What are the Best Direct-to-Consumer Brands?
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Top Direct-to-Consumer Brands
Best D2C brands | Overview | Related Reviews | Category |
|---|---|---|---|
 | Apostrophe is an online dermatologist with telemedicine treatments for acne, hair loss, wrinkles, Rosacea, & more. Use code FIN10 at checkout for $10 off. | Apostrophe skincare review | |
 | Keeps prescribes premium men's hair loss meds online. | Hims vs Roman vs Keeps | |
 | Tempo is revolutionizing fitness with their AI-powerd home gym system that corrects your form and offers a wide variety of live workouts. | Tempo vs Tonal vs Mirror | |
 | hims is an online pharmacy offering prescriptions for men's hair loss, ED, Premature ejaculation, & more. | Hims vs Rogain review | |
 | Hydrant is a leading brand of rapid rehydration electrolyte powder that hydrates you faster and more efficiently than water alone. | Liquid IV vs Nuun vs Hydrant | |
 | Roman is an online pharmacy offering prescriptions for men's hair loss, ED, Premature ejaculation, & more. | Roman PE review | |
 | Cove is the only DTC brand focuses on migraine relief treatments. | Cove Migrain Relief review | |
 | Lemonaid is an online pharmacy offering wide range of prescription medications. | Roman vs Lemonaid | |
 | Hers sells prescription birth control, anxiety meds, and acne treatments for women online. | Proactiv vs Curology vs Hers | |
 | Curology prescribes personalized prescription acne treatments. | Proactive vs Curology vs Hers | |
 | The pill club is an birth control delivery and subscription brand. | Hers vs Nurx vs Pill Club | |
 | Cerebral is an online platform offering prescription m edication and teletherapy for anxiety and depression. | Cerebral Mental Health Review | |
 | Brightside provides treatment for depression and anxiety. | Brightside Review | |
 | Parsley Health delivers personalized doctor-led care and support for chronic conditions, online or in-person. | Forward vs One Medical vs Parsley Health | |
 | REX MD provides prescribes inexpensive ED and hair loss medicine and treatment. | Rex MD reviews | |
 | NURX is a leader in online birth control and STI testing for women. | Nurx Birth Control Review How to Get PrEP Online How to Get Abortion Pills Online | |
 | Eyebobs is a direct to consumer eyewear brand offering stylish and functional prescription frames at affordable prices. | Coming Soon | |
 | Hubble offers an affordable daily contact lens subscription. | Hubble vs Waldo | |
 | Waldo manufactures affordable daily contact lenses and sells them direct to consumers online. | Hubble vs Waldo | |
 | ContactsCart is a discounted contact lenses retailer (Hubble's third-party marketplace). | ContactsCart vs 1-800 Contacts | |
 | Ambr offers eyeglasses for the digital generation. | Coming soon | |
 | Zenni is a leader in online prescription eyewear. | Felix Gray vs Warby Parker vs Blokz Review: Fast Growth D2C Brands | |
 | Pair is an eyewear brand designed and made specifically for children. | Pair Eyewear – Customizable Glasses for Kids | |
 | Felix Gray provides eyewear protecting against digital eye strain. | Felix Gray vs Warby Parker vs Blokz | |
 | Scout is a contact lenses maker and retailer. | Hubble vs Scout by Warby Parker vs Waldo Review: Scout Contacts by Warby Parker | |
 | Fitz Frames provides 3D printed custom light-weight, durable eyeglasses for kids. | Quarterly D2C VC Funding | |
 | Jins is an affordable eyewear maker. | Review: Fast Growth D2C Brands | |
 | Aveo Vision provides advanced, affordable, all‑day‑comfortable daily contacts. | Hubble vs Acuvue vs Aveo Review: Fast Growth D2C Brands | |
 | Billie is a hip women's razor blade brand and shave subscription. | Billie vs Flamingo vs Venus | |
 | Modibodi is popular brand of leak-proof period panties for women. | Modibodi vs Ruby Love | |
 | Quip sells sleek and portable electric toothbrushes that are ideal for travellers. | Quip vs Goby vs Sonicare | |
 | Candid offers affordable invisible aligners that straighten teeth without visits to the orthodontist. | Candid vs Byte vs Invisalign | |
 | Smile Direct Club affers clear aligners that straighten teeth without visits to the orthodontist. They also recently launched an oral care product line as well. | Smilelove vs Candid vs Smiledirectclub | |
 | Byte offers clear plastic aligners without visits to the orthodontist, as well as a high frequency vibrations therapy mouth guard that makes your aligners more effective. | Candid vs Byte vs Invisalign | |
 | NewSmile is a Canadian startup offering affordable clear aligners that straighten teeth without going to the orthodontist. | NewSmile Aligner Review | |
 | Goby sells sleek electric tooth brushes and other premium oral care products as a low-price monthly subscription. | Quip vs Goby vs Sonicare | |
 | glowup. offers a premium at-home teeth whitening kit that uses LED light to brighten your smile. | Hismile vs Glowup vs Smiledirectclub | |
 | Burst provides affordable oral care products on a subscription basis, including a powerful electric toothbrush. | Burst vs Crest Whitestrips | |
 | SuperSmile is yet another premium oral care product brand with the option of a subscription. | Coming soon | |
 | HiSmile provides oral cosmetic products such as teeth whitening kits and toothpastes that contain all natural ingredients to brighten teeth without sensitivity. | Hismile vs Glowup vs Smiledirectclub | |
 | AlignerCo offers an affordable way to straighten teeth with invsibile aligners sent directly to your door. | SnapCorrect vs Smile Direct Club vs AlignerCo | |
 | Drizly is the fastest alcohol delivery app, bringing you booze in 60 minutes or less. | Drizly vs Saucey | |
 | Graze offers delivers nutritious snack boxes. | Coming soon | |
 | Grove is a marketplace for healthier groceries and home essentials. | Coming soon | |
 | Hint ships fruit infused bottled water directly to your door. | Coming soon | |
 | Home Chef is a leading fresh meal kit delivery subscription. | Coming soon | |
 | Hungry Harvest offers farm-to-doorstep produce delivery. | Misfits Market vs Imperfect Produce vs Hungry Harvest | |
 | Noom is a leading weight-loss app for building healthier habits. | Noom vs Nutrisystem Weight Loss System Review | |
 | HungryRoot delivers healthy meals ready to eat in <10 minutes. | Coming soon | |
 | Ollie is a leading fresh dog food subscription service. | Ollie vs Pet Plat vs NomNomNow | |
 | Pet Plate offers a fresh dog food subscription to keep your furry friends healthy. | Ollie vs Pet Plat vs NomNomNow | |
 | Ritual sells personalized vitamin formulations for women. | Gem vs Ritual Women's Vitamins Review | |
 | Thrive is a members-only market for sustainably-sourced organic goods. | Online Organic Markets Review | |
 | Freshly prepares chef-cooked, healthy meals and delivers them to your door. | Coming soon | |
 | Misfits Market reduces food waste by partnering with local farmers and selling their excess produce to consumers in a healthy subscription box. | Misfits Market vs Imperfect Produce vs Hungry Harvest | |
 | Somm helps support sleep. It's that simple. Drink one can 30 minutes before bed. Best of all, you can sleep easy knowing it's gluten-, dairy-, and drug-free. | Coming soon | |
 | Calibrate provides one-year program for weight loss. | Calibrate Review | |
 | Rootine is a brand for personalized nutrient Formula based on science and biology. | Rootine Review | |
 | Baze provides personal supplements based on at-home blood test. | Persona vs Care/of vs Baze | |
 | Care/of helps find the right vitamins, protein and collagen. | Persona vs Care/of vs Baze | |
 | GEM is a real food Vitamin designed to support your daily nutritional needs with ingredients you understand. | GEM vs Ritual | |
 | Geologie is the most respected high-quality men's skincare brand for the modern man. | Fabric vs Geologie vs Kiehls Geologie Eye Cream Review Geologie Co Wash Review | |
 | Zero is anti-smoking gum designed to help you kick your nicotine habit. | Zero Smoking Cessation review | |
About D2C Products
When pondering the most radical transformation in retail over the last ten years, what comes to mind? Many praise technology because, well, it’s true. You can’t understate the impact of Amazon, social media, and smart devices on consumer behavior. But just as important has been the direct-to-consumerization of everything.
Unfamiliar with the “Direct-to-Consumer” (also called DTC or D2C) movement? The phrase describes the stampede of hip, digital-first brands selling everyday items online that you used to buy at a store or from a third party wholesaler. Beyond a stunning social media presence, DTC brands offer greater convenience, typically via a subscription model that ships your orders on autopilot, directly to your door. Products range from fresh dog food to underwear, produce boxes to contact lenses, and just about everything in between.
With 8 or 9 figure revenues and billion-dollar acquisitions, many popular DTC brands are disrupting their industry. For example, Gillette’s share of the U.S. men’s razor market fell from 70% to 54% between 2010 and 2016 — precisely the same time brands such as Dollar Shave Club and Harry’s carved out their own sizable slices of the pie. Unilever then responded by purchasing Dollar Shave Cub for a cool billion (with a “b”). Meanwhile, the same trend of rapid disruption and acquisition took hold beyond just shaving across a wide variety of product categories.
Criteria
How did we come up with this list of D2C brands?
With so many Direct-to-Consumer companies out there, we needed a framework to choose only 40. We wanted to be objective and name the most legitimate and likely to stick around for the long haul. Starting by gathering a fairly comprehensive list of well-known D2C companies we knew personally or could find in public databases like Crunchbase and CBinsights (excluding fashion, for now), we scored them based on 5 key empirical metrics. We then assigned each of those core metrics a weight (out of 100% total) based on the strength of the signal:
- Venture capital funding – 25%
- Website’s monthly unique visitors – 25%
- Instagram – 16.67%
- Facebook – 16.67%
- Twitter – 16.67%
Next we needed to calculate individual scores between 1 and 10 for each key metric. So we established ranges for each KPI with evenly-tiered point values. As an example, here’s how we assigned points for venture funding:
- 1 point for funding <$5,000,000
- 2 points for $5,000,000 – $20,000,000
- 3 points for $20,000,000 – $35,000,000
- 4 points for $35,000,000 – $50,000,000
- 5 points for $50,000,000 – $65,000,000
- 6 points for $65,000,000 – $80,000,000
- 7 points for $80,000,000 – $95,000,000
- 8 points for $95,000,000 – $110,000,000
- 9 points for $110,000,000 – $125,000,000
- 10 points – $125,000,000+
For example, a D2C brand with $42 million in funding would score a 4. After doing this for all five metrics, we calculated the score using the formula below:
Overall score = (VC Funding Score*.25) + (Unique_visitors_score*.25) + ( Instagram_followers_score*.167) + (Facebook_followers_score*.167) + (Twitter_followers_score*.167)
Define
What exactly defines a “Direct-to-Consumer Brand”?
So is any company that delivers technically “Direct to consumer”? Not exactly. Let’s take a step back and fully define what we mean by a “D2C brand”. In the traditional value chain for retailers, brands managed everything from design, production and marketing before passing the baton to larger retailers for distribution and sales. As an example, most tampon producers used to only sell to retailers like brick and mortar pharmacies or on third party marketplaces like Amazon. These third party intermediaries were the only way brands knew how to sell to their end customer.
Direct-to-Consumer brands are different because they take on the distribution and sales of their product themselves. They opt not to pass the baton, which not only gives brands more control of the customer journey, but also increases profits. Over time, it tends to be more efficient for brands to take on the work themselves. The consumer benefits because D2C companies often pass on these savings to their customers in the form of lower prices, or by subsidizing a better experience (i.e. free shipping, introductory offers, etc.) In general, it’s a win for consumers, and presents a huge opportunity for entrepreneurs.
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