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.

中文翻译：

---

消费者对直接面向消费者（DTC）品牌的态度和重新购买意向的决定因素

在时装和零售行业中，一群初创公司（称为直接面向消费者（DTC）的品牌）正在激增。DTC品牌被定义为直接向消费​​者销售而没有像百货商店那样的零售商“中间商”的电子商务品牌。他们通常从纯粹的在线业务开始，充分利用数字渠道进行营销和销售。鉴于对该主题的研究有限，本文旨在确定消费者对DTC品牌态度和重新购买意图的决定因素。在与DTC频繁购物者进行深入访谈的最初定性阶段，确定了八个决定因素。随后对210名美国DTC购物者进行了定量分析，证实了共同创造，成本效益，网站吸引力，品牌独特性，社交媒体参与度，DTC品牌的创新和创新能力显着影响消费者的态度，而成本效益（间接），品牌独特性，社交媒体参与度和品牌创新能力则影响消费者的重新购买意图。研究结果为有抱负的企业家和现有零售商提供了有关加强其价值主张的见解。