Forget direct-to-consumer. Quince pioneers a manufacturer-to-consumer business model. As the fall arrives and temperatures drop, you may be looking to restock your sweater drawer. If this was the year you wanted to spring for cashmere, I have good news for you. We’ve found a brand that sells Grade A Mongolian cashmere sweaters at the unbelievably affordable price of $50 for women and $59 for men . They come in nine colors that are perfect for the season, including an autumnal orange and a mossy green. Read Full Story

30-second summary: Market conditions have shifted; they’re on a volatility roller coaster ride with an indeterminate amount of track of opportunity. US ecommerce sales in July rose 55% year-over-year (YoY) reaching a record $66.3 billion. 73% of consumers who are shopping online more since the pandemic plan to continue doing so in future. Ready or not, retailers need be planning new ways to deal with demand fluctuations across ecommerce categories now and plan for the holidays. In the face of dramatic shifts in consumer behavior, social distancing recommendations, and no end in sight to the uncertainty and changes in consumer behavior caused by the coronavirus, retailers are finding ecommerce and the mobile shopping experience more important than ever before. In fact, according to new data released from the Adobe Digital Index US ecommerce sales in July rose 55% year-over-year (YoY) reaching a record $66.3 billion. Strategies and technologies in the …

A lot of businesses still don’t take Pinterest seriously, which is a huge mistake. Pinterest is now the third-largest social network in the United States. Data shows that Pinterest users spend 50% more than competitor sites, such as Instagram or Facebook (who hold the top spots in the US). Not to mention, 90% or more of Pinterest buyers are brand-new to the merchant site, making their traffic very exciting. Why use Pinterest for E-commerce? With the rise of visual search, Pinterest is more critical for your business than ever before. According to Pinterest, their Lens feature can identify over 2.5 billion home and fashion objects (1.5 billion more than Google’s Lens). Buyable pins helped transform the Pinterest e-commerce network into a high-quality sales funnel. Users can instantly buy products without having to trudge through the awareness, consideration, and purchase cycle. You can also create links between product pages, websites, and …

Like Shyp, Airhouse exists to take the pain out of shipping. But its customers are direct-to-consumer brands, and it aims to avoid some of Shyp’s missteps. By the time on-demand delivery startup Shyp collapsed in March 2018, its cofounder and CEO, Kevin Gibbon, was already thinking about his next company. As he told me at the time , he planned to decompress for a couple of weeks and then get to work on it. Read Full Story

30-second summary: To address the uncertainty around consumer spending in the age of COVID-19, ClickZ hosted a Peer Network webinar with Michael Akkerman, the Chief Product & Strategy Leader at Cardlytics. Through their ad platform, Cardlytics has visibility into half of all card swipes in the continental US. This gives the company a complete view into more than $3 trillion in consumer spending each year and is the basis for their State of Spend report. Weekly monitoring revealed spending from March through the end of April was in decline, reaching a max decline of about 35% across all retail categories. By the end of April, Cardlytics to see the trend in declining spend begin to decrease, with spending down about 21% at the end of April and down about 14% as of this past week. Grocery purchasing has fueled some of this recovery, with grocery prices increasing by about 3% …

Direct-to-consumer brands have been growing in publicity, and for good reason. Here's how to scale the challenges and scale your DTC brand effectively.

The CEO of Kazoo argues that a company’s core values have the power to elevate your organization or tear it down. And now they’re more important than ever. The direct-to-consumer luggage brand Away recently faced harsh criticism after an investigation by The Verge revealed the company’s toxic work culture. The startup, founded by two women, enticed employees with its apparent culture of inclusion and mission for everyone to live a more travel-minded lifestyle. But workers quickly discovered a controlling culture marked by extreme surveillance, overwork, and public bullying—all in the name of Away’s core values. Read Full Story

30-second summary: Our Marketing Intelligence September report ‘Search & Social Advertising’ as the front runner in this technology segment. Deloitte states that 77% of CEOs report that digital transformation efforts have significantly accelerated. Social media helped 69% of brands prepare for the COVID-19 impact on business and maintain customer/audience relationships. 66% agreed that social media programs have helped their business prepare for a broader digital transformation. Gartner benchmarked 118 brands on their digital customer service strategies. The sectors included Big Box retailers, department stores, fashion, specialty retail, grocery, financial services, watches & jewelry, and hotels. Customer service ‘leaders’ included H&M, Sephora, and a few more names. While Nike, Vans, Saks Fifth Avenue, Big Box retailers like Whole Foods fell into the ‘laggards’ category. Surprised? Dive in to find out more. As per our ClickZ and Search Engine Watch pulse survey’s latest insights, ‘Advertising & Promotion’ is the top marketing technology …

30-second summary: 73% of online shoppers are expected to chase post-holiday bargains while 76% of eBay buyers plan to take advantage of after-Christmas and New Year shopping deals. 33% of brands that shifted their ad dollars in Q1 and Q2 of 2020 moved money to ecommerce. SMS conversion rate increased 98% over Q2 making it a priority to add SMS to email strategies. Three must-have omnichannel touchpoints to induce conversions. CTV ad impressions grew by 2X, 55% YoY, the only medium to see such accelerated growth. 23% of consumers are more comfortable sharing data about their likes/dislikes, gender, and location data. 56% of businesses without CDPs have limited ability to apply insights holistically across their marketing efforts. D2C retail companies have a customer-first approach that is 2X better than their non-transactional counterparts. This week we share revenue-driving insights on omnichannel marketing and CTV advertising that can help ecommerce businesses increase …

30-second summary: Marketing technology budgets have risen from 32% to 42%, a straight 10% jump. The top 12 marketing technologies that are winning 2020. Top challenges businesses face with existing B2B vendors. Our Pulse Survey helps you look into the cracks with reasons why technology vendors could be losing business. How competitive pricing is a major reason for buyers to switch vendors. Curious to unravel all these answers? Dive in! As the holiday shopping season inches closer, this week we revisit our Pulse Survey to uncover key insights around the marketing technology industry, budgets, top tier technology, why B2B vendors possibly lost business, and more. Pulse Survey 2020: Latest findings We’re back with some interesting findings from our Pulse Survey 2020 which peeks into Director+ level executives’ minds to discover where the marketing technology industry is headed in terms of budgets, technology preferences, and more. These are some key findings: …