A Brand’s Direct-to-Consumer Site (DTC) vs. Selling on Retailers

A brand is not defined by the channels it sells on, although the benefits of selling on retailers versus a standalone direct-to-consumer (DTC) site is the exposure to new customers — retailers have an extremely loyal customer base. 

Although it’s still important to continue with DTC activities on your website, selling on retailers (marketplaces and department stores and boutiques) will help grow your brand and online presence when done the right way. 

You might be wondering which method is better and the advantages of both, so let’s break it down.

Selling Direct-to-Consumer (DTC)

Let’s start with the pros and cons of selling directly to your customer. 

Pros:

1. 100% control over user experience and brand perception
2. 1st party rights, providing you with crucial retargeting options  
3. No extra fees

Cons:

1. Limited exposure that highly depends on your marketing budget
2. Missed opportunities available on online marketplaces
3. Difficult for expansion into new regions and markets
4. Potential missed opportunities, not being where your customers are

Selling on Retailer Websites

And what are the pros and cons of selling on online marketplaces, department stores and boutques? 

Pros:

1. Exposure & access to millions of customers
2. Higher search rankings
3. Amplify sales with marketplace ads
4. Explosibility to new customer base
5. Being where your customers are
6. Benefit from the retailers marketing spend 
7. Easy to test new styles

Cons:

1. No 1st party rights, which means you cannot retarget
2. Starting from scratch every time you change marketplaces, unless you implements automation through Cymbio 
3. Each marketplace has specific rules and guidelines that must be carefully followed and is near impossible to manage manually for each and every retail partner

And what are the pros and cons of selling on online marketplaces, department stores and boutques? 

Best Strategy

As you can see, both strategies have strong pros and convincing cons. So what is the best approach to implement?

Maximize site sales & sell on online marketplaces

As with most things in life, the best method is to take the best of both worlds and combine them to form one super-strategy. Establish an online presence with your eCommerce site while also expanding to multiple marketplaces and retailers as you can – the best of both worlds. This will lead to successful consumer and online market selling, allowing you to expand your brand and maintain a solid online presence.