The direct-to-consumer (D2C) trend is one to watch. Customers want to know who they are buying from, and what the brand represents. So many of the most prominent D2C brands seem to exist entirely online. They were born on social platforms like Instagram and TikTok, with the supply chain infrastructure supported by Amazon.
According to eMarketer, one in five consumers say that 40 percent of their purchases will be from D2C companies. If this is how your customers shop online, you need to start paying attention.
Here are some of the D2C trends to watch out for in 2021, from cannabis Google ads to voice search and more.
D2C Trend 3: Retailers Are Going Online
E-commerce sales have risen since the Covid-19 pandemic began, with global online sales jumping to $26.7 trillion. Both big retailers and small mom-and-pop shops have set up online stores due to stay-at-home orders and restrictions across the world.
Some of these stores are for products that would normally be sold in marketplaces or through a wholesaler.
For beverage company Olipop, for example, the pandemic drove them to establish an online presence and create a subscription base. Now they use a combination of subscriptions, email, and text messaging to sell directly to clients.
D2C Trend 2: More Use of Product Education
Product education is a way to connect with potential customers and inform them about the best uses of that product. This is especially important for cannabis companies and other new industries — not all customers know the ins-and-outs of these products.
Kannaway is a cannabis nutritional company that promotes its products through brand ambassadors. So, not only are people learning about the benefits of cannabis, but they are also learning from people they trust.
The company teaches its ambassadors about the benefits, and “they’re out there telling the story and introducing it to people in their community, all over the country,” CEO Blake Schroeder told MM & M.
D2C Trend 4: Cannabis Google Ad Sales Are Increasing
Google ads are a powerful tool for users to find your company, as they appear above search results. As a result, more and more businesses are using Google ads, which now generates about 80 percent of Alphabet’s revenue.
Google ads is one of the most successful ways to get your products in front of potential customers — customers which are already looking for these products.
D2C Trend 5: Buyers Want Personalized Experiences
When clients interact with brands, they not only want the experience to be personalized, they expect it to be.
Personalization can be achieved in numerous ways. It can mean offering customized emails, targeting ads based on a user’s web activity, or sending email reminders if a shopping cart is abandoned.
Cadbury is an example of a great personalized ad experience. The chocolate company made videos about customers’ personal tastes in chocolate, matching a flavor to users based on their Facebook profile and generating a video.
The campaign was a success, with a 65 percent click-through rate and 33.6 percent conversion rate.
D2C Trend 6: Voice-based Search
One of the newest entrants to the marketing space is voice-based search. Using search engine optimization (SEO) and search engine marketing (SEM) are no longer the only ways to drive traffic and sales. Voice-based search is also on the rise.
According to Adobe, 48 percent of online searches are voice-based, with voice being used for things like asking for directions while driving. But it’s quickly becoming more popular for other uses as well.
This means that many brands should start to think not just about SEO, but also about adapting their brand strategy to include more conversational style-search terms.
How Will You Incorporate These Trends Into Your Strategy?
When you build your marketing strategy, it's now critical to consider D2C trends. From having an online presence to creating a personalized experience to using voice-based search models, there are plenty of ways for you to reach new customers.
Interested in learning more?
AdRev believes in a more human approach to advertising. Let us demonstrate how you can reduce wasted ad spend and time to conversion by implementing an omni-channel strategy that amplifies your SEO, Paid Search, Content and Programmatic strategies. Using our capital investment, you can shift allocated marketing dollars to other areas of your business.
If you would like to learn more about shifting your marketing strategies to grow your marketshare and bottom line, let’s have a conversation.
