A NYTimes book review for Billion Dollar Brand Club details the startups disrupting the consumer products space highlighting how quickly the direct-to-consumer approach has become “one of the most dominant forces in the retailing business today.”
“It began with a handful of start-ups, then grew to dozens, then hundreds — from mattresses (Casper) to bras (ThirdLove) to electric toothbrushes (Quip) to vitamins (Ritual) to tampons (Lola) to luggage (Away) to sneakers (Allbirds) to makeup (Glossier) to hair color (eSalon) to pet food (Farmer’s Dog) — and even thousands, counting the brands filling the endless digital aisles and shelves of Amazon Marketplace.”
The article offers a few statistics that are quite fascinating:
- In the four years from 2013 to 2017 nearly $17 billion in sales were captured by smaller brands.
- In 1999 small and medium sized companies had sales of approximately $100 million. In 2018 this figure surged to $160 billion.
Click below for a great read that focuses on how Dollar Shave Club and Harry’s came to control 14% of the razor blade market.