– DTC bag company is struggling to compete with established brands like North Face, Patagonia, and LL Bean.
– DTC companies are facing challenges in pricing their products to cover supply chain and advertising costs.
– Many brands are experiencing high customer acquisition costs and lower profit margins, leading to concerns about long-term profitability.Brands should consider adjusting their pricing strategy and exploring wholesale options to improve profitability and reduce advertising costs in the competitive DTC market.Luis Fernando Albuja shared a DTC bag company that he thought looked clean. The backpack is priced at $280-$300. This isn’t sustainable, people. It’s really hard to move the volume necessary when you’re competing against the likes of North Face, Patagonia, and LL Bean, all of which make really strong products that are purpose-built for adventure, not just going to the gym. This is the fundamental problem with most DTC companies these days. They have to price their products at variables so they can profit with all the costs of the supply chain and advertising. DTC was supposed to eliminate this, and it was a cool story until the math stopped adding up. If you’re a brand right now, I can sum up your actual feelings about how business is going currently in a few sentences. 1. CAC is way out of control. 2. Margins are steady but not where they were 5 years ago. 3. Long term, this isn’t likely to be as profitable as we predicted. 4. I’d take wholesale pricing if I could avoid CAC and move product in bulk. Just look at companies that are currently getting clobbered on the public markets to get a taste of how things are likely to work out for your brands in the next few years. This isn’t a situation where tools can bail you out. Tools can tell you if you have a business, they can help you streamline and automate things, some even claim to improve your margins, but in all honesty, this is likely a unit economics issue where a lot of brands are spending a ton on advertising a month to maintain steady traffic in a competitive landscape that is only increasing. Read the macro tarot cards on this one. #ecommerce #strategy #datahttps://www.linkedin.com/in/jivanco