More brands have started developing DTC (direct-to-consumer) sale channels in the last few years. The primary reason for this is that revenue for CPG (consumer packaged goods) increased by 40% in 2021 alone. More companies are shifting towards this style of e-commerce, especially after the successes of pave-makers like Casper, Dollar Shave Club, Manscaped, Harry’s, and others.
Undoubtedly, a DTC sales channel is a top priority for nearly every e-commerce company looking to increase sales. To better understand how to grow DTC e-commerce sales, start with these tips below.
1. Use a data-driven strategy
A brand that uses the DTC sales method controls the entire customer process from selling experience, manufacturing, marketing, and fulfillment. With this, businesses will gain valuable customer data, which could be compiled and used for present or future sales strategies.
Whether you’re a large or small business, ensuring optimal marketing efficiency is essential for maximizing profits. Some ways in which you can use data-driven strategies for a DTC brand are below:
- Increase Personalization – 80% of consumers are more likely to engage in a business that personalizes the entire purchasing experience. With the added data about a business’s consumers with a DTC sales channel, personalization becomes accessible.
- Customer Experience – DTC prioritizes every aspect of the customer’s journey. Therefore, more optimization is achievable by having more data about how they respond to marketing content, website layouts, checkout processes, etc.
- Product development – More data means more insights into the target market. Product development becomes more meaningful when accessing this as businesses will thoroughly understand what consumers want.
When combining the above, using data-driven strategies with the additional information provided by DTC is powerful. Because the customer experience is more optimized, around 55% of consumers prefer to buy from brands directly.
2. Don’t be afraid to test and optimize
All this extra consumer data is excellent, but only if you work with it. Don’t be afraid to test and optimize marketing content, sales funnels, etc. Once you’ve obtained this extra information, create prediction reports for new sales strategies from pre-existing data. Doing this will minimize the chances of failure and ultimately offer you a better foundation for success. Some optimization areas you can consider consist of the following:
- Marketing
- Product improvements
- Sales funnels
- Website experience
- Delivery processes
By focusing on these areas, it’ll make your business more seamless, manageable, and consumer-friendly.
3. Have accessible data
Data capturing and management can be a daunting task, even for large businesses with endless resources. Without an adequate plan to collect and consolidate data from various sources, it can become difficult to utilize.
The most effective way of achieving this is by first identifying what questions you are trying to answer with data. Then there should be a plan for how to leverage the information to improve customer experiences.
To guarantee the best marketing efficiency and truly implement successful data-driven strategies when doing DTC, we recommend using our AI tool, CLEVR, as it can connect e-commerce data from silos so companies instantly learn what’s working and how to reach more buyers.
