The UK Direct To Consumer report identifies consumer attitudes towards the online retailing market, DTC retail sales trends, and DTC purchasing levels in the UK. This market report covers the market size, market forecast, market segmentation and industry trends for the Direct To Consumer market in the UK.
While direct-to-consumer (DTC) brands are often viewed as a niche element of the retail sector, there is a surprisingly high number of consumers who are aware of D2C brands. However, the reality is the rise of ecommerce across the past decade has broken down barriers for the D2C model and has blurred the lines between what it means to be a D2C or a ‘traditional’ brand.
While many consumers believe D2C brands should offer lower prices when buying directly than through retailers, there are only a handful of fully vertically integrated D2C brands that can achieve this price differential. Many brands within the D2C market are small and/or start-up in nature and, therefore, they are more exposed to supply chain disruption and inflation, with their smaller scale less able to mitigate the impacts of both factors on their prices to consumers.
The biggest threat to a D2C brand is that it does not create the purchasing frequency and loyal early adopter customer base that allows the foundations for more mass-market led growth. Online growth has democratised access to consumers and meant that innovative products and ideas could quickly find a niche audience. However, current D2C buyers skew significantly younger and more affluent and, as such, are more promiscuous and can quickly move purchasing to a new brand. To guard against this, many of the recent success stories have built subscriptions into their models to create a more stable stream of income.
The pandemic is expected to give a significant legacy boost to online purchasing, and as such, this will bring greater opportunities for D2C brands operating in this space, particularly if, as we expect, transactional capability becomes baked into social platforms. While some D2C brands may create businesses on a pure D2C model, for most, the ability to sell directly to consumers is an opportunity to show retailers that their brand has proof of concept and make it easier for them to find partners in this space to find an even greater audience.
Read on to discover more details or take a look at all of our UK Consumer Lifestyles, Marketing and Promotion market research
Brands: Made, Allbirds, HelloFresh, Glossier, Gymshark, Grind, Smol, Ace & Tate, LoveHoney, Gousto, Beauty Pie, Smile Direct Club, Who Gives a Crap, Castore, Nourished, Everlane, Patch Plants, Sézane, Desmond and Dempsey, Blueland, Colgate.
This report, written by Nick Carroll, a leading analyst in the Retail sector, delivers in-depth commentary and analysis to highlight current trends and add expert context to the numbers.
Selling directly to consumers is not a new concept, but the rise of ecommerce over the past decade has provided for the foundations for it to be a more disruptive concept across all sectors, from automotive to media distribution. For retailers the modern D2C model has proved the platform for large brands to reduce dependency on retailers, and provided a significant channel to market for new start-ups. It is not a golden ticket to success and for most active in the market retail listing is still the ultimate goal, but it is a growing aspect of the ecommerce sector and one with much room to grow.
Nick Carroll
Category Director – Retail Insights
Mintel is the world’s leading market intelligence agency. We show you how consumers think today and tomorrow. As a trusted partner to industry leaders, we deliver game-changing insights to businesses across the globe, fuelling their marketing and innovation strategies that will shape the future.
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