Recess CEO Benjamin Witte: I reject the idea that being on Amazon hurts your brand

But Recess has faced an even bigger retail growth challenge since the beginning: While CBD has attracted a lot of attention and investment, it’s still a legal gray area, and national chains like Whole Foods and Target won’t stock it. Witte says he still spends about half his time working on regulation.

Now-established players have learned that Instagram advertisements and influencer campaigns only scale to a point: they can net no more than a few hundred thousand of a brand’s “first best” customers. This has driven a shift toward physical retail and prompted founders to agonize over if and when to peddle their wares on Amazon, making direct to co... See more

Witte says direct-to-consumer sales, as measured by weekly revenue run rate, are up 4X since before COVID-19, and average order value is up 30%. It recently launched subscriptions, which now represent more than 30% of orders. And the company’s “direct-to-business” wholesale e-commerce channel is up 3X since April, which has helped Recess get into s... See more

Amazon is at a crossroads and like the brands who depend heavily on Instagram or Facebook.com, the rule of online retail is multichannel diversification. The product manufacturers and brands who keep up an even-handed approach to acquisition will not be impaired when one channel determines their fates for them.

Big tech platforms, e-commerce, and retail companies haven’t been acquiring direct-to-consumer brands, keeping a set of well-funded would-be buyers out of the equation.

But what happens when those products sell out? As Amazon Prime Now begins to show its supply chain and last mile pressures, 2PM’s research has identified a number of categories and brands that are reflecting signs of lift in traffic, search awareness, and conversion. These categories include: utility, hydration, food, recreation, and entertainment.... See more

And then — especially in the business press — because it furthered the narrative that even the hugest of consumer goods companies, long stuck in codependent relationships with the hugest of retailers, would start trying to sell more of their products direct.