DTC Briefing: How brands made the most of a short holiday sales season
This is the latest installment of the DTC Briefing, a weekly Modern Retail+ column about the biggest challenges and trends facing the volatile direct-to-consumer startup world. More from the series →
Direct-to-consumer startups say that, despite a slow start, their holiday sales improved throughout the season.
For the past few months, DTC executives have been wondering whether fourth-quarter sales would suffer thanks to a shortened holiday window, as the time between Black Friday and Christmas was nearly a week shorter than usual. After Black Friday promotions in late November, many brands had just a couple of weeks to attract shoppers and push out orders in time for December 25.
But DTC executives told Modern Retail that offering a steady stream of discounts and exciting new product launches throughout December helped boost sales, even compared to the 2023 season. The performance encouraged some companies to extend their promotions and take advantage of what’s become known as the Q5 shopping period.
Joe & Bella, founded in 2020, is one such brand that counts on a big holiday season boost. The company makes adaptive clothing for older adults. As such, it’s a popular gift for older family members.
This year ended up being another big holiday season for Joe & Bella. The company’s co-founder and CEO, Jimmy Zollo, said that December 2024 revenue was up 220% year over year. “For context, we had more sales in December than all of Q3,” he said.
Several factors contributed to the growth, Zollo said. For instance, the brand’s ad budget for November and December was also about 40% higher over 2023, which helped bring in new customers. “We approached this holiday season much differently than we did last year, which was more traditional,” he said. In 2023, the company started offering a discount the week of Black Friday and then ran different promotions in the weeks leading up to Christmas.
But this year, Joe & Bella decided to run more advertising sooner in order to attract customers who were on the hunt for deals.
“This year, we started advertising heavily about two-and-a-half weeks before Black Friday,” Zollo said. “We captured more sales than we otherwise would have and didn’t see a big falloff after Cyber Monday.”
Moreover, the average order value was also up since the week of Christmas, which prompted Joe & Bella to keep its discount active until after the New Year. Zollo attributed that to the fact that, typically, children are buying Joe & Bella for their parents or grandparents, “and sometimes they want to buy them additional items after spending time together during the holidays.” Zollo said he also wanted to keep Joe & Bella’s discount live “because we know that other brands are extending their deals too.”
Other companies also saw a long tailwind of sales after Christmas.
Stephen Racano, head of growth at custom skincare brand Geologie, said the brand saw stronger returns during the 2024 holiday season compared to the year prior. On Amazon, Geologie saw a 127% year-over-year increase in sales, with skin care gift sets and routine gift sets, in particular, driving an increase in sales volume.
Geologie, which launched in 2018, also saw average order values increase by 21% year over year as shoppers built larger basket sizes to meet free shipping thresholds.
Those December numbers encouraged the brand to extend its promos into January with a “New Year, New You event.” From December 26 to the week of January 6, Racano said sales have increased compared to previous days in December. Thus far, he said, “new customer volume is up 88% and repeat purchases [are] up 96%,” as people kick off new skincare habits in 2025.
“January has consistently been a peak period in the skincare vertical for Geologie,” Racano said. “Customer acquisition costs drop and buyer consideration increases, alongside historically strong retention rates for those cohorts.”
Other brands saw an unexpected boost from customers taking advantage of seasonal discounts by self-gifting. LYS Beauty only offers discounts a handful of times a year, including during its birthday sale and on Black Friday, when it offered 35% off sitewide.
LYS Beauty founder and CEO Tisha Thompson said that while overall sales were strong for LYS, they weren’t necessarily from limited-edition holiday sets and giftable products. “We experienced more self-purchase behavior with consumers ‘stocking up’ and buying multiple units from our collection due to our promotions,” she said.
Indeed, if there’s one takeaway from this holiday season, it’s that the constant shopper appetite for promotions is showing no signs of slowing down.
Zollo from Joe & Bella said that his biggest lesson is that he needs to invest in a season-long promotional strategy rather than focus predominately on the Black Friday period. Next year, Zollo said the company plans to make further improvements in the marketing channels that brought him the most customers during the fourth quarter. These include improving Google SEO and tweaking email signup incentives.
“We want to apply this data to better allocate ad spend and improve our retargeting,” he said.
What I’m reading
- In a new interview with WWD, Quince creative director Todd Barket discusses the brand’s approach to product development and growth under a unique business model.
- Despite a lack of funding and a slowdown in consumer spending, BoF reports that brands like Prose and True Classic have managed to cross the $100 million mark.
- The New York Times highlights a new trend emerging in athleticwear: more loose-fitting clothing and boxy fits are making for a more comfortable workout.