Direct-to-Consumer Disrupts How Brands Engage with their Customers

While Direct-to-Consumer Brands are not new, the way they are challenging retailers by radically reorientating consumer expectations is ground breaking. Big and small brands of all kinds have embraced this model as consumers seek authentic and engaging brand relationships in an increasingly virtual and digital world.

In our latest survey we look at how some of Asia’s Direct-to-Consumer brands have succeeded in reimagining relationships and changing perceptions of convenience, quality and trust.

Successfully cutting through the noise

A Direct-to-Consumer brand’s success depends on its customer acquisition strategies, these successful brands manage an online presence across multiple platforms, building and growing a loyal base of followers that both support and believe in the brands key messaging.

Direct-to-Consumer brands prioritise customer engagement combined with their ability to be far more agile than traditional brands when adapting to new trends among consumers.

Staying current and responsive to their consumers has allowed successful Direct-to-Consumer brands to grow rapidly and achieve the reach that most retailers lack.

From Yours skincare is a good example of this, 58% of our respondents were the most aware of this Direct-to-Consumer brand compared to Sugar skincare (25%), Saturday spectacles (25%), Pomelo Fashion (17%) and Mejuri jewellery (8%).

More is needed to reach audiences

There was a split between most of our respondents when asked how often they see advertising for Direct-to-Consumer brands, 42% claimed to not see them very often, while the other 42% did. Only 17% claimed to see Direct-to-Consumer brand advertising regularly.

The most popular channels were online ads (75%) and on social media (83%).

Larger and established brands have an advantage when dedicating more resources towards developing their Direct-to-Consumer channel, brands like Nike and Xiaomi have both seen enormous success in this area, with forecasts for Nike as high as 30% of all their sales will be coming through this channel by 2023.

Changing Consumer Perceptions

A strong preference for Direct-to-Consumer brands is suggested in our survey with 92% of respondents claiming a preference towards purchasing directly from the brand itself rather than going through a retailer.

84% reported that it was likely they would even try a new Direct-to-Consumer brand, however only 42% were somewhat trustful of new Direct-to-Consumer brands. New brands contending for market share need to be wary that 75% of the consumers we surveyed still regard that established brands products are superior in quality.

Reimagining the consumer journey in a changing retail landscape, with more customer centricity using a direct approach, simplifying purchase and logistic processes, while embedding social proof in multiple parts of the purchase experience is likely the recipe for success.  

To learn more about consumer behaviour and trends reach out to us.