Sign In  |  Register  |  About Menlo Park  |  Contact Us

Menlo Park, CA
September 01, 2020 1:28pm
7-Day Forecast | Traffic
  • Search Hotels in Menlo Park

  • CHECK-IN:
  • CHECK-OUT:
  • ROOMS:

D2C is Revolutionizing Customer Relationships: Who is Taking Advantage?

--News Direct--

The advent of video streaming and ecommerce has shed light on the huge success businesses can enjoy with a direct-to-consumer (D2C) model. But how are businesses using D2C to cut out the middleman? This article discusses the issue with reference to Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL), Nike Inc (NYSE: NKE), Shopify (NASDAQ: SHOP) and QYOU Media (TSXV: QYOU) (OTCQB: QYOUF).

QYOU Media (TSXV: QYOU) (OTCQB: QYOUF) operates as a media company. The business produces and distributes content created by social media influencers, artists and digital content creators on television networks, satellite television, over-the-top media and mobile platforms.

On the back of the successful launch of its fifth Indian TV channel through its Q India brand, QYOU Media has released its first D2C app. Q Play is free to download on the Google Play Store for smart TVs or smartphones.

The Q India targets India’s massive youth population and currently reaches over 125 million viewers weekly. It’s now aiming for 200 million in three to six months.

QYOU Media has rapidly built its audience by focusing on collaboration with India’s coolest and most popular social media stars. These influencers have huge followings and a bank of pre-existing content, allowing Q brand channels to quickly build high-quality programming with a massive audience.

CEO and Co-Founder Curt Marvis, commented:

“In less than 2 years we have grown the audience for Q India branded content from single digit millions weekly to over 125 million today. This is a major accomplishment that is driving much of our product development in 2022 and beyond.”

“We call it our “loudspeaker” and we fully intend to use it to deepen our engagement directly with our followers. This also increases our ability to deliver the right kinds of content, brand offerings and ultimately deliver what they want while ultimately monetizing our audience as effectively as possible.”

With the company having recently reported record revenues of CA$6.9m, an increase of 163%, and the launch of several channels targeting young Indians, QYOU Media’s new D2C app could spur further growth.

Apple Inc (NASDAQ: AAPL) designs, manufactures and markets smartphones, personal computers, tablets, wearables and accessories. The company offers payment, digital content, cloud and advertising services. Customers are primarily in consumer, small & mid-sized business, education, enterprise and government markets worldwide.

Apple Inc is one of the most recognisable D2C businesses. The company’s products are available to consumers through its website and its distinctive brick and mortar stores, which are a major part of its brand identity. Indeed, its App Store also allows the business to manage digital sales of its software to users of iPads, iPhones and Macs.

These D2C shopfronts have been enormously successful for the company. It stated in January 2022 that the App Store alone had generated $260bn for developers and that 2021 had been a record year for the platform.

The ownership of this apparatus gives the business a significant amount of control.

For example, the business revealed in September that it is hiking App Store prices in Europe and Asia to combat the impact of some international currencies’ current weakness against the US dollar. For some platforms such a move might be a disaster, but the popularity of Apple Inc’s products indicates that this might be a change that consumers simply have to swallow.

But this stranglehold could break in future, particularly as the cost-of-living crisis begins to bite. Indeed, Apple Inc has already backed down from plans to increase production of its recently launched iPhone 14 in the wake of unexpectedly low demand.

Nike Inc (NYSE: NKE) designs, develops and markets athletic footwear, apparel, equipment and accessory products for men, women and children. The company sells its products to retail stores, through its own stores, subsidiaries and distributors.

Nike Inc has really thrown itself into the task of removing the middleman by embracing D2C tactics.

The company’s fourth quarter earnings, which were released in late June, showed that revenue from direct sales to consumers grew by 7% to $4.8bn during the period as its digital offering showed particular strength.

This led Matt Friend, Executive VP and CEO, to comment:

"Two years into executing our Consumer Direct Acceleration, we are better positioned than ever to drive long-term growth while serving consumers directly at scale."

Nike Inc first announced intentions to improve its relationship with customers back in 2017, citing a need to be “more aggressive in the digital marketplace” and focus on the constantly changing needs of customers.

Despite the apparent success of its direct offering, the company is facing challenges, as dealing directly with customers has not allowed the business to escape supply chain issues. Indeed, the end of September saw Nike Inc’s share price drop sharply after it emerged that shipping difficulties left the business unable to shift large quantities of its merchandise before demand fell.

Shopify (NASDAQ: SHOP) provides a cloud-based commerce platform. The company offers a platform for merchants to create an omni-channel experience that helps showcase the merchant's brand.

While not itself a D2C proposition, Shopify is reaping the benefits of the rise in popularity of the business model. That’s because the company aims to give merchants the power to run their own ecommerce stores, essentially powering other businesses’ D2C offerings.

Indeed, Shopify is championing the idea that businesses must expand beyond the D2C model to a connect to consumer, or C2C, model. The business says merchants must seek to form genuine connections with customers and is tailoring many of its new tools for this purpose.

Whether this kind of experience is the future of ecommerce remains unclear, but Shopify’s offering is clearly resonating to some extent. The business’ most recent earnings update, which covered the three months ended 30 June 2022, saw revenue climb by 16% to $1.3bn as merchant solutions revenue rose by 18%.

However, the business has faced some difficulties recently. These include the business cutting 10% of its workforce at the end of July as CEO Tobi Lutke cautioned that the company’s expansion plans had not been successful.

ValueTheMarkets.com News Commentary

IMPORTANT NOTICE AND DISCLAIMER

PAID ADVERTISEMENT

This communication is a paid advertisement. ValueTheMarkets is a trading name of Digitonic Ltd, and its owners, directors, officers, employees, affiliates, agents and assigns (collectively the Publisher) is often paid by one or more of the profiled companies or a third party to disseminate these types of communications. In this case, the Publisher has been compensated by QYOU Media to conduct investor awareness advertising and marketing and has paid the Publisher the equivalent of one hundred and ninety thousand US dollars to produce and disseminate this and other similar articles and certain related banner advertisements. This compensation should be viewed as a major conflict with the Publisher's ability to provide unbiased information or opinion.

CHANGES IN SHARE TRADING AND PRICE

Readers should beware that third parties, profiled companies, and/or their affiliates may liquidate shares of the profiled companies at any time, including at or near the time you receive this communication, which has the potential to adversely affect share prices. Frequently companies profiled in our articles experience a large increase in share trading volume and share price during the course of investor awareness marketing, which often ends as soon as the investor awareness marketing ceases. The investor awareness marketing may be as brief as one day, after which a large decrease in share trading volume and share price may likely occur.

NO OFFER TO SELL OR BUY SECURITIES

This communication is not, and should not be construed to be, an offer to sell or a solicitation of an offer to buy any security.

INFORMATION

Neither this communication nor the Publisher purport to provide a complete analysis of any company or its financial position.This communication is based on information generally available to the public and on an interview conducted with the company's CEO, and does not contain any material, non-public information. The information on which it is based is believed to be reliable. Nevertheless, the Publisher does not guarantee the accuracy or completeness of the information. Further, the information in this communication is not updated after publication and may become inaccurate or outdated. No reliance should be placed on the price or statistics information and no responsibility or liability is accepted for any error or inaccuracy. Any statements made should not be taken as an endorsement of analyst views.

NO FINANCIAL ADVICE

The Publisher is not, and does not purport to be, a broker-dealer or registered investment adviser or a financial adviser. The Publisher has no access to non-public information about publicly traded companies. The information provided is general and impersonal, and is not tailored to any particular individual's financial situation or investment objective(s) and this communication is not, and should not be construed to be, personalized investment advice directed to or appropriate for any particular investor or a personal recommendation to deal or invest in any particular company or product. Any investment should be made only after consulting a professional investment advisor and only after reviewing the financial statements and other pertinent corporate information about the company. Further, readers are advised to read and carefully consider the Risk Factors identified and discussed in the advertised company's SEC, SEDAR and/or other government filings. Investing in securities, particularly microcap securities, is speculative and carries a high degree of risk. Past performance does not guarantee future results.

FORWARD LOOKING STATEMENTS

This communication contains forward-looking statements, including statements regarding expected continual growth of the featured companies and/or industry. Statements in this communication that look forward in time, which include everything other than historical information, are based on assumptions and estimates by our content providers and involve risks and uncertainties that may affect the profiled company's actual results of operations. These statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other important factors that could cause the actual results and performance to differ materially from any future results or performance expressed or implied in the forward-looking statements. These risks, uncertainties and other factors include, among others: the success of the profiled company's operations; the size and growth of the market for the company's products and services; the company's ability to fund its capital requirements in the near term and long term; pricing pressures; changes in business strategy, practices or customer relationships; general worldwide economic and business conditions; currency exchange and interest rate fluctuations; government, statutory, regulatory or administrative initiatives affecting the company's business.

INDEMNIFICATION/RELEASE OF LIABILITY

By reading this communication, you acknowledge that you have read and understand this disclaimer in full, and agree and accept that the Publisher provides no warranty in respect of the communication or the profiled company and accepts no liability whatsoever. You acknowledge and accept this disclaimer and that, to the greatest extent permitted under applicable law, you release and hold harmless the Publisher from any and all liability, damages, injury and adverse consequences arising from your use of this communication. You further agree that you are solely responsible for any financial outcome related to or arising from your investment decisions.

TERMS OF USE AND DISCLAIMER

By reading this communication you agree that you have reviewed and fully agree to the Terms of Use found here https://www.valuethemarkets.com/terms-conditions/ and acknowledge that you have reviewed the Disclaimer found here https://www.valuethemarkets.com/disclaimer/. If you do not agree to the Terms of Use, please contact valuethemarkets.com to discontinue receiving future communications.

INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY

All trademarks used in this communication are the property of their respective trademark holders. Other than valuethemarkets.com, the Publisher is not affiliated, connected, or associated with, and the communication is not sponsored, approved, or originated by, the trademark holders unless otherwise stated. No claim is made by the Publisher to any rights in any third-party trademarks other than valuethemarkets.com.

AUTHORS: VALUETHEMARKETS valuethemarkets.com and Digitonic Ltd and our affiliates are not responsible for the content or accuracy of this article. The information included in this article is based solely on information provided by the company or companies mentioned above. This article does not provide any financial advice and is not a recommendation to deal in any securities or product. News and research are not recommendations to deal, and investments may fall in value so that you could lose some or all of your investment. Past performance is not an indicator of future performance.ValueTheMarkets do not hold any position in the stock(s) and/or financial instrument(s) mentioned in the above piece. ValueTheMarkets have been paid to produce this piece by the company or companies mentioned above. Digitonic Ltd, the owner of valuethemarkets.com, has been paid for the production of this piece by the company or companies mentioned above.

Contact Details

ValueTheMarkets

+44 141 530 4080

editor@valuethemarkets.com

Company Website

https://www.valuethemarkets.com

View source version on newsdirect.com: https://newsdirect.com/news/d2c-is-revolutionizing-customer-relationships-who-is-taking-advantage-662528552

Data & News supplied by www.cloudquote.io
Stock quotes supplied by Barchart
Quotes delayed at least 20 minutes.
By accessing this page, you agree to the following
Privacy Policy and Terms and Conditions.
 
 
Copyright © 2010-2020 MenloPark.com & California Media Partners, LLC. All rights reserved.