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The pandemic-fueled ecommerce growth in the last two years has ushered in the decade of Direct-to-Consumer (D2C) brands

As more brands crowd the segments, higher competition for the same keywords is making CAC go higher and ROAS tough to achieve. That begs the question — what growth strategy will make the D2C flywheel spin sustainably?

The answer lies behind building your D2C flywheel at the intersection of content, community, and commerce

Build for Engagement, Conversion will follow 

Fight for Retention, Acquisition will be less pricey 

Aim for Experience, Impressions will not matter 

It’s easier to stick to what you know, but repeating the same mistakes over and over isn’t working, right? So, stepping out of comfort zones is critical to get your consumers excited, hungry to buy, and ready to say ‘Yes’. But how? 

Build Your D2C Flywheel At The Intersection Of Content, Community, And Commerce

The pandemic-fueled ecommerce growth in the last two years has ushered in the decade of Direct-to-Consumer (D2C) brands. More consumers began shopping online, increasing the number of entrants and thereby more competition for the consumers’ undivided attention.

In today’s attention economy, consumers want a deep connection with their brands. They want to be known, engage with rich content, and be a part of a community, rather than just being made to ‘Shop Now’ and ‘Add to Cart’. 

These one-to-one experiences and hyper-personalised journeys from discovery through purchase are what differentiate winning D2C brands from others. When such experience isn’t offered, marketplaces become the obvious alternative.  

To win in the high-stakes D2C space, brands must attract consumers to their websites. Looking at the low value that advertising on Facebook, Google & Apple is adding, customer acquisition costs (CAC) are just rising through the roof. 

As more brands crowd the segments, higher competition for the same keywords is making CAC go higher & better return on advertising spend (ROAS) tough to achieve. When the old way of working won’t work anymore, what’s next? What growth strategy will make the D2C flywheel spin sustainably?  

The Way Forward

An experiential D2C site is the way to go. It will attract consumers with great content, retain them with engaged communities and delivers sustainable commerce growth. 

The integration of content, community, and commerce must become a central priority throughout the creative process for brand founders. Rather than presenting a disorienting blend of product placements and shoppable content on the site, leading to high bounce rates. They need to shift their focus towards building a business that wins even if Facebook crashes or if any regulation or OS change happens one fine day.  

The site must be a discovery destination, educating consumers & engaging them even when they aren’t looking to make a purchase. 

Very often, most sites focus on the utilitarian need “I just need to buy, and your product is efficient.” If that’s the only reason a consumer would engage with your website, that’s a game where Amazon almost always wins. 

Focus on building content for educating and informing your consumers. Trust me, consumers look for that and absolutely love that! It is more important than ever for consumers to identify with your brand’s vision and values. Once you have their attention, the website must be optimised from discovery to purchase. While consumers come for the content, they stay for the community engagement. 

Are Commerce Platforms The Way To Go?

Too many brands often get stuck in the historic norm of the “I create, you read” paradigm. Your content and communities should be about caring, inclusiveness and giving without expecting something in return. Otherwise, it will cost your brand more in terms of consumer mistrust, apathy, unwillingness to pay, and no second chances. 

In search of solutions to support their scale needs, D2C brands often turn to point solutions and commerce platforms that appear easy to use on the surface. And then end up having integration nightmares, siloed data streams, vendor relationships, and an army of tech experts to pay for. All of it is still without the ability to holistically engage consumers through their buying journey, and the critical insights to continue improving the product offerings. 

While the easy-looking (DIY) options may appear an immediate solution, they often don’t take into account your brand’s growth. They end up taking focus away from your bottom line, adding to your technical debt, and leaving you at the mercy of performance marketing.   

What’s the right way to organically build traffic and sustainable growth? 

Invest in a commerce platform that captures the finer nuances of D2C, with an open and composable architecture that can mould your brand’s unique story and long-term scale needs. A purpose-built and experiential tech foundation built to fuel organic growth, delight consumers, and deliver data insights and synergies from a larger partner ecosystem.