As you scroll online, it seems that advertisements are getting more and more creative and infiltrating almost every corner of social media. You can buy a sweater from a picture you see on Instagram or shop people’s Amazon storefronts from a TikTok video. As technology advances, the ease of shopping does too.
Over the past 12 years, BuzzShift has helped several brands experience sustainable growth in the e-commerce space. As the world continues to get more digital, many brands are capitalizing on the rapid growth of e-commerce to keep up with demand. We’ve rounded up the top 3 most relevant trends in the e-commerce space for DTC brands in 2022 and will discuss how you can best use them to grow your business/brand.
Online to Offline Experiences.
During the pandemic, e-commerce saw rapid growth as people were stuck at home still wanting to get their shopping done and had more time to endlessly scroll on their phones. This opened the door for many digitally-native DTC brands to create space for themselves online, capture people’s attention, and build a following of loyal customers. As we enter a post-pandemic world, the momentum of e-commerce has shifted slightly as people are leaving their homes more often and returning to their previous in-person shopping habits. Direct-to-consumer brands and digitally native, vertically integrated brands (DNVBs) are finding it hard to continue to scale while conducting business solely online.
One way brands have begun to mitigate this is by leaning into wholesale distribution and partnering with large-scale and big-box retailers such as Amazon and Target to distribute their products. This way, their products are available on shelves. The HoneyPot, a plant-based feminine product line, has adopted this by starting to sell its products at Target, while still having its online storefront active. Now people can choose how they want to purchase the product, and the brand can reach customers with different shopping behaviors. This dramatically increases sales, as in-store shopping still surpasses online shopping sales by trillions of dollars.
Another way to bring your brand IRL is by creating a physical space for people to experience your brand. Glossier has a great example of this by having a few locations set up as an experience, rather than just a store, with fun graphics and interactive decor while also displaying their product for people to purchase.
Personalization is Key.
Customers want their shopping experience to be personalized! One way that brands have adopted personalization is by utilizing AI to gather data about their consumers’ shopping habits. Outside of using AI, there are other ways that brands are gathering data about their customers to personalize their shopping experience. ThirdLove, a women’s undergarments brand, does this well through their fitting quiz. They ask about more than just arbitrary sizes, they ask about style preferences, colors, personality questions, etc. This is a creative way to get people to learn more about your brand while getting to answer fun questions about themselves that can inform their experience.
Subscriptions, Subscriptions, Subscriptions!
Many DTC brands have adopted subscription models for their products. This has been known to be a tried-and-true strategy for increasing customer retention. Essentially, if people are excited about your product, the ease of knowing it just shows up at their door every month is very appealing! Read this blog about the different types of subscriptions, along with the benefits and challenges of each.
Even though technology continues to advance, there are still traditional marketing tactics that remain relevant and even more profitable than strictly staying online. Our team at BuzzShift can not only help implement these strategies, but we also stay up to date on emerging trends to ensure your digital marketing needs are met! So, want to boost your e-commerce success for your brand? Reach out today and see if we’re the right fit for you!
About BuzzShift
BuzzShift is a digital growth strategy agency with a focus on mid-market, scaling, purpose-driven DTC Brands. By combining the ideologies of branding, performance marketing, and retention agency, we are able to create memorable experiences with measurable results, and build long-term success for our clients with scalable, sustainable growth. Learn more about BuzzShift.
