Overview
Before you start selling products directly to consumers, you should know why you are doing it. It takes time and money to successfully execute direct selling. You will waste time and money without a clear goal. Direct-to-consumer selling is used for more than just increasing sales. It can help you identify opportunities for new product development, collect customer data for remarketing purposes, enhance current marketing campaigns, and build a direct relationship with customers.
Overview
Selling products directly to consumers allows you to gather customer data that will help you deliver personalized experiences and relevant marketing messages that convert.
Overview
Ask yourself the following questions before you start selling directly to consumers to ensure you are prepared to achieve your goal: cost considerations for selling products directly to consumers, operational considerations for fulfilling direct-to-consumer commitments, partnership considerations for direct-to-consumer selling, and technical considerations for direct-to-consumer selling.
Cost Considerations for Selling Products Directly to Consumers
Discover the differences between various infrastructures for direct-to-consumer selling, how global expansion can affect the total cost of ownership, and the human capital needed to go direct to consumer. #1 Which is more expensive: a local platform or a cloud-based platform? Local platforms require significant upfront investment in initial infrastructure, ongoing hosting and maintenance costs, and a specialized IT team for new releases and updates. As you expand, variable costs can increase significantly. Cloud platforms often offer more predictable cost structures and provide lower total cost of ownership. SaaS platforms include all costs associated with servers, such as compliance with Payment Card Industry (PCI) standards, security, and content delivery networks (CDNs). Although you have ongoing design and development costs, reducing recurring costs allows direct-to-consumer brands to redirect budgets and human capital away from costly infrastructure and development and towards what truly matters to sellers: strategy, customer engagement, social impact, and data-driven marketing. #2 Will I need to hire new people? If you have an existing IT team with bandwidth, you can handle direct-to-consumer selling in-house. Otherwise, you can collaborate with a design and development agency that has experience with the platform you chose. Large consumer goods manufacturers may need to work with system integrators to connect direct-to-consumer operations to an enterprise resource planning (ERP) system. You will also need to determine if you have someone within the company to manage the direct-to-consumer site, including marketing, sales, and customer service. #3 What is the fastest and most cost-effective way to expand our direct-to-consumer strategy globally? First, identify an e-commerce platform that has a global dual content delivery network (CDN) for speed, flexibility, and functionality wherever you expand globally. Next, ensure your platform allows you to clone and launch expansion stores in the countries or regions you target.
Source: https://www.shopify.com/ph/enterprise/30-questions-before-selling-direct-to-consumer
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