👩🏽‍🚀 the [ecommerce] party is just getting started 🚀

So there is still a lot of growth in the eCommerce space!

Accel sees penetration going to 50%. And they invested accordingly, in companies like Klaviyo, Jet.com, Etsy etc.

Their investments revolve around what they call "eCommerce Enablement": direct to consumer merchants finally having the tools (like Shopify), and consumer demand, to step out of the shadows of marketplaces like Amazon.

What once required deep pockets and custom solutions can now be solved with a complete ecosystem of third party apps (well hey there!) and service providers.

[note: for a thoughtful piece on how Shopify has enabled entrepreneurs to build big businesses on the infrastructure of the ecosystem, read Packy McCormick’s piece "Shopify and the Hard Thing About Easy Things"]

Here’s the part that I find most interesting in Accel’s thesis: data privacy will create even more momentum for DTC brands.

Here’s how they explain it:

"As brands and advertisers no longer have 3rd party cookies to track user behavior across websites and apps, their ability to target and retarget users across websites will increasingly be limited. Brands and merchants will be forced to move towards and establish 1st-party, direct relationships with their customers by gathering email addresses and phone numbers so they can communicate and market directly to them."

It’s about the consumer relationships that brands build directly with consumers.

What worked before, relying on third party cookies for ad targeting and remarketing campaigns, is not as viable as it once was...

Continuing to build owned assets of email and SMS lists obviously continue to be a key focus as data privacy restrictions get tighter.

But there’s even more to be said about the zero party data and proactively capturing insights from customers.

With their nearly $10BN assets under management, Accel has a unique perspective (and stake) in how the future of ecommerce develops. They are hosting a free virtual event next week that looks solid: "The Future of D2C eCommerce".

This looks like a solid event:

With 30 years in operation, 7Days sells over $1 Billion globally. $40 million in the US and Canada, about $2M of that from digital channels.

But the growth in the US is fast, up 15x in just a few years.

7Days takes an omnichannel approach — selling in Walmart, Amazon, and grocers across the country.

But now they are starting to focus on their direct to consumer channel, and finding ways to acquire customers directly, like a recent radio campaign.

How do they track the ROI of that ad spend, if they are selling direct to consumer, Amazon, Walmart, and 80k retail locations?

Turns out it’s not an exact science.

A few ways that it’s measured:
Brand awareness and engagement - measured by Google search queries in the region that ads ran.
Lift in sales — specific to where ads ran

Figuring out how your marketing spend impacts every channel is a nuanced and difficult challenge.

This is a special episode, as I had three of the Executive Team in on the conversation: CEO Jim Burns, Chief Growth Officer Vishal Gandhi, and Head of eCommerce, Chris Burns.

The team shares how they allocate budget for their multi-channel approach.

Positioning: how they have used their competitive advantage of longer shelf-life as a marketing, and operational, advantage.

How the offline marketing efforts contribute to the digital marketing efforts.
Listen here for the full episode, or this brief snippet of how they tie their online and offline spend to revenue growth: