How consumer goods brands can learn from the bike business and its rapid shift to embrace DTC.
Over the 2020-21 season, the bike industry had one of their best few years in recent memory, as with many other countries, Canada and the U.S. saw an average sales increase of 60% versus the previous year.
As the grips of the pandemic set in, we all seem to have had the same idea, to redirect those vacation funds into quality of life purchases with bicycles being high up on the list of popular upgrades.
But while this positive momentum in renewed interest was creating a massive tailwind for the bike industry, the effects of COVID would also create complete disruption of the global supply chain, derailing logistics and making it exponentially harder to fulfill this new demand.
While online shopping has become the norm across every commercial sector, the bike industry began to take notice early, addressing the need to better utilize the digital channel to reach customers more efficiently.
Defining DTC
Before we dive into the Do’s and Don'ts of DTC best practices, let’s take a moment to acknowledge that there are two general types of DTC digital environments – Digitally-Native Vertically-Integrated Brands (or DNVB) and Hybrid. DNVB is defined as the sole methodology in which to connect products and buyers together without the aid or support of the middle wholesaler and distribution layer. These brands have complete control over their brand, marketing, sales tactics, customer experience, and data.
