Let’s face it—building and growing a digital business can feel like navigating a maze.
There’s the site, the customer acquisition, the retention, the scaling, the technical specs, and all the operations that get your product into the hands of your consumer. And that all happens before you hit the added challenges of growth mode.
1r Agency has been around since the early days of the digital shift, watching e-commerce evolve from a bold experiment into a booming necessity.
After 15 years, it would be fair to say we’ve learned a lot along the way.
Easier to Play, but Harder to Win
15 years ago, e-commerce was like shopping for clothing at Target when it first opened— cheap and brand dilutive. Brands also feared that direct-to-consumer (DTC) would cannibalize their wholesale business and other sales channels.
Yet, over the years brands have had to make a crucial mindset shift—from seeing e-commerce as an “unwanted guest” to recognizing it as an essential tool for brand presence, customer engagement, marketing, and storytelling. To state the obvious, DTC is a must.
But here’s the challenge—the easier it has become to sell online, the harder it is to win online.
Today, brands can launch a DTC channel with minimal investment, focusing their resources on product development and marketing with the consequence being that start-ups are actually competing with established brands.
The digital space is crowded. And to win, a brand must stand out.
It comes down to brand presence and a UX experience that is easy to navigate, frictionless, and provides moments of delight across the customer journey.
Building the Right Foundations
Your site, it’s not just a storefront—it’s a home base, your 24/7 billboard to the world. Whether you’re a start-up or an industry giant, building a clean, functional site is your first step to success.
The digital landscape is constantly shifting, and it’s easy for brands to feel pressured to adopt every new technology that comes along. However, it's essential to ensure that these innovations align with a brand's unique needs and goals. Just because a competitor is embracing a trend doesn't mean every brand should follow suit. Many brands fall into the trap of trying to keep up with others, but the real priority should be homing in on their identity and focusing on their loyal customer base.
Successful brands plan for both the present and the future, developing digital strategies and messaging that can evolve. It’s about remaining adaptable and forward-thinking while staying grounded in core values.
Who Needs Complicated When Simple Works?
The mistake most brands make? They choose solutions that don’t match the size of their business and overload their site with unnecessary features and functions, thinking that more is better. The truth is, you won’t know what’s working until your customers show you. Keep it simple and let your customer feedback guide the way.
We’ve seen brands go with a headless approach too early in their business, which leaves them unable to adapt quickly—something that’s essential for a new brand trying to keep up with competitors. You don’t need a full enterprise resource planning (ERP) system if you're only making $100,000 a year, and you don't need a product information management (PIM) system if you don’t have tons of products. Too often, companies burden themselves with technical and operational debt before they’re ready for it. Spend your budget where it counts.
The secret to getting started? Focus on must-have features that enhance engagement and conversion.
Beyond the obvious goal of site conversion, a beauty brand should aim to establish the DTC site as a hub for brand education, exploration, and engagement. Our client, Westman Atelier, has always gone beyond selling products; delivering a high-touch, personalized experience at every touchpoint, by transforming interactions into deeply personalized moments. They have always focused on solutions that complement their growing product assortment while ensuring a user-friendly and functional site. Westman Atelier prioritizes the customer experience for people of all ages and skin types to discover the perfect products with a navigational structure intuitively catered to every shopper—from loyal customers to those just discovering the brand—ensuring their journey was both engaging and informative. Brands in this position have achieved success by reinvesting profits to better understand their customers and enhance the overall experience with new features over time
Surround Yourself with the Right People
Ensure you have a team that’s flexible and committed to growing alongside you. Consider a blend of full-time employees, part-time contractors, and business partners who can flex as your business needs evolve.
Make sure this group is ready to sit at the same table. They should be aligned on the common business goals and use their expertise to contribute to the brand’s success. Time and time again, we’ve seen brands keep their agencies and third-party partners siloed. It can create inconsistency, overcomplication, and miscommunication for employees and customers, ultimately hurting your bottom line.
For the greatest opportunity for success, the most crucial advice we can give is to integrate your digital business seamlessly into your broader business strategy.
Resetting the Foundation
If you already have a site that's live but don't know if you've made the right foundational business investments, don't worry, it’s not too late. Find a team that will work with you to uncover what's working great and develop a roadmap to shift you towards a site that maximizes your opportunity for growth on both experience and conversion.
Mastering Your Brand Story and Customer Experience
If you think about it, DTC is the only channel (besides owned retail) where brands have complete control over their story and customer experience.
And the most successful brands don’t just sell products—they own their narrative.
Every brand has its own identity and unique customer base. It’s easy to feel pressure to mimic competitors, but what works for one brand may not work for another. Success lies in owning your own identity and building a loyal customer base that aligns with your brand’s values.
Treat your DTC channel as more than a store. It’s a marketing tool, a storytelling platform, and a direct line to your customers. It’s about more than just transactions; it’s about creating a community and inviting consumers into your brand’s world.
Want to build loyalty? Be authentic and own your story.
Strategy First, Always
Before diving into the execution, take a step back and develop a comprehensive strategy. Collaborate with your cross-functional teams—creative, technical, marketing, and product—to understand your key business drivers, competitive landscape, and market opportunities. Involving key stakeholders from all areas of the business helps establish a strong foundation and sets the stage for success. Take time to define past successes and identify areas for growth. The decisions made today should support the long-term vision of your business, addressing both immediate needs and future adaptability.
Execute and Continue to Iterate
Get that sleek, functional site that embodies your brand live, but don’t rest. Test, tweak, and adjust based on your customer feedback and data. Continuous improvement is essential; your site today will look different in a year, as it should evolve with your brand’s needs and customer expectations.
Cult-favorite brand DIBS Beauty redesigned and built essential e-commerce pages to boost conversions. The e-commerce, tutorial, and landing pages were crafted in a modular way, making management easier and elevating both the look and user experience. It was a win for the client—they didn’t have to spend a fortune to redesign and build a new site all at once. Instead, their smaller investments paid off, allowing them to reinvest in the site over time.
Holistic Marketing or Bust
A beautifully designed and well-functioning website is just the beginning. You need a full-funnel marketing strategy that hits every stage of the customer journey to drive traffic, conversions, and compelling lifetime value. From the top of the funnel (paid media, search engine optimization (SEO)) to the bottom (email, SMS, and retention campaigns), build a team that operates as your conversion partner to maximize meaningful engagement and conversion across every stage of the customer journey.
A brand like Maison Louis Marie receives reports on conversion across the entire customer journey compelling—from acquisition to site to email and short message service (SMS). The goal is to enable brands to make the most efficient choices about where they put their marketing dollars and provide focus for fixing the “leaky bucket” of customer churn.
Frequently conduct tests to determine the most compelling unique selling proposition (USP) on paid media and then deploy learnings across the site and email campaigns. In other instances, you may consider a shift in marketing dollars, for example, from branded to unbranded Google campaigns if you see notable strength in SEO. In the case of Black Friday/Cyber Monday, a holistic approach looks at the ROI of all channels and guides our customers to a marketing mix within and across channels that seek to maximize revenue.
Staying Ahead Without Losing Focus
The digital world moves fast, but keeping pace isn’t about chasing every shiny, new trend. Find an agency that will do the work to help you cut through the noise—advising on what’s emerging and how well it will work for your business and priorities.
No matter what new technology or apps come out, the goal should be to evaluate them as to whether or not they improve your consumers’ experience between digital and in-store interactions, prioritizing personalization that feels natural and true to the brand.
The Power of Long-Term Thinking
Building and scaling a digital business can feel overwhelming, but with the right strategy and the right team, it’s absolutely doable. The most successful brands are those that plan for the future, adapting their strategies while staying rooted in their identity.
At 1r, our mission is to make the complex, uncomplicated. Our philosophy is if our clients grow, we grow. Whether you’re starting from scratch or scaling up, we’re here to partner with you every step of the way. Remember: no two brands have the same journey, but with the right approach, success is yours to claim.
