Celebrity brand filed for bankruptcy, Consult-a-Friend, More privacy regulations on Meta | D2C Digest

Hey there, great people of the D2C community who are building fantastic things! This is your host Berkay writing.

We collected a short list of what’s happening in the D2C market. So here’s your weekly D2C digest.

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😦 Hello Bello filed for bankruptcy

Remember Eleanor from The Good Place? She was the saleswoman who, after living a morally questionable life, ended up in heaven by mistake.

To jog your memory, she's portrayed by Kristen Bell, who, along with her husband Dax Shepard, founded the affordable and eco-friendly baby product brand called Hello Bello in 2018.

The company reached a fantastic $180 million in revenue in four years and was supported by VMG, a prominent private equity fund specializing in consumer goods.

Furthermore, in an effort to control expenses, they established a diaper manufacturing facility in Waco, Texas in 2021.

These all sound promising, right?

Yes they do, but here is the bad news…

This week, Hello Bello has declared bankruptcy due to high shipping and production costs.

Within their bankruptcy filing, they've revealed liabilities that exceed $100 million, including a significant debt of $22 million to a sole supplier.

There are rumors circulating that the healthcare-focused Hildred Capital Management has made an offer to acquire Hello Bello for $65 million.

Soooooo you see even the celebrity brands are not safe…

🤝 “Consult-a-Friend” feature by Amazon

Amazon is introducing a social shopping feature called "Consult-a-Friend," enabling users to seek advice from trusted friends while shopping on the Amazon app.

Users can send messages to friends, including a link to a product, and friends can react with emojis and comments to help with purchase decisions.

This feature builds on existing sharing behaviors and is particularly useful for shopping in categories like apparel, shoes, electronics, and furniture.

Users must activate the feature and can share links with their friends through their preferred messaging app.

The feature is accessible in the U.S., Australia, Belgium, Canada, France, Germany, India, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Netherlands, Poland, Spain, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Sweden, Turkey, UAE and the U.K. and is part of Amazon's effort to enhance the shopping experience.

So keep focusing on customer satisfaction. Your customers are your brand ambassadors, now more than ever!

🧐 Meta expanded its data on Instagram

Meta has expanded its data privacy features on Instagram, allowing users to block data collection by the platform and review which businesses share their information with Meta.

This feature, called Activity Off-Meta Technologies, was previously available only for Facebook.

Users can also transfer photos and videos from Instagram to other services, although the specific options are unclear.

What does this mean?

On the downside, you might notice higher advertising expenses on Instagram due to worse targeting.

However, this situation could also present an opportunity to connect more closely with your customers to build trust to maintain their engagement and consent for data usage.

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