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It’s clear that direct-to-consumer (DTC) and boutique brands are disrupting retail by taking innovative and digital-first approaches to create loyal customers.

There are many reasons for brands to skip the middleman or third parties to deliver straight to customers. Top reasons include owning your own data and creating deeper relationships with buyers.

Are you thinking about selling direct-to-consumers? Take a look at what this strategy is and how sellers can set themselves up for success.

Why go Direct-to-Consumers?

From apparel and beauty to pet food and mattresses, direct-to-consumers brands are disrupting multiple industries. However, what these firms have in common is that they’re digital-first and often focus on their mission, instead of just their products. In an overcrowded eCommerce space, these brands use digital tools, like social media to build loyal audiences based on brand authenticity and high-quality products. Additionally, DTC is a type of experience that today’s consumers find valuable and are even willing to pay a higher price for.

Here are some of the other major advantages of going DTC:

Owning Your Data
To be hyper-focused on the customer experience, brands need to own their consumer data. Selling DTC allows you to collect first-hand data to do just that. Emerging marketing technology gives sellers constant feedback of actionable insight to continue to innovate on as well as tracks every customer interaction so you can improve on it.

Cost Savings
Cutting out the middleman or other supply chain processes saves you extra costs. In the online space where margins are small to begin with, it’s paramount to protect your bottom line.

Brand Control
Direct-to-consumer brands have full control of their brand image. First off, you’re not relying on anyone else to present your products. Additionally, you own the relationship with your users and can nurture them over time, while delivering the interactive relationship consumers are looking for.

What to Focus On for Success by Going Direct-to-Consumer

Focus on these areas if you want to be successful at selling DTC:

Brand Authenticity
Beyond high-quality products, many successful DTC brands are born out of mission-driven initiatives by offering consumers the opportunity to be a part of a movement or lifestyle. Furthermore, their customers are participating in something larger than just another purchase of a product they want. Even if there’s not a strong mission associated, DTC brands excel because of their distinct personalities and brand images. Every interaction with customers is transparent, direct, and memorable, and brands are leveraging digital channels, like eCommerce and social media, to create content that further fuels interactive customer relationships. Consumers just can’t find that same type of brand interaction if they’re picking up a product on someone else’s shelves.

Take TOMS, Ivory Ella and This Saves Lives for example:

Digitally Native
This means leveraging online content to your advantage like your product pages, social media, newsletters, emails, and more. Consumers want to invest in more than a product, they’re looking for a valuable experience that connects them with a brand. Therefore, brands are turning customers into ambassadors to spread the word to others.

The point is to be where your customers are, and if your customers are doing most of their activity online, then your marketing better fit into their lifestyle.

Personalization
Look at any direct-to-consumer brand and you’re sure to find thoughtful ways of how they personalize the shopping experience for their customers. Customers aren’t just any other buyer to them, but rather a loyal counterpart in their journey to success. Being able to personalize your customer experience comes from maintaining and acting on your consumer data. You can achieve this by using historical data to predict shopping intention and make better product recommendations, which will help your content better resonate with shoppers. From your product pages to your email marketing, successful DTC brands usually have personalization tactics that are far ahead of other brands.

Fulfillment
If you sell exclusively online, then your fulfillment strategy is key to your success. You can sell all the products you want, but if you can’t consistently deliver to customers you’re going to eventually lose. Today’s consumers are not forgiving about bad delivery experiences:

84% of consumers say that they won’t return to a brand after just one poor delivery experience.

What this means is, all it takes is one bad experience to erode brand image and customer loyalty. So, if there’s one area to excel at, it’s your eCommerce delivery strategy.

Going Direct-to-Consumer Takes More than Just Quality Products