Why eCommerce brands must consider Direct-to-Consumer Marketing

Today many e-commerce brands are taking a risk to achieve something unconventional, and the direct-to-Consumer e-commerce business model is one such feat.

Brands are constantly improving their products, reducing overhead costs, and eliminating intermediaries to boost their margins. These are the advantages of direct-to-customer e-commerce.

Do you run an eCommerce business? Here are some reasons for moving to a D2C e-commerce business!

D2C Ecommerce: What is it?

One must comprehend what Direct-to-Consumer is to grasp its potential for any particular brand fully. Manufacturers, producers, and designers can sell directly to customers via their store websites under the D2C model. A D2C model does not have middlemen, as is the case with a traditional retail model, which has a manufacturer-wholesaler-distributor-retailer-customer chain. As a result, the seller has a much better margin, and the customer pays a lower price.

D2C businesses are in demand

Over 55% of respondents to the Global Brand Shopper Survey prefer to shop directly with the manufacturer/parent brand than through a retailer. According to 37 percent of the respondents, a better user experience, along with a lower price, is a must on the manufacturer/parent brand’s website.

What your brand can gain from D2C e-commerce

Compared to the traditional retail model, direct-to-consumer e-commerce has its advantages. Here are a few:

• Easy to Create Omnichannel Experiences

As opposed to single-channel marketing, Omni-channel marketing can increase customers’ purchase frequency by 250 percent. There is a 19 percent engagement rate between the single-channel and multi-channel channels as well. Any brand considering D2C implementation should consider these figures.

Manufacturers & producers are at an advantage over traditional retailers when it comes to controlling the marketing channel. While traditional retailers have brick-and-mortar stores and umbrella platforms (like Amazon), D2C businesses can take advantage of the opportunity to do more with less.

Providing customers with a consistent brand experience across all brand touchpoints is an omnichannel experience, and manufacturers can control production chains and communication channels at every step. Interestingly, conventional retailers find it rather difficult to distinguish themselves from the online marketplace, with their packaging, labels, and website experience.

• Engagement and communication with customers

Manufacturers are unable to directly interact with their target audiences and get their feedback to optimize products and processes using the traditional retail model. Manufacturers, however, can interact 1:1 with their clients through D2C e-commerce. A D2C brand can identify customers’ needs through insightful communication rather than sifting through siloed data from retailers’ backends.

• Increased loyalty

It is generally more profitable and loyal to buy from direct-to-consumer brands than from traditional retailers. Due to two reasons: 1) Direct-to-consumer brands have a better handle on their brand’s customer experience, and 2) Direct-to-consumer brands have greater control over their brand’s reputation. The experience and perception of the brand are directly related to customer loyalty. If D2C eCommerce brands aim for this, they can build more robust customer bases with less clutter and a more straightforward supply-demand process.

• More opportunities for cross-selling and up-selling

Every business strives to increase sales, and D2C allows brands to do this. D2C companies can either turn to online portals as their primary revenue source or sell to retailers while maintaining a separate revenue stream. Either way, the brand can increase its profits by upselling and cross-selling its products.

An air-conditioning manufacturer, such as Murphy Richards, can sell direct to the customer through its website. If they have the time and resources to do so, they can provide bulk supplies to other appliance distributors.

Is Your Brand Ready for the D2C Model?

A D2C e-commerce channel can seem overwhelming to manufacturers & production brands. With a well-implemented strategy, they will be able to increase their sales quickly.

A D2C digital retail strategy requires marketing automation.

Suppose your manufacturing brand is planning to go online so you can reach out to more customers. A good start would be to design an engaging and intuitive e-commerce site. To sell online, you need to acquire and retain loyal customers once this step has been accomplished. A marketing automation tool that is AI-driven would be ideal for this job.

AI-driven tools will automate campaign messaging, email marketing, SMS communications, and push notifications to capture top-level leads and prospects. By the end of that process, your sales will be able to send hyper-personalized communications as per the set events and triggers (such as an email opened, a visit to a product of interest, etc.). In addition, automation will increase sales by encouraging online sales and reducing cart abandonment rates – while also scaling up your business. As you visit your dashboard analytics over time, you can gather detailed insights about how your customers behave and what they need to forecast sales and inventory levels.

The all-in-one solution your brand will need for effective conversion and retention (acquisition, retention, and upselling) when moving to D2C is an all-in-one tool. It should also scale well with your growing business.

In closing

Every manufacturer or production brand can find D2C a big step forward. Nevertheless, online retail strategies, customer acquisition costs, and retention plans can efficiently crack this game.