Permission granted by Win Brands Group
Which DTC brands succeed and which fail is dependent on a variety of factors. It s not as simple as a great ad, a strong vision or a catchy name.
Retail is a complicated business, and requires a complicated skill set. As DTC brands have grown, that s driven them to pull in retail veterans for executive roles, sell to retail giants like Walmart or P&G, and look to investors for help scaling.
Venture capital funding has been the traditional route of many DTC brands looking for growth, but
more nontraditional options have cropped up recently as brands look to scale slower and more profitably. Intimates manufacturer Gelmart, for example, launched its own DTC investment arm earlier this month, after helping incubate Lively. Its aim was to not only provide funding, but also expertise around manufacturing and supply chain.