Direct-to-consumer (DTC) brands continue to innovate worldwide, and we know that by 2023 both large and small DTC brands will bring in over $150 billion in the United States alone. 

While these brands bring value via their products, many today go the extra mile in their mission to support the environment, healthy lifestyles, or other social causes. Intelligent buyers want more out of brands than a good product—they want to find their tribe. 

But how does your tribe find you?

Littledata has seen consumers unite behind brands like Grind, Rothy’s, and Flux Footwear, bolstering support, sales, and awareness. What do these brands have in common? Besides offering high-quality products and an unmatched user experience, they are all purpose-driven brands who have taken a data-driven approach to audience building and ecommerce growth marketing. And to do that they have built a modern data stack.

Step One: Finding the data

In today’s increasingly crowded market, DTC brands need to find a way to set themselves apart from the rest. Appealing to consumers’ ethos, values, and lifestyles is one of the most effective ways we’ve seen.

Tip: Brands use first-party data, collected directly from their customers and websites to re-engage their ideal customers using Google Ads or Facebook Conversions API.

So how do DTC brands dial in on these values to help navigate company decisions? 

We believe all good business decisions are backed by a healthy dose of data discovery—understanding the ins and outs of how customers engage with your brand online and their key demographics. 

Finding a single source of truth for that intel is crucial for developing user personas and personalized content for your customer. 

One important source of truth is how consumers interact with a brand’s ecommerce storefront, but it can seem overwhelming to try to get accurate data about what’s really going on with online shoppers. Our friends at Twilio Segment say it best, “Investing in data quality will improve trust in your data, reduce time spent navigating and validating data, and ultimately allow your business to grow faster.” 

Customer data from Shopify or BigCommerce stores can be reported directly in Google Analytics neatly and accurately. This brings to the surface marketing attribution, shopping behavior, checkout experiences, and how subscription customers engage with ecommerce stores. 

Tip: Littledata now offers a connection to Google Analytics 4 while running in parallel with Universal Analytics.

These metrics give way for technical leaders and ecommerce managers to make data-driven decisions that drive personalization. Shopify encourages merchants to drive more personalized emails using analytics. Reviewing how customers engage with your website, from what channel, and their demographics can help brands improve email campaign performance.

Step Two: Data-driven personalization

Personalization lets the customer know brand care, and when 308 billion emails are sent every day it’s important to stand out with unique and targeted emails. 

Tip: First-party data is information collected directly from customers or website visitors. This could be on your website, in your app, or through channels such as email and text/SMS. Learn more in our new White Paper: A World Without Cookies

We’ve seen this first-hand at Littledata, and the issues have become even more urgent during the pandemic and the recent economic downturn. “For purpose-driven brands in particular, organic channels such as email and SMS marketing aren’t just optional – they’re the key to unlocking rapid growth with limited budgets and more brands competing for conscious consumers,” says Littledata co-founder and CMO Ari Messer. Littledata’s customers use apps like Klaviyo and Attentive for customer communications, and we help them get the data they need to turn those channels into personalization superstars.

“For purpose-driven brands in particular, organic channels such as email and SMS marketing aren’t just optional – they’re key to unlocking rapid growth”

Data for business growth is no longer something that needs to be overly complex or left only in the hands of data scientists. With both no-code and low-code solutions, most customers can access and implement the Littledata app in about 10 minutes. Littledata has meticulously developed a no-code tracking solution that brings you the most accurate and needed data (including custom dimensions for LTV) that your team can use to reach new heights and continue to make an impact. 

“We launched our shoe brand utilizing Littledata’s integration and data layer. While they handled our ata we were able to focus on other parts of the business. We’re a little over a year old and with the help of Littledata, we’ve gone from generating 6 figures of revenue in our first 2 quarters to doing 6 figures a month. They’ve been our central tool for linking Google Analytics, Facebook CAPI, and Shopify”

—Flux Footwear, Co-Founder Benjamin Loschen


Customers today are more educated and motivated by brands—how they buy influences the things they care about. Brands who understand these motivations and can pinpoint opportunities. They can connect behavioral data to marketing tactics and campaigns. Then when brands step back and look at customer LTV and AOV, they can see which customers are the most engaged and re-target them more granularly. Focusing on the product they are selling but also on the impact and mission they are contributing to by being a loyal customer of that brand.