Developing Direct Routes to Market

The industry debate around the direct-to-consumer model focuses on unicorn brands like Dollar Shave Club, but the model which was so successful for Dollar Shave Club is not a one-size-fits-all approach to retailing direct-to-consumer. 

This article is an excerpt from our eBook: Maximise your retail potential. 

Creating a unique and powerful customer experience is one of the top strategic priorities for fashion and apparel brands, but it shouldn’t be limited to flashy instore concepts or beautiful branding (not that there’s anything wrong with either).

In this excerpt from our new ebook, How Apparel Brands Are Proactively Protecting Themselves from Rogue Resellers, we cover how 4 apparel and fashion brands are making a difference through their direct-to-consumer projects.

In this excerpt from our latest eBook, we cover why apparel brands and manufacturers are increasingly seeking direct routes to market, especially when they want to recover or protect their brand value and image.

Amazon’s moves to increase its share of the apparel market have received serious attention in the last six months, and rightly so. According to research by Coresight Research, Amazon is the second most-shopped apparel retailer in America, driven by the loyalty and frequent custom of Prime members.

Staying on trend is essential for apparel brands’ survival – but to do that they’ve got to have their business infrastructure and strategy on point. These are the top 5 trends of 2018 for apparel brands, manufacturers and retailers when it comes to their business priorities.

Apparel makers are struggling to stand out from the crowd in a saturated and noisy apparel market, but the latest results from one UK brand have shown that it’s still totally possible to achieve impressive growth after over three decades in business and with sales in 157 countries. Superdry was founded back in 1985 but has embraced the realities of shopping in 2018 with open arms, leading it to post an impressive 25.8% growth in ecommerce revenues in the last year alone.

Shopping has changed. Just as malls and shopping centres rose to prominence as social spaces in the 80s and 90s, so social media has become a central part of how we find and purchase products. Brands have always needed to be available in some way where people are spending their time, whether through branded content, advertising or products available for sale.

Nike has been investing heavily in in its direct-to-consumer sales – they’re now worth 29.6% of overall revenue or just over $9 billion in 2017, per Nike’s FY17 financials. That percentage has grown from just 16% in 2011. In this article, we'll be looking at what Nike's direct-to-consumer project looks like and what it means for other apparel brands. 

In a challenging consumer goods market where offline retailers are struggling, brands are looking to new revenue sources. Primarily, this takes the form of direct sales through digital channels. Today we’ll cover why and how direct-to-consumer channels offer increased margins, as well as looking at the opportunities they open up in terms of new markets, customer lifetime value, and product development.