Brands large and small are all fighting the same battle of customer acquisition. How you reach customers, and how much that effort costs, is in constant flux, which is why Nik Sharma is a big fan of constantly running micro experiments.

Sharma is the CEO of Sharma Brands, a company that reamins one of the best-kept secrets among the DTC community and which helps brands scale into the tens of millions. …

Access to goods is still an issue for millions of people around the world, but recently, ecommerce has been leveling the playing field. With so many direct-to-consumer operations in business today, the average consumer has more choice and therefore more access than ever before. But there’s one industry that stands out as lagging behind this trend: Coffee. That’s one of the reasons that Pernell Cezar co-founded BLK & Bold Specialty Beverages. Pernell is a long-time coffee lover and saw an opportunity to turn that passion into a business that could also make a big social impact. Historically, coffee has been hyperlocal, but he envisioned a business model that democratized access and brought specialty coffee to everyone. …

Think about the last ad you saw an ad that had an image of someone’s living room. What color was the throw pillow on the couch? Was there a dog present? How many people were pictured? You might not know the answer to those questions, but the marketers who put that creative together sure do, and you better believe that they thought long and hard about each of those aspects and dove deep into some data to decide exactly what to include in the ad

Those minuscule details may seem frivolous to the naked eye, but the data proves that every decision you make in your creative process has an impact on the bottom line, and the ecommerce businesses that pay attention to the data while still putting their own spin on the creative aspect are the ones that are rising to the top. …

Digging into the data behind the future of eCommerce

Style is a very personal part of what makes someone who they are. The way you dress is a reflection of who you are or who you want to be, and what speaks to you may be totally foreign to the next person. Knowing all of that, it’s understandable if you believe that something as personal and experience-driven as style could never be boiled down to data points or plugged into an algorithm. But… you’d be wrong.

At Stitch Fix, a combination of human stylists and powerful A.I. and behind-the-scenes technology has created a winning model that delivers a personalized online shopping and styling experience straight to clients’ homes. A powerful data science team is one of the key reasons that Stitch Fix has been able to launch its valuation into the billions and Stephanie Yee is the VP of Data Science and one of the leaders of that team at Stitch Fix. …

Do you drink kombucha? Do you even know what kombucha is? Don’t worry if the answer is no, you have plenty of company. In fact, various sources have put the awareness of kombucha at less than 50% for certain age demographics. Nevertheless, kombucha is big business (we’re talking a multi-billion-dollar market), and Health-Ade is right in the thick of the hunt for a slice of the pie. …

In recent years, UrbanStems has grown from operating its online flower ordering and delivery business in a few markets to processing and delivering orders from coast to coast. It’s a DTC success story, but it was by no means an easy road to get to where the company is now.

Scaling is one of the most challenging parts of running a business. Where do you allocate your resources? How do you enter new markets? And what do you do when disaster strikes in a way that could topple your business?

Seth Goldman had to answer those questions and more when he took over as the CEO of UrbanStems in 2017. When Goldman joined the team, UrbanStems had just gone through a disastrous Valentine’s Day, during which the company’s operations broke down and customers were left without their orders. If UrbanStems was going to scale successfully, its processes were in need of an overhaul. …

The fact of that matter is that the healthcare system was not built with the consumer in mind. That is, until hims & hers came along.

This three-year-old company has been making waves in the industry, and for good reason. Its platform has facilitated more than two million medical visits and is valued at more than $1.6 billion. And all of this in an industry that has been immune to disruption for decades.

hims & hers is the first true consumer healthcare brand that, through its platform, creates an easy, transparent, and high-quality experience for all those frustrated with their current healthcare option. Its mission is to help people finally feel empowered to talk about and get treated for certain conditions, and Hilary Coles, the co-founder and VP of Merchandising for the company, is responsible for making that happen. Clearly, she’s done a good job. …

What’s in store for 2021? Tokyo might actually get to host the Olympic games, Top Gun: Maverick will finally hit the big screen, and Virgin Galactic’s billionaire founder, Richard Branson, might make his way to space.

The bad news: The impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic will continue to reshape the commerce industry. The good news: The impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic will continue to reshape the commerce industry.

Nothing could have prepared us for 2020, but what we learned is that we can adapt — even faster than we thought. …