You probably know Sézane, le Slip Français or even Stella & Suzie… but did you know that all of its brands have one thing in common? Yes but which one? They are all DNVBs. The DNVBs, these new avant-garde brands with strong and committed values have been revolutionizing e-commerce since 2016. But who are they?
A bold history
Born in the United States a few years ago, the DNVBs , Digital Native Vertical Brands, are often considered to be real commercial UFOs. Developed on the Internet and nicknamed “the gifted of the web”, these are 100% digital brands which generally focus on a specific market or product and which pay particular attention to their brand image and their content strategy. The strong knowledge they have of their customers allows them to address consumers directly, without going through distributors.
An exceptional breakthrough
Still little known to the general public, the term DNVB is gradually establishing itself in the retail landscape and these brands are affecting more and more sectors. Like the Sézane brand - a true precursor of this movement - many brands are developing by following this model.
According to the Digital native group : strategy and operations consulting firm specializing in DNVBs , here are the most developed sectors in DNVBs : clothing, accessories & children (58.6%), well-being (13 .5 %) , Home ( 13.5%) and more and more DNVB in feminine hygiene, food supplements, Pet Food and alternative food (detox cure).
Of course, the sports e-commerce sector is also impacted by the DVNB which always offers new products.
Work around products and their customers
They are often associated with quality products and surf on a mastery of digital tools, communication and marketing. Their objective ? Create real communities united around their products which themselves become brand ambassadors . Social networks are an integral part of the strategy of DNVBs, which seek proximity to their customers.
For some, consumers are integrated into brand choices like real members of the board of directors. They are not afraid to break the codes and create strong links with their consumers unlike the big historical brands which have to bend to their level to compete with them. Advertising is done a lot on the networks, via facebook ads or instagram ads for example.
Rare and often committed products
The DNVBs are brands with strong values ( ecological and responsible products, made in France, upcycling, etc.), which meet growing consumer demand. Their strength lies in particular in the richness of the DATA it has and its analysis. They have a strong ability to create rarity in their product : out of stock, few sales, capsule collections available at specific times, which encourage consumption. So many elements that help them resist the crisis.
In full expansion, the DNVBs also have their own association “France DNVB” created by 6 start-ups: Bergamotte, Jimmy Fairly, Oh My Cream, Le Slip Français, Tediber and Tip Toe. This association brings together all of the French DNVBs around their common values and interests.
But what are the keys to the success of a DNVB?
Although many DNVBs are increasingly opting for a physical store presence, the bulk of their business takes place on the Internet. Indeed, in the age of omnichannel and with applications like Shopify POS , it's child's play! This is why it is very important to master and take care of your digital tools. So here are some tips.
The digital communication plan
First, you can develop a digital communication plan to define the digital tools you need and the content strategy you will choose to address your target.
Your e-commerce site
On the tools side, start by creating your e-shop and creating your social network pages (to be selected according to your target). Next, think about the story you want to tell and how you want to showcase your product (storytelling).
Consumers want to dream, to travel … especially in the current period, so don't hesitate to create your own universe around your brand!
Your graphic charterFor this and in general, be sure to take care of your graphic charter !
The ideal being to create it with Figma , the graphic charter creation software.
Your graphic charter is your brand identity , it represents who you are, what you want to evoke and the message you want to convey. On your social networks as on your e-commerce store, it must be visible and recognizable to all. Have you created a universe around your brand and your products? It must appear on your digital communication media!
Your website must be a showcase , its design must be neat in the image of the DNVB, with a very conceptual style, very worked.
Technical aspects
Your choice of CMS and template
For this, you can choose to develop your store on CMS such as Shopify which offers an infinite range of themes and templates (models) designed by designers or a designer who will create models for you to integrate into your Shopify back office. . If you do not fully master this graphic part, it can be delegated to the agency that will create your site.
The goal? Highlight your products and make your customers want to buy.
Be responsive
Now that you have completed these steps, here are some important things to keep in mind when creating your e-store:
Think responsive! Communication and purchases are increasingly done on the telephone . Not having a mobile-friendly site would be a big mistake. Shopify technology develops “responsive” sites, think about it!
Offer an experience to live for your customers
Trying on clothes or glasses online, fun browsing... your customers must remember their visit to your e-store. In addition, they must have the simplest possible customer experience, one that allows them to reach the product they need as quickly as possible and in just a few clicks.
To do this, offer clear calls to action , have a FAQ to answer your customers' questions , offer a Newsletter to inform your customers of the news of your brand and your products and finally, have a secure payment interface to give confidence to your customers. They must not doubt when settling the order!
Optimize your SEO!
Who says website, says natural referencing and to properly reference your e-commerce store, here are some tips:
- choose a domain name that optimizes your SEO . You are not an expert? Rather than wandering between OVH or GODADDY, you can buy your domain name directly from the Shopify platform,
- simplify your breadcrumb trail. Very useful for a store with a very large product catalog or a Marketplace, the breadcrumb trail is not necessarily useful for your DNVB because the principle of this is to have a very simple interface,
- optimize your tags with keywords ! With Shopify, you can manage your tags from the back office,
- ensure that your e-shop has low loading times. You can use GTmetrix to measure this. The longer the site takes to load, the less it will be well referenced by the google crawl. Remember: the concept of "crawl budget" is the time that the Google robot will allocate to check your site. If it wastes a lot of time analyzing pages with very long loading times, then it may miss pages with interesting content that could optimize your SEO. To optimize the loading time, pay attention to the size of the photos, avoid links that refer to external modules,
- to highlight your products, indicate the title of the product in the description of the photos. Optimize their description and describe them as if it were a sales page,
- offer sharing buttons on social networks.
- think about the customer safety ! Use an SSL certificate to protect your customers' data. Shopify also offers you a 128-bit SSL certificate which allows data encryption when paying your customers. Not to mention that Shopify is committed to backing up all your data daily! Shopify offers 33 payment gateways for France. So you'll be spoiled for choice!
Finally, as manager of a DNVB you cannot be on all fronts!
Cultivate your know-how
Remember to set aside time to do what you know how to do , namely to develop your product! Shopify relies on all of its customers to optimize the conversion funnel, which allows you to focus on your area of expertise, namely the product you are selling! Need to write your legal notices or generate a barcode? Shopify tools help you in carrying out all these additional tasks necessary to launch your e-store.
No need to ask yourself the question of optimizing your e-shop, Shopify and its many experts take care of everything! And if you want to progress on your own on the creation of your CMS, the "Shopify Academy" offers videos in the form of tutorials allowing you to discover and understand the solution step by step while benefiting from assistance 7 days a week and 24 hours a day. 24 which allows you to talk to a dedicated team to answer your questions.
Are you overwhelmed after reading this article? Call on a PIKKA expert! PIKKA accompanies you in your steps and in the realization of your Shopify e-commerce site and accompanies you from graphic design to SEO optimization through the technical aspects.
So do not hesitate, contact us !
About Shopify
Shopify is a CMS that now has more than 1,600,000 e-commerce sites in 175 countries around the world.
Thanks to its powerful and light technology, made only for e-commerce (unlike some other CMS which were originally designed to make blogs or onepages), Shopify offers a strong, simple and accessible customer experience. . Shopify is a SaaS solution (Software as a Service), hosted online, which allows e-merchants to offload maintenance and server management.
The "Shopify app'store" brings together a total of 4,700 apps which allows 80% of Shopify sellers to use third-party applications on their online store. All plugins are developed by Shopify themselves, which guarantees compatibility with the templates offered by Shopify.
