Nike, Pepsi Lead The Year Of Direct To Consumer

This year will not only go down in history as “the year of the pandemic,” but for consumer packaged goods brands, it will also be known as “the year of direct to consumer.”

Big brands like Nike and Pepsi jumped into D2C sales in a big way – partly out of necessity amid the digital shift, but also because it turns out that selling directly to consumers is actually a pretty good business.

“The test for D2C is always: ‘Can you provide a value proposition that really resonates with the consumer?’ Because that’s when you get the repeats. That’s when you get the sustainable proposition,” said Gibu Thomas, Pepsi’s head of eCommerce. “We’ll continue to invest in it and will continue to iterate and pivot until we find the propositions that consumers find delightful and sticky.”