🛍 DTC Daily - Thursday, Jan 19

1 - Buy now, inflate later

📰 TL;DR - Buy Now, Pay Later is in trouble. Installation payment services like Klarna, Affirm, and Afterpay took off during the pandemic as people shopped online — especially for big-ticket items like Pelotons. These companies work by borrowing costs and now inflation is coming back to bite them in a big way. Not to mention that delinquency rates for BNPL are ticking ever higher. Oof.

💡 Insight - While these companies are experiencing major growing pains, BNPL remains incredibly popular, especially with Gen Z and millennials. The inside scoop is that younger shoppers prefer BNPL to credit cards and they're a proven conversion tool at checkout. As of now, this particular consequence of inflation remains a problem for BNPL companies — not you.

You can read the article here...

2 - Glossier sets of a balm bomb

📰 TL;DR - Glossier has been a beauty DTC darling since launching in 2014 but it may have just made a critical mistake. The brand is revamping its marquee Balm Dotcom product, a much-beloved lip balm. The changes sound small — a new, vegan formula and new applicator — but customers are deeply upset and have taken to social media to announce just that.

💡 Insight - Glossier has said its own strategy is "born from content; fueled by community" and in this case, they don't seem to be doing that. This is a good lesson about why you shouldn't mess with top-selling products and why social listening is such an important tool for ecomm brands.

As one Instagram comment put it: "Glossier is doing everything backwards. People are literally begging for particulars flavors to come back or to stay permanent and you’re not listening. Just take a look at the comment sections and the reviews."

You can read the article here...

3 - URBN goes all-in on rentals and resale

📰 TL;DR - URBN, the parent company of Urban Outfitters, Anthropologie, and Free People, is opening a new fulfillment center to handle orders for its rental brand, Nuuly. The brand is a subscription rental service but it also has a resale marketplace called Nuuly Thrift, where people can buy and resell secondhand apparel. It's a $60 million investment for URBN and there's very good reason to be going big on resale right now.

💡 Insight - You know who loves secondhand goods? Gen Z. Also called recommence, younger buyers are drawn to the cheaper prices, the sustainability factor, and the opportunity to earn some cash selling used goods. Just look at the success of brands like Depop, Poshmark, and The RealReal. The opportunity here is for ecomm brands to create their own recommence markets and apps like Trove, Treet, and ThredUp are partnering with stores so they can do just that.

You can read the article here...

4 - Lessons from the Thinx class-action settlement

📰 TL;DR - Period panty DTC brand Thinx is untangling a class-action lawsuit over the alleged inclusion of "forever chemicals" in its goods. For its part, the company has denied knowingly including harmful chemicals in its panties and bills itself as "organic, sustainable, and non-toxic." However, testers have reported finding these chemicals, launching the lawsuits and Thinx has agreed to pay up to $5 million to settle.

💡 Insight - I know we've talked about Gen Z a lot today, but there's a reason for it. It's a generation that truly cares about a brand's values, especially when they say they're committed to sustainability and clean products. Violating those values — or even appearing to violate those values — not only has major impact on customer loyalty but can, in Thinx' case, have financial repercussions.

You can read the article here...

5 - Customers want all the nitty gritty details

📰 TL;DR - Yotpo released their 2023 ecommerce trends predictions, and while the whole thing is worth a read, here's a tasty tidbit: they think customer education is going to be more important than ever. They want the WHY of your product and your brand. That means your personal story, your values, your ingredients, social proof, and evidence of customer results. They want it all and expect you to deliver.

💡 Insight - Between high ecommerce competition and inflation, customers are getting picky about where they spend their money. Getting a more personal and more detailed about your brand and products is frankly a pretty low-cost way to stick out. If you haven't bothered to flesh out your "about us" page, let this be a wake up call.

You can read the article here...

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