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]]>And guess what? The e-commerce landscape is also changing with the evolution of consumer preferences. Their curiosity about what, when, and how they receive their product, their awareness of sustainability, and their preference for customization have significantly influenced the exponential growth of D2C brands in India over the last few years.
Some of the well-known brands we all must have heard of are BoAt, Mamaearth, and WOW Skincare. These brands quickly solidified their position in the Indian market. With their wide range of products, these brands have built a community of customers who prefer to buy from them directly. This new approach expands the horizon of new trends and curiosities. Let’s explore these in detail in this blog.
Some questions that might come to your mind are: Why do people believe in buying directly from these brands? Are they more reliable than other existing selling channels? Most importantly, are they outdoing the services provided by marketplaces? If yes, then how? Let’s have a closer look at the answers to all these questions!
The secret lies in the 3Cs: community, connection, and customization. Many D2C brands have unlocked their success by building the community. Whether it’s an apparel, electronic, or FMCG brand, they connect people to one idea. And promoting that idea is a new trend that provides a sense of connection among the people.
Next, altering the product or any service according to the consumers is an important part of the D2C model. Since the producers are the sole distributors here, customers would like to stay where they feel important, and hence, they would like to buy from the brand directly.
Relying on the marketplace or directly on the brand solely depends on trust. If a customer is buying directly from the brand, that means they trust it. Some brands provide services like try-at-home or delivery to your doorstep. Customers are assured of the value of their money, which motivates them to rely directly on the brand rather than any other source.
It also becomes easier for brands to collect and combine the customer’s data without interference from a third-party platform. Thirdly, brands own the full authority on cost and profit, which eventually caters more to their audience since they can buy at a cost, with no middleman included.
There are various factors associated with the marketplace and D2C that make them stand out from each other. A traditional marketplace gives its users a wider product range, convenience, and comparable deals, helping them to choose the best. While D2C attracts the attention of its consumers more directly, their connection is stronger than any other platform. Also, they tailor their services and can cater to the personalized needs of their customers.
However, both require a common nucleus: good e-commerce management. The smoother and more connected the functions, the better the business. If the D2C model is used effectively, it will connect better with customers.
Other technical factors related to the functions are a robust inventory system, a sound order management system, and, more or less, an experience like a marketplace. One thing that differs between both is returns management. In the case of a marketplace, shipping returns are more traceable and systematic. If a D2C unlocks this factor, it’s all a piece of cake for them! Some solutions are helping D2Cs provide their users with an experience like that of a marketplace.
The evolving e-commerce landscape has shown some significant shifts in retail dynamics. Adapting to consumer preferences is the key to success for any business. Nowadays, this weighs more towards what D2C has to offer. To cater to the personalized experience of its customers, a brand also requires seamless personalization in its operations. A good ecommerce management is the door to unlocking it all!
Related read:
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]]>Today, there are a lot of new technologies that are bringing about a paradigm shift in the way retailers are able to sell their products. To catch more eyeballs, retailers are trying to tap their customers on every available sales channel. The increased demand has resulted in the rise of many start-up brands moving their business from just selling on marketplaces to a mix of marketplaces and D2C websites.
But managing a vast inventory and several SKUs across multiple sales channels makes it challenging for retailers to thrive in this cut-throat competitive market. The answer is to embrace advanced technologies to get ahead in the market, here is when a robust inventory management system comes in handy.
Let’s look at some challenges and how you can address them to have a top-notch inventory at all times!
Many retailers struggle with the problem of limited or poor inventory visibility across multiple sales channels. Therefore, it becomes increasingly challenging for them to manage, control, and optimize business operations, leading to delayed shipments and lost sales.
You can simplify multichannel selling with a real-time inventory management system. The features offered by these systems not only enhance stock visibility but also reduce inventory loss. For example, with the Item-level traceability feature, businesses have the ability to track each item of every product throughout the life cycle.
Also Read: What is Multichannel Selling?
As more retailers try to bring their business across multiple sales channels, the challenge is maintaining operational efficiency across these different channels. With changing demand, it is important to efficiently manage products that get close to expiry. Industries dealing with low-shelf life products like FMCG, Pharma, Beauty & Personal care, etc., need efficient expiry management and rotation methods to minimize the number of expired products piling up on their shelves.
Using FIFO (First In, First Out) and FEFO (First Expire, First Out) based picking and batching helps businesses reduce obsolete inventory by selling items based on the current status of their shelf life. This helps ensure high-quality products to customers, thus increasing their satisfaction.
Read: How can you Minimize Stock Losses for your business by using FIFO & FEFO?
To stay ahead of the competition, businesses need to keep their inventory updated across multiple sales channels. Managing huge inventory with manual procedures is prone to more errors and leads to slower order processing. If a brand sells on three sales channels, it needs to track inventory across all three sales channels, manually inputting product information into each platform. This is a time-intensive process.
Updating inventory becomes much easier and more efficient with software. Using inventory management software makes it easy for businesses to monitor huge stocks, therefore, improving order fulfillment and accuracy across multiple channels.
Read: How Hamilton Housewares attained 99% Order Fulfillment Rate?
The last thing any e-commerce business wants is to run out of stock when the demand for its product is high. Managing optimum inventory across multiple channels can be a real challenge for your business. To avoid stockouts, it is important to calculate the right amount of product units (SKUs) needed in stock at any given time.
With an automated inventory management system, you can easily eliminate imbalances and errors in stocks. These highly-advanced systems allow retailers to set a minimum limit. If the stock goes below the limit, it automatically adds products to respective vendor panels for processing. The comprehensive reports by inventory management software also provide businesses with data that allow them to know the highest and lowest-selling SKUs and analyze trends over time.
This data can also be leveraged during sales and the festive season to make well-informed strategic decisions. These self-regulating operations prevent unnecessary stockouts and manage seamless sales across multiple channels.
Read: How Unicommerce Empowered Vastramay to Manage their Inventory Seamlessly
Tracking inventory across multiple channels may seem a straightforward task, but since the inventory process is always on the go, it’s not uncommon for inventory to get misplaced, lost, or stolen. This leads to a loss in revenue and harms your business’s bottom line.
With the cycle counting feature, retailers can accurately analyze the physically recorded data and map inventories correctly. Not only does this help identify inventory issues, but it also provides reasons and suitable corrective actions to overcome these challenges.
Read: Why Choose Cycle Count Over Physical Counts?
Businesses with multi-channel inventory management are better equipped to meet the changing demands of customers. Unicommerce’s robust Inventory Management System can help overcome these inventory challenges and streamline the order fulfillment process for your business!
Maximize sales and ensure order fulfillment efficiency with our powerful inventory control software.
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Discover Unicommerce’s Success Story with Leading Brands –
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]]>The post Direct to Consumer (D2C) Selling Business Model – Solutions, Strategies & Benefits appeared first on unicommerce.com.
]]>Simply put, for you to master the direct-to-consumer (D2C) sales format you need to focus more on the needs of your consumer rather than just providing them with whatever service you have.
Sounds easy right? Well, it is a little more complex to do than said!
Are you planning to take the D2C Selling route? Are you looking for detailed strategies to make the most out of the direct-to-consumer trend that can allow your business to partake in this new technology in the best possible way?
Sellers, retailers, brands – both small or big – have been keeping up with the new-age trend of the D2C business model that not only reaps many benefits but empowers your business to keep growing with the changing reality.
But, what is it about D2C that makes it the buzzword around the e-commerce world? Read on to get all the unique insights.
In India, almost every brand wants to become Direct-to-Consumer as it has proved to be a savior for a lot of businesses amid the pandemic times. Be it budding entrepreneurs or established enterprises, the demand to go D2C is overwhelming in the nation.
As customers have now transitioned from shopping traditionally to the online platforms – which are trying to develop similar experiences to that of buying in a store with the help of AI (try and buy, shop in wheels, etc.) – D2C has pushed businesses to rethink their online sales strategy.
Right from building a strong consumer experience to creating complete visibility of trends, brands are leveraging some of these crucial aspects using D2C.
But again, the question is, what are the aspects that persuade a retailer to shift to the D2C business model? Let’s dive into the concept and understand the benefits of the trend, shall we?
1. Complete Control Over Brand Portrayal
When you are able to have control over your brand’s identity, you are able to build a strong presence.
For example, by going D2C, a manufacturer is establishing a direct connection with the consumers. Moreover, the elimination of middlemen could also remove the distortion of branding messages. Hence, strategizing a D2C e-commerce plan, delivering the products to the end customers, D2C gives manufacturers full control to drive better customer experiences.
2. Potential to Grow and Increase Brand Loyalty
With a complete understanding of what customers want, businesses can follow up on all the latest trends and requirements to constantly evolve their products and deliver the best to their consumers, giving them customized services and developing brand loyalty.
3. Utilizing Omnichannel Technology
Another significant advantage of going D2C is that brands are no longer required to stick to a single platform to maintain sales when you have clarity of what your customers are shopping for, you also have visibility on where they are shopping from the most.
4. Increase Profit Margins
The first and most important advantage of going D2C is the amplified business profit margins. How? Well, middlemen sometimes cost you more than your cash inflow, leading to less or no profits. But the D2C retail works on the principles of self-service and automation, which thoroughly remove the participation of intermediaries, making it easier for you to make more profits.
With D2C, you are aware of the major sales channels to be present on, be it online or offline, and drive the traffic from there. Building the right omnichannel strategies can doubly benefit manufacturers and e-commerce businesses to further exponentiate sales.
There has been a global wave to go D2C due to the significant spike in sales achieved from it. But how can you adapt D2C e-commerce selling and what are things you definitely need to consider before implementing a D2C strategy?
Let’s hear from some of the most sought-after e-commerce enablers who are empowering D2C brands like yours!
Take a look at the session of the businesses/brands mentioned above!
The biggest derivative of adapting direct to consumer business model is to ensure that your brand is easy to search, has quick buying options, strong customer support and efficient logistics assistance.
Chumbak is one such successful brand that has effortlessly transitioned to a D2C brand with the help of highly advanced technological solutions and now sells across all possible channels including their own online and offline stores as well as leading marketplaces like Amazon, Myntra etc.
If you haven’t yet started to make the transition and worry about the processes involved, we are here to help you with our expertise to ensure your business is capable of adjusting to this new arena smoothly.
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]]>More and more brands are shifting towards the D2C model of selling, where they want more customers to engage with their brand website. As brands make this leap into the D2C realm, a common challenge emerges—the need to streamline inventory.
In order to achieve that, it is crucial that your D2C brand needs comprehensive strategies and tactics to manage your inventory efficiently. In this blog, you’ll learn about the contemporary art of inventory management and build the brand that you seek to build, ensuring a competitive edge in the market.
In your pursuit of a seamless D2C experience, you’ll encounter various challenges that necessitate tailored strategies and tactics. Let’s delve deep into the strategies and tactics that will empower you to conquer the intricacies of webstore inventory management, ultimately setting your brand on a path to success.
1. FIFO, FEFO
FIFO (First-In, First-Out) and FEFO (First-Expired, First-Out) are inventory management methods crucial for industries dealing with perishable or time-sensitive products.
– FIFO (First-In, First-Out): This method ensures that the oldest inventory is sold before the newer ones. It prevents products from becoming obsolete, reducing the risk of waste. For D2C brands, especially in the fashion, footwear, home furnishing, and electronics industries, FIFO helps maintain compliance with quality and regulatory standards.
– FEFO (First-Expired, First-Out): In industries where product expiration is a critical concern, FEFO is paramount. It prioritizes products with earlier expiration dates, ensuring that they are sold before newer ones, preventing dead inventory in the warehouse. This maintains product quality and compliance and is critical in the FMCG Industry, Healthcare, and Beauty & Personal Care industry.
The pioneering pet-care brand, Supertails, exponentially reduced the occurrence of expiration and wastage of products by implementing the FEFO strategy, which enabled them to sell their products efficiently and achieve an 18% reduction in returns.
2. Barcode Scanning
Barcode scanning is an essential technology for optimal inventory management in the D2C space. It involves assigning unique barcodes to each product, allowing for accurate tracking and identification. This is particularly beneficial for brands dealing with products that have minor variations.
Furthermore, Barcode scanning streamlines order processing, reduces the likelihood of errors, and enhances inventory accuracy along with the picking process in the warehouse. It enables quick and precise identification of products, facilitating smooth operations from warehouse to customer doorstep.
Many brands, including a leading men’s shoe brand Attitudist, used advanced item traceability at the SKU level to empower their ability to track different aspects of inventory, such as cost, expiry, manufacturing details, etc., and gained complete visibility into the lifecycle of their products, allowing for efficient inventory management and informed decision-making.
3. Real-time inventory management
In the dynamic landscape of D2C, real-time inventory management emerges as a pivotal strategy. This approach provides brands with instantaneous insights into stock levels, order status, and product movement across various marketplaces and brand websites. For brands navigating the swiftly changing preferences of consumers, real-time inventory management serves as a game-changer.
With this robust system, your brand can consolidate its entire inventory onto a single dashboard, offering a comprehensive overview. This centralized control allows for immediate decision-making, minimizes the risk of stockouts or overstocks, and significantly reduces customer returns. Picture having the ability to track product availability, sales trends, and order fulfillment in real time—all at your fingertips.
Leading D2C players, such as Mamaearth, embraced real-time inventory management to get a centralized automated system. The result? A streamlined process, optimized inventory levels, inventory allocation for bulk orders, and a 300% reduction in returns, positioning them for sustained growth in the competitive D2C landscape.
4. Demand Forecasting
Demand forecasting involves predicting future customer demand for products based on historical data, market trends, and other relevant factors. It is a crucial aspect of inventory management, enabling brands to align their stock levels with anticipated demand.
For D2C brands with ever-changing trends, accurate demand forecasting is invaluable. It helps prevent stockouts, excess inventory, and missed sales opportunities. By understanding customer preferences and market trends, brands can optimize their inventory levels, keeping inventory slim and ensuring that products are available when and where they are needed. Adopting Demand Forecasting as a strategy can help predict future trends, ensuring that inventory remains relevant and in demand.
A D2C brand’s evident goal is to strengthen customer relationships and understand what customers expect from a brand. Having delved into Strategies and Tactics to Optimize your D2C Inventory, let’s see why all this planning and execution is crucial. Here are four solid reasons that make streamlined webstore inventory management an absolute game-changer:
By employing a sophisticated Inventory Management System tailored to D2C operations, your brands can effectively address these crucial aspects, ensuring a competitive edge in the market.
Conclusion
Optimizing webstore inventory management is a critical endeavor for brands looking to thrive in the competitive e-commerce landscape. By understanding the unique challenges associated with D2C operations and implementing tailored strategies and tactics, brands can streamline their inventory processes, enhance customer satisfaction, and ultimately drive business growth. Embracing the contemporary art of inventory management is not just a strategy; it’s a pathway to building a resilient and customer-centric brand in the D2C era.
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]]>D2C brands like Mamaearth, boAt, The Man Company, and Bewakoof are leading the charge and setting new benchmarks and redefining the D2C landscape in India. As we progress through 2024, the importance of adapting to changing consumer trends cannot be overstated.
As we navigate through 2024, adapting to changing consumer preferences and market trends is very crucial. That is why we have come up with seven key trends that are shaping the landscape of D2C e-commerce this year, offering insights into the strategies driving their growth.
Make your brand stand out in this ever-evolving D2C e-commerce as we uncover the top 5 trends poised to redefine 2024’s digital landscape.
The trend of blending the online and offline worlds, often referred to as the omnichannel approach, is gaining momentum. In 2024, we can expect to see more brands embracing this strategy to create seamless shopping experiences for their customers.
One notable aspect of this trend is the movement of digital-first brands into the physical retail space. While traditionally brick-and-mortar businesses have expanded their reach online, we’re now witnessing the reverse journey. Brands that have primarily operated in the digital space are recognizing the value of establishing a physical presence to engage with customers in a more tangible way.
Take, for example, the popular home decor brand, Nestasia. Despite its initial success as an e-commerce giant, Nestasia recognized the importance of offering customers a hands-on experience with its products. In response, they opened brick-and-mortar stores where customers can interact with home decor items.
As we move further into 2024, we can expect to see more D2C brands following in the footsteps of Nestasia and exploring opportunities to bridge the gap between online and offline retail. Embracing an omnichannel approach will not only help your brand stand out in a competitive market but also cater to the evolving preferences of modern consumers.
In 2024, D2C brands will double down on optimizing the purchasing journey for their customers, emphasizing faster checkout solutions and enhanced logistics tracking to elevate the shopping experience.
With the increasing demand for convenience, brands are investing in technologies that expedite the checkout process while ensuring transparency in order fulfillment. You can also expect to see innovative solutions such as one-click checkout options, automatic payment methods, and integration with digital wallets to minimize friction and speed up transactions.
Moreover, advanced logistics tracking will become a cornerstone of D2C operations, providing customers with real-time visibility into the status of their orders from placement to delivery. This transparency not only instills confidence in the brand but also allows customers to plan and anticipate the arrival of their purchases more effectively.
As competition intensifies in the D2C space, brands are increasingly recognizing the importance of providing a seamless and convenient returns experience to enhance customer satisfaction and loyalty. In response to this, D2C brands are adopting marketplace-like returns management solutions to simplify the process for both customers and themselves.
These solutions leverage advanced technology to automate and streamline the returns process, offering features such as single-click returns, automated pickup, and a user-friendly return page. By investing in efficient returns management, brands can not only improve customer satisfaction but also reduce operational costs associated with processing returns.
In 2024, the importance of sustainability in the D2C space will continue to surge as consumers increasingly demand brands to prioritize eco-conscious practices. From reducing carbon footprints to promoting ethical sourcing, sustainability is not just a trend but a fundamental value embraced by forward-thinking brands.
Looking ahead, we can expect D2C brands to intensify their focus on eco-friendly initiatives, from utilizing recyclable materials in packaging to implementing renewable energy solutions in their operations. By demonstrating a genuine commitment to sustainability, brands can not only attract loyal customers but also drive positive change within the industry and beyond.
In D2C e-commerce, last-mile efficiency has emerged as a critical factor in gaining a competitive edge. To stand out in the market, your brand must strive to become the “fastest finger” operator, delivering orders quicker and more efficiently than the competition.
Achieving this requires a strategic approach that combines high-quality inventory management with hyperlocal delivery systems. By establishing a well-planned network of strategically dispersed fulfillment locations, or warehouses, your brand can focus on serving smaller, more concentrated geographies with greater efficiency.
By mastering the last mile and optimizing delivery efficiency, your D2C brand can enhance customer satisfaction, build brand loyalty, and ultimately gain popularity in a crowded marketplace.
In our exploration of the latest trends in D2C e-commerce for 2024, it’s evident that even seemingly minor adjustments can have a significant impact when applied consistently across a brand’s operations. In today’s competitive market, staying ahead requires more than just keeping pace with trends—it requires proactive adaptation and innovation.
By embracing these trends and implementing them effectively, D2C brands can meet the evolving expectations of consumers and stay competitive in the ever-changing landscape of e-commerce!
Related read:
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