A lot of DTC brands, across categories, adopted “reviving the middle” strategy in the form of good quality items at affordable prices and excellent service. The downside of this model is that it’s costly, and most of these brands emulating it are VC-funded and not yet profitable. Scaling this model is also a challenge, as costs of supply,... See more

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... See more

Third-Party, Retail as a Service (RaaS) Proliferates