A few years ago, buying products directly from India as an overseas customer was a daunting experience. Delivery often took weeks or even months, with no transparency on shipping status or customs duties. Returns were uncertain, and customers were essentially navigating the wild west of cross-border commerce on their own. Traditional marketplaces like Amazon (with third-party sellers) and eBay offered Indian goods internationally, but unpredictable delivery times and surprise customs fees were common. There was strong demand for authentic Indian products abroad, yet “no reliable platform could provide them to customers outside India” India.

Pioneering a Cross-Border D2C Marketplace

Recognizing these gaps, we launched Distacart to fundamentally change cross-border direct-to-consumer (D2C) shopping from India. Our vision was to build the first global marketplace for Indian brands.

We decided to attack the problem at its core by rethinking logistics, payments, and customer experience for global buyers. This meant handling fulfillment in-house so we could ensure fast deliveries, full regulatory compliance, and reliable service across the board. We were also one of the first to offer a multi-currency checkout, letting customers pay in their local currency and see all costs upfront. Shoppers no longer had to worry about hidden conversion fees or guessing import duties – Distacart orders are fully inclusive of taxes and customs.

Navigating the Regulatory Maze

Cross-border commerce is never simple, and Distacart has had to adapt constantly to keep orders flowing. A few examples:

• U.S. FDA Rules for Ayurveda & Wellness: Ayurvedic products are treated as dietary supplements by the FDA. Shipments can be flagged if labels make disease claims or lack FDA product codes. Distacart had to build a system to ensure FDA-compliant labeling and declarations before entry.

• EU VAT & IOSS (2021): Europe abolished its €22 duty-free threshold. Suddenly, all imports required VAT collection. We integrated into the IOSS (Import One Stop Shop) system so that customers could prepay VAT as a part of the product cost and avoid surprise fees at delivery.

Each of these changes could have caused massive disruption. Instead, our in-house fulfillment team and tech stack adapted in days, ensuring business as usual for customers.

Delivering a Native Shopping Experience

Shoppers who had been burned by slow or uncertain deliveries on other platforms were blown away by the Distacart experience. Customers often tell us how buying from cross-border Amazon/eBay sellers was frustrating, but with Distacart it “feels so native”. Delivery speed in particular has been a game-changer: parcels that once took ages now arrive within days, securely packed and with end-to-end tracking.

This superior experience is reflected in our customer satisfaction: Distacart boasts a 4.9★/5 rating on Google Reviews (based on over 2,000 reviews). A few highlights:

• “Absolutely love this app. Got my order from India to Canada within 6 days… amazing packaging as well and at a very affordable price.”

• “Distacart kept us updated at every step. When the package came, it was fully packed. We are very happy with the way they took over our order.”

You can see more customer reviews on our Google profile.

Loyal Customers Across 40+ Countries

Today, Distacart has grown into the go-to platform for Indian goods globally. We’ve onboarded over 3,000 Indian brands and serve customers in 30+ countries, fulfilling nearly one million orders to date.

The result? A remarkably high repeat purchase rate. More than half of our sales come from repeat customers, a testament to the trust and satisfaction we’ve built.

Facing the Giants and Copycats

When we started, cross-border D2C from India was virtually uncharted territory. Now, seeing Distacart’s success, many others are trying to follow suit. A slew of copycat marketplaces have popped up – some even scraping our catalog. And of course, we compete head-on with Amazon and eBay.

But there’s a reason Distacart still rules the roost. We’ve spent years building the infrastructure, compliance expertise, and partnerships needed to do this right. Cross-border commerce has a steep learning curve – from FDA rules in the U.S. to Saber in Saudi to bilingual labeling in Canada. Unlike generic platforms, we’ve fine-tuned every aspect of the experience for one mission: “India to You, anywhere in the world.”

The Road Ahead

Being dubbed “the mother of cross-border D2C from India” is an honor we carry with responsibility. But we don’t rest on it. We compete with ourselves every day – striving to be better tomorrow than today.

The world is more connected than ever, and we’re excited to keep leading this wave of bringing India’s incredible products to every corner of the globe. Distacart has proven that distance is no barrier to delight – whether it’s a delicacy from Hyderabad delivered fresh to San Francisco, or Ayurvedic wellness products reaching a remote town in Canada. And we’re just getting started.