D2C Ecommerce Guide 2023: Strategies & Case Studies

D2C eCommerce is the act of manufacturers directly selling products to consumers online. Manufacturers can sell their products at lower prices than traditional brands, and keep full control over product production, distribution, and marketing.

D2C eCommerce marketing strategy eliminates the need for third-party retailers, who often market your brand alongside rivals. But keep in mind that your success in D2C marketing depends on your ability to outperform competitors independently. You will have greater control over your product’s advertising, stronger customer loyalty, and increased profits if you do D2C marketing correctly.

This guide will introduce you to the concept of d2c eCommerce, along with the best strategies to turn your business into a successful eCommerce.

What Is D2C E-commerce

D2C eCommerce is when manufacturers sell directly to consumers via their online store. In a traditional retailer business model, items go from a manufacturer to a wholesaler and then to a consumer. In d2c eCommerce, the middleman is almost literally cut out. A study has also shown that 55% of consumers prefer to shop directly with the brand manufacturer over a retailer. With the help of digital platforms, such as social media and websites, you will be able to sell your products directly to consumers. Your product is completely under your control in terms of manufacturing, marketing, and distribution.

Challenges for a D2C Brand in E-commerce & Marketing

It’s impossible to predict when and how a business will face storms once it sets sail. A well-run e-commerce business, however, can face some challenges and roadblocks which must be anticipated well in advance. D2C brands, especially those in their early stages of growth sprints, face a common set of challenges. It is these challenges that can be a bully for e-commerce growth, from sales conversion to logistics of fulfillment. Here are five common challenges faced by D2C brands and how they can be overcome for hyper-growth.

• Personalization –

As customers become increasingly demanding, D2C companies need to offer them precisely what they need at exactly the right time. This requires brands to improve their efforts at personalizing customer experiences. Regardless of their location, demographic profile, past purchases, or other factors, customers expect brands to cater to them from the moment they arrive on an eCommerce d2c site, showcasing products they may be interested in.

How to Overcome: Brands must gather and leverage a huge amount of customer data in order to overcome the challenges that personalization can pose. By using this customer data, they will be able to provide content and product suggestions that match the profile of their customers, providing the best customer experience. This differentiated experience, combined with the engaging content and imagery your brand already produces, will help your brand build affinity and loyalty over time.

• Retention –

Customers’ loyalty is one of the keys to survival for many D2C brands but a number of factors are eroding that loyalty. The customer may prefer to shop from one source, rather than from multiple direct-to-consumer companies. Even D2C shoppers may not remain loyal if their favorite product is out of stock or if there are other brands offering comparable products. More than half of consumers purchased products from a brand other than the one they intended to buy during the pandemic.D2C brands need to differentiate themselves by offering a unique experience that no other company can match.

How to Overcome: As customers’ expectations for customer service increase, switching costs are decreasing. D2C marketers need a digital commerce platform like Sekel Tech that provides a unified view of the customer journey to meet customer expectations. It is also helpful to use a product analytics platform that highlights what user actions are linked to user retention. With the ability to track users across multiple channels, D2C companies can create retention campaigns based on the frequency of their purchases.

• Order Fulfillment –

It is integral to the eCommerce d2c brand experience to fulfill orders correctly and promptly. For your orders to be processed correctly and reach buyers on time, you need to partner with a fulfillment company like Sekel Tech.

How to Overcome: In addition to providing e-commerce logistics expertise, Sekel Tech will also serve as the driving force behind your e-commerce success. As a d2c commerce platform, Sekel Tech can provide both e-commerce marketing automation and slick fulfillment logistics to enable hyper-growth for your business. As well as reducing Return-to-Origin orders (RTOs), we streamline the process of inventory management and shipping.

• Advertising and Growth –

The popularity of social media platforms grew along with the idea of running paid ads on them. The cost of running ads on platforms such as Facebook and LinkedIn has increased significantly over the years as more and more people sign up and organic, non-paid reach declines. Adverts vary by industry; however, depending on the brand’s size, it may be challenging to compete with competitors who have larger advertising budgets.

How to Overcome: Through content marketing, brands can attract new customers, increase awareness of their products, and engage their target audiences with valuable content. There are a number of ways in which content marketing can help D2C brands level the playing field and maximize their limited marketing budgets.

• Omnichannel Shopping –

When it comes to shopping, customers expect a seamless experience regardless of which device they use. When they shop for a product on their phone, they expect to browse other similar products and even spy on competitors to find out who offers the best deals. They expect to begin shopping on their mobile phone and then finish buying while they browse other similar products. Whether they shop in-store or online, they want the option to see a product in person and then go to your eCommerce d2c store to find an alternative product or a discount. In order to compete, D2C brands need to add this omnichannel shopping experience to their strategies.

How to Overcome: In order to fulfil the goal of omnichannel shopping, you need omnichannel quick commerce. With omnichannel quick commerce, you can share valuable content and facilitate shopping on any device, instead of the traditional shopping experience where the backend data and content are tightly coupled with the frontend eCommerce d2c store.

Best D2C Ecommerce Marketing Strategies

• Develop an Effective Brand Identity – It is the way your product is communicated, the way you want people to feel when they interact with your company, and what your brand says. Essentially, your brand identity is a promise to your customers and an expression of your business’s personality. Direct-to-Consumer brands have to deliver authentic and consistent messaging across all channels as well as a positive and personalized shopping experience for consumers.

• Plan and Create a Clear Business Strategy – A solid business strategy is essential before deploying Direct-to-Consumer. By developing a business plan, you can gain a better understanding of the market and devise methods that work best for your company. In your business plan, you should answer the following questions: Why should I care? How will your business plan be used? What information should you include in your business strategy document? Which tools are most effective for your organization?

• Providing the Best Possible Customer Service – Consumer-manufacturer relationships are built on platforms, and customer loyalty is a key factor in companies’ success. Ultimately, a satisfied customer should be one of the key company values, and it must be achieved by messages, service interactions, and content that builds trust. You can reach customers and markets by posting high-quality content on websites, social media platforms, and via email, among other methods. Studying the behavior of your customers can enable you to provide them with self-service options such as FAQs and chatbots, as well as tailored e-commerce experiences. In addition to engaging material and viral videos, you should reach out to social media influencers who can effectively market.

• Track Key Metrics and Gain Unique Insights – D2C brands must be able to gather and track data from their customers across various channels in order to gain insights. It is important to track key metrics, such as cart abandonment rates, profit margins, repeat customer rates, and time spent on pages, in order to gain deeper customer insight and boost the success of your D2C brand.

• Managing and Obtaining CRM Data – In the internet world, a lot of data is available, and it is easy to find both useful and meaningless data. If a company had the ability to manage and organize this data properly, then it would be like winning half the battle. In order to understand the customer more effectively, managing and interpreting data is essential.

D2C E-commerce Case Studies

1. Aurelia Drives Growth Through Retention with Sekel Tech –

• About Aurelia – Aurelia is an Indian ethnic wear brand that combines the best of both worlds, ethnic and contemporary. It is the only brand in the Indian retail space to offer ‘Indian contemporary’ wear. Taking inspiration from the latest fashion trends and forecasts from the west, W designers transform those into silhouettes and styles that are suitable for the modern Indian woman.
  
  
• Objectives –
  -Boost new user conversion rate
  -Improve lead generation rate
  
  
• Challenges –
  -Increasing user engagement and retention
  -Reducing funnel drop-offs
  
  
• What Sekel Tech Has Done – The team was seeking a partner with proven experience in boosting retention-driven growth via data-driven engagement across the user lifecycle. Having vetted a few marketing automation platforms on the market, the Aurelia team chose Sekel Tech. The Customer Success Manager at Sekel Tech began working closely with the team at Aurelia. The brand has been able to transform the entire campaign implementation process with the help of Sekel Tech. With the help of the Sekel Tech dashboard, Aurelia successfully engaged a large number of Monthly Active Users (MAUs). Thus, vital growth metrics have been boosted for the clothing brand.

2. Haldiram’s Increased Order Volume with Sekel Tech –

• About Haldiram’s – Haldiram’s is an Indian multinational sweet, snack, and eatery company based in Nagpur, Maharashtra. There are manufacturing plants in Nagpur, New Delhi, Gurgaon, Hooghly, Rudrapur, and Noida. The Haldiram brand runs retail chains in Pune, Nagpur, Raipur, Kolkata, Noida, and Delhi as well as a range of restaurants.
  
  
• Objectives –
  -Boost brand loyalty and average order value (AOV).
  -Increase the business revenue and Return On Investment (ROI)
  
  
• Challenges –
  -Automating shopper engagement
  -Sending personalized communication at a scale
  
  
• What Sekel Tech Has Done – Haldiram uses Transactional Push Notifications to send real-time order updates and time-sensitive information. With Sekel Tech’s Transactional campaign API, they can inform their shoppers when their orders have been placed, shipped, or delivered. As a result, Haldiram’s is able to offer a good shopping experience to its customers by removing post-purchase anxiety. By using data-backed, hyper-personalized communication, Haldiram was able to improve shopper engagement and retention. Continually delivering exceptional shopping experiences at scale, they continue to grow exponentially.

3. Blackberry, a Men’s Favorite Brand, Increased Revenue with Sekel Tech –

• About Blackberry – A humble beginning in Chandni Chowk, New Delhi, 25 years ago has turned into a thriving business. Throughout the years, Blackberry has redefined occasion wear by leaps and bounds. Originally a garment manufacturer, the company has evolved from a wholesaler to a retailer, and today it is a leading fashion brand. The brand has always served as a catalyst for success since its inception.
  
  
• Objectives –
  -Increasing transactions and reducing overall user drop-offs
  -Retargeting people who have purchased experiences previously and engaging them accordingly
  
  
• Challenges –
  -Increasing engagement and conversion rates
  -Lack of a data model based on such a niche industry
  
  
• What Sekel Tech Has Done – The Sekel Tech team met with the Blackberry team and discussed their objectives, the current state of the business, and the business operations once enrolled in the program. Sekel Tech first helped Blackberry understand consumer behavior, see cohorts, read funnels, and study retention rates. To design the respective journeys and have them appear on the Sekel Tech dashboard, they composed a step-by-step plan.

How can D2C Marketing Platforms help

• Access to International Markets – Your D2C platform needs to be compatible with your target countries if you want to create a global eCommerce d2c site. International markets and customer demographics are important for a great D2C platform. When their customers make money, d2c commerce platforms make money. To replicate the success of its world-leading distributed content marketing platform, which is popular in India and Asia, Sekel Tech Pvt Ltd has expanded into the UK and EMEA markets.

• Security – If you run an online store, you are dealing with sensitive data, such as customer information, credit card numbers, and other payment information, so you should take care of it. If you fail to meet PCI Compliance standards, you may be fined, unable to accept payments, lose customer confidence, and other fraud-related financial consequences. With Sekel Tech, you can depend on level 1 compliance with PCI to ensure your site is safe and secure. Rather than worrying about security, you can focus on building your business instead.

• Seamless Omnichannel Experience – In 2023, Sekel Tech builds a strong physical and digital brand presence to help e-commerce businesses boost their omnichannel selling experience. It will allow customers to shop across the web, social media, and brick-and-mortar channels while delivering the same kind of customer service. An integrated shopping experience can be provided to customers by these companies through omnichannel initiatives. With the Sekel Tech d2c commerce platform, you can easily achieve a seamless omnichannel selling experience by realizing which channel is being used by your customers and which can deliver a better result.

• Fast Order Fulfillment – The e-commerce industry is expected to grow by more than 30 percent in 2023 as more companies jump on the digital bandwagon. B2B businesses had to explore e-commerce solutions due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the ensuing lockdowns and restrictions, as 1 in 2 e-commerce buyers expected same-day delivery due to the lockdown and restrictions. Furthermore, hyperlocal fulfillment is becoming increasingly important. Sekel Tech’s eCommerce cloud solutions help e-commerce businesses like yours to automate warehousing procedures to reduce human error and time spent on storing, sorting, and packing products, resulting in a more efficient and quick order fulfillment process.

The ideal direct-to-customer marketing platform helps brands to maximize sales prospects and order value, recommends products and increases lifetime value, increases repeat order frequency, and penetrates niche markets. With the powerful D2C commerce platform in 2023, e-commerce businesses can boost sales and profitability by offering personalized services, real-time updates, multichannel sales, smooth returns, and exchanges. The goal in 2023 is to make online customers’ lives easier. Want to learn more about D2C marketing strategies and Top Examples Of D2C Brands that can help your business grow?

Take Advantage of Sekel Tech’s D2C Commerce

D2C brands face increased competition, a need for personalization, and rapidly changing customer habits. As well as incorporating new tactics and technologies to help overcome challenges is the biggest challenge. However, there is a way to put everything together without feeling overwhelmed.

Choosing a powerful solution like Sekel Tech is the best way to go. Sekel Tech’s D2C marketing platforms that offer unified customer views, robust analytics, and streamlined personalization are needed by marketers to address D2C challenges. Sekel Tech creates a transparent and sustainable ecosystem that enables brands to do Omni-channel commerce, with a collection of first-party data infrastructure that enables low-cost customer acquisition.