What is DTC?

Direct-to-customer (DTC) is a business model that sells products directly to consumers without the use of an intermediary, most commonly via ecommerce, or online selling.

How to get started with DTC

Here’s how you can adopt the DTC business model and avoid common pitfalls:

1. Understand your audience and align your offer and presentation

  • Get to know your audience: For your products to occupy a place in your audience’s minds, you need to learn what they want and need. Use different tactics like conducting surveys and analyzing customer data to correctly identify what your audience is looking for.
  • Tailor your messaging: Tweak your marketing messages so they speak to your target audience. For example, if your ecommerce specializes in selling clothing items, and your target audience prioritizes comfort in clothes, your messages should highlight your products are made from soft and breathable fabrics.
  • Present your products effectively: Find the best way to showcase your products to your audience. Building on what you’ve learned about them, create product descriptions that address their wants, needs, and questions. Use visuals like high-quality images and videos to present your products and help customers better understand their features.
  • Ask customers for feedback: By actively seeking feedback from your customers, you learn more about how their preferences, needs, and pain points may change over time. This allows you to make adjustments to products and your marketing messages so they are more likely to resonate with your target audience.

2. Adopt a DTC tech stack to manage the entire customer lifecycle

With DTC, you’re responsible for sales, marketing, distribution, and the entire customer journey. To correctly handle these processes and prevent issues, consider investing in:

  • Ecommerce platforms: Your online store is the backbone of your DTC business. It’s how your target audience will order your products directly from your brand. Choose an ecommerce platform that offers easy order management, payment, inventory control, and fulfillment.
  • Marketing automation: Your marketing automation platform is your DTC business’ central hub for audience data and message dissemination. Through your marketing platform, obtain consent from your audience to send them personalized emails, SMS messages, and push notifications about your brand and products. With a combination of enriched data profiles and targeted messaging, you’ll be able to have a direct relationship with your customers without an intermediary.
  • Customer service: Adopting a DLC business model entails providing customer service that differentiates you from traditional retailers. Use what you know about your customers to personalize your interactions. Answer their questions quickly, offer helpful resources like an FAQs page, and allow them to provide feedback. Make sure your customers can reach you in different ways, including via email, live chat, or phone.

The benefits and pitfalls of DTC

With DTC, you can enjoy the following benefits:

  1. You control the entire product and customer lifecycle: You’re in charge of everything, from manufacturing to marketing and logistics. Cutting third parties from the sales process gives you more flexibility in your marketing strategies and order fulfillment.
  2. More potential profit, faster: You won’t pay fees to major retailers and marketplaces, so you can potentially generate more profit more quickly, depending on your initial investments, which you also control.
  3. You can forge stronger customer relationships: Direct access to your customers means you can offer them a personalized experience based on data you own.

Despite its benefits, DTC also comes with challenges like:

  1. More responsibility: You’re responsible for all aspects of your business, from marketing and logistics to customer service.
  2. Building your customer base from scratch: You’ll need to invest time and resources into acquiring and retaining customers.
  3. Larger investments: Starting a DTC ecommerce often requires significant upfront investments in inventory, marketing, and technology.

Getting started with DTC is much easier with Klaviyo. Use Klaviyo to collect data from your audience through forms, segment your audience based on desired criteria, create personalized messaging, and set up automation to build relationships at scale.

Sign up for Klaviyo to grow your DTC business in no time.

Additional resources