#80 The Least Boring Weekend Newsletter

Good Morning readers! ☕

Wishing you sunshine and a basketful of chocolate on this beautiful day. Happy Easter! 🥚

Elon Musk, the CEO of Tesla🚗, proposed to acquire Twitter for $41 billion💸(Woah) in cash on Thursday, just days after rejecting to join the social media company's board of directors.

Musk's offer price of $54.20 per share, revealed in a regulatory filing on Thursday, is a 38% premium to Twitter's April 1 close🔒, the final trading day before the Tesla CEO's more than 9% investment in the company was made public.📢

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 :

⛽Meta Launches New Creator Funding Programs to Fuel Development of the Metaverse

👌All That Your Business Needs Is Right Here

📜 Top reads for this week

👩🏻‍💼 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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D2C x METAVERSE

Meta Launches New Creator Funding Programs to Fuel Development of the Metaverse

With two new creator funding choices designed to better incentivize user contributions to its digital worlds, Meta is moving quickly into the next stage of digital connectivity – or at least, it's setting the stage🦌for metaverse development.

The first is a $10 million💰 expansion of its Horizon Worlds Creator Funding program, which began in October of last year.

Horizon Worlds is Meta's virtual reality sandbox,🗃️ where users can create their immersive worlds. They'll be able to monetize their efforts in new ways now.🌌

According to Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, the goal is to "thank the people who are doing fantastic work in Horizon🚥," though the bonuses will be targeted at specific aspects of the VR experience that Meta wants to improve. 

If Meta notices that users are interacting with a particular aspect of its virtual experience, it may use it as an incentive goal for others, or it can get creative with 'the most interactive' world or 'the most creative applications of VR' in any given month to further fuel advanced growth. 🌱

Meta has a stronger chance of getting into the important trends 📈and alternatives that will drive the most interaction by utilizing its creator community because the pool of creators is much larger than Meta's workforce.🔨 

This might speed up the development of Horizon Worlds, making VR a more compelling and immersive experience. ( Can't wait to see it, or experience it?) 

The second piece is probably the most intriguing: Meta is starting a test program that will allow some creators to sell virtual products and effects within their virtual worlds. 🌐

Digital products are the next big thing( as we all can see), with NFTs serving as a sort of guiding light to the next plain - but most of the NFT excitement ❗appears to be incorrect, since there is a future in digital items, but whether those digital items will be avatars of monkey 🐒drawings is unlikely.

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All That Your Business Needs Is Right Here 

With the majority of the DTC industry audience getting more accepting of climate change and its adverse effect on all life present on earth, brands have taken to themselves to be a little better, a little greener. They no longer wish to simply see a “carbon-neutral delivery” sticker on their mail from your DTC business; they wish to learn more about what you’re doing as a company to create carbon-neutral supply chains and source sustainable raw materials for your products. 

After all, if you’d change for the better, wouldn’t you wish to let your audience know?

Why Is It Important Now More Than Ever?

The eCommerce industry faces tremendous growth every passing year, and each new target hit contributes to climate change. From material sourcing to production processes to supply chains to packaging—every aspect of the DTC industry contributes heavily to the environmental problems. 

This industry's impact on the environment grows every year due to a wider audience discovering new brands they feel an affinity for. With COVID-19, the eCommerce sales spiked but also accelerated the negative impact on the climate. Hence, it is important now more than ever to understand the crux of being a sustainable brand, if not a carbon-neutral company, to ensure that you don’t contribute to a decaying environment.

How Are Mindsets Changing?

Consumers worldwide care more about buying from sustainable sources, brands that create noise about social causes that the audience cares about and wishes to address too. They are also more trusting and welcoming to brands that show their unwavering support and affinity to social causes. 

87% of customers would buy products from a brand that supports social and environmental causes with evidence on public display. According to a study, 62% of Gen Z and Millennials prefer sustainable brands. They wish to associate with companies that make them feel good about their purchases, about how they are impacting the world, one cart checkout at a time. 

But how does one begin their journey to developing sustainable working processes within their DTC business starting today? If you’ve been enticed enough with all that we’ve told you, we can help. Here are some ways to get the wheel of sustainability rolling in your business.

👣 Talk About Your Orders’ Carbon Footprint

With each order you send, ensure that you let your customers know the carbon footprint of their delivery. It helps build trust in your business and your processes. It also gives your business a platform to show how you’re making efforts in decreasing the number on the packaging, thus, keeping your customers happy and intrigued every time they place an order. 

🗣️ Speak Out Online

As a brand, you must speak about your business, vision, and values. Let your customers know how you feel about climate change and environmental problems; keep them updated about your constant efforts to integrate sustainability into your business processes. 

✅ Provide An Option For Carbon Offset 

Since your customers already are looking for sustainable solutions and are interested in your brand, provide them with an option to offset during checkout. Reward your customers to keep them coming back for more with each offset!

📦 Reduce Packaging

Reducing your packaging can help cut costs and prevent waste generation with each order you ship. Use smaller boxes for every order, use sustainable padding to preserve the products, and use eco-friendly adhesives to curate eye-catching yet carbon-neutral packaging. 

♻️ Use Recyclable Packaging

Speaking of packaging, it is important to use eco-friendly packaging material to reduce your impact on the environment. For instance, you can use newspaper shreds as stuffing, cardboard instead of bubble wrap, etc. 

You can even provide your customers with an option to choose unique, unbranded packaging. Branding the package is expensive and requires additional steps in the process. If they opt for unbranded packing, not only would it cut down your costs but also decrease the carbon footprint of their order. 

🎯 Lead Initiatives

You can advertise initiatives that promote sales and ensure that your brand does something good for the environment. For instance, for each order placed and shipped, you can plant a tree or donate to a cause you advocate for online.

Running a sustainable brand isn’t easy. However, with each small step you take in changing your business operation to an eco-friendly one, you will be able to create a carbon-neutral ecosystem in no time. 

Let us know (by hitting the ‘Reply’ button!) how you’ve created a sustainable working environment in your DTC business to feature in our next edition! 

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TOP READS FOR THIS WEEK

🎥TikTok Lurkers Split On New Profile Views Feature 

🍰YouTube Shorts Now Allows Creators To Pick Clips From Any Video On YouTube 

🎙️Spotify continues testing a TikTok-like discovery feed

💬WhatsApp to launch ‘Communities’ — more structured group chats with admin controls 

⚽Epic Games Receives $2 Billion To Build A Metaverse

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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’.