Direct-to-consumer has become a very popular concept in recent years, as a lot of brands had to move their business online in order to survive on the market.

The term refers to an online business that sells and delivers the goods or services directly to the consumer, without the involvement of a third-party retailer.

In this article, we are going to go over some success stories, of brands in various industries, that effectively followed the D2C model, and became very successful. 

Dollar Shave Club 

This company launched in 2011, and it was the first monthly subscription service for men's razors. The video "Our Blades Are F***ing Great," which was created to advertise the introduction of Dollar Shave Club, has received over 25 million views.

You should watch it if you haven't already. It's an excellent example of the type of marketing that may help a firm get off the ground, both in terms of the number of people it reached and the number of conversations and referrals it generated.

Key takeaways from this brand 

Another factor that has contributed to the Dollar Shave Club's success is the establishment of trust and transparency.

The video's content has added value due to its simplicity. The pitch was very personal and immediately addressed the customer's wants, which included an efficient and affordable solution to a basic need of shaving. 

Rather than attempting to compete with established brands such as Gillette, the business chose to do so by offering something that no one else has: a very affordable, continuous, subscription-based delivery.

One of the reasons why so many people signed up for this service was because of its exceptional usability, ease of subscription, and quick, flawless check-out process.

Bonobos

The astonishing $310M brand started out with a pair of good pants. Bonobos launched in 2007, making it quite an old D2C brand.

This company started out long before the 2020 boom in D2C startup businesses. The business model was based on the idea to deliver the perfectly fitted pair of pants to men online, without them having to spend hours shopping.

The design was supposed to be a combination of the European and American extremes, and create the perfect length, wist and avoid folding of the fabric.

Key takeaways from this brand 

Since Bonobos was one of the first online D2C clothing brands, the main challenge was getting beyond the apprehension many people had about ordering clothing online, especially when it comes to aspects like fitting.

To address this issue, the co-founders took initiative and instituted free, no-questions-asked returns. Customers were encouraged to order many pairs of pants and return the ones that didn't fit. 

What can be learned from this brand’s approach to D2C, is that one of the elements to success is building trust and reliability as a brand, even if you are introducing a brand-new concept that people have not yet developed a connection with. 

Glossier 

Glossier is a digital-first cosmetics company that has outperformed the competition when it comes to using Instagram as a growth channel.

Emily Weiss, the company's CEO and creator started with an Instagram account and began the product development process by simply uploading pictures in a variety of styles and aesthetics, judging what her followers liked and didn't like.

Today, the Glossier community has 2.7M followers and its core of success revolves around referrals and the existing community around the brand. “70% of online sales and traffic comes through peer-to-peer referrals,” Weiss told Entrepreneur in 2017.

Key takeaways from this brand 

This is an excellent example of a brand that mastered customer engagement on its D2C platform.

Because of its engaging content, Glossier gained millions of followers and is now using its following to create more content.

Nowadays, if you create a high-quality photo of the products that you ordered from Glossier, there is a chance it is going to be reposted on their main page with over 2.7 million followers, and generate exposure for your personal page.

This strategy of ‘micro-influencing’ creates a strong connection between the customer and the brand, giving a sense of community around the brand. 

Would you like to start out your D2C journey? 

Before you get into the D2C business, the main thing that you should take into consideration is choosing the technology, that is going to make half of your success.

Having an easy-to-use application and website builds reliability and created a connection with your customers visually, as well.

Platforms, such as Ordering, can help to get you set up in less than a week, and it does not require you to have lots of experience with coding and design.

You can easily alter the platforms using drag and drop and alter your content however you like. Do not wait to bring your idea to reality, and contact one of the Ordering team members today.