You’ve heard of B2B and B2C, but have you ever heard of D2C?
D2C is the new kid on the block, and stands for “direct to customer”.
Now you may be intuitively thinking, how is that not B2C – the reason is that D2C looks to own the entire chain of operations from manufacturing through distribution and finally to that “customer success” piece.
A classic example of D2C is buying a mattress from Emma or Simba rather than going to John Lewis. Or even HelloFresh is an example of D2C, skirting round the need for supermarkets.
For non-technology founders, D2C is extremely challenging because it talks to a need to a great deal of sophistication in terms of IT systems, and in a normal non-technology founder startup, IT systems other than the actual main product tends to be a bit sketchy.
All of the models have their own risks, but B2B and B2C the main challenges tend to be marketing. In D2C, you have the marketing challenge plus huge operational challenges. If you minded to do a D2C venture, you’re going to need a lot of cash and a lot of support.