1. Get closer to your customers
Direct to consumer sales enable you to get to know your customers through their data – and it allows them to get to know your brand better, too. With first-party data, you can engage in two-way dialogue with your customer base, ‘listening’ to what they have to say (through online shopping behaviour, data, social channels and marketing responses) and tailor the messaging you share in return.
2. Start selling in new products
The better you know your customers – and the more they shop directly with you – the better you will be able to sell them new products that match their preferences. With third-party sales, this wasn’t always possible: competition from hundreds of other items made it difficult to serve customers other products from your range, even if they consistently purchased one product from your brand.
3. Create a better customer experience
By going direct to consumer, you get to control how your customer interacts with your brand, not a third-party retailer. Instead of expecting customers to scrolling through seemingly endless virtual aisles to find your goods, you can choose a better way to present your products. You could create data-driven search that allows them to narrow down their options or create a more intuitive browsing experience based on a mix of product and customer data. With first-party data and customer opt-in, you have more opportunities to adapt individual experiences based on their previous behaviour and preferences.
4. Improve your marketing strategies
Instead of sending out mass-market promotions, direct to consumer sales enable you to start building your own customer profiles and target marketing outreach to customer segments. You can use customer data to send instant, reactive promotions based on recent purchases, or send prompts on products that have been left in a customer’s virtual basket, increasing marketing conversions. Combine this with detailed, accessible product data, and you can start to explore automated recommendations and mail-outs.
