India, Aug. 27 -- This million-dollar question was raised when earlier this month oral and personal care major Colgate-Palmolive India appointed the Bombay Shaving Company (BSC), the digital-first grooming brand to handle Palmolive's direct-to-consumer (D2C) and e-commerce businesses. Colgate will focus on traditional general trade (kiranas) and modern trade (supermarkets, convenience store chains etc).

While making the announcement, the outgoing Colgate-Palmolive India MD and CEO Prabha Narsimhan, who's been given an Asia Pacific role, said D2C is a different ball game in which they were probably not "best in class".

The partnership for running the digital business of Palmolive has left financial investors, start-up founders and FMCG e...