With longstanding players in the consumer products industry continuing to acquire new brands (many of them born direct-to-consumer) as a means for achieving market growth and innovation, the ability to effectively merge into an integrated direct to consumer (DTC) strategy and eCommerce platform is now critical. Furthermore, a robust landscape of eCommerce technologies creates nearly endless options to operationalize eCommerce within a business, making the initial strategic evaluation all the more critical.

This $3.8 billion consumer products company is a leading manufacturer of personal care and health and beauty products. As a means for both defending market share and entering new markets, the company has pursued an aggressive growth-by-acquisition strategy resulting in three acquisitions over an 18-months period.

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With a large stable of well-recognized brands sold across various e-tailers, the new acquisitions would be the first brands sold through direct-to-consumer (DTC) channels. As consumers continue to seek direct connectivity to their brands, DTC sales represented a significant strategic focus for the CP manufacturing leader. These particular acquisitions positioned the company with a unique opportunity for quick entry into the DTC landscape.

Misaligned technologies and processes across the three acquisitions challenged the success of this new opportunity for the global CP player. In order to effectively manage and scale DTC capabilities and sales, the client wished to evaluate the strategies, processes, and technologies across the three acquired brands and create a path forward for a unified and scalable DTC strategy and eCommerce solution.

The client engaged Clarkston Consulting to conduct a robust assessment of each of the three brands’ eCommerce strategies, processes, and technologies. Leveraging that assessment, Clarkston created a business case and roadmap for the client to achieve a data-driven eCommerce model that would grow with the business, enable rapid integration for future acquisitions, and meet consumer demand around experience, usability, and functionality.

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