Table of Contents
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What are direct-to-consumer brands?
Benefits of building a DTC brand
How shopping DTC benefits the end user
How 7 direct-to-consumer brands benefited from partnering with a 3PL
Direct-to-consumer (DTC) brands continue to be on the rise. Thanks to a wide range of services, resources, and technology that support independent online stores, there is so much opportunity to create a remarkable shopping experience that keeps customers coming back for more.
Learn how fast-growing DTC brands are competing with traditional brands, and how partnering with a 3PL gives them a competitive advantage.
What are direct-to-consumer brands?
Direct-to-consumer (DTC) are brands that sell products directly to customers, without a middleman, wholesalers, or third-party retailers.
Benefits of building a DTC brand
Building a DTC brand is a rewarding and profitable way to offer a product that has a unique selling point and fills a gap in the market. Many DTC brands create products they’re passionate about, that make a difference in a person’s life, and/or are in high demand.
Here are some more of the biggest benefits of starting a DTC brand.
Better customer data
By building a DTC brand, you’re able to capture better customer data across multiple selling channels. By creating a constant feedback loop, DTC brands are given the opportunity to collect better customer insight and use it to strengthen their product and overall brand image.
More control over brand image
When dealing with middlemen and retailers, your brand image can change quite a bit. Think of how products are sold at Target versus a Walmart, and how you may think differently of similar products just by how it’s being displayed.
By building a DTC brand, you have more control over your brand’s image, from how products are being presented on your website to how it gets delivered to your customer.
Better customer relationships
DTC brands are known for having a more direct relationship with their customers, especially through social media. For instance, Facebook Groups is becoming a popular tactic for DTC brands; it’s a place where they can interact with their customers in a more personable setting.
By creating a more intimate relationship with customers and gaining more insight into what’s important to them, DTC brands can improve customer lifetime value (CLV) by creating an online shopping experience that they desire.
How shopping DTC benefits the end user
According to RetailDive.com, 81% of online shoppers plan to make at least one purchase from a DTC brand within the next five years. Here are some of the reasons why more shoppers are choosing to purchase from a DTC brand.
A better customer experience
The biggest reason is the overall customer experience DTC brands offer their customers. Customers who purchase DTC products know that when they make a complaint, share new ideas, or compliment a product, their feedback is going directly to the business who made their products (and it’s being heard!). This creates a positive end-to-end shopping experience for the customer.
Less upcharge
Middlemen like retailers and wholesalers charge a price on top of the purchase price in order for them to make a profit. With less upcharge, customers are able to get a high-quality product at an affordable price.
Quality assurance
There is a better sense of perceived quality when buying directly from the company that makes your products. This is because a refund, repair, or exchange goes through the company who make the product. Many founders and CEOs of DTC brands are very much involved in product development to ensure the highest quality is being delivered.
How 7 direct-to-consumer brands benefited from partnering with a 3PL
Today’s fastest-growing brands are partnering with tech-enabled 3PLs, like ShipBob, to help streamline their order fulfilment process and grow their business at an extensive rate. Here are some examples of successful DTC brands who have benefited highly from outsourcing fulfilment to ShipBob.
1. Ample Foods
Ample Foods combines nutrition science with whole-food ingredients to create a meal replacement that you can feel good about consuming. Ideal for busy professionals, travelers, and really anyone who is looking for a way to stay healthy on-the-go.
How ShipBob has helped grow the Ample Foods brand
Ever since Ample Foods started working with ShipBob, they have benefited from transparent fulfilment data and reporting that provides insights into fulfilment performance and much more.
“From expanding into a second ShipBob fulfilment centre, we are excited to be able to offer 65% of our customers with 2-day shipping, up from 32% by only having a single West Coast facility. Soon, this will be 100%. Not only is this better for our customers but we also gain a 13% savings to our bottom line.”
Pablo Gabatto, Business Operations Manager at Ample Foods
The most valuable 3PL features for this business:
- Distributed inventory
- 2-day shipping
- Fulfilment data and analytics tool
2. MDacne
MDacne is a digital health DTC brand that offers access to dermatology services for everyone — all you need is a smartphone. Their product includes a dynamic app that analyses a person’s skin and creates a personalised and fully-customised acne treatment kit.
How ShipBob has helped grow the MDacne brand
MDacne is a tech-focused company, so they needed a tech-enabled 3PL that could provide out-of-the-box solutions to meet their needs.
“ShipBob’s API lets us build custom logic since we ship personalised products with lots of variations in the kits we send. We can write a few lines of code instead of creating a manual kit for each possible order combination as we’d have to do in a tool like Shopify.”
Oded Harth, CEO & Co-Founder of MDacne
The most valuable 3PL features for this business:
- Developer API
- Subscription order fulfilment
- Fulfilment data and distribution metrics
3. Nature’s Ultra
Nature’s Ultra makes the highest quality of CBD-infused products using only natural ingredients. With Nature’s Ultra, you’re getting CBD with powerful Young Living essential oils. Founded in 2017, in just a short few years, they have seen tremendous growth (9,900% growth year over year).
How ShipBob has helped grow the Nature’s Ultra brand
When Nature’s Ultra started to see a surge in order volume, they knew it was time to find a long-term partnership with a 3PL that could help them scale. Now, Nature’s Ultra is able to ship over a hundred orders per day and offer 2-day shipping to all customers.
“With ShipBob, 100% of our orders are going out via 2-day shipping. We see that people are far more likely to order and keep ordering from us when 2-Day Express Shipping PRogram is an option.”
Andrew Hardy, COO of Nature’s Ultra
The most valuable 3PL features for this business:
- 2-Day Express Shipping Program
- Distributed inventory
- Data and analytics
4. Touchland
Touchland is a fast-growing brand that has successfully upgraded the hand sanitizing experience to a whole new level. Recognized by Allure as a Best of Beauty award winner, named as a finalist for Fast Company’s 2020 Innovation by Design Awards, Touchland sells a hand sanitizer that brings style.
How ShipBob has helped grow the Touchland brand
Touchland launched in 2018 and grew quickly after a successful Kickstarter campaign, and then grew even faster after the COVID-19 pandemic hit. To meet customer demand, they partnered with ShipBob to fulfil a high volume of orders.
“We were already growing quickly when COVID began, then we completely sold out the first week of the pandemic. In three weeks, more than 34,000 customers were waitlisted on Touchland.com. We even did pre-orders to try and meet demand. Between March and May 2020, we had up to 700 orders per day and sold 10,000 dispensers to industry-leading brands in those three months.
COVID changed the mentality of hand sanitation for most businesses, and this won’t go away after the pandemic.”
Andrea Lisbona, Founder & CEO of Touchland
The most valuable 3PL features for this business:
- Fast retail order fulfilment
- Order management
- Distributed inventory
Looking to expand your DTC business?
Partnering with a tech-enabled 3PL is an essential part to growing a successful ecommerce brand. With ShipBob, you’re able to tap into a highly-connected fulfilment centre network powered by best-in-class technology, and that’s not all:
- Better understand where to store your inventory based on where your customers are
- Tap into 2-day shipping options to reduce cart abandonment and increase AOV
- Get full visibility into the entire order fulfilment process in real-time
- And so much more!
Learn more about ShipBob’s fulfilment services by filling out the form below.
