Customers’ expectations are constantly changing. What was the hype a year ago is now just a basic requirement for them. They have become more selective regarding the brands they choose and are eyeing out for more. 

To win customers’ hearts in such a situation and stay competitive, you need to adopt the latest D2C eCommerce trends. Otherwise, you may fall behind and lose your customer base to those brands that have already adopted these new trends. 

In this article, we will look at the top 11 D2C eCommerce trends that are accelerating the future of the direct-to-consumer eCommerce business. 

What Is D2C eCommerce? 

D2C eCommerce is an e-commerce business model where brands sell products online directly to their customers, without involving any middlemen. 

This e-commerce approach is the opposite of the B2C (Business-to-Customer) e-commerce model where multiple intermediaries, such as manufacturers, distributors, and wholesalers are involved. In D2C eCommerce, a brand is responsible for the entire sales process — from sourcing products and marketing them on different channels to the delivery to the end consumer. 

Brands like Allbirds, Peloton, and Warby Parker are some of the well-known players in the D2C eCommerce industry. 

What are the Benefits of D2C eCommerce? 

The approach of directly selling to consumers without having to deal with any intermediaries may sound simple, but in reality, it comes with lots of challenges. For example, you will have to take charge of customer acquisition along with product manufacturing, manage the logistics process, establish brand affinity, and most importantly, compete with the distributors and wholesalers. This means, you will have to be a jack of all trades, which is quite challenging. 

Despite that, a lot of brands are adopting the D2C eCommerce strategy because of the benefits it presents on the plate. These are:

• Since there are no third parties involved between a brand and its customers, it gives you full control over how you will portray your brand to your potential customers. 

• The D2C eCommerce business model lets you directly communicate with the customers and allows you to orchestrate the customer journey as per your choice. This further strengthens the relationship between you and your shoppers. 

• D2C brands get the opportunity to cut down costs by eliminating distributors and retailers and enjoy higher profit margins. 

• In D2C eCommerce, you can learn more about your customers which helps you personalize their shopping experience in a better way. 

• D2C brands can launch products in the market more quickly as there are no parties involved in between. This gives them an advantage over their competitors. 

Top 11 D2C eCommerce Trends You Need to Know in 2024

Now that you have the basics cleared, let’s get into the current D2C trends one by one. 

1. Personalization is the real dealmaker. 

There are more than 26.5 million eCommerce websites and the number is growing each day. This fact simply indicates the fierce competition brands are facing in today’s eCommerce world. 

The only way to stand out in such a competitive scenario is to provide highly personalized shopping experiences to the customers because around 80% of shoppers are more likely to buy from a company that provides such tailored shopping experience.

But here is the catch! Personalization is not just about sending birthday greetings with customers’ first names. It’s way more than that. 

Today, personalization means tailoring an individual shopper’s shopping journey throughout the sales cycle. It’s about portraying your products in such a way that targets their pain points, eases their lives, and makes them feel like you genuinely care for them. 

For example, think of personalized product recommendations across different sales channels or Dollar Shave Club’s marketing technique of sharing shaving tips. You may also take into account Warby Parker’s online quiz, which is used to recommend eye wares according to each customer’s face shape and size. 

Adopting these hyper-personalization strategies today has become a lot easier for brands, thanks to first-party data and other technological advancements, like AI, predictive analytics, and data analytics. That’s why in the upcoming times, D2C brands relying on hyper-personalization to win customers’ loyalty and buy-ins will be a common phenomenon. 

2. The omnichannel approach is on the rise. 

Though omnichannel commerce isn’t an exclusive trend, it’s still worth it due to its constant popularity. And why not? If you take a look at the latest statistics, you’ll find that US shoppers engage with the brands across 11 different touch points before hitting the buy button. And those D2C brands that have embraced an omnichannel approach can retain around 89% of their customers.

That’s why D2C brands are establishing a unified brand image across all mediums, including online stores, emails, SMS, social media, desktop, and mobile, and providing a connected customer journey. Their main goal is to ease customers’ shopping decisions, regardless of where they choose to shop. 

Not only that, with the launch of popular distribution methods like Buy Online Pickup In-store (BOPIS) and Reserve Online, Try & Buy in-store, brands are improving customers’ shopping experience, bridging the gap between online and offline shopping. 

3. More use of AI and other advanced technologies

AI is a boon in the eCommerce industry. From providing personalized shopping experience, offering instant customer service, and forecasting future customer demands, to optimizing order fulfillment, it can handle almost anything and everything. 

As time passes, Direct-to-Consumer eCommerce businesses are using more innovative ways to use AI in their daily operations. These come in the form of virtual try-ons, visual search technology, AI-powered inventory management, and more. 

Giant brand L’oréal uses AI-powered augmented reality (AR) technology to let customers virtually try makeup products, which helps in their purchasing decisions. Sephora’s AI chatbot, on the other hand, provides personalized beauty advice to shoppers. 

Precedence Research shows that this AI in eCommerce trend will continue to grow and is projected to reach $54.92 billion by 2033. 

4. Social Commerce is among the top customer acquisition strategies. 

There was a time when social media was just a good-to-have marketing tool for eCommerce brands. Now, with innovations of different shoppable functionalities within social platforms, social media has become a key to driving eCommerce growth. 

Today’s D2C brands are experimenting with different creative strategies on social media to bring in more sales. These are an Instagram story with a purchase link, shoppable TikTok videos, influencer marketing, and live shopping.

To win buy-ins from Gen Zs, D2C merchants are expanding their presence on platforms like Snapchat and Pinterest and using their native functionalities like shoppable AR lenses and Product pins. Likewise, Business owners are listing their products on Facebook shops to sell them directly to Gen X customers. 

Interestingly, this social commerce trend shows no sign of flopping and is predicted to touch $6.2 trillion by 2030.  

5. D2C Brands are adopting flexible payment methods. 

If you have been in the eCommerce business for quite some time, you know how hard it is to bring the customer to the product page. What’s even tougher is to redirect them to the checkout page. Suppose you have succeeded in both tasks but still, you are not able to make them hit the pay & checkout button. Most D2C brands face the same problem. 

To overcome this and persuade window shoppers to hit the buy button, D2C eCommerce merchants are integrating different types of payment options, along with Google Pay and Apple Pay. 

BNPL (Buy Now, Pay Later) is a popular payment method that is trending this year and will continue to do so in the upcoming times. In this payment mode, customers complete the purchases and pay for them over time. The BNPL approach helps win customers’ buy-ins, especially for expensive items. There are lots of Fintech companies like Klarna and Afterpay that have made this process achievable for D2C businesses. 

Well-known D2C brand Charlotte Tilbury uses this BNPL option to grab shoppers’ buy-ins. 

Other than BNPL, digital wallets, credit cards, third-party payment gateways, and net banking are some popular payment channels that brands are adopting. In a nutshell, businesses are integrating flexible payment options into their websites to bring in customers’ impulse buys. 

6. Voice Commerce is revolutionizing traditional shopping approaches.

Have you ever asked Amazon Alexa to recommend some good books? Within milliseconds, it comes up with a bunch of suggestions and makes our lives a lot easier. 

As people are getting accustomed to voice assistants like Alexa and Siri, eCommerce brands are adopting different voice-activated functionalities, which further accelerates voice commerce. In simple words, voice commerce is a shopping method where customers command voice assistance to search products and place orders. As a result, it eliminates the need to use hardware like keyboards for order placing. 

As per a recent study, around 49% of US consumers use voice search for shopping. In fact, around 75% of households will use smart speaker devices in the next two years. Considering these facts, D2C merchants should take voice commerce seriously. 

To give you an example, Domino’s has already adopted this approach and is attracting mass consumers. 

7. D2C brands are leaning toward community building. 

There’s no substitute for community building, considering the fierce competition in the D2C market. Why? Shoppers are tired of promotional materials. They love to buy from brands that actually care for them and prioritize their needs. 

Through community building, businesses can create a sense of belonging among their customer base and win their loyalty. A whopping 81.6% of brands worldwide are leaning toward community building to grab customers’ trust. Halfdays, a women’s ski apparel company, has launched a slack community, where skiing enthusiasts can build connections with each other. 

As we’re moving towards a world where customers’ expectations are constantly growing, brands must look for ways to build a solid community. They can do it by running their own slack channels and Facebook groups, engaging with customers on social media, or posting their behind-the-scenes on social platforms. 

8. Guest checkout is gaining popularity. 

The guest checkout process enables customers to purchase products from a brand without signing up and creating an account. It solves some major problems that can lead to higher cart abandonment rates. First of all, it saves customers from entering their personal details on an unknown platform. Second, it eases their checkout process. And third, it quickens transactions.

For all these reasons, around half of online shoppers look for the guest checkout method. 

Looking at these customer expectations, businesses are offering a guest checkout experience. However, keep in mind that the guest checkout process can hinder you from gathering first-party customer data. So, offer both guest checkout and regular checkout methods to play safe. 

9.  Flexible delivery options and timely order notifications are the keys to improving the shopping experience. 

Shoppers want to get the orders in their hands at their own convenience. Suppose, you are going to order a birthday dress. But you found out that it will be delivered to you after 2 days of your birthday. Naturally, this is a heart-breaking moment. The same happens with your customers. They may even drop the decision to buy from your brand. That’s why around 70% of customers want flexible delivery options. 

D2C brands are offering multiple delivery methods, including same-day delivery, next-day delivery, standard delivery, etc so that customers can receive the parcels at their convenience. Alongside that, curbside pickup, locker delivery, and white-glove delivery options are getting widely adopted by them. 

Not only that, besides flexible delivery options, every shopper wants to be alerted regarding when they will receive the parcels. The Forbes study also found the same. It claimed that around 90% of customers want to track their orders in real time. 

With this in concern, almost every eCommerce brand today is sending checkpoint-specific delivery notifications to shoppers. Most of them even personalize the delivery alerts to build a long-term relationship with shoppers. 

So, if you’re ignoring the power of seamless delivery, it’s high time to take these factors into consideration. There are a bunch of top-notch shipping software available on the market, like ClickPost, AfterShip, and Metapack that take care of your logistics aspects in the most efficient way. 

10. Shoppers are looking for hassle-free returns. 

Will you ever buy from a brand that has a long return cycle? Obviously, the answer is no. 

As we are heading towards a more advanced eCommerce world, customers prefer those brands that offer seamless return experiences. This process mostly includes providing label-less & box-less returns, auto-reviewing returned products, offering a clear return policy, and hassle-free refunds. In fact, some of them even want a “no-question-asked” return policy. 

Once you are able to successfully do so, you’re more likely to win their repeat purchases and build a solid customer base. 

11. Customers are into sustainable eCommerce. 

Sustainability in eCommerce is no longer a buzzword. Today’s customers are obsessed with sustainability. As per Mckiney’s study, around 75% of millennials say that they consider sustainability when purchasing from a brand. Most giant brands in D2C commerce have adopted the sustainable eCommerce approach to stay competitive and play long-term games. 

Allbirds, for example, are using sustainable materials such as merino wool and eucalyptus tree fiber to craft their new eco-friendly shoe line. On the other hand, Everlane (a clothing brand) has committed to reducing greenhouse gas emissions at least by 50% per product till 2030. 

These initiatives not only bring a positive impact on the environment but also help attract eco-conscious D2C customers. So, if you really want to sustain in this sustainability-conscious eCommerce world, you must embrace green eCommerce initiatives. 

Set Your Business Up for Success with these D2C eCommerce Trends 

When you search for the best D2C eCommerce Trends, you’ll find 100s of them. And it’s easy to get lost. That’s why, we have carefully picked the most trending ones that can drive better ROI and improve your relationships with your customers. 

So, pick the ones that suit you the best and keep yourself ahead in the game.