Table of contents
- Brands operating with a purpose
- Customized experiences
- Omnichannel experience
- Voice-based search
- Subscription model
- Global business
- Attention to storytelling
- Optimization for mobile apps
- Expanding to new consumer bases
- Headless eCommerce
Introduction
The D2C market has been scaling at a rapid rate over the past few years, and organizations of all sizes have started to adapt to the D2C module. Globally, direct-to-consumer brands have seen a visible growth spurt in the last couple of years. The D2C medium has given the space for several small and medium-sized businesses to act and address the issues that the consumers have faced for a long, which have been unanswered by the big name brands. Before we dive into the details about D2C, we need to understand what direction the consumer stands for and how it can accelerate growth rapidly?
D2C is a strategy by which an organization pursues to sell or boost a product directly to its customers without the help of a median or third party. Now, there are various D2C trends and predictions related to the D2C business model that can enhance your business and give you an outlook of how your business might develop. So let's dive deep and see what they are!
Potential D2C trends to come up in 2022
Now, as we understand the depth of D2C and how it's helping to accelerate growth for companies globally, Let's look at the core D2C market predictions for 2022
1. Brands operating with a purpose
Brands operating today are aware of what's happening around them and are empowered by their happenings. The younger generation today and Millenials of today's world expect brands to function with a cause and to be sustainable. Hence sustainability is being focused as the core plot over here, and consumers are more inclined towards companies that care about the environment the well-being of people.
Programming your business module around the idea of working with a cause can help you in the longer run. Customers also expect brands to be open and transparent with their consumers. Consumers expect to know how your product is made and what impact it can have? Being transparent with your customers and giving them a clear-cut vision about your product can earn your consumer's trust and eventually build your brand loyalty around it.
2. Customized experiences
Building a rapport with your customers and giving them customers for your brand will most seek a customized experience after 2022. Making your product generalized for everyone is not really pleasing for a customer, and there isn't a factor that draws them in. So, what can you do to upgrade your personalization? Well, integrating your websites and apps with Artificial intelligence-based chatbots is one thing to consider. Just know that chatbots have scaled quickly and reached more than half of the users around the globe. Around 33% of customers have claimed that chatbots and virtual assistants have made solving their issues more accessible.
Whatever you do, the key is to connect with the customer, understand their needs, give them a customized experience through your service and build your relationship with them. Marketing is also another aspect to consider when giving out a customized experience. For example, sending personalized emails, discounts, offers, reminders, and even retargeted ads based on previous web interactions can translate to enhanced user experience and a higher level of personalization.
3. Omnichannel experience
With COVID being prevalent around the globe, the practice and need for the offline experience of retail have taken a dip and are not preferred by most. But with things slowly opening up, consumers are also touted to change as they expect and want more than an online experience.
An omnichannel strategy puts the customer first as its core strategy. Therefore, a D2C business module that embraces an omnichannel presence Recognizes the fact that their consumers have the space and opportunity to communicate with them through various mediums and multiple ways at the same time.
According to a survey, The convenience of being able to connect with businesses through various mediums matters to more than 65% of consumers. Therefore, facilitating an omnichannel presence is much appreciated and sought after for businesses in 2022, Making the D2C industry even more preferable.
4. Voice-based search
.jpg)
When it's all said and done, It's all about making the customer's experience as convenient and seamless as possible. Voice-based searches have definitely been pretty fortunate for consumers and have enhanced their shopping experience. The D2C industry will also facilitate voice-based search as a bigger picture in terms of buying and selling throughout 2022.
A report even claimed that about four millennials out of 10 make use of voice search assistants like Siri, Alexa, Google, and more before making a purchase. It is even estimated that in 2022, shopper spending will boost up to 18% via voice searches.
D2C is making things easy for customers. As voice-based searches become more prevalent and more people start using them, D2C brands must make sure that their website facilitates voice search and optimize it accordingly. D2C brands must also ensure that the content on their website is conversation-friendly to reap SEO benefits using voice search.
5. Subscription model
The above image is an example of a subscription plan for a daily meal delivery service.
The core trend for 2022 in the D2C domain is to keep things simple. Consumers expect shopping and browsing to be done efficiently yet. The subscription sales model is a huge market prediction in 2022. Why do you think companies that possess a subscription sales model are doing pretty well? Well, your consumers don't have to keep placing orders for products/services that are essential. The products/services are seamlessly presented to your doorstep every day/month. Having a subscription-based model also develops brand loyalty over the course.
6. Global business
The D2C market is evolving at a rapid rate and is widely being adopted by people around the globe. As a result, the international market is advancing at a fast pace, with predictions saying that cross-border purchases will amount to about 1/5th of world e-commerce throughout 2022.
International markets come with their fair share of high D2C sales potential, equipped with financial techs like tax calculators for various countries, multi-currency payment gateways, international shipping, D2C distribution, and more. So making business across different countries has literally never been easier.
7. Attention to storytelling
Storytelling is a fantastic way to engage with your consumers, and engagement is never going to be out of trend. Drawing in consumers and connecting with them is essential to keep them hooked on your brand, and storytelling is an amazing tactic to do that. Storytelling involves more of what your brand stands for, the values it holds and the people your brand is interlinked with, and more of the impact you make and have with your community. All of these factors make up for storytelling.
Let us take Spotify, for example, over here. They collect all the information about the songs, artists, and genres their users listen to. So, what do they do with it? With the help of the user's location data, they develop creative insights. One of the insights was how various colleges and universities in the United States listen to music. They showcased the universities that played the most party playlists, which created a sense of interest. This is a form of storytelling that engages people and keeps them hooked on.
8. Optimization for mobile apps
Source: https://rb.gy/vcwfcs
I can't stress this enough. Most Businesses do not optimize their web platform for the mobile version, and this can cause you to lose quality potential customers. You have to realize that mobile devices generate more than 50% of online traffic, and leaving it out is not the best idea. One of the most apparent upsides of mobile apps is that they offer an immersive, Customized, and one-to-one shopping experience that will draw in customers and engage them better, Thus helping you build a customer base for yourself and develop brand loyalty.
9. Expanding to new consumer bases
D2C businesses are evidently linking up with small-scale influencers who are delivering content in various languages and mediums so that your brand's voice penetrates to deeper levels of the cities and towns. This can help you to expand to all the looks and corners of the globe.
10. Headless eCommerce
Headless eCommerce is something that most eCommerce/D2C companies are adopting as companies are looking for headless architecture, Meaning the front-end and the back-end operations of your company will be separated, and this junction created will give you more space for flexibility and limitless personalizations, thereby forming ample amount of opportunities for development and scalability.
With the prevalence of smart devices like Amazon Echo and Google Home, Purchases online can now also be made through devices that don't have a screen. eCommerce websites have this at the back of their minds and are beginning to adapt to headless architecture to upgrade their existing websites with new features to enhance performance.
What does the future of D2C promise?
With various businesses drifting towards the D2C domain, The future of D2C is stable and strong for businesses to step in confidently. Here are a few predictions that attest to it:
1. D2C growth has been on the rise for a few years now and is predicted to be adopted by our Gen-Z and X as well for further endeavors.
2. Extra efforts will be put in to take advantage of brand value for the benefit of sales. Organizations will invest more into creating stories and maintaining transparency.
3. Many big-time companies will drift more towards the D2C domain or will choose to be entirely hybrid. Large-scale companies have already begun to open new mediums of direct communication with their consumers.
4. Predictive technology, automation, forecasting, and customized targeting will all be in full swing in 2022.
Conclusion
With all of the above being laid out, We can evidently agree that the D2C domain is catching up rapidly, and all companies are beginning to adopt the D2C route to enhance their business. So the only question is, what are the new advancements and D2C trends you will experiment with, and how do you plan to get them running in action with your business module. Well, The only simple answer to that is 'Experiment.' Play along and find out what seems and works best for you. Good luck!
.jpg)
.jpg)
%20-%20The%20Ultimate%20Guide.jpg)
.svg)
