D2C

D2C (direct-to-consumer) describes a brand selling straight to the end customer, through its own online store or physical locations, rather than through retailers, distributors or marketplaces. The brand controls the price, owns the customer relationship, and keeps the margin that a retailer would otherwise take.

It also inherits every job the retailer was doing. Acquiring customers, running the storefront, answering support, processing returns, and in cross-border selling, carrying the tax and compliance obligations that come with being the legal seller.

D2C against the alternatives

The comparison that misleads is margin alone. A D2C sale looks far more profitable than a wholesale one until customer acquisition cost is included, and for many categories that cost is the largest line in the D2C model.

What D2C actually requires you to run

• Acquisition. Nobody arrives by accident. Paid media, organic search and email are the brand's problem, and acquisition cost is the number that decides whether the model works.
• The storefront. Site performance, merchandising, checkout and conversion, all owned rather than inherited from a marketplace.
• Fulfilment. Order fulfilment and returns, either in house or through a partner.
• Support. Pre-sales questions, delivery chasing and complaints arrive directly rather than being absorbed by a retailer.
• Being the legal seller. Tax registration, invoicing and consumer rights obligations attach to whoever sells, which in D2C is you.

Where D2C gets expensive across borders

Selling D2C in your own market is an operations and marketing problem. Selling D2C into another country adds a legal one.

The moment you sell to a customer abroad, that country's rules apply to the sale. VAT registration obligations arise, consumer protection rules bind you, and getting stock into the market at all requires an importer of record and customs duty. Marketplaces absorb some of this on a seller's behalf. D2C does not, which is why brands expanding internationally through their own store often discover the compliance work before they discover the margin.

A merchant of record arrangement is the usual answer: the partner becomes the legal seller and carries those obligations while the brand keeps the store, the pricing and the customer relationship.

What brands get wrong with D2C

• Comparing margins without acquisition cost. The retail margin you keep is not free. It pays for the customer you now have to find yourself.
• Treating it as either-or. Most brands run D2C alongside marketplaces, because the channels do different jobs and reach different buyers.
• Launching international D2C without the compliance work. The store goes live in minutes. The tax registrations behind it do not.
• Owning customer data and never using it. The repeat purchase and lifetime value the model is built on only materialise if somebody acts on the data.

FAQ

What does D2C mean?
Direct-to-consumer. A brand sells straight to the end customer through its own channels rather than through retailers, distributors or marketplaces, keeping the margin, the pricing control and the customer relationship.

Is D2C more profitable than wholesale?
Per unit, yes, since no retailer margin is given away. Whether it is more profitable overall depends on customer acquisition cost, which replaces the retailer's role in finding buyers and is often the largest cost in the model.

Do I need to register for tax to sell D2C in another country?
Usually yes. Selling directly to consumers abroad generally triggers VAT or sales tax obligations in that market, alongside consumer protection rules and the import requirements for getting stock there.

eBrands runs D2C storefronts for brands across Europe and North America and carries the legal seller obligations behind them. See how we operate D2C on Shopify.