On February 18th, The Council for Retail and Sales at DeSales University and Andres Gallegos, president and CEO of Z-CoiL pain-relief footwear, joined forces to present an informative talk focusing on ways to increase direct-to-consumer sales. Z-CoiL currently operates about 30 retail stores in the country but their retail stores account for only about 7% of their business. Instead, Z-CoiL focuses its efforts on selling directly to consumers online.
Andres spoke about the importance of keeping customer lead acquisition costs low and maintaining a repeat customer base. He explained how coming up with an idea and developing a product are the easy parts; reaching your target market cost effectively is the hard part.
Instead of starting from scratch, Gallegos recommends using an eCommerce platform to build a website. There are many options available, such as Shopify, that look professional, are easy to manipulate, have excellent check-out functionality, and offer a low-cost initial investment.
Some of Andres’ favorite apps are: Tax Jar, ShipStation, Printful, ShipperHQ, LiveChat, Stamped, and Klaviyo. These apps can help with shipment tracking, taxes, live chat with your customers, and offering discounts.
Gallegos’ advice for businesses who want to sell directly to consumers is to focus on marketing, take advantage of existing/proven eCommerce platforms, measure everything, model after other successful businesses, and most importantly, keep a positive attitude.
Meet the Experts: Direct-to-Consumer sales was powered by DZYNIT and the entire Meet the Experts series is sponsored by Walmart.