Direct to Consumer

Direct to Consumer has taken the consumer industry by storm with great companies such as Glossier. Direct to consumer allows brands to truly define the touchpoint. With traditional retailers, the retailer defines the touchpoint for the consumer. New brands can better design the touchpoint and interaction to personalize the touchpoint for their brand. The brands receive important data about who is buying their product, when these products are being bought, and where their users are coming from. They can use this data to better their product, touchpoint, and distribution/marketing strategies. Furthermore, they can develop rewards and subscriptions based programs with their users. Direct to Consumer also opens new funding models like preordering. They can also more quickly iterate on products by describing them online and seeing if users like it. Finally, these brands can be cheaper because they don’t have to pay the retailers.

Why is direct to consumer thriving now? First, digital only brands allowed a distribution mechanism and brands to reach large scale easily with limited fixed costs. People are much more willing to visit a website for a new brand than go to a store for one(These brands still have to figure out discovery and convince users to go to their site.) Second, infrastructure around shipping, packaging, and manufacturing has further reduced fixed costs that allow this movement.