Wednesday, August 16

#1 - 💄 Why these luxury brands are ditching beauty

📰 TL;DR - We’ve all heard about the rather insane growth of e-commerce beauty, but it’s not necessarily a winner for everyone. Both Farfetch and The RealReal, two online luxury sellers, have both dropped the category from their sites. Why? Well, it’s competitive out there. You can already get luxury beauty goods from Ulta and Sephora, not to mention directly from individual brands themselves. Ulta and Sephora also have highly loyal customers. For The RealReal in particular, beauty just didn’t jive with their plans for profitability.

💡 Insight - This article suggests both brands may have gone too hard too fast — a more gradual and exclusive strategy may have worked better. It also shows that even though beauty e-commerce has had huge growth, it’s really dominated by some top players. It also seems like Sephora is picking up new DTC brands all the time in their first wholesale deals. I think the lesson here is that if you’re simply replicating what Sephora does, you’re bound to lose. Amazon has also risen as a major player in beauty, so that’s another marketplace to compete with. It’s not that beauty doesn’t have promise, it’s that you have to offer something new.

➡️ You can read the article here...

#2 - 👩🏽‍💻 Could this one trend work for livestream shopping?

📰 TL;DR - We’ve seen the stats — livestream shopping is struggling to catch on in Western markets. But a rather strange trend seems to finding footing and it’s influencers behaving like NPCs — non-playable video game characters. Here’s a compilation of what the trend looks like if this is all news to you. These streamers are raking in virtual gifts, totaling hundreds or thousands in real-life dollars. The theory here is that the trend could be applied to livestream shopping.

💡 Insight - So it has yet to be proven that this can truly work for livestream shopping, but it all suggests that for this style of streaming to catch on outside of Asia, we need to do some reverse engineering. Rather than hoping livestream shopping will be a trend unto itself, it feels like a better bet to figure out what’s trending in livestreams generally, and then adding in the shopping element. Like, instead of an influencer sitting there going through products, they could be doing a get ready with me video that happens to feature a buyable product.

➡️ You can read the article here...

📣 If you want to reach our audience of 10,000+ DTC store owners, tap here 

#3 - 🛏️ Dormify takes over back-to-school season

📰 TL;DR - The mess at Bed Bath & Beyond has left a gap for dorm decorations and Dormify is happy to fill the need. College students are expected to spend $20 billion more than last year, and part of that will go to making their dorms feel like home. Dormify has found major success by leveraging social media, such as Pinterest, Instagram, and TikTok. On TikTok, for example, the hashtag #dormify has been viewed more than 45 million times. They have a team of some 1,800 ambassadors promoting the brand.

💡 Insight - I have indeed already seen a slew of TikToks tagged #dormify, and I’m not even a college student! What’s smart here is Dormify really understands its Gen Z audience. And that means leaning heavily into social media. This time of year, dorm makeover videos are all the rage and Dormify knows that and uses it to their advantage. You can check out some of those TikToks here.

➡️ You can read the article here...

#4 - 🛠️ Things worth checking out

😎 GAN.AI - Record a video once, and AI learns the voice, accent, and lip movement to create thousands of personalized, real-human copies. Get a free demo here.

🐳 DATA - Triple Whale is easily my favorite DTC data analytics and analysis tool, check it out here.

🔎 SEO TOOLS - Check out this handy list of SEO tools to give your e-commerce site a boost.

🤖 CHATGPT PROMPTS - Here are some ChatGPT prompts to try for content marketing ideas.

📦 4PL - You’ve heard of a 3PL, but what about a 4PL? Read about them here.

#5 - 👙 DTC lingerie darling gets bought

📰 TL;DR - DTC lingerie brand Parade has agreed to be bought by Ariela &Associates, a manufacturer and licensee of Fruit of the Loom. Parade was last valued at $200 million, but it’s unclear what they were offered in this deal (though we can assume it was a nice payday for someone). Parade is one of several DTC lingerie brands that have popped up in recent years and gone hard on social media marketing. Parade differentiates itself by having the appeal of fast fashion, but with a commitment to sustainability.

💡 Insight - We know that a major trend for DTC brands in 2023 is charting a path to profitability. For some brands that’s meant employee cuts, wholesale deals or, like in this case, simply selling to a larger organization that has the logistics in place take a brand to a more profitable place. Expect to see more strategic acquisitions before the year is over.

➡️ You can read the article here...