Flaws in the Rationale for the Direct-to-Consumer Business Model

Alexandra Sternlicht has written an article this week for Fortune titled "How Silicon Valley’s retail revolution withered. Eight years after Allbirds and Glossier were born, VC investors say direct-to-consumer is dead."  She quotes several investors, including Nicole Johnson, a partner at venture capital firm Forerunner.  

“We’re a whole decade past where pursuing the DTC model was at the forefront of innovation and retail, or was interesting on its own,” Johnson says. A direct-to-consumer sales channel is just “table stakes” today, she says—a useful feature for a young consumer brand, but not a business model in its own right.

It’s a sentiment echoed by numerous VC investors that Fortune spoke to, reflecting significant changes that have altered the internet landscape, as well as the shifting mindset among private company investors at a time of economic uncertainty. If direct-to-consumer startups were once touted as the harbingers of a retail revolution, today they are viewed by VCs as relics of a different era.

I found the article quite thought-provoking, but I'm particularly interested in reflecting on the rationale that many executives and entrepreneurs use to support a DTC business model.   Often, you will hear people say that the DTC model enables the startup to "capture the margin" otherwise obtained by the brick-and-mortar or e-commerce retailer.  Of course, that thinking is DEEPLY flawed.   Yes, you aren't giving away the "mark-up" to the retailer.  However, you ARE spending a considerable amount of money on your own marketing to build brand awareness, since you don't have the assistance of the retailer.  You have to find a way to distribute the product, and that "last mile" to the consumer's home can be quite expensive.  Moreover, if you end up opening some of your own brick-and-mortar stores, as some of these startups have done, then you are investing heavily in assets and will have to generate sufficient additional profit to maintain a healthy return on those expensive assets.  In short, the retailer does serve a very useful function for a nascent brand.  This is not to say that I believe DTC business models are not viable.  I'm simply arguing that entrepreneurs should not fool themselves into thinking there's easy money to capture by cutting out the retailer.