// Industry · D2C & Brands

Your brand. Your customers. Your direct channel.

Almost every second person in Germany now buys directly from brands and manufacturers. The direct channel is no longer an experiment. It is the place where brands really get to know their customers: with their own data, their own relationship, their own margin. We build the systems for it, from the shop through the data to retention.

Industry
D2C & Brands
Segments
Direct sales · Digital brands · Lifestyle
Systems
Shop · PIM/DAM · CDP · Loyalty · Marketplaces
Model
advise → integrate → deliver
Units
prodct [CX] × [Labs]
// The market in three numbers
49 per cent
of people in Germany buy directly from manufacturers and brands; among 18 to 29 year olds it is two thirds. ECC KÖLN/diconium ↗
68 per cent
of manufacturers with direct sales expect their D2C revenue to keep growing over the next five years. eCube-Studie ↗
222 per cent
more expensive is new customer acquisition than in 2013. So the direct channel has to do retention, not only selling. SimplicityDX ↗
// Five situations from brands

Sentences we hear often. Perhaps yours too.

These five situations come up again and again in conversations with brands. Every one of them can be solved. For each, we show you the lever we build, evidence that it holds, and what the topic means for everyone at the table.

// 01 · Situation

“The marketplace knows our customers. We do not.”

Situation

Sales are running, but the relationship belongs to someone else. The marketplace knows the addresses, the buying behaviour, the next need. Your brand gets the order, not the customer. Anyone planning the next collection, the next launch or the next programme is flying blind.

Lever

A direct channel that brings the relationship home: your own shop as the home of the brand, a customer profile that combines purchases, preferences and touchpoints, and marketplaces as what they should be. One channel among several, not the owner of your customers.

Relevant for
CEOAnyone who does not own the customer relationship rents their business model.
CDOYour own customer data is the only data advantage no competitor can copy.
CMOA direct channel means the brand speaks for itself, not through a middleman.
// 02 · Situation

“New customers get more expensive every year.”

Situation

Advertising costs rise, tracking gets harder, and the next new customer costs more than the last. Growth through acquisition alone has become the most expensive strategy for brands. The lever sits with those who have already bought: repeat purchase, basket value, recommendation.

Lever

Retention as a system instead of a hope: a loyalty programme that fits your brand, personalisation that speaks to existing customers more relevantly than any ad, and email journeys that turn the first purchase into the second. All connected to shop and customer profile.

Relevant for
CFORetention is the only growth lever that gets cheaper every year.
CMOThe best audience is the one you have already convinced.
CEOLTV beats CAC, or the model does not hold.
// 03 · Situation

“The brand grows faster than the shop.”

Situation

The next campaign is ready, the drop is planned, the collection is finished. And then everything waits for the shop release cycle. For brands, speed is brand management. A launch that comes too late is a launch that does not happen.

Lever

A storefront the team runs itself: campaign pages, drops and promotions without a developer ticket, content and assortments in the hands of marketing. The platform takes care of operations, your energy goes into the brand.

Relevant for
CMOTime to launch is a brand metric.
CIOSelf-service for the team means fewer tickets and operations that simply run.
CEOSpeed is the one advantage small brands have over large ones. Do not lose it while growing.
// 04 · Situation

“Every channel tells our brand differently.”

Situation

The shop shows different images than the marketplace, the data sheet contradicts the product page, and the agency hunts for assets by email. More channels mean more versions of the truth. For a brand that is not a tidiness problem. It is an identity problem.

Lever

A product and brand foundation: PIM for product data, DAM for images and assets, one workflow for approvals. Every channel pulls from the same source, every change takes effect everywhere. Maintain once, brand everywhere.

Relevant for
CMOConsistency is what separates a brand from an assortment.
CDOAn asset and product data record is the infrastructure of brand management.
CIOWithout a leading system, chance decides which version is live.
// 05 · Situation

“Selling internationally is a project here.”

Situation

The brand works across borders, the systems do not. New markets today mean a new shop, a new agency, a new budget, a new risk. Meanwhile cross-border online trade grows faster than the domestic market, and whoever waits leaves it to the marketplaces.

Lever

Internationalisation as configuration instead of a project: languages, currencies, prices and taxes per market from one system, local payment methods included. A new market then becomes a decision, not an annual programme.

Relevant for
CEOYour brand is already visible internationally. The question is who earns from it.
CFOMarket entry as configuration changes the investment case fundamentally.
CIOOne system for all markets instead of one setup per country.
// Stakeholder Briefing · D2C & Brands

Five situations.
Five individual perspectives at the table.

Digital projects at brands rarely fail on the concept. They fail because stakeholders and decision-makers ask many different questions and need different answers. Our Stakeholder Briefing gives you all five perspectives on each of these situations. So you can not only propose the topic internally, but drive it and argue for it.

THE BRIEFING FOR YOUR NEXT STAKEHOLDER ROUND.
We use your data solely to give you access to the Stakeholder Briefing and to follow up on it. Further content only with your tick.

The briefing is unlocked.

Go to the Stakeholder Briefing
// Stack

Technologies other brands rely on.

We are technology-agnostic. Which platform fits you is something we clarify in the first conversation.

Commerce Platform · SaaS

Shopify

Sell everywhere, operate nothing. Storefront, checkout, B2B, Markets and POS.

Commerce Platform · API-first

Shopware

Commerce that adapts to your business. API-first, open and at home in Germany.

Personalization · Experience OS

Dynamic Yield

Every customer sees what fits them. Recommendations, experimentation, audiences and experience search in real time.

Loyalty & Promotion Engine

Talon.One

Loyalty and promotion across the entire customer journey. Rewards, coupons, discounts and gamification.

Data & Experience Platform

Pimcore

The data foundation for transformation, commerce and AI. PIM, DAM, CMS and CDP in one open core.

// Clients

Projects we speak from.

The five situations above come from projects, not from papers. We show a selection publicly and the rest in conversation.

// prodct [CX] × [Labs] · D2C & Brands

Let us talk about your direct channel. And about what it could become.

In 30 minutes we go through your channels: from the marketplace to your own shop, from acquisition to retention. Afterwards you know which of the five situations has the biggest lever for you and where to start.