The “D2C and Other Digital Adaptations During COVID-19” report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com’s offering.
The new economy is increasingly digital. And digital business models may even help to keep people safe.
Brick-and-mortar retailers are trying to account for newly developed lockdown habits. Brands/manufacturers are still trying to figure out how to manage their relationships/tensions with Amazon and the big retailers.
Despite the devastation and business closures, some businesses and verticals have been disproportionately overwhelmed by commercial opportunities. Many D2C brands that provide products or services primarily intended for at-home use have thrived, especially after cracking the code of their customer acquisition.
“The pandemic accelerated trends that were already underway” was a commonly heard refrain in the business community throughout 2020. However, this observation has its limitations and depends on the particulars of the business, category, market, and consumer segment.
To the extent that the pandemic has created and accelerated trends, for what duration will they last? They could be short, medium, or long-term.
This report examines the various D2C strategies and digital adaptations that have been utilized during the pandemic, which may be critical to sustaining growth, mitigating decline, turning things around, or blazing a new trail.
D2C is sometimes misrepresented as a streamlining of operations. In reality, it has its own complexities and requires its own forms of specialized knowledge, especially in terms of customer acquisition, retention, and order fulfillment. The best D2C brands view this as a global market opportunity and as a strategic opportunity to exercise more control over key factors in the customer experience.
As the world continues to rapidly and dramatically change, so will consumers, and so must businesses.
Key Topics Covered:
D2C Strategies
- Minimize churn through customer offers.
- Stress-Testing a Customer’s Ability To Pay
- Vertical-Specific Categorizations
- Tiered Concessions Based on a Needs Hierarchy
- Levels of Segmentation/Personalization
- Stages of Retention
- Infographic 1: Retention Strategies in D2C
- D2C, B2B, and C2C: Evaluate the shifts and tactics.
- B2B and D2C Acquisition
- C2C and D2C Meeting Similar Consumer Needs
- Key takeaways
- Establish trust and accountability between your D2C brand and consumers.
- Socioeconomic factors
- Differentiation through messaging, risks of offense & tech moderation
- Establishing credibility and recurring revenue
- Key takeaways
- Infographic 2: Establish Trust & Accountability
- Optimize channels, clarity, and timing.
- The value of simplicity
- Automation
- SMS
- Emails
- Customized tracking pages
- Personalization
- Key takeaways
- As ecommerce accelerates, don’t undervalue CX.
- Opportunity to capture growth, through experiences (CX)
- CX shortcomings
- Brooks Bell’s levers of CX optimization
- Insights from Moxtra, a customer collaboration platform
- The limits of differentiation
- Key takeaways
- Infographic 3: Opportunity to Capture Growth Through Experiences (CX)
- D2C brands can disrupt with VC or a unique appreciation of CLV.
- D2C and VC
- The D2C Mindset
- Recruiting Considerations and End-to-End Thinking
- Enabling Velocity with Platforms: Shopify and WordPress
- Key takeaways
- Use higher incentives for quicker conversions.
- Increasing and stacking promotional offers
- Different pathways, same goal
- Data is advantageous but a vicious cycle is not; go for granularity.
- Good for business, or a good business?
- Accuracy, or amplification?
- Business interpretations and technical approaches
- Look for misunderstood or miscategorized consumer segments.
- Key takeaways
- Order fulfillment is still a marketing opportunity.
- Shipping promo codes
- Packaging
- Find pockets of creative resonance and allocate budget in real-time.
- Maintain, reevaluate, and technologically augment supply chains.
- Maintaining quality
- Consumer perceptions
- Implementing new supply chain technologies
- Supply chain partnerships
- Overseas manufacturers and market differences
- Key takeaways
D2C & Amazon Factors
- Amazon Offers Unparalleled Scale
- Optimizing Discoverability within Amazon
- Internal Divisions
- Habit Creation
- The Amazon Seller’s Dilemma
- Acquisitions within the Amazon Ecosystem & Insights from Consolidation
- Margins vary
- Conversion rates
- Virtuous cycles
- Bestseller/Amazon’s choice = 20-30% bump
- Advertise off the platform, too1
- Rethinking logistics
- Infographic 4: The Amazon Seller’s Dilemma and Ecommerce Opportunity
Digital Adaptations for Retailers
- New tech, new margins
- Infrastructure Installations
- Inventory Management
- Brands vs. Retailers
- The Returns Dilemma
- Return abuse
- Technological and return policy solutions
- Leaning into Innovation
Companies Mentioned
- SK-II (Procter & Gamble)
- Dollar Shave Club (Unilever)
- Peace Out Skincare
- Bokashi Steel Knives
- Rad Power Bikes
- Luke’s Lobster
- Health-Ade
- Lovecrafts
- Mirror (Lululemon Athletica)
- Bonobos (Walmart)
- Kraft Heinz
- Reckitt Benckiser
- L.L.Bean
- Mountain Equipment Co-op (MEC) (Kingswood Capital Management)
- Bed Bath & Beyond
- Waitrose & Partners
- Sephora
- Tesco
- Walmart
- Thrasio Holdings
- Shopify
- Amazon
- eBay
- Etsy
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