Every quarter we look at the IAB 250 Direct Brands to Watch, and using our unique datasets and methodology to analyze the website traffic and growth of these sites we put together a list of the 25 fastest-growing direct-to-consumer (D2C) brands.
This blog post is the second in our series. The first post, SimilarWeb’s Top 25 D2C Brands of Q1 2020, featured brands that quickly grew their online business amid COVID-19. In this subsequent post, we highlight Outer, Cubcouts, Clare, and Youth To The People – four eco-friendly or socially responsible brands that demonstrate effective marketing strategies that look beyond the crisis and have the potential for long-term growth and profitability.
Why Is This List of D2C Brands Important?
Whether you are a retailer, a brand owner, or marketer, our list of top 25 D2C brands offers a competitive analysis of the retail landscape and an overview of emerging trends in the industry and highlights best-in-class strategies that are resulting in impressive growth.
1) Outer: Making the Most Out of Seasonal Sales
Outer, an environmentally friendly furniture brand based in Santa Monica, California, is best known for its durable outdoor cushion covers. Their site, Liveouter.com, tops our list with 53K average monthly visits and a massive 659% quarter-over-quarter (QoQ) growth.
Outer was able to capitalize on the seasonal popularity of outdoor and patio furniture sets, which are typically sold in the summer months. While traffic to this brand has increased across marketing channels (as seen below), dramatic growth can only be achieved when trending interest is coupled with search spending. In Q2, Outer received its largest share of traffic from paid search (39% in Q2, compared to 11% in Q1). Top trending paid keywords demonstrate that Outer’s digital strategy targets long-tail SEO keywords that its specific audience was searching for, such as outdoor furniture for small spaces and patio furniture with built in footrest.
2) Cubcoats: Taking an Agile Approach to Creativity
Cubcoats is a children’s clothing site that is loved by millennial parents, mainly due to their popular 2-in-1 clothing items that convert from stuffed animals into hoodies. Cubcoats.com’s website traffic increased by 337% QoQ, thanks to a very quick and successful shift to manufacturing and marketing stylish kid’s masks.
Cubcoats’ marketing efforts included a heavy investment in paid acquisition which resulted in a massive QoQ uptick in referrals (from 1% to 25%), display ads (from 11% to 18%), and direct traffic (from 27% to 35%). After being mentioned in May in a Forbes article, referral traffic jumped from 174 clicks in Q1 to nearly 20,000 in Q2.
3) Clare: Increasing Market Share by Promoting DIY
Clare is another noteworthy eco-conscious brand on our list. The online seller of sustainable paint supplies, like paintbrushes and rollers, is an example of a D2C brand that is focused on meeting changing customer behaviors – and the rise of the do-it-yourself (DIY) economy, in particular.
In Q2, clare.com captured an average of 37K search visits; 26% of those were from paid. However, only time will tell if this rapidly-growing website will be able to steal market share from traditional home improvement retailers, such as The Home Depot and Lowe’s.
4) Youth To The People: Highlighting Social Justice Stance Through PPC
Plant-based skincare brand, Youth To The People epitomizes the importance of having a commitment to social justice. Youthtothepeople.com saw its traffic momentum continue from the previous quarter; it increased from 58K in Q1 to 180K in Q2 (a QoQ growth of 212%), ranking number five on our list this quarter, and number 11 in our previous list.
In Q1, the beauty site’s growth was spurred by an improved social and organic search strategy. In Q2, the growth of these channels was coupled with a heavy investment in paid search and an expanding base of repeat purchases, an indication of customers’ interest in brands showing support for social justice causes. For example, youth to the people pride paid searches increased by 286% in June as the company invested in highlighting their values and messaging to consumers.
To learn more about the data behind this article and what Similarweb has to offer, visit https://www.similarweb.com/.
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