2PM - The Next Growth Market

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Deep Dive: Over nearly 20 years, the DTC brand landscape has seen an explosion and relative decline. These brands, known for their innovative marketing strategies and unique product offerings, captured the hearts of consumers, media groups, and investors alike. However, beneath the glossy surface of perfect branding, careful narratives, and paid marketing, the financial reality often trailed brand equity for the companies and their founders. Parade, a once-promising DTC intimates startup, is a poignant example of how even seemingly thriving brands can find themselves on the precipice of insolvency.

The superpower of the DTC industry has never been branding (that can be easily duplicated) or platform (Shopify and BigCommerce democratized eCommerce) or even the manufacturing of a novel product. The superpower has been the ability to identify arbitrage opportunity and capitalize on it. The superpower of DTC is getting there first. In this case, there is a geographical location.

The New Growth Market

Optimizing the eCommerce payment experience

Fintech / Digital Commerce 360: Merchants want to reduce friction and eliminate steps during the checkout process. A new survey highlights where merchants said their customers abandon carts. Research indicates financial-institution-offered digital wallets provide security without adding more transaction fees for merchants — and consumers trust their banks more than other providers to offer a digital wallet.

Also read: The Hidden Advantage of Branded Payments

Consumers more likely to use virtual apparel try-on software if interactive

SaaS / Phys.org: While more and more people are shopping online, purchasing clothes on the internet poses a unique challenge: What if it doesn't fit? The apparel industry's latest solution is virtual try-on sessions that allow consumers to share photos or measurements of themselves to create a similar-sized avatar.

Amazon caught between retail troubles and the FTC

eCommerce / Seattle Times: The Institute for Local Self-Reliance found in a September study that Amazon has increased the total fees it charges sellers. In 2014, Amazon pocketed about 19% of every dollar a seller earns on the platform. By 2023, that number had jumped to 45%. 

Big Tech made America lonely

Sociology / Insider: "Social connection is a fundamental human need, as essential to survival as food, water, and shelter," the report from the Surgeon General's office said. "Despite current advancements that now allow us to live without engaging with others (e.g., food delivery, automation, remote entertainment), our biological need to connect remains."

Apple's ATT crackdown emboldened DTC marketers to reinvest

Advertising / Digiday: Meanwhile, social media platforms have increased ad loads to boost revenue after the data privacy fallout, sending social CPMs diving by double digits, and introduced AI-powered tools to drive commerce. Meaning, there’s still hope yet in Meta and Google, many DTC’s core customer acquisition channels.

NEW UPDATES: The Study has been updated with the Forecast Series and will reflect new changes in the coming days and weeks. I wanted to take one topic from the following areas to explore in a way that could help a business devise new ways to mold their companies in a changing landscape: macroeconomic trends, how retail will be reimagined, science and innovation, sociological shifts, and population dynamics. Each are areas that many would fail to attribute to traditional retail.

Read, Research, Study Here

Marketing enters Taylor Swift era: Here's what the numbers say

Advertising / Marketing Dive: This popularity by association may leave many marketers questioning how to take advantage of the situation, or even if they should. One simple solution for brands already involved with the pop star or tight end is simply increasing the frequency of those campaigns.

Re-read: The Swift Effect on The NFL 

Authentic Brands Group offers text-based shopping

eCommerce / CSA: Customers can currently sign up for SMS shopping programs via the desktop and mobile websites for ABG brands including Brooks Brothers, Lucky Brand, Juicy Couture and Nautica, with more brands planned to roll out in the coming months.

Fewer Americans want brands to speak out on current events

Communications / Marketplace: When deeply polarized politics became the norm, sometime around 2016, Americans were grasping for some sense of control. And Barbara Kahn, a marketing professor at the Wharton School, said people wanted to vote — not just at the ballot box, but with their dollars.

Updated For October 4: 802 brands covered. Today’s breakout is the top 20 fastest growing brands over the last month, regardless of size or market position. Shopify claims all but four of 20 positions. You have the ability to sift the database to find nuggets like this as well. The slowest 20 brands (the largest MoM drops in ranking) are equally interesting if you’d like to take a look.

For the first time, we're looking for the first six month-long sponsor for the DTC Power List. If you're a SaaS company or a brand that is interested in the commitment, just reply to this letter. 

Meati bets mushroom jerky will be your new favorite snack

DTC Brand / Fast Company: If you’re not keeping tabs on the snack category, it’s big business. Statista valued the snack food industry at $110.3 billion in 2023, a number that’s expected to grow annually by almost 4%. The Kellogg Company thinks it’s so valuable it created a spinoff company, Kellanova, solely for its snack business. 

How underwear startup Parade "wiped out investors"

DTC Brand / The Information: When lingerie manufacturer Ariela & Associates International announced its purchase of buzzy direct-to-consumer intimates startup Parade in August, the deal appeared to be yet another example of larger holding companies and licensing firms buying up popular digitally native brands. Parade, ...

What Instacart IPO foretold about digital ads, retail, and search

Retail Media / Forbes: Some might argue the Instacart IPO is a delivery story, or a digital-company story, or a market story-it is in fact more of an advertising, retail media and search story