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Today, the online furniture resale marketplace launched an instant offer feature for sellers to cash out with a flat fee for their used furniture, rather than waiting for a percentage of resale. Kaiyo has driven 150% to 200% growth year-over-year, every month over the past two years, in its quest to make resale more convenient.
Most retail companies have been laser-focused on driving as many sales as possible from Black Friday through Christmas, and are taking January to cut back on marketing. But for startups that sell workout supplements or vitamins, one of their biggest sales months is just getting started.
In this frothy venture capital market, keeping track of which startups or sectors are poised for a breakout year is more difficult than ever before. Four venture capitalists sound off on which types of companies they expect to attract a lot of VC funding this year.
Despite fears at the beginning of 2020 that the pandemic would usher in a recession that could wipe out many unprofitable consumer startups, more startups are putting near-term profitability on the back-burner, after two years of record online sales growth. At all of these companies, profitability, it seems, is always just around the corner -- but they can't stay unprofitable forever.
Maveron senior associate Veronica Reaves believes that the pandemic has led people to reevaluate where they spend their money -- a trend that she believes will continue into 2022. She spoke with Modern Retail about the areas she's looking out for in the year to come.
The phrase Web3 has been sweeping business circles, with many deeming it the next big technology movement. At its core, Web3 represents a decentralized internet infrastructure based on blockchain technology. In that sense, it's a rebranding of something that's been around for over a decade: crypto. But if you take a scan at Twitter, Discord or Telegram, it seems like something new and exciting -- especially for DTC founders and investors.
To drive growth as a direct-to-consumer startup, lingerie brand Lively bet on a select group of 100 Ambassadors. Now, after an acquisition by intimates competitor Wacoal, the program now consists of 155,000 members. With the support of these Ambassadors, the brand has driven triple digit sales growth year-on-year for the past three years and a 40% average repeat purchase rate.
At the beginning of 2021, many DTC startups were coming off of a banner year of growth – but also faced a ton of uncertainty. Still, 2021 proved to be another banner year for e-commerce startups in a myriad of ways.
If there's one things marketers, founders and VCs alike all love, it's buzzwords. So the Modern Retail editorial team put together a glossary of the most important terms and what their real meanings are.
During Nike's second-quarter fiscal earnings report, executives acknowledged that ongoing supply chain challenges were hurting the company's ability to grow sales in the short term. But in 2022, the footwear and apparel retailer has its eye on growing loyalty, with the help of NFTs.
When Moiz Ali sold his natural deodorant brand Native to P&G in 2017 for $100 million, it was one of the first major acquisitions among the modern spate of direct-to-consumer brands. Fast forward four years, and there are many more DTC exits that aspiring entrepreneurs can view as case studies. While not all of these companies have succeeded on the public market, Ali said in an interview with Modern Retail that he views the fact that there are more companies going public as a positive.
Each holiday season comes with its own series of unexpected shipping delays, but last year was particularly challenging for direct-to-consumer startups. Inventory shortages combined with higher-than-expected levels of online shopping meant some brands had already sold out of their holiday inventory come early December. As a result, DTC startups are taking no chances this holiday season.
Over the past several years, affiliate marketing has become a more important part of direct-to-consumer startups’ marketing strategy -- particularly as gift guide season is in full swing. But for many brands, affiliate marketing remains a murky, relatively untested channel -- and they are still trying to figure out which websites or affiliate commerce networks are the best place to spend their time and money.
After experiencing record e-commerce sales last year, many DTC startups generated more revenue this past week compared to Cyber Weeks of years past. We spoke with four executives at DTC startups yesterday afternoon who said that, while sales were still rolling in, they were on track to bring in record revenue on Cyber Monday.
A growing group of direct-to-consumer brands -- including Warby Parker, Figs and Hims -- have gone public. Their recent earnings reports present a look into previously unseen business fundamentals.
Big CPG has been aggressively pushing into plant-based grocery products the past year. Many of these efforts are increasingly coming from partnerships with the likes of Beyond Meat, Impossible Foods and Hungry Planet.
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