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The next Warby Parker: 5 new business models tackling the future of DTC
A DTC founder shares her observations on what’s next for the industry
I’ve been building Keaton for the past two years. We created the Perfect Pant for women, designed with input from 300 young professionals, and we sell online. We’re what has traditionally been called a “DTC brand.”
I knew that starting a company would be an uphill battle, but I didn’t expect the speed and severity with which the DTC landscape would shift underneath me. When I started thinking about the idea for Keaton, DTC brands were the darlings of the VC world. I described my company as “the Outdoor Voices for workwear” (oops).
So what happened? The demise of DTC has been rigorously cataloged:
From Elizabeth Segran at Fast Company:
“As the DTC space has become more competitive, [digital marketing] costs have gone up. Fueled by venture capital, the battle for eyeballs on social media sparked an advertising arms race — further cutting into margins. This was apparent in Casper’s IPO filing, which revealed the company was losing $157 on each mattress, in part because it spent $305 in marketing to make each sale.”
As the online channels became more expensive, brands started selling in more traditional channels, like department…
