Why this CEO says ‘staying nimble’ is key to the success of direct-to-consumer businesses

The last decade generated a new category of digital-first, direct-to-consumer businesses that upended how consumer goods were created, priced, marketed, and sold. My company, Mack Weldon, is one of them. Brands like ours have touched nearly every consumer category from cooking pans to mattresses (and yes, even men’s underwear).

This generation of disruptive brands has been propelled by emergent social media, access to capital, and generational shifts in shopping habits and brand perception. It has been the decade of direct-to-consumer.

Then the coronavirus crisis arrived.

While digitally-born and e-commerce-driven businesses are among the best equipped to survive this crisis, the catalysts that drove the DTC boom have changed. The assumptions made about the market, as little as five months ago, are no longer true.

What does the business landscape look like in the era after the pandemic? Here are four things you should hesitate to assume about DTC businesses.