D2C Strategy Is Straightforward When You Start from First Principles

While eCommerce continues to grow, that doesn't mean that everyone has it figured out. Particularly at the beginning of the journey it can be daunting. Where to start? I often prefer to think about things in terms of questions..... Let's begin here.

1 - Who is your single accountable owner for the vision and execution of the program?

Without ownership, you are going nowhere fast. This is the first big "who".

2 - Who are your customers? Be specific.

Demographic, psychographic, geographies, and behaviors. This is the second big "who."

3 - Why do your customers buy? How do they make decisions about purchases? Are there macro or other trends affecting this?

This is the first big "why". Until you get this point, you cannot make any plans because you don't understand the target. You start thinking about pricing and "whitespace" rather than what problem you need to solve.

Gordon Ramsay used to stand on the corner and ask his customers to try his food, and then sit there and listen. If you don't understand how your customer thinks, you will never have a successful business. You can't "outsource" this.

>> Getting to this point is a watershed moment many brands skip over. <<

When you get to this point, it's actually all downhill despite it being the start of the actual hard work.

4 - What capabilities will I need to serve these customers?

This is really the first time you are being specific about "what next". Things like:

- what channels will we use to reach them? (online, retail, podcast, digital marketing etc). Be specific and limit your focus to your top 1 or 2. If you can't reach them in your top channels, you are wasting your time with the others to get something off the ground.

- what capabilities do we need to REACH THEM using these channels? i.e. creative services, copywriting.

- what capabilities do we need to serve them in our chosen channels? i.e. merchandising, supply chain, payments, customer service

5 - What people, process, and technology do we need to buy, build, o partner to deliver and improve these capabilities we have identified to serve these customers on their journey?

>> Once you are here, you have the beginnings of a plan. <<

Now is the time to think about phases, investment levels, ROI for all the things you identified in point 5.

Sometimes simplifying your thinking about "how we got here" can help you move faster. Going back to first principles and ensuring you understand how your consumer is acting today -- rather than how they used to act -- will usually fix a lot of your problems.

Then you can project that analysis forward through the next set of questions and easily identify where you are not aligned with your customers.

It might even become more obvious to you why "everyone is growing faster than me" (sometimes I hear this) or "why consumers are buying from the upstarts they hardly know" instead of a brand they know.