MAM
Instagram businesses witness demand dip by 80% during lockdown
NEW DELHI: Since its inception, Instagram Business has been creating a pool of myriad opportunities for local and home-grown businesses to flourish. With its impactful visual presence, availability to micro-tag, and easy discoverability, the platform has led many businesses to set a unique benchmark. However, the ongoing lockdown necessitated by the Covid2019 crisis has impacted these businesses massively.
According to insiders, there has been a dip of around 70-80 per cent in sales queries in the past two months given consumer sentiments and unavailability of raw materials plus proper distribution channels.
Kriti Chaudhary who runs online clothing and accessories platform @sanskritikvastrashala tells Indiantelevision.com, “We have witnessed an 80 per cent dip in queries online. Another major crisis is with artisans as there no supply of raw materials because of restrictions on movement. Even if there are a few clients who are still interested in buying our stuff, we are not taking any new orders.”
Niharika Chaudhary, who owns and manages @peeli.dori selling sustainable Indian handloom online and has got actresses like Shweta Tripathi and Sumona Chakravarti wearing her pieces, also shares, “There are 70 per cent lesser orders and we have stopped dispatching stuff completely. The dip in revenues is massive as people are very apprehensive about ordering online.”
Shivani Singh of @theartbox.in reveals that she used to register a sale of Rs 3-4 lakh monthly before the lockdown and has been able to deliver only two to three orders in the past two months. She is using this time to keep her followers engaged by posting tutorials and making new stuff and designs with available resources like resin.
Tanya Jain, who recently left her job to start her home-bakery, which she promotes on Instagram by the name of @kitschyn, adds that there is a lot of uncertainty about the business now. “I order Belgian chocolates for my cooking, which is impossible to import now. Also, even if someone orders, I can’t be delivering the food as I relied mostly on pickups or my driver going out. Now, we are in a containment zone and it is impossible to get people coming and picking stuff.”
Sakshi Uppal and Samarth Anand, who manage online clothing store @titli, said that they were in the process of launching a website to extend the business by the end of April, which has been halted now.
Anand, who also manages the finance and photography for the page, notes that sourcing of raw materials has been a major problem and they haven’t been able to create new designs, which was a USP for them.
Uppal, who also attends a lot of fairs and exhibitions like The Little Flea to extend her sales, adds that she is expecting that part of the business to be further hit. She used to get around 70 per cent of her orders online and relied on pop-up shops at exhibitions for the rest 30 per cent.
@MousseStruck partner Sahil Vora, who sells mousse and other desserts online shared that sales from Instagram, which used to be at least 15-20 every day, have dipped to zero. The platform also uses food aggregator platforms of Zomato and Swiggy for ordering and delivery, which, too, have noticed a sizeable dip because of the lockdown.
“Out of our 13 outlets across Mumbai, we are running only one now with limited manpower. The sales are just 20 per cent of what we used to manage to do before the lockdown,” he shares.
Vora adds that food businesses particularly are facing a lot of problem because of the contagious nature of the virus and people being very cautious about what they are purchasing.
“Another big factor that is troubling us is the uncertainty around it. It would have been better if the government had given us a set time frame, say everything will start moving in the next three months. Then, we would have planned better, created leaner operations, paid staff accordingly. But now because there is no clarity, most of the businesses are forced to take harsh unprecedented decisions without any warning,” he says.
Apart from dipping sales, the lack of access to raw materials and no support in end-point deliveries, another thing that is bothering these small business owners is how to keep paying their artisans and other team members.
Chaudhary says that many of her artisans are from poor backgrounds and live in remote areas. Right now, she is making sure that she pays them on time understanding that they live on a hand-to-mouth basis. “But if it (revenue problems) continue, I might not be able to keep the business afloat for more than three to four months.”
Singh says that while she paid the team for the month of March, she hasn’t been able to pay for the last month. “They haven’t even asked because there was no work to do in April. My operating account is out of cash and it will take us some time to get back.”
To keep paying their staff, Vora and his partner have started controlling additional expenditures like marketing and CRM. They also launched gift cards for their customers who are not able to avail their services now, where they purchase a gift card now and redeem after the lockdown is lifted.
While Uppal has already announced some discounts, even on her top-selling pieces to keep the sales going, Kriti Chaudhary believes she won’t be able to do that. In fact, she assumes that the prices will likely go up as the raw material is going to be costly after the lockdown and so will be the artisan fee.
All of them showed mixed sentiments towards the post-lockdown world though. While most of them believe that sales will improve, they agree that the consumer is going to be more apprehensive about what to buy.
MAM
Brands push beyond compliance as trust takes centre stage
ASCI AdTrust Summit 2026 spotlights shift from legal checks to credibility.
MUMBAI: In a world where a disclaimer can be legally sound yet socially suspect, brands are learning that compliance may tick boxes but trust wins markets. At the inaugural ASCI AdTrust Summit 2026, a panel on “Beyond Compliance: The New Currency of Trust” unpacked a growing industry reality: the gap between what the law permits and what consumers accept is widening and fast.
Moderated by Meenakshi Ramkumar of National Law School of India University, the discussion brought together leaders across law, marketing and academia to examine how brands must evolve in a digital ecosystem increasingly shaped by scrutiny, scepticism and speed.
Ramkumar set the tone by highlighting a critical shift, advertising today operates in the same digital space that fuels misinformation, scams and fake news, making credibility harder to establish. “The challenge is not just about what brands do, but the broader context of low institutional trust,” she noted, adding that when violations go unchecked, trust erodes not just in brands but in the regulatory system itself.
This vacuum, she said, has given rise to consumer activism from boycotts to social media backlash as a parallel accountability mechanism.
For Amit Bhasin, Chief Legal Officer at Marico, the distinction was clear, legal compliance is non negotiable, but insufficient. “Compliance is the minimum threshold. The real challenge is staying aligned with changing consumer expectations,” he said.
He pointed to how advertising narratives have evolved from traditional depictions of gender roles to more shared responsibilities reflecting a broader societal shift. “Earlier, it was fine to show one person doing the household work. Today, that may not land well. Consumers expect brands to reflect reality,” Bhasin observed.
He also highlighted internal debates where campaigns that may be legally permissible are still rejected for being culturally insensitive, noting that responsible advertising often requires asking uncomfortable questions before the public does.
If compliance is the baseline, reputation is the battlefield.
Bhasin noted that reputational risk has become a far greater concern than legal exposure, particularly in an era where campaigns can be dissected within hours online. “Earlier, a controversial ad might invite a newspaper editorial. Today, within hours, you’re at the centre of a storm,” he said.
Brands, he added, now evaluate campaigns through a dual lens legal viability and reputational vulnerability with the latter often proving more decisive.
From a healthcare perspective, Satish Sahoo of Cipla Health underscored the complexity of operating within fragmented yet stringent regulatory frameworks, spanning drugs, food, cosmetics and Ayush. “Anything under a drug licence is the most tightly regulated,” he said, adding that this necessitates proactive, not reactive, compliance.
He shared an example from the oral rehydration salts (ORS) category, where Cipla resisted the temptation to position products aggressively despite competitive pressure. “Our product is WHO compliant, and our communication reflects that. We chose not to blur the lines, even if others did,” he noted.
The long term payoff, he suggested, lies in credibility built over consistency, not quick wins.
Yet, as Harsha N of National Law School of India University pointed out, even perfect compliance does not guarantee trust. Drawing from historical and modern examples from exaggerated product claims in the 1800s to contemporary environmental and health advertising, he argued that legal frameworks often lag behind consumer expectations. “A brand can be fully compliant and still be perceived as misleading,” he said, citing instances where fine print disclosures fail to reach or convince the average consumer. He added that larger companies carry a disproportionate responsibility to set ethical benchmarks, even in areas where the law remains silent.
The conversation also turned to digital advertising, where the challenge extends beyond content to how ads are experienced. From algorithmic targeting to personalised messaging, brands now operate in an environment where regulation struggles to keep pace with technology.
Sahoo noted that social media has amplified awareness, with influencers and consumers increasingly scrutinising product claims and calling out inconsistencies. “Awareness has gone up dramatically. People are questioning what goes into products and what brands are saying,” he said.
The role of self regulatory bodies such as Advertising Standards Council of India also came under the spotlight.
Harsha acknowledged that while SROs play a crucial role, they are not immune to criticism, particularly around perceived conflicts of interest and enforcement gaps. “SROs have a higher threshold of responsibility not just to interpret the law, but to anticipate societal expectations,” he said.
He added that failures in self regulation often push the burden back onto government intervention, underscoring the need for stronger, more proactive oversight.
One of the more nuanced debates centred on whether building trust comes at a cost. While Sahoo acknowledged that quality and compliance can increase costs, he argued that companies must absorb them as part of their long term strategy.
Bhasin, however, framed the challenge differently not as cost, but as competitiveness in a market where not all players play by the same rules. “The real tension is when others cut corners and you choose not to,” he said.
The panel concluded with a call to embed trust into business metrics.
Sahoo suggested that organisations must go beyond revenue targets to include consumer equity and trust based KPIs, ensuring that ethical considerations are not sidelined in the pursuit of growth. “Trust sounds abstract, but it can translate into measurable consumer equity,” he said.
As the discussion wrapped up, one message stood out: the rules of advertising are being rewritten not just by regulators, but by consumers themselves. In an ecosystem where attention is fleeting and scepticism is high, brands that merely comply may survive, but those that build trust are the ones that endure.
