#14 The Least Boring Weekly Newsletter

August 11, 2021 • Estimated Reading Time: 9 minutes

Good Morning readers! 🌄

Almund's newsletter will let you in on all kinds of tips for D2C brands and "much much" more. 

Alright, so let's get right to it! 

This newsletter is going to dive into :

📜 Top reads for this week,

🌏 Amazon Lures Advertisers From Facebook After Apple Privacy Shift 

🎯 SEO campaigns – why is this necessary? Is this the new normal?

⭐ BRAND of the week -  Brandless

👩🏻‍💼 Plenty of jobs awaiting you!

So, scroll down already to THE VERY END & read up on what's yet to come your way!

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TOP READS FOR THIS WEEK

💸 Perch raises $123.5M to grow its stable of D2C brands that sell on Amazon.

💵 Upscribe, raising $4M, wants to drive subscription-first DTC brand growth. 

⭐ WeCommerce signs a definitive agreement to acquire Archetype Themes.

🎯 Target, DTC backpack brand State Bags team up ahead of back to school.

🍔 Australia’s v2Food aims to expand its plant-based meats to Europe and Asia with a €45M raise.

🛏 Casper revenue up nearly 40% as mattress sales remains strong. 

💄Function of Beauty acquires personalized skincare company Atolla. 

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WHAT’S HAPPENING IN THE D2C WORLD? 

According to Bloomberg, Amazon.com Inc.’s move into digital advertising so far has mostly come at the expense of market leader Google, since shoppers often bypass the search giant and look for products directly on Amazon.com. Now, the world’s largest online retailer is starting to grab advertisers from Facebook Inc., too.

Facebook has been in the 2nd position in the US digital ad sales and has been immune from these encroachments for years now, but due to the privacy changes on iPhones, Facebook advertising has become less effective which prompted few brands to seek alternatives to advertising on social media platforms. 

New York marketing agency Belardi Wong, whose 300 clients include furniture maker Blue Dot and apparel seller Bombas, said more than 40% of its roster in June reported a decline in the performance of their Facebook ads -- sending them rushing for other options.

Alex Dastmalchi, CEO of Vanity Planet and Dastmalchi says, “we have inventory, so we have to look for ways to grow our business. We are shrinking our ad spend on Facebook and the biggest place we are growing is Amazon”. 

Amazon now has 10.7% of the U.S. digital ad market, compared with Google’s 28.8% and Facebook’s 25.4%, according to EMarketer Inc. Amazon’s “other” category, which is mostly advertising revenue, grew 87.5% versus 56% for Facebook’s ad sales in the second quarter.

Amazon isn’t the only business benefiting from Facebook’s woes. Brands are turning to social media influencers as well as traditional channels like broadcast media and direct mail. But it’s hard to avoid Amazon, although it controls the customer experience.

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SEO campaigns – why is this necessary? Is this the new normal?

Not everything is about money, right? Don’t you, sometimes, want people to know who you are and what you’re all about? Don’t you like making a mark and being appreciated for it? 

Now, how are people going to hear about your DTC business? How will they know about your existence? For a DTC brand, having potential customers find you via SEO campaigns is really important. 

Tap below to know more 😁

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BRAND OF THE WEEK is…

Brandless focuses on consumer packaged goods in categories like beauty, personal care, wellness, and home. 

It was launched in 2017, and due to its product price point, business model, and modern aesthetics, it was given the title of ‘disruptor of the year’ by Retail Dive. 

By 2018, Brandless expanded its categories into pet, baby, health, and assortment because the company was struggling to retain its shoppers. 

"While the Brandless team set a new bar for the types of products consumers deserve and at prices they expect, the fiercely competitive direct-to-consumer market has proven unsustainable for our current business model," the company wrote in a statement posted to its website at the time of its closure.

Less than six months after going out of business, the company returned with new leadership and a smaller scale of product offerings. 

Capital Partners joined with Ikonifi to purchase the company's assets and relaunch Brandless.com. "Despite an ultra-loyal following, Brandless ran into challenges with profitability and mounting troubles with a distressed SoftBank," Clarke Capital Partners wrote in a statement announcing the acquisition.

Brandless announced that it raised $118 million in equity and debt financing to accelerate its digitally native platform. 

It will use the money to acquire more digitally native brands to expand its product portfolio and will also help the company invest in its social influencer initiative so individuals "can advocate for their favorite products and monetize their social presence”.

"We are committed to making it easy for people to make good choices when it comes to their health and well-being. Our acquisitions of better-for-you, digitally-native brands will expand our footprint’’, says James Clarke, CEO of Clarke Capital. 

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In need of a  job? We've got plenty awaiting you!

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CHOOSE SUCCESS below and have a great week! 'Get that D2C business runnin'.

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