8 Statistics on Indian D2C (2026)

1. Nearly half of India’s D2C brands are outside the big metros

Of the D2C stores with a known city, 46.3% are based outside the eight big metro regions: Delhi NCR, Mumbai MMR, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Pune, Chennai, Ahmedabad and Kolkata. 53.7% are headquartered inside them.

Top metro areas by Indian D2C brands

Live D2C stores in our database are spread across 5,621 Indian cities and towns, and some of the country’s best-known D2C names come from outside the metros. Here are a handful of examples:

2. Shopify and WooCommerce run 9 in 10 Indian D2C stores

Shopify powers 59.8% of live D2C stores and WooCommerce 32.7% (92.5% between them). Custom-built stores are third most-popular, accounting for 3.5%. Everything else (Wix, Magento, OpenCart, Dukaan and others) the remaining sliver.

Shopify’s dominance is even clearer at the top of the Indian D2C market. Among the most-searched D2C brand names, Shopify powers 71 of the top 100.

3. There are over 164,000 live single-brand D2C stores in India

Merchant Data tracks a growing number of single-brand D2C stores in India. 164,748 at the time this article was last updated. If you add multi-brand retailers (those who sell not only their own products, but multiple brands), the picture gets bigger. 19,743 multi-brand retailers take the live total to 184,491. This article uses the narrower single-brand number throughout.

Methodology note: for every brand in our database, we regularly check to confirm that the site is live. Secondly, we classify each website so that marketplaces, B2B/wholesale websites, content sites and others are excluded from the numbers.

4. More than 30% of D2C stores advertise cash on delivery

30.2% of D2C stores advertise COD on their site: 23.4% without conditions and 6.8% with conditions (e.g. minimum order, fee, or pincode limits). Only 1.9% say outright that they do not offer COD.

The true share of stores offering COD is likely higher than 30%, because some stores don’t actively mention it on their website until the final checkout stages.

For more details, such as the breakdown of COD conditions, COD split by regions, take a look at: The State of Cash on Delivery in Indian D2C (2026)

5. .com is more popular than .in among Indian D2C website URLs

57.8% of Indian D2C stores use a .com domain, against 36.6% on .in or .co.in (32.8% .in, 3.8% .co.in). The remaining 5.6% use everything else: .store and .shop (2.8%), .co (0.9%) and a long tail.

Some of the biggest names in Indian D2C sit on each side:

And a few of the very biggest skip both: Wakefit, GIVA and Minimalist all run on .co.

6. Delhi is India’s D2C capital, and Surat punches above its weight

Delhi leads with 18,433 D2C stores (11.2%), ahead of Mumbai (12,361 / 7.5%) and Bengaluru (9,348 / 5.7%). Count Gurugram, Noida, Greater Noida, Ghaziabad and Faridabad with Delhi and the NCR alone is home to 1 in 5 Indian D2C brands (18.6%).

The city punching above its weight is Surat: 4th in the country with 5,894 brands (3.6%), ahead of Chennai, Hyderabad, Pune, Ahmedabad and Kolkata. Jaipur (5,751 / 3.5%) sits 5th, ahead of Chennai, Hyderabad, Pune, Ahmedabad and Kolkata.

Top cities by number of Indian D2C brands

% of total is the share of all live single-brand D2C stores, including those with no known city.

7. Judge.me is the most installed app on Indian D2C Shopify stores

More than a third of Indian D2C stores on Shopify (42.1%) show Judge.me, the product reviews app, on their storefront. Shiprocket is next at 20.0%, and the most installed Indian-built app. Instafeed (15.3%), Microsoft Clarity (10.6%) and Shiprocket Checkout (Fastrr) (9.2%) round out the top five.

Five of the ten most installed apps are built in India: Shiprocket, Shiprocket Checkout, GoKwik, Razorpay Magic Checkout and Wigzo.

Top 10 Shopify apps by share of Indian D2C stores

8. Clothing and jewellery are the most common products Indian D2C brands sell

Dresses top the list, sold by 7.5% of Indian D2C stores on Shopify, more than any other product. Earrings follow at 7.3%, then bracelets & bangles (7.2%), co-ord sets (6.7%), necklaces & chains (6.6%), t-shirts (6.4%), tops and sarees (6.3%), shirts (6.2%) and rings (5.7%). Every product in the top ten is clothing or jewellery.

Top 10 product types by share of Indian D2C brands selling them

A brand counts when it lists at least 3 products of the type. % is the share of all live single-brand D2C Shopify stores with a readable catalogue.