So Why and How Direct-To-Consumer?
(you may want to check before: direct-to-consumer, as a “pre-fase” for this article)
Whatever is happening today in the retail industry, whether it’s an expansion of private label collections or an opening of new retail outlets, technology is playing a huge part to develop new capabilities to support new strategies.
To be compatible in today’s fashion world, a smart move for retailers is to integrate the DTC strategy to their operations and processes of their network.
To find a new area where your brand can grow, must be seen as a priority. Especially these days where innovation is central. Technology has evolved to a level where it can be missed in any environment. This is the way to gain visibility of the entire supply chain, order management, partners,… With the help of technology, shipping time and costs can be communicated clearly and meet the customers’ expectations.
To be up-to-date on what’s happening in the industry, is crucial for intelligent decision making, to gain insights into cause-and-effect relationships to understand the impact of decisions better.
To secure a successful DTC and omni-channel strategy, following aspects must be present:
- A vision into supply chain: DTC is all about identification and management of core competences. For effective operations, visibility of supply chains is a must!
- Customer experience: switching to DTC will require creating a personalized experience that’s so dominant, that it will pull the consumers away from traditional retailers and push them towards you, online or offline.
- Technology: DTC retailers should take advantage of analytics and data that’s available these times. Including current data, product reviews and trends to create an individual shopping experience based on each customer’s needs.
- e-Commerce shipping: Logistics is one of the worst customer experience cases. International e-Commerce logistics are more expensive, complex, and time consuming than domestic logistics. DTC retailers must understand import and export restrictions of the destination country, in addition to calculating duties and taxes, estimating the time for clearance, and properly completing Customs documents. It’s crucial that the organization of DTC retailers is defined in detail. Which solutions are the most efficient for the client? How do we integrate shipping information? How do we handle delays, damages and returns? When you define all these organizational aspects, it will also give you more personal contact with your customers.
Most of DTC’s success depends on the ability to manage the unexpected. When companies occupy themselves to identify trends and events, it will allow them to perform to issues in an early stage. With better visibility, even employees can focus on business activities that require the attention needed. Worldwide trading partners vary a lot in strategies, size, technical sophistication and communication. Visibility software brings this all together and utilizes their existing infrastructure without the need for extensive integration projects.
If Direct-to-Consumer retailers apply better communication into their strategy, they will see the decrease of “out-of-stocks” and will notice the higher revenue. It allows them to ensure the promised timeframe for delivery. They also eliminate many manual processes with global trading partners, which will enable them to improve on an operational level and respond immediately to unplanned supply chain disruptions.
This selling strategy illustrates powerful market opportunity for retailers and wholesale brands. This only if they reshape their supply chain to be able to handle more of the consumers’ orders, while at the same time offering choice and convenience. Now that’s the perfect shopping experience!
To know more: direct-to-consumer
