Future-proof your ecommerce business with an optimised D2C channel

The last few years feel like they have been defined by disruption and change, not all of it bad. The pandemic has accelerated the growth of ecommerce around the world, creating new opportunities for brands to reach new customers. Total global ecommerce sales are now projected to hit USD 5 trillion this year and grow to reach USD 6 trillion by 2024. To capture market share and give customers the best possible experience, many brands are focusing on building out direct-to-consumer (D2C) channels. By working to fully optimise your D2C channel, you can help future-proof your ecommerce business and position your organisation for long-term success.

Why go D2C?

If your organisation does not yet have a robust D2C channel or leadership is wary about investing in upgrades, now is the time to shake off those hesitations. Selling directly to your customers can be extremely valuable, allowing your brand to:

• own the customer experience at all touchpoints, including fulfilment;

• own customer data to gain critical insights;

• defend against disruption in other channels, particularly brick-and-mortar;

• strengthen relationships with customers and build brand loyalty;

• focus on your brand’s strengths and core competencies.

By going direct, brands have essentially the ability to control their own destiny. To put your organisation in the best position for future success, here are some ways you can optimise your D2C channel.

Localise marketing and customer acquisition strategies

There are fewer barriers to entering the ecommerce space than ever before. That means more online retailers, more D2C competition and rising consumer expectations. At the same time, rising customer acquisition costs, skyrocketing advertising rates and changes to third-party cookies and privacy laws have made it more difficult to forge meaningful relationships with consumers. This is why it’s so important to optimise marketing techniques and customer acquisition strategies that align with your new D2C approach.

For starters, all marketing and sales content needs to be updated for the local language and cultural considerations. This may involve developing all new creative assets or partnering with local organisations to better understand cultural nuances so you can look and feel as much like a local business as possible. 

Make sure you also have the right technology in place to effectively organise and analyse customer data. Develop a strategy for how to best use all the new data collected in your D2C channel to segment your customers and optimise marketing and acquisition strategies for each channel and target segment.

Get payments right

Countless studies have shown that when consumers aren’t given the option to pay with their preferred method, they will shop elsewhere. This is why it’s critical to optimise your payments strategy for every new market you operate in.

The most important thing is to offer pricing in the local currency and make sure you can accept the payment methods preferred by customers in that country. Adoption of digital wallets and other emerging payments technologies varies around the world. So, make sure you are continuously monitoring consumer trends to ensure your payment experience matches up with evolving customer expectations.

Brands should also spend time optimising the back end of payments systems to improve authorisation rates, minimise false declines and ultimately drive more sales. This often involves using dynamic routing and advanced retry logic and working with partners who offer local acquiring and preferred payment methods to boost conversions. Brands that want simplicity and speed to market should consider partnering with an experienced payments expert who can manage payments and reduce financial complexity with merchant of record services.

Account for compliance and taxes

Perhaps the best way to future-proof your ecommerce business is to make sure your D2C offering is built on a strong foundation. This means optimising back-office operations for things like taxes, compliance, and regulatory concerns. But that’s easier said than done. Regulations vary from country to country and even certain US states have their own unique restrictions. Penalties can be extremely costly and embarrassing incidents can harm brand reputation and customer confidence. So, it’s critical that ecommerce brands have a way to cut through the complexity and remain compliant.

Because of the sheer scale and complexity of these issues, many brands choose to partner with a third-party organisation like Digital River that specialises in tax management and global compliance. Partners continually monitor for updates in laws and regulations and have the infrastructure and relationships in place to reduce the burden on your compliance internal team. This not only makes it easier to enter new markets, but also to future-proof your organisation against any potential changes that could impact your business.

Setting the stage for success

Download our Complete checklist to optimize your D2C channel for more tips and insights on how to take your D2C strategy to the next level.

And for more information about how you can future-proof your ecommerce business, connect with Digital River today.

About Ted Rogers

Ted Rogers started at Digital River in 2017 and brings a unique perspective to the business, with past roles spanning from marketing to credit and fraud to operations. He served first as vice president and general manager of MyCommerce, then vice president of global expansion and fulfillment operations, and vice president of strategic marketing before being named chief marketing officer. His focus lies in communicating Digital River’s value and driving growth for customers and partners by taking a global, scalable and quantitative approach to marketing. Ted has an extensive background in ecommerce and marketing management, serving as a marketing executive in the industry for over 20 years. Prior to joining Digital River, he held a variety of leadership roles at FICO and Bluestem Brands, Inc – Fingerhut and PayCheck Direct.

About Digital River

With more than 25 years of experience, Digital River has mastered global commerce. An industry disrupter from the start, our Global Seller Services simplify global commerce expansion to help companies of all sizes grow their revenue by offering shoppers a localised buying experience in OVER 200 DESTINATIONS worldwide. Using our flexible APIs that combine payments, tax, fraud, and compliance into a single integrated solution, brands INCREASE CONVERSIONS, turning browsers into buyers as they virtually sell anything to anyone, anywhere in the world. The CHOSEN PARTNER of more than 3,500 global brands across the Americas, Europe, and Asia, Digital River is global commerce simplified.