Direct-to-consumer (D2C) companies manufacture and ship their products directly to buyers without the middlemen. This allows them to sell their products at lower costs, and to control the making, marketing, and distribution of products. It’s a big booster to their bottom line.
The long tail story is ages old. Amazon is killing it. The thing is, fastest-growing D2C brands aren’t doing it. They often run just a couple of products, create their own niche and position as best in class.
Do we really need to choose between more than 10.000 blenders on Amazon? It’s tiring, it’s depressing. Paradox of choice kicks in and you end up feeling like a fool. Nobody likes that. At the same time, we’re fed up with idealistic and unrealistic messages often thrown at us by the big guys. But we’ve tuned our bullshit detectors over the years. We recognize authenticity, and a lot of D2C brands are truly authentic. Just check out Dollar Shave Club, Casper or Bonobos.
We’ll be seeing more and more successful D2C brands in 2020. At least I hope so.