion approach worked for cosmetics brand RENEE. Cofounder Ashutosh Valani recalled that a television campaign targeting selected regions and programmes last year did not deliver the expected results. But since it was a pilot, the company could reevaluate its approach after the initial response and avoided committing to a larger campaign. A message, an ad or a reminder can bring a shopper back, but it cannot fix the reason they left your shop without buying in the first place, said Valani. Product performance, education and satisfaction are foundations of retention and RENEE’s subsequent campaigns introduced related products. All this comes to nought if the product experience is poor. Brands can identify where that experience falls short by integrating data from various channels (online and offline) as well as customer touchpoints. Having spent the first few years of their lifetimes trying to bring in new users, mature D2C brands are today putting more money into keeping customers beyond the temporary peak and bringing them back to their storefronts multiple times. Shoppers are easy to win over during the festive season but retention is a tough nut. So, who’s up for the challenge? Spotlight | Inside Japam’s Bet To Build A Modern Spiritual Accessories Brand The spiritual tech D2C startup retails a wide range of spiritual wearables and accessories, with its portfolio centred on Rudraksha bracelets and malas, Karungali wearables, gemstone and crystal bracelets, spiritual jewellery, pendants and religious products. The startup operates primarily through its D2C website, while also selling through Amazon and offering bulk/wholesale orders. Positioned as everyday spiritual accessories, its over 500 SKUs range from below-₹500 bracelets to premium Rudraksha and gemstone products. Japam also sells internationally through its global storefront. As per Japan, its Rudraksha products are lab-tested, while select “Siddh” products are delivered with a Siddhi Prakriya Report and QR code showing the energisation ceremony. The Deep Dive Ecommerce Buzz Satvacart, The Ayurveda Co Shut Down: Online grocery startup Satvacart has shut down after a 12-year run, failing to secure fresh funding or an acquisition deal. Meanwhile, D2C beauty and personal care brand The Ayurveda Co (TAC) has also shuttered down after overexpansion across channels and a cost-heavy business model derailed its operations. PSL’s Muted Market Debut: The luxury fashion platform’s parent Purple Style Labs listed at ₹535 on the NSE, nearly 7% below its ₹575 IPO price, after its ₹680 Cr issue was subscribed just 1.29X. Its loss widened 51.5% YoY to ₹285.4 Cr in FY26 while operating revenue rose nearly 14% to ₹557.8 Cr. D2C Funding Boom Gathers Pace: D2C brands Nua, Mokobara and Comet have raised fresh capital this week, with women’s wellness brand Nua bagging $50 Mn, travel accessories brand Mokobara ₹170 Cr and sneaker brand Comet $10.6 Mn to fuel expansion, offline growth and category bets. Meanwhile, SUGAR Cosmetics raised ₹145 Cr at an 80% valuation cut. RentoMojo Sets IPO In Motion: The furniture and appliance rental startup has set a ₹384-₹404 price band for its ₹1,256 Cr IPO, valuing the company at around ₹4,206 Cr. Its FY26 revenue jumped 45.5% to ₹387 Cr, while profit surged 142% to ₹104 Cr, aided by a ₹36.6 Cr tax credit.
document fetched 2026-09-09 02:56 · canonical https://inc42.com/features/the-90-day-festive-season-marketing-test