Some of the earliest and best-known direct-to-consumer online brands were famous—and successful—because they chose that lane and owned it, forging a strong and unfettered connection with consumers. Warby Parker did it with eyeglasses in 2010, Harry’s with razors in 2012, and Casper with mattresses in 2014.

But much has changed in the last decade, and there’s a growing consensus that for many new and emerging brands, taking a DTC-only approach is putting all your eggs in one shopping basket.

“DTC was never a story, or a dream, or a business,” Richard Kestenbaum, co-founder and partner at Triangle Capital LLC, wrote in Forbes in February. “It’s a channel and as channels go, it’s a good channel, sometimes a great one, but the idea of DTC as a strategy was always a distraction.”

Kestenbaum continued that brands that started as online DTC absolutists increasingly are opening stores and partnering with retailers—for the best of all rationales.

“That’s where the customers are,” he wrote.

So it was fitting that at a recent conference in New York, The Lead Innovation Summit, Kestenbaum was tapped to lead a session on making DTC more profitable, and the brand execs he jawboned with were DTC enthusiasts who also took a broader, omnichannel approach to sell their wares.

Keep reading here.—AAN

Did you know 69% of creators report that a brand’s relevancy to their audience is a top priority when considering a partnership? Each influencer has a unique voice, perspective, and ability to connect with audiences ranging from niche communities to millions-strong followings. Tapping into these influencers and forging powerful partnerships can be a major boost for your brand.

But creating a beneficial partnership can be challenging, so Marketing Brew created a comprehensive guide to drafting contracts, measuring KPIs, and picking the right influencers to represent your brand. Equip your team with the essential knowledge to venture into this thriving landscape.

Download the guide here.

It’s that time of the year again…when Lyst releases its hottest brands list for the second quarter.

And we have some clear winners starting with Spanish luxury brand Loewe, which topped the hottest (20) brands list. The trendy retailer climbed 13 places over the past 12 months to reach the top spot and owes its success to being able to cater to “the imagination of different cohorts of customers,” Lyst noted. Demand for its cult-like products like its Anagram tank top and the Loewe basket bag also contributed to its rise, per Lyst.

Closely following Loewe were usual suspects like Prada, Versace, Miu Miu, and Bottega Veneta. Louis Vuitton earned the 11th hottest brand spot right after newly minted creative Pharrell Williams’s debut menswear collection.

One of the most surprising names on the list, however, was Balenciaga, which after a dramatic drop down the hottest brands ranking over the last two quarters, came in at No. 16. Its ascent back into popularity comes after the brand was embroiled in a string of controversies but has since seen celebrities like Michelle Yeoh, Isabelle Huppert, and Alton Mason wear its products on red carpets again.

Keep reading here.—JS

For Whole Foods shoppers, payment is now in the palm of their hands.

Amazon announced in a July 20 blog post that it’s expanding Amazon One, its palm recognition payment tech that links credit card info to a shopper’s “palm signature,” to all 500+ US Whole Foods locations by the end of the year. The tech was already available at ~200 stores, and Whole Foods CTO Leandro Balbinot said in the post that “customers love the convenience it provides.”

• Amazon Prime members can also link their accounts to their Amazon One profile to secure discounts with a wave of their hand, the company said.

Amazon introduced the tech in 2020—and Retail Brew tested it out in 2021. Since then, more and more businesses, in addition to its own Amazon Fresh stores, have added the biometric checkout tech, which Amazon says has now been used more than 3 million times.

Keep reading here.—EC