Unit Economics
LTV:CAC and Payback Benchmarks for Indian D2C — by Category 2026
Model this for your store in the Unit Economics Planner.
Category benchmarks
Beauty/Skincare: LTV:CAC 3–4×, payback 6–9 months
Supplements: 3.5–5×, 5–7 months
Apparel: 2.5–3.5×, 8–12 months
Food/Snacks: 2–3×, 4–6 months
Furniture/Home: 4–6×, 12–18 months
Baby/Kids: 4–5×, 8–10 months
Where the benchmarks come from
Sylvr aggregates anonymised cohort data across tracked Indian D2C brands at the 8-digit category level. Numbers are median across brands at ₹2–25 Cr ARR — the band the platform is built for.
Frequently asked questions
Is 2× LTV:CAC really unhealthy?↓
It depends on lifecycle. For brands in scale-up (growing 80%+ YoY), 2× is acceptable for 12–18 months. For steady-state brands, 2× signals structural pricing or retention problems.
Should I compare to my category or to Indian D2C average?↓
Category. Beauty and FMCG have fundamentally different economics; averaging across both produces misleading numbers.
How do these benchmarks change with quick commerce?↓
Adding Blinkit/Zepto compresses LTV:CAC by 0.5–1.0× for most categories — quick-commerce customers churn faster than D2C-acquired ones. Track them as a separate cohort.