D2C (Direct to Consumer) has been growing in e-commerce in recent years and gained more strength with the pandemic. Large industries are already selling direct to the consumer, without the intermediation of suppliers or distributors. “The time has come for you to cut out the intermediaries, to talk directly to consumers”. This sentence was from Babi Tonhela, Senior Manager Brasil Ecommerce in Practice, one of the speakers at the 2023 Digital Industry Congress on the panel with the D2C theme.
For her, the ideal sustainable e-commerce model is to work with multi-channels, that is, to be in the most diverse sales channels. Even so, she points out that the main source of revenue for this store owner has to come from the channel itself, from direct sales to consumers. Tonhela believes that with this it is possible to establish a direct relationship with the end customer to provide a complete shopping experience.
Why adopt D2C as your main sales channel
On the same stage was Luiz Piovesana, CMO of Nuvemshop. For him, the main advantage of adopting this sales strategy in e-commerce is the possibility for the store owner to relate directly with the final consumer and understand their pains and needs. In addition, the entrepreneur manages to leave the role of supplier/distributor, with total autonomy to build and reinforce his identity as a brand.
On this occasion, Matheus Pacheco, Marketing Supervisor at the MVX Group, was able to respond to what motivated MVX to make the decision to have its own store. For the executive, for a long time the company sold well on marketplaces and other channels, but the fees and commissions ended up not being favorable for the company’s net sales.
In addition, Pacheco says that this is the opportunity to get closer to the consumer, without intermediaries, and build a close relationship between the two ends. “Understanding the customer, knowing who his audience is and what he is looking for are fundamental points for building a brand”, he said.
Taking advantage of Pacheco’s speech, Piovesana complemented the idea by saying that “knowing who the customer is starts by first knowing who is NOT your customer”. This is even the starting point to start thinking about brand building with a focus on your specific audience and what you must do to deliver what they need.
Strategies to strengthen your brand and sell more
Tonhela pointed out that, in order to strengthen a brand and achieve customer loyalty, it is essential to devise strategies to attract qualified traffic to the store, in order to generate brand propagation and conversion into sales. She argues that “the best way is to bet on content marketing”.
Big brands are producing content for the internet every day, reaching more and more people and delivering what they want to see. “Whoever has an audience sells anything. And if you don’t produce content, you don’t have an audience”, said the executive.
In addition, she believes that, in order to stand out from the competition, it is essential to think about the concept of the brand as a whole to deliver value to the customer and ensure the longevity of the business.
Finally, Tonhela drew attention to the fact that we are experiencing an important moment of technological revolution with the recent arrival of ChatGPT. “It is possible to take advantage of artificial intelligence to carry out some operational tasks and, thus, better manage time to focus on commercial strategies with the objective of scaling the business”.
