Direct-to-Consumer vs. Retail

I was intentional about choosing to be a direct-to-consumer brand. You may not be familiar with the term, but you've almost certainly shopped direct-to-consumer. It means exactly what it says: that a brand sells directly to the consumer without going through the wholesale to retail process in which the consumer would buy the brand at a retail store.

There are two primary reasons that I chose to be a direct-to-consumer brand: 1) the sale price to the consumer is lower and 2) I don't have to participate in the wholesale market timeframe.

Lower sale price. As you might remember from my email about pricing, the cost of making a dress gets marked up to cover overhead and profit for me (if you missed it, it's on the website). If I sold to retailers, they would then have to mark the price up again in order to cover their overhead and profit. A dress that I sell for $95 would cost $190-$210 in a retail store. So, selling direct-to-consumer cuts out a layer of cost for you!

Wholesale market. In order to sell to retailers, a brand typically has to participate in "market" which happens twice a year in Atlanta. If I wanted to sell my clothes in a retail store this spring, I would have had to have finalized my spring items and have samples ready by last September. This means that brands have to plan their lines really far ahead of time - at least a year before the clothes will actually be sold. Frankly, I didn't want to deal with that schedule!

Just a little insight into how the retail world works!