Determinants of consumer attitudes and re-purchase intentions toward direct-to-consumer (DTC) brands

Abstract

In the fashion and retail industry, a group of startups, referred to as Direct-to-Consumer (DTC) brands, are proliferating. DTC brands are defined as e-commerce brands that sell directly to consumers, without retailer ‘middlemen’ like department stores. They typically begin as a purely online business, fully leveraging digital channels for marketing and selling. Given the limited research on the topic, this paper aims to identify determinants of consumers’ attitudes and re-purchase intentions toward DTC brands. The initial qualitative phase of in-depth interviews with frequent DTC shoppers, resulted in the identification of eight determinants. The subsequent quantitative analysis with 210 US DTC shoppers confirmed that co-creation, cost-effectiveness, website attractiveness, brand uniqueness, social media engagement, and innovativeness of DTC brands significantly influence consumers’ attitudes while cost-effectiveness (indirectly), brand uniqueness, social media engagement, and brand innovativeness affect consumers re-purchase intentions. The findings offer insights for aspiring entrepreneurs and incumbent retailers on strengthening their value propositions.