#29 The Least Boring Weekly Newsletter

October 20, 2021 • Estimated Reading Time: 12 minutes

Good Morning readers!😄

How are you all this fine morning?🌞

COP26 will take place in less than two weeks! 🥳🥳

Who's thrilled for a gathering of world's top climate researchers to discuss their work? We all are, without a doubt.

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,

⬇️ What can D2C brands do to avoid losing customers? 

🛫 Why is ORM necessary during the holiday season?

👨‍👩‍👧‍👦 Cohort based marketing – The new normal

🙎 BRAND of the week - Rent the Runway

👩🏻‍💼 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

🛍 Shop What You Love on Facebook and Instagram This Holiday Season. 

👚 Entireworld to shut down. 

🧥 Saks e-commerce company preps IPO.

🥤 Frozen coffee startup Cometeer raises $35M Series B and launches its product in earnest.

🧴 Ilia approaches $100 million in revenue as it charts monumental growth. 

🤑 Nearly 50% of D2C Marketers Plan To Invest on CTV/OTT in 2022 For The First Time. 

💡 MIXTE D2C Light Electric Vehicle Company Launches In The U.S.

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WHAT’S COOKING, HUH?

Amazon, the world’s most influential economic and cultural force in the world, is incapable of treating its brand partners fairly?

Amazon is offering its products at a lower cost with faster delivery. Is this why D2C brands continue to lose customers to Amazon? Here’s what brands can do to avoid losing customers. 

#Offer fair prices to customers. 

Many firms have hopped on the D2C bandwagon due to the ease and simplicity of setting up a website, providing customers with a variety of options. However, this puts D2C brands in direct competition with Amazon, a global platform for all products. 

Amazon is where 53% of shoppers start their product search. As a result, the shoppers will compare offers between D2C brands and Amazon. 

D2C brands may provide fair prices to their customers while also customizing the brand experience, exhibiting products with greater flexibility, and establishing a direct long-term relationship with them.

Consider that for a second. Would you pay more for a product if the price on Amazon is lower than the pricing on D2C brands?

#Faster Shipping (whoosh)

According to a survey, only six D2C firms (21%) offered free shipping in comparison to Amazon, although the total price was still higher. 

👉🏻 Fast shipment keeps customers pleased, encourages repeat purchases, and increases the exposure of a brand’s listings.

👉🏻 It is linked to higher conversion rates as a result of increased customer satisfaction.

👉🏻 Rise in Revenue and Sales as fewer people will abandon their shopping carts.

This raises another question. How can D2C brands cut shipping expenses while still ensuring prompt delivery? Here’s how. 

👉🏻 Increase the number of warehouses. 

Yes, it's easier said than done, but strategically located warehouses lower delivery costs. 

👉🏻 Use Amazon's Multi-Channel Fulfillment service. 

(Warning: This is not a long-term solution; it is pricey.) 

Amazon will fulfill non-Amazon orders for merchants, allowing businesses to have fast and free shipping on their website.

👉🏻 3PLs.

There are many different types of Third Party Logistics, and those with the largest footprints can provide more economical, quick, and free delivery.

👉🏻 Ecommerce Order Fulfillment.

Fast shipping badges on marketplaces can increase impressions by up to 10x and sales by up to 50%. With free and fast shipping on your website, you may increase conversions by up to 30%.

In the fast-paced world of e-commerce, you must step up your game to gain more customers.

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WHY IS ONLINE REPUTATION MANAGEMENT NECESSARY DURING THE HOLIDAY SEASON?

Did you know that 94 percent of customers claim a poor review persuaded them to avoid doing business with a company?😅

At some point, you will have to deal with a negative comment that’s been published online. This implies you'll have to learn how to deal with criticism. After all, the only way to fully defend your online reputation is for you to respond to these remarks in a timely and thoughtful manner. 

Businesses must pay attention to both how they conduct business and what customers are saying about them throughout the holiday shopping season. 

Here's how you can go about doing that.

👉🏻 Social Media can help you establish a strong presence and engage with customers more efficiently. 

(Did you know? Nike has a separate Twitter account known as NikeService, which is purely dedicated to handling customer queries.🤯 If you haven’t already, launch a social media account that only handles customer service issues. Just a thought, haha.)

👉🏻 Live streaming can be a very effective approach to reach out to an audience in real-time. 

👉🏻 Blogging is already used by many companies as part of their overall communication strategy. However, 📹vlogging can help you take your content to the next level.

👉🏻 Update your search ad campaigns to reflect the most recent specials, offers, and other information so that searchers see the most relevant bargains. 

👉🏻 If your website is poorly designed, 85 percent of visitors will abandon it.😭 Make sure your website provides a positive user experience, and audit it to attract prospects and leads.

👉🏻 Respond to reviews because it demonstrates to prospects that you value your customers and their comments, as well as demonstrating to the reviewer that you understand their concerns.

(Note: Sometimes, you can respond to customer criticism with humour, but the only time you should crack a joke in response to negativity is if the customer complaint isn’t overly serious.) 

Rather than being discouraged by bad criticism, use it as an opportunity to demonstrate how much you appreciate your customers' ideas by responding promptly and courteously. 💪🏻

There’s more good in terrible reviews than there is in positive ratings. As a business owner, you can educate yourself on how to best manage these negative reviews. 

Also, by incorporating constructive criticism into your business, you may make beneficial changes and continue to improve your product/service offerings, which is good, right? 

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COHORT BASED MARKETING - THE NEW NORMAL 

Remember the group assignments we got in school? It was fun for us because the work was split amongst everyone and reduced the individual load. But did this thought ever cross your mind that what would the teacher benefit from this group assignment?

It’s simple, when a larger group is split into smaller sections, the analysis and grading become easier.

Now you understand why our teachers put so much emphasis on group projects?!

Cohort Analysis works the same way.

Tap below to know more! 

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BRAND OF THE WEEK is…

Rent the Runway, founded in 2009 by Jennifer Hyman and Jennifer Fleiss, is disrupting the $2.4 trillion fashion industry by pioneering dynamic ownership and enabling women to rent, subscribe to, and purchase second-hand clothing, handbags, and jewelry in over 18,000 styles from over 750 designer brands. Customers can also rent and shop for home products. 

Early in the pandemic, Rent the Runway suffered, and its worth dropped to $750 million from $1 billion, forcing it to eliminate personnel and close some retail locations.

There were some bright spots in the company's losses this year, although it continued to lose money. During the first half of the year, it saw an increase in subscriptions. Its losses reduced somewhat to $42.2 million in the second quarter, but sales increased 62 percent to $46.7 million, compared to the same period last year. 

In the first nine months of 2021, Rent the Runway's active subscribers grew by more than half to 111,732. 

Customers are becoming more concerned about their carbon footprint, which has boosted demand for used clothing in recent months.

Rent the Runway wants to raise $315 million in its IPO by selling 15 million shares at a price range of $18 to $21. 

Goldman Sachs Group Inc., Morgan Stanley, and Barclays Plc are leading the offering. The stock is expected to trade under the name RENT on the Nasdaq Global Select Market.

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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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