DPDP for D2C and e-commerce brands
D2C and e-commerce brands hold large volumes of customer personal data across order histories, addresses, payment details, and marketing profiles, usually spread over many third-party tools. Under the DPDP Act, every one of those tools is the brand's responsibility, marketing consent has to be explicit and separate, and customers can demand access to and deletion of their data.
The D2C stack is the challenge
A typical brand runs analytics, a customer data platform, email and SMS marketing, ad pixels, reviews, loyalty, support, and shipping, and personal data flows through all of them. Each is a processor you are accountable for, and most brands have never inventoried the full list.
Marketing is the sharpest edge
Under the Act, consent to receive marketing has to be explicit and specific, separate from the consent to fulfil an order. Bundling them, or assuming a purchase implies marketing consent, does not hold. That changes how your sign-up and checkout flows are built.
Rights reach the whole stack
A customer can ask what data you hold and can ask you to delete it. Honouring that means reaching into every tool in the stack, not just your store platform. Deletion that stops at your database while the data lives on in your email tool and warehouse is not deletion.
"D2C brands rarely have an in-house privacy function, which is exactly why the work tends to stall."
Next step
Find out how compliant your product is.
Ten questions covering consent, data rights, security, and breach readiness. Takes two minutes.
Start the readiness check →Written by Smoketrees Digital LLP, a product engineering studio based in Bengaluru. We implement DPDP compliance directly into codebases for Indian product companies.