Independent station (direct-to-consumer, DTC) refers to a model that does not rely on channel merchants to connect directly to consumers, cutting off the intermediary costs and rules and restrictions on stores of third-party platforms. Taking Amazon as an example, the Amazon platform does not allow sellers to contact buyers for any marketing or promotional purposes, including by email, letter, phone or other means. Sellers can only contact Amazon buyers when processing orders or responding to customer service inquiries. The 2021 Amazon store closure wave was caused by some sellers violating platform rules and directly contacting buyers to get good reviews, causing huge losses to buyers.
The independent station model does not have the above problems. The rules are determined by themselves, and there is no risk of store closure, which is conducive to enterprises to conduct more flexible user precision marketing and deeply link users.
The core of the independent station is “independence”.
1. “Independent” rules
Independent stations can have their own domain names, brands, pages, etc., and they are the makers of platform rules. They are not restricted by the rules of third-party platforms and have no risk of store closure; operations are safer, and they are also conducive to promoting the influence of international brands and avoiding the impact of platform price wars and rising commission fees.
2. “Independent” resources
An independent website is a cross-border e-commerce sales platform that belongs to the seller. Sellers can directly contact customers and conduct corresponding data analysis through business data, which makes it easy to adjust marketing strategies in a timely manner, improve customer retention and conversion rates, continue to accumulate customers, and master first-hand information about customers, making subsequent marketing methods richer and more flexible, gradually getting rid of the problem of platform traffic dependence, forming their own brand traffic circle, and helping companies achieve long-term brand value accumulation.
At present, more and more cross-border sellers are actively deploying independent websites while doing third-party platforms, such as SHein, Banggood, Anker, Tongtuo, and LightInTheBox.