Best D2C E-Commerce Platforms and Software

Running a Direct-to-Consumer (D2C) business used to be a great way to sell products directly to customers. Brands could avoid paying middlemen like retailers and instead build stronger relationships with their buyers. But now, things are getting tougher. The cost of D2C platforms and software that consumer brands rely on has gone up a lot. This increase is becoming a big problem for many businesses.

Recently, many software companies, including popular ones like Shopify and Klaviyo, have raised their prices. For example, Shopify increased its basic plan from $29 to $39 a month.

Klaviyo, a tool used for email marketing, has also become more expensive, with some businesses now paying as much as $4,000 a month. These rising costs make it harder for small and medium-sized D2C brands to stay profitable.

Why the rising cost of D2C software matters

D2C brands depend on these tools to run their online stores, manage customer data, and market their products. As these costs increase, businesses have to decide whether to absorb the extra expense or cut back on other areas.

For many brands, this is happening at the same time that other costs, like advertising and customer acquisition, are also rising. This double challenge makes it even harder for D2C brands to stay profitable. Some businesses are trying to cut costs by downgrading their software plans or even switching to cheaper tools. But this can lead to a loss of important features that help attract and keep customers​.

Impact on Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC) and Profitability

The rising cost of software and platforms also affects Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC), which is the amount of money a business spends to get a new customer. As software costs go up, so does CAC. This is because D2C brands need these tools to run effective marketing campaigns, track customer data, and manage sales. When these tools become more expensive, it costs more to acquire each new customer.

Higher CAC directly impacts profitability. If it costs too much to get a customer, the profit margins shrink. For many D2C brands, this means they have less money left over after covering all their expenses. In some cases, brands might even lose money on their new customers, which is not sustainable for long-term growth

Main D2C Platforms

Software in this category are the cornerstones of any D2C E-Commerce Business. These are mostly content management systems and email, SMS marketing platforms that power the fundamental layer of your e-commerce business.

1. Shopify

Shopify is one of the most popular e-commerce platforms, if not the most popular one because of its reputation for easy to use and having lots of helpful features for merchants.

Shopify is a platform that helps businesses create and run online stores. It’s a tool that lets people sell products online without needing to know how to code or handle complicated technology. With Shopify, you can design your online store, process payments, manage inventory, and even ship products—all from one place.

The History of Shopify

Shopify started in 2006. It was created by Tobias Lütke, Daniel Weinand, and Scott Lake. Tobias, who was a programmer, wanted to sell snowboards online but couldn’t find an easy way to do it. So, he decided to build his own platform. What began as a simple project for selling snowboards turned into a platform that millions of businesses use today.

Over the years, Shopify has grown a lot. It has added new features and services that make it even easier for people to sell products online. Today, more than a million businesses use Shopify to power their online stores.

Why Shopify is Popular with D2C Brands

Direct-to-Consumer (D2C) brands really like Shopify for several reasons:

• Great Support and Community: Shopify offers excellent customer support. Plus, there’s a large community of other Shopify users who share tips and advice. This is really helpful, especially if you’re new to running an online store.
• Easy to Use: Shopify is very simple to use. You don’t need to be a tech expert to set up or manage your store. The platform is designed so that anyone can start an online store quickly and easily.
• Customizable: Shopify offers many themes and apps that allow you to make your store look and work just the way you want. Whether you need a special design or extra features like reviews or email marketing, Shopify has options that can fit your needs.
• Grows with You: Shopify is built to grow with your business. Whether you’re just starting out or already have lots of customers, Shopify can handle it. They offer different plans, including Shopify Plus, which is made for big businesses that need more advanced tools.
• Works Well with Other Tools: Shopify connects easily with other tools you might already use, like PayPal, Google Analytics, and Klaviyo. This makes it easier to manage your business from one place.

Getting Started with a D2C Business with Shopify’s Standard Plans

If you’re using Shopify’s basic or advanced plans, there are several ways to scale your D2C business without overspending.

1. Optimize Your Store’s Performance: One of the easiest ways to scale your Shopify store is by improving its speed and user experience. A faster, more efficient store can handle more traffic and convert more visitors into customers. To do this, use tools like Google PageSpeed Insights to identify areas for improvement, such as image compression or removing unnecessary apps. Make sure your store is mobile-friendly since many shoppers use their phones to browse and buy​​.
2. Use Cost-Effective Marketing Strategies: Instead of relying solely on expensive paid ads, consider using content marketing and social media to drive traffic. Blogging, email marketing, and social media engagement can attract customers without the high costs of paid campaigns. Additionally, leverage Shopify’s built-in SEO tools to improve your search engine rankings and attract organic traffic​​.
3. Choose the Right Apps: Shopify offers a wide range of apps to help you manage and grow your store. However, it’s important to be selective. Only install apps that are essential and well-maintained. Too many apps can slow down your site and add unnecessary costs. Focus on apps that automate tasks, such as inventory management or customer service, which can save you time and money​​.
4. Expand Your Product Range Strategically: Introducing new products can be a great way to increase revenue, but it’s important to do it strategically. Conduct market research to ensure there’s demand for your new products. Start small and scale up based on customer feedback. This approach helps you avoid over-investing in products that may not sell​.

Growing a D2C Business Shopify Plus

For larger businesses or those ready to take the next step, Shopify Plus offers powerful tools and features designed for high-growth merchants. Here’s how to scale effectively with Shopify Plus:

1. Leverage Shopify Plus’s Advanced Features: Shopify Plus offers features that aren’t available on standard plans, such as advanced automation tools and customizable checkout experiences. These features can help you scale by streamlining operations and improving customer conversion rates. For example, you can use Shopify Flow to automate tasks like reordering inventory or sending personalized emails based on customer behavior​​.
2. Take Advantage of Lower Transaction Fees: One of the benefits of Shopify Plus is its lower transaction fees compared to the standard plans. This is especially important for businesses with high sales volumes, as these savings can add up quickly. Additionally, Shopify Plus offers better credit card processing rates, which can significantly reduce costs over time​.
3. Expand Globally: Shopify Plus makes it easier to scale internationally with features like multi-currency support and localized checkout options. This allows you to reach new markets without needing to create separate stores for each region. Expanding globally can be a major growth driver, especially for businesses that have saturated their local markets​.
4. Optimize Your Operations: With Shopify Plus, you can integrate advanced third-party tools and services to manage everything from logistics to customer service. This helps you maintain efficiency as your business grows. For example, you can use warehouse management systems to keep track of inventory across multiple locations, ensuring that you always have the right products in stock​​.

2. Klaviyo

Klaviyo is a marketing tool that helps businesses, especially Direct-to-Consumer (D2C) brands, connect with their customers. It allows brands to send personalized emails and text messages based on what customers like, what they buy, and how they interact with the brand. Klaviyo was founded in 2012 by Andrew Bialecki and Ed Hallen. It quickly became popular because it’s easy to use and helps businesses grow by building strong customer relationships.

The Rise of Klaviyo

Before Klaviyo, many businesses had a hard time personalizing their marketing. They couldn’t easily connect their customer data with their marketing tools. Klaviyo solved this problem by allowing businesses to gather data about their customers and use it to create targeted marketing campaigns. This means businesses can send the right message to the right person at the right time, making it more likely that customers will buy again.

As D2C brands became more common, they needed a tool that could help them build direct relationships with their customers. Klaviyo was perfect for this because it connects easily with popular e-commerce platforms like Shopify and WooCommerce. It allows brands to automate their marketing, send timely messages, and track results—all from one place. Over time, Klaviyo became the go-to marketing tool for D2C brands that want to grow without losing the personal touch that keeps customers loyal.

Why D2C Brands Love Klaviyo

D2C brands love Klaviyo because it helps them connect with their customers in a personal way. Here’s why:

1. Personalization: Klaviyo allows brands to send emails and texts based on what each customer likes and does. This makes customers feel special and increases the chances that they’ll buy again.
2. Automation: Klaviyo’s automation tools let brands set up email flows that run automatically. For example, when a new customer signs up, they can receive a series of welcome emails without the brand needing to do anything extra. This saves time and ensures that every customer gets attention.
3. Easy Integration: Klaviyo works well with popular e-commerce platforms like Shopify, making it easy for D2C brands to manage their marketing and online store together.
4. Data Insights: Klaviyo provides detailed data about how well marketing campaigns are working. This helps brands make better decisions and improve their strategies over time.
5. Scalability: As D2C brands grow, Klaviyo can grow with them. It’s a powerful tool that works for small businesses and large companies alike.

In short, Klaviyo is a powerful tool for D2C (Direct-to-Consumer) brands. It helps businesses reach new customers and keep them coming back. But to get the most out of Klaviyo, you need to use it wisely. This means finding cost-effective ways to attract first-time buyers and encouraging repeat purchases from existing customers. Here’s how to do that in simple steps.

How to Reach First-Time Buyers with Klaviyo

Getting new customers is important, but it can be expensive. Klaviyo offers tools that make it easier and cheaper to attract first-time buyers.

1. Welcome Emails: One of the best ways to turn visitors into customers is by sending a welcome email series. When someone signs up on your site, Klaviyo can automatically send them a series of emails introducing your brand and showing them your best products. This is a cost-effective way to get new customers interested and ready to buy.
2. Targeted Emails: Klaviyo lets you create targeted emails based on what people do on your site. For example, if someone looks at a product but doesn’t buy it, you can send them a reminder email. This way, you’re only spending time and money on people who are likely to make a purchase.
3. Pop-Up Forms: Use Klaviyo’s pop-up forms to collect email addresses from visitors. Offer them a discount on their first purchase in exchange for their email. This is a simple way to build your email list and turn visitors into customers without spending too much on ads.

How to Keep Customers and Get Repeat Purchases

Getting a customer to buy once is good, but getting them to buy again and again is even better. Here’s how Klaviyo helps you do that.

1. Reorder Reminders: For products that people need to buy regularly, like shampoo or snacks, Klaviyo can send reminders when it’s time to reorder. This makes it easy for customers to buy from you again, and it keeps your marketing costs low.
2. Personalized Offers: Klaviyo’s tools can predict when a customer is likely to buy again. You can use this information to send them special offers or discounts just when they’re thinking about making another purchase. This increases your chances of getting a repeat sale without spending a lot on marketing.
3. Suggesting Related Products: After someone buys something, Klaviyo can send them an email suggesting other products they might like. This not only increases the amount they spend but also keeps them engaged with your brand.
4. Loyalty Programs: Klaviyo helps you set up loyalty programs where customers earn points or rewards for their purchases. When customers feel appreciated, they’re more likely to keep buying from you. This saves you money because it’s cheaper to keep an existing customer than to find a new one.

3. Attentive

Attentive is a leading text message marketing platform that helps Direct-to-Consumer (D2C) brands connect with customers through SMS.

While many businesses use email tools like Klaviyo, Attentive offers a different approach by focusing on text messaging. This method is direct, immediate, and often more engaging. Attentive can be a cost-effective way to reach new customers, get repeat purchases, and keep customers coming back. Here’s how you can use Attentive to grow your business.

The Reason for Attentive’s Success

Attentive was founded in 2016 by Brian Long and Andrew Jones, who had previously co-founded TapCommerce, a successful mobile ad retargeting company that was acquired by Twitter in 2014. After their time at Twitter, Brian and Andrew decided to launch Attentive with the goal of changing how consumer brands communicate with their customers through personalized mobile messaging, primarily via SMS.

Their vision was to create a platform that allows D2C brands to engage customers directly in real time, a method they believed was more effective than traditional channels like email.

Attentive quickly gained traction due to its ability to deliver highly personalized, one-on-one communication between brands and consumers. This approach resonated particularly well with Direct-to-Consumer (D2C) brands, who were looking for more effective ways to engage their customers and stand out in a crowded market.

By focusing on SMS, which boasts significantly higher open and conversion rates compared to email, Attentive became a preferred tool for brands aiming to maximize their marketing ROI.

How to Reach First-Time Buyers with Attentive

Attracting new customers is important, but it can be costly. Attentive offers ways to do this without spending too much.

1. Welcome Messages and Sign-Up Offers: When someone signs up for SMS alerts on your website, Attentive sends them a welcome text. You can include a special offer or discount in this message to encourage them to make their first purchase. Text messages are often opened and read faster than emails, so this approach can lead to quick conversions.
2. Targeted SMS Campaigns: With Attentive, you can send personalized texts to specific groups of people. For example, if someone looked at a product on your website but didn’t buy it, you can send them a reminder. This helps you focus your efforts on people who are already interested, which can increase sales without raising costs.
3. Mobile Pop-Up Forms: Attentive’s pop-up forms collect phone numbers from visitors. Offering a discount in exchange for their number is a simple way to grow your SMS list. Once they’re signed up, you can use text messages to encourage them to make their first purchase.

How to Get Repeat Purchases and Keep Customers with Attentive

Keeping customers and getting them to buy again is key to long-term success. Attentive offers tools to help with this.

1. Reorder Reminders: If your products need to be bought regularly, like vitamins or skincare, Attentive can send automated texts reminding customers to reorder. These reminders are helpful and keep your brand top of mind, encouraging repeat purchases.
2. Personalized Text Campaigns: Attentive lets you send personalized offers based on what customers have bought before. For example, if someone purchased shoes, you could suggest socks or shoe care products. Personalized messages make customers feel valued, which increases the chances they’ll buy again.
3. Loyalty and VIP Programs: Attentive can help you set up and manage loyalty programs. You can send texts to your best customers with exclusive offers or early access to new products. When customers feel appreciated, they’re more likely to stay loyal to your brand.
4. Win-Back Campaigns: If a customer hasn’t shopped with you in a while, Attentive can send a message to bring them back. A special discount or reminder about your brand can encourage them to make another purchase.

4. Adobe Commerce (Magento)

Adobe Commerce, which used to be called Magento, is a platform that helps businesses create and manage their online stores. It is very powerful and can handle big, complex stores with lots of products. Magento started in 2008 and quickly became popular because it was flexible and could be customized easily. In 2018, Adobe bought Magento and turned it into Adobe Commerce. This change added even more features and made it a key part of Adobe’s digital tools.

The History of Adobe Commerce

Magento was originally built as an open-source platform, which means anyone could use and modify it for free. Businesses loved it because they could customize it to fit their exact needs. There were two versions: the free Community Edition and the paid Magento Commerce, which had more advanced features. When Adobe bought Magento, they rebranded it as Adobe Commerce and added even more tools, especially for large businesses. Now, it’s part of Adobe’s Experience Cloud, making it easier for businesses to connect their e-commerce with other marketing tools.

Who Uses Adobe Commerce?

Adobe Commerce is mostly used by medium to large businesses. These are companies that need a powerful platform to manage their online stores. Big brands like Coca-Cola and Ford use Adobe Commerce because it can handle lots of products and high traffic. It also works well for both B2B (business-to-business) and B2C (business-to-consumer) operations, making it very versatile.

Why Do These Brands Prefer Adobe Commerce?

1. Scalability: Adobe Commerce can grow with a business. Whether a company has hundreds or thousands of products, this platform can handle it all.
2. Customization: One of the biggest strengths of Adobe Commerce is that it can be customized in almost any way. Businesses can change how their store looks, how the checkout process works, and much more.
3. Integration: Adobe Commerce works well with other tools, especially those from Adobe, like Adobe Analytics. This helps businesses manage everything from one place.
4. Security: Adobe Commerce offers strong security features, which are important for keeping customer data safe.

Best Ways to Use Adobe Commerce

1. Personalization: Use the platform to offer personalized shopping experiences. For example, show customers products based on what they’ve bought before or what they’ve looked at on your site.
2. Analytics: Take advantage of the platform’s powerful analytics to see what’s working and what’s not. This data helps make better business decisions.
3. Unified Commerce: If your business has both online and physical stores, Adobe Commerce can help provide a seamless experience for customers shopping in both places.
4. AI Tools: Adobe Commerce includes AI-powered tools like Adobe Sensei, which helps improve the customer experience. These tools can automatically recommend products to customers based on their shopping habits and personalize their experience on your site. This can lead to more sales without requiring extra work from your team.
5. Multi-Channel Management: Adobe Commerce is excellent for businesses that sell across different channels, such as online stores, social media, and physical stores. You can manage all of your sales channels from one place, ensuring that customers have a consistent experience no matter where they shop.
6. B2B and B2C Flexibility: Adobe Commerce is versatile enough to handle both B2B (business-to-business) and B2C (business-to-consumer) needs. For B2B, it offers features like bulk ordering and custom pricing. For B2C, it provides tools for personalized shopping experiences and promotions. This flexibility makes it a popular choice for businesses that serve different types of customers.

5. Salesforce Commerce Cloud

Salesforce Commerce Cloud is a powerful tool that helps businesses sell their products both online and in physical stores. It started as a company called Demandware in 2004, but Salesforce bought it in 2016 and renamed it Salesforce Commerce Cloud. Since then, it has become a popular choice for businesses that want to give their customers a smooth and connected shopping experience, no matter where they shop.

Who Uses Salesforce Commerce Cloud?

Salesforce Commerce Cloud is mainly used by big brands and businesses that need to handle a lot of products and customers. Companies like Puma, Lacoste, and Uniqlo use it to manage their online stores, physical stores, and other sales channels all from one place. It’s especially good for businesses that sell directly to consumers (D2C), as it helps them connect with customers and offer personalized shopping experiences.

Why D2C Brands Choose Salesforce Commerce Cloud

1. Omnichannel Capabilities: Salesforce Commerce Cloud makes it easy for businesses to sell their products in different ways—online, in physical stores, and through other partners. This means customers can have the same shopping experience whether they buy something on a website, in a store, or through social media.
2. Personalization: The platform uses AI to suggest products and offers that customers are most likely to want. This makes shopping more personal and can lead to more sales.
3. Scalability: Salesforce Commerce Cloud is great for growing businesses. It can handle lots of products and customers, and it can grow as the business grows. This makes it a good choice for companies that are expanding or planning to expand in the future.
4. Integration with Other Tools: One of the best things about Salesforce Commerce Cloud is how well it works with other Salesforce tools. Businesses can use it alongside Salesforce’s marketing, sales, and customer service tools, making it easier to manage everything in one place.

Best Ways to Use Salesforce Commerce Cloud

• Expand to New Markets: Salesforce Commerce Cloud makes it easy for businesses to sell their products in different countries. It supports multiple languages and currencies, so businesses can reach more customers around the world.
• Create a Seamless Shopping Experience: Salesforce Commerce Cloud helps businesses give their customers the same shopping experience no matter where they shop. Whether a customer is buying something online, in a store, or through a social media app, the experience should feel the same. This makes customers more likely to return and shop again.
• Use AI for Personalization: With Salesforce’s AI tools, businesses can show customers products they might like based on what they’ve bought before or what they’ve looked at on the site. This makes shopping more personal and helps increase sales.
• Manage Inventory and Orders: The platform helps businesses keep track of their products and manage orders across different stores and online channels. This means fewer out-of-stock products and faster shipping times for customers.

6. Squarespace

Squarespace is a website builder that helps businesses create beautiful, easy-to-use websites. It was started in 2003 by Anthony Casalena. Squarespace is known for its focus on design and making it simple for anyone to build a website, even if they don’t have technical skills.

Squarespace began as a small project by its founder, Anthony Casalena, who wanted to create a simple tool for building websites. Since then, it has become one of the leading website builders, known for its elegant templates and user-friendly tools. Today, millions of people use Squarespace to run their businesses, portfolios, and online stores.

Over the years, it has grown into a platform that also supports online stores, blogs, and more. For Direct-to-Consumer (D2C) brands, especially those in the luxury boutique space, Squarespace is a great choice because it lets them create stylish, high-quality websites that provide a smooth shopping experience.

Who Uses Squarespace?

Squarespace is popular with small to medium-sized businesses, creative professionals, and luxury boutique brands. These brands often choose Squarespace because it allows them to create visually stunning websites that reflect their unique style. It’s especially useful for D2C brands that want to offer a high-end shopping experience online.

Why D2C Brands Choose Squarespace

1. Design Focused: Squarespace is known for its beautiful templates that are easy to customize. This is perfect for luxury brands that want their website to look polished and professional. With Squarespace, they can create a site that truly represents their brand.
2. Easy to Use: Squarespace is simple to use, even if you don’t know much about technology. The drag-and-drop editor makes it easy to build and update a website. This is important for small businesses that need to manage their site without hiring a developer.
3. Built-In E-Commerce: Squarespace includes all the tools needed to sell products online. Brands can manage inventory, process payments, and even sell digital products or services. Everything is built into the platform, making it easy to run an online store.
4. Strong Branding Tools: Squarespace offers tools that help businesses create and maintain a consistent brand. This includes email marketing, SEO tools, and social media integration. For luxury brands, having a strong and consistent brand image is key to attracting and keeping customers.

Best Ways to Use Squarespace for Luxury Boutique Brands

• Mobile Optimization: Many people shop on their phones, so it’s important that a website looks good and works well on mobile devices. Squarespace templates are fully responsive, meaning they automatically adjust to look great on any screen. This helps brands reach more customers and provide a better experience no matter how people access the site.
• Showcase Visual Content: Luxury brands often rely on high-quality visuals to tell their story. Squarespace’s templates are designed to highlight photos and videos, making it easy to create a visually engaging website that captures the essence of the brand.
• Smooth Shopping Experience: With built-in e-commerce features, Squarespace allows brands to create a seamless shopping experience. Customers can easily browse products, add items to their cart, and check out without any hassle. This is crucial for keeping shoppers happy and encouraging repeat purchases.
• Keep a Consistent Brand: Using Squarespace’s branding tools, luxury brands can ensure their website, emails, and social media all look and feel the same. This consistency helps build trust with customers and makes the brand more recognizable.

7. WooCommerce

WooCommerce is a tool that turns WordPress websites into online stores. It’s a free plugin that you can add to your WordPress site, making it easy to start selling products online. WooCommerce began in 2011 and quickly became popular because it’s open-source, meaning anyone can use and customize it. In 2015, Automattic, the company behind WordPress, bought WooCommerce. Today, it’s one of the most widely used e-commerce platforms.

Who Uses WooCommerce?

WooCommerce is popular with small and medium-sized businesses, creative entrepreneurs, and D2C (Direct-to-Consumer) brands. It’s perfect for those who already use WordPress or want more control over how their online store looks and works. Because it’s open-source, businesses can customize almost everything about their store, which is great for brands that want something unique.

Why D2C Brands Choose WooCommerce

1. Cost-Effective: WooCommerce is free to install, so it’s a good choice for businesses on a budget. While you’ll need to pay for things like hosting, themes, and plugins, it’s often cheaper than other e-commerce platforms.
2. Flexible and Customizable: WooCommerce is open-source, which means you can change nearly anything about your store. You can choose from thousands of plugins and themes to add features and style your site just the way you want.
3. Works with WordPress: WooCommerce is built to work perfectly with WordPress. This makes it easy for brands to manage their website and store all in one place. Plus, WordPress is known for its strong content management, so you can easily add blogs, product guides, and more to attract customers.
4. Scalable: WooCommerce can grow with your business. As you get more customers, you can add features and upgrade your hosting to handle more traffic. It’s a platform that works well for both small stores and large, busy ones.
5. Supportive Community: There’s a big community of developers and users around WooCommerce. This means there are plenty of resources, plugins, and experts available to help you customize your store or fix problems.

Best Ways to Use WooCommerce for D2C Brands

1. Customize Your Store: With WooCommerce, you can create a store that fits your brand perfectly. You can customize product pages, checkout processes, and more to give your customers a shopping experience that’s unique to your brand.
2. Use APIs for Extra Features: WooCommerce’s APIs allow developers to add special features and integrations. This is helpful if you need to connect your store to other systems, like inventory management or customer relationship management (CRM) tools.
3. Optimize for Performance: As your store grows, you’ll need to make sure it runs smoothly. This includes choosing a reliable hosting provider, optimizing your site’s speed, and using plugins wisely to keep your store fast and user-friendly.
4. Leverage SEO and Content Marketing: WooCommerce works well with WordPress’s SEO tools, helping your store rank higher in search engines. You can also use WordPress’s content features to attract more visitors with blogs, videos, and other content.
5. Tap into the Developer Community: The WooCommerce community is a great resource. You can find plugins, get advice, and hire developers to help you make the most of your store. Engaging with this community ensures you’re using WooCommerce to its fullest potential.

8. Peel Insights

Peel Insights is a tool that helps online businesses, especially Direct-to-Consumer (D2C) brands, understand their data. It automatically tracks important numbers, like how much customers spend, how often they come back to buy again, and the average amount of each order. By using Peel, businesses can easily see patterns in their data and make smart decisions to grow their revenue. It’s especially helpful for brands that want to increase sales from repeat customers​.

The History and Background of Peel Insights

Peel Insights was created to make data analysis easier for online businesses. As D2C brands grew, they found it hard to keep track of all the data they collected. Traditional methods took a lot of time and often led to mistakes. Peel was designed to solve this problem by automating the process, so brands can focus on growing their business instead of crunching numbers. The platform works well with other popular tools like Shopify, making it easy to use for many types of businesses​​.

Who Uses Peel Insights?

Peel Insights is popular among small and medium-sized D2C brands. These brands might not have big teams or a lot of resources, but they know that using data is important for growing their business. Peel is also a great choice for brands that want to go beyond basic data and really dig into what’s driving their sales and customer behavior​​.

Why D2C Brands Choose Peel Insights

1. Automated Data Tracking: Peel saves time by automatically tracking important business data. This means brands don’t have to manually enter numbers or create reports. Instead, they get clear insights without the hassle, allowing them to make quicker decisions​.
2. Customer Segmentation: Peel helps brands group their customers based on how they shop. This allows businesses to target different groups with specific offers or messages. For example, brands can focus on high-value customers who are likely to make repeat purchases​.
3. Works with Other Tools: Peel connects easily with tools like Klaviyo, so brands can use their data to create personalized marketing campaigns. This makes it easier to send the right message to the right customer at the right time​.
4. Tracking Trends Over Time: Peel allows businesses to see how their performance changes week by week, month by month, or quarter by quarter. This helps brands spot trends and adjust their strategies quickly​.

Best Ways to Use Peel Insights

1. Boosting Repeat Purchases: Peel’s data can show which customers are likely to buy again. Brands can use this information to create special offers or reminders, encouraging these customers to come back and shop more often​.
2. Customer Segmentation: By grouping customers into segments, brands can tailor their marketing efforts. For instance, they can offer loyalty rewards to top customers or send re-engagement campaigns to those who haven’t shopped in a while​.
3. Analyzing Data Over Time: With Peel, brands can keep track of their performance over different time periods. This helps them understand what’s working and what needs improvement, whether it’s a seasonal trend or a successful marketing campaign​.
4. Setting and Monitoring KPIs: Peel makes it easy to set key performance indicators (KPIs) and track them over time. This helps brands stay focused on their goals and measure success in a clear, straightforward way​.

9. Flockler

Flockler is a tool that helps e-commerce businesses, especially Direct-to-Consumer (D2C) brands, display user-generated content (UGC) on their websites. This means brands can show pictures, videos, and reviews from customers right on their homepage, product pages, and other key parts of their site. Flockler gathers this content from social media platforms like Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok, and allows businesses to embed it in different layouts, like grids or carousels. This helps build trust and can lead to more sales because people like to see real customers using and enjoying the products.

The History of Flockler

Flockler was created to help brands showcase content made by their customers. As social media became more important, businesses wanted to show the experiences their customers were sharing online. Flockler makes it easy to collect this content and display it on websites, creating a more engaging shopping experience. Over time, Flockler has added features like shoppable Instagram feeds, allowing customers to click on a photo and buy the product directly from the site.

Who Uses Flockler?

Flockler is popular with D2C brands, especially those that focus on design and visual content. Brands that rely on platforms like Instagram and TikTok to connect with their audience find Flockler very useful. It’s also a great tool for small to medium-sized businesses that want to add more social proof to their websites.

Why D2C Brands Choose Flockler

1. Real Customer Content: Flockler lets brands show real customer photos, videos, and reviews on their website. This helps build trust with new customers because they can see how others are using the products.
2. Shoppable Instagram Feeds: Flockler allows brands to turn Instagram posts into shoppable content. Customers can click on a photo and be taken directly to the product page to buy it. This makes it easy for brands to turn social media engagement into sales.
3. Flexible Embedding Options: Brands can choose from different layouts, like grids, carousels, or slideshows, to display content on their website. They can use these layouts on any page, whether it’s the homepage, product pages, or even in email campaigns. This flexibility helps brands create a consistent look across all their digital channels.
4. Easy Integration: Flockler works well with e-commerce platforms like Shopify and WooCommerce, making it simple for brands to manage their content and add it to their site without needing technical skills.
5. Boosts Engagement and Sales: By showing UGC in key places on the website, like the homepage or product pages, brands can keep visitors on their site longer. This increases the chances that they will make a purchase because they see other people enjoying the products.

Best Ways to Use Flockler

1. Add UGC to Product Pages: Brands can embed customer photos and videos on product pages to show how real people use their products. This makes the product pages more engaging and helps potential buyers picture themselves using the product.
2. Create a Social Wall on the Homepage: A social wall displays content from all the brand’s social media channels in one place. It can be a great way to show off the brand’s community and highlight customer stories.
3. Use UGC in Emails: Flockler content can be used in email campaigns to make them more personal and engaging. Including real customer photos and stories can increase click-through rates and drive more traffic to the website.
4. Run Hashtag Campaigns: Brands can ask customers to share their experiences using a specific hashtag. Flockler collects these posts and displays them on the website, creating a sense of community and encouraging more people to participate.
5. Make UGC Shoppable: Flockler lets brands link user-generated content directly to product pages. This makes it easy for visitors to buy products they see in customer photos and videos, turning engagement into sales.