This is an excerpt from Ryder E-commerce’s latest ebook “Unleashing the power of creative channel expansion for D2C brands” by Carro, an advanced dropshipping solution that reimagines the future of wholesale. Check out the full ebook here.
‘Collaborative Commerce’ is not a term many e-commerce brands are familiar with. It’s a channel expansion strategy that enhances sales, boosts average order value, and enriches customer experience. Let’s explore why it’s a stellar alternative to traditional wholesale and how to get on board.
Collaborative Commerce, or cross-store selling, reimagines traditional wholesale relationships and inventory commitments. It presents a zero-barrier avenue for merchants to expand their product catalogs and customer acquisition capabilities by creating partnerships with other brands.
Traditional wholesale agreements, with their high entry barriers, have long pushed D2C brands to the sidelines. They are time and resource-intensive, making product diversification a challenging and lengthy process. Additional complexities arise from warehouse requirements and sales forecasting.
Enter Collaborative Commerce, an answer to these challenges. It advocates inventory-less merchandising, mitigating the risk of unsold stock. Brands can enrich their offerings without owning the inventory, enhancing the customer experience while alleviating operational burdens.
Through Collaborative Commerce, Gear.com added over 6,000 products to its catalog in less than a year, a milestone unachievable via traditional wholesale.
Additionally, Collaborative Commerce can significantly enhance average order value (AOV). Providing customers with more options leads to higher sales. BlendJet, a single-product company, wanted to expand into a marketplace to sell ingredients used in their blenders. However, traditional wholesale proved challenging. With Carro’s help, BlendJet’s marketplace now houses a range of complementary products, increasing their average order value by 81% and customer lifetime value by 71%.
Collaborative Commerce also opens doors for co-marketing partnerships with leading brands as both a supplier and retailer, allowing your products to be featured in stores that align with your ideal customer, all without traditional advertising costs. It’s a new, effective, and cost-efficient way of customer acquisition. Rather than pay Meta to sandwich your products between dog photos on Instagram, brands are realizing they can get closer to their ideal customers by partnering with complementary brands.
Brands aren’t meant to be a one-stop shop like Amazon. They understand they can’t meet all customer needs. But through Collaborative Commerce, brands can curate on-site collaborations with complementary products, thereby enriching customer experience.
Take the example of Schoolyard Snacks. This keto-approved, high-protein cereal brand realized that its customers wanted more than just cereal. They sought an array of keto-friendly snacks. Traditional product creation or wholesale wasn’t feasible. With Carro, Schoolyard Snacks transformed into a marketplace, seamlessly incorporating a variety of keto products from leading brands. The result was an enriched customer experience, extended product range, and increased average order values.
Collaborative Commerce is a gold mine of opportunities for brands willing to step beyond traditional channels. It’s the future of commerce, a low-hanging fruit just waiting to be picked. Join this new wave of commerce and accelerate your e-commerce growth in 2023.
Join the ranks of over 28,000 forward-thinking DTC brands that are embracing Collaborative Commerce, propelling sales growth, and enriching customer experience. Seize this low-hanging fruit, unlock an entirely new channel, and sell more, together. The future of commerce is collaborative—are you ready to be part of it?
Want to learn more? Check out the rest of our ebook on how brands can effectively expand their selling channels and find more opportunities to creatively engage customers:
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