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  • 🛍 DTC Daily - Wednesday, Feb 1

🛍 DTC Daily - Wednesday, Feb 1

Today's DTC news, tips, & tools you need to know

🇨🇦 1 - Canada Goose launches resale market

📰 TL;DR - Canada Goose, purveyors of very pricey but very nice winter apparel, are launching a resale channel called Generations. It's a big win for Trove, the resale marketplace startup that's been helping major brands capture their own secondhand sales. This iteration allows for both secondhand shopping and the ability to trade in used pieces.

💡 Insight - We've talked about the rise of resale before, but this time I want to talk about what having a resale market says about your brand. It's a way of saying that your products are so well-made and so timeless that they can live across many years and multiple owners. Getting into recommence isn't just a smart sales move, it's a branding statement.

🤞🏼 2 - You've gotta show your values

📰 TL;DR - As traditional retail catches up to DTC's "it" factor, brands have to find a way to stand out and keep growing. Over on Spiceworks, there's an argument for how values-based marketing is the way to reach younger audiences. In fact, 19% of people who said they'd rather buy from a DTC brand with a commitment to sustainability were aged 18 to 34.

💡 Insight - What really stuck out to me from this report is that DTC brands' image as cool and trendy is waning. The brands that figure out how to connect with younger customers are the ones that are going to not just survive but thrive. Greening up your practices is good for the environment, but also good for your brand's future.

🤖 3 - AI chatbots you could be using right now

📰 TL;DR - PracticalEcommerce has a roundup of 13 AI chatbots that can be used by DTC sellers. With all the talk of AI and bots, this is a very practical application of this technology that can boost your customer service. Some require a bit of coding know-how, but others are ready to go out of the box.

💡 Insight - Live chat is a proven conversion booster for e-commerce stores, but not everyone has the staffing or cash to actually have a person replying to incoming messages. AI chatbots are a great solution for providing service with little effort once you've got them customized and running. They also reduce tickets by taking care of common questions. If you don't have some sort of chat system, you're missing out.

📦 4 - Is it time to add dropshipping to your store?

📰 TL;DR - You've probably noticed that brands like Walmart and Best Buy have greatly expanded their online selection of products that you can't actually buy in-store. That's because they're using a dropshipping model — adding third-party vendors who actually handle the sale. This piece makes the argument that small and medium e-commerce brands need to catch up to the trend and lays out how to get there.

💡 Insight - Dropshipping sometimes gets a bad rep of being just junky products with inflated prices. But done well, dropshipping is a way to quickly and relatively easily expand your offerings and curate complementary products. If you want to sell more but don't have the capital to create products from scratch, this could be a path forward.

🛋 5 - This big retailer launched shopping apps for kids and teens

📰 TL;DR - Pottery Barn Kids and Pottery Barn Teen have both launched stand-alone shopping apps. Only for iOS right now, the apps let users create 3D rooms that they can decorate and then click to buy the items they used.

💡 Insight - There are two cool things here. First, mobile shopping is ever-growing, so shopping apps are a huge opportunity. Second, the ability to decorate a 3D room is brilliant. It mimics the fun of mobile games and hints at the advantages of AR without actually having to execute AR. Altogether, it's a smart move to attract younger shoppers.

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