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What is DTC (D2C)? The meaning, with examples
Karina Paviotti
Founder, Design by Karina
13 min read
DTC, also written D2C, stands for direct to consumer: a brand sells its own products straight to the people who use them, usually through its own webshop, instead of through a retailer, a wholesaler or a marketplace. The brand keeps the full price and the relationship with its customers. In return, it takes on the work a shop would otherwise do: bringing people in, shipping, returns and customer service.
In short
DTC and D2C mean exactly the same thing. In English people usually write DTC, in Dutch D2C.
Selling direct, you keep more of every sale and you get to know your customers, but you pay to find them.
Many well-known DTC brands also sell in shops or on marketplaces. Their own store is the center, and the other channels sit next to it.
Thinking about selling direct?
Book a free call and we’ll go through your numbers together.
DTC is one of those words that gets used as if everyone already knows what it means. It isn't a trend. It's a very old idea, a maker selling to the person who uses the thing, with a webshop in the place of a market stall.
Before you read on: we build Shopify stores for brands that sell direct, so you know where we stand, and I want to explain it plainly, including the harder parts. Selling direct is really a choice about who owns the relationship with your customer. Whether it's right for you depends on your product, your margins and how much of the selling you're ready to do yourself.
What does DTC mean?
DTC means direct to consumer. The brand that makes or designs a product sells it to the end customer itself, with nobody in between: no wholesaler, no department store, no multi-brand webshop that buys your stock and resells it. In practice that means its own webshop, and sometimes its own shop or pop-up, which is still direct because the brand is the one selling.
DTC isn't a type of product or a way of advertising, and it isn't the same as "online". A brand that only sells through other people's webshops isn't selling direct, and a brand with its own shop on a high street is.
The quick test
Who takes the payment, and whose customer is it afterwards? If the answer to both is "the brand", it's direct to consumer.
DTC or D2C: is there a difference?
No. DTC and D2C are two ways of writing direct to consumer. In English, especially in the US and the UK, people usually write DTC: a DTC brand, DTC ecommerce. In Dutch, people write D2C: D2C merken, een D2C webshop. The Dutch meaning, the "D2C betekenis", is the same: direct aan de consument verkopen.
DTC vs B2C: what's the difference?
The two overlap, which is where the confusion sits. B2C means business to consumer: any business selling to private customers, like a supermarket or bol.com. DTC is narrower: it's B2C done by the brand itself. Every DTC brand is B2C, but a retailer selling fifty brands isn't DTC, because it didn't make the products.
Who sells | To whom | Example | |
|---|---|---|---|
DTC / D2C | The brand itself | The end customer | A skincare brand selling on its own webshop |
B2C | Any business | The end customer | A department store selling many brands |
B2B / wholesale | The brand, in bulk | Retailers, who resell it | The same skincare brand supplying that store |
DTC vs retail and wholesale
The classic route for a product brand goes through other people's shops. You sell to a retailer at a wholesale price, and the retailer adds its margin. A common rule of thumb is keystone pricing, where the retailer doubles what it paid, so the brand gets about half of the price on the shelf.
Wholesale brings orders in bulk and customers you'd never reach alone. But the customer belongs to the retailer, and you often don't know who bought your product. Direct to consumer turns that around: you keep the full price and know every customer, and you take on everything the retailer used to do. Many brands use both. We go further in moving from wholesale to DTC and DTC and retail side by side.
How does a DTC brand make money?
The appeal is simple arithmetic. Sell a €60 product yourself and the whole €60 comes to you, before costs; through a retailer, you might get €30. The catch is that the retailer's half paid for a shop, staff, marketing and the customers walking in, and on your own you pay for those things in other ways. The biggest is usually the cost of getting someone to your store and buying, the customer acquisition cost. Then come payment fees, shipping and returns. Here's what each route takes, from the published numbers:
Channel | What it takes | What you still pay yourself |
|---|---|---|
Your own Shopify store | €0.29 per iDEAL payment, or 1.9% + €0.25 per card payment on Basic, with Shopify Payments. Plan from €21 a month, billed yearly. | Getting customers to the store, shipping, returns, service |
bol.com | A percentage of the sale price including BTW, plus a fixed amount per item, set per category. Bol's own example: kitchen items at 5% to 12.5%, plus €0.05 to €0.95 per item. | Shipping (unless bol handles it, at a fee), returns, often ads on the platform |
Wholesale (keystone) | The retailer sets its price at about twice what it paid you, so you get about half of the retail price. | Production, and shipping in bulk to the retailer |
Shopify fees from shopify.com/nl/prijzen, excluding BTW. Bol.com commission structure and example from the bol Partnerplatform page "Commissie"; Dutch sellers also pay 21% BTW on the commission. Keystone pricing as defined in Shopify's guide to keystone pricing. All checked October 2026. Rates change, so check your own category.
So the real question is what it costs you to win a customer, and how often they come back. A customer who buys two or three times pays back what it cost to find them, which a single sale often doesn't. The calculator puts that in your own numbers.
TOOL: WHAT YOU KEEP PER SALE
The pros and cons of selling direct
Margin: the full price comes to you, not half of it. Customer data: you know who buys, what and how often, so you make better decisions. The relationship: you can email them, thank them and invite them back. Control: your prices, photos, words and packaging.
Acquisition: nobody walks past your webshop by accident, so you pay, in money or time, to bring people in. Logistics and returns: stock, packing, shipping, refunds. Service: every question about size, delivery or ingredients now comes to you.
Returns are where DTC surprises people. In a shop, the customer tries before paying; online, they decide from photos and words, and in the EU they have the right to send it back. The best way to keep returns down is to answer the doubts before the purchase: clear sizes, honest photos, a real description of how it feels and works.
Examples of DTC brands
A few well-known brands that built their business by selling direct:
Brand | What they sell | How they sell direct | Also sold through |
|---|---|---|---|
Glossier (US) | Beauty | Launched as a direct-to-consumer brand in 2014, sells on its own Shopify store | Sephora in the US and Canada, since 2023 |
Warby Parker (US) | Glasses | Started in 2010 selling online only | Its own stores, which are still direct |
Gymshark (UK) | Sportswear | Designs its own products and sells direct on Shopify | Pop-ups and events, with Shopify POS |
Gisou (Amsterdam) | Haircare, built on a family hair oil recipe | Sells on its own Shopify store | Sephora, since 2020 in the US |
Mr Marvis (Amsterdam) | Shorts and menswear | Launched in 2016, sells direct through its own webshop | Its own stores, opened since 2020 |
Checked October 2026 on each brand's website and in public reporting (see Sources).
Look at the last column: almost none of these brands sell only direct. Glossier and Gisou also sell at Sephora, and Warby Parker and Mr Marvis opened their own shops. The own webshop came first, and it's still where the brand speaks for itself. For a longer list, with brands from the Netherlands, see our guide to Dutch DTC brands on Shopify.
DTC next to marketplaces and retail
DTC is often described as the opposite of selling on bol.com, Amazon or in shops, but each channel does a different job. Your own store is where you control the price, the story and the relationship, and where repeat customers come back to. A marketplace brings people who are already searching for a product like yours, for a commission and on its rules. Retail puts your product in a place people trust, with someone else doing the selling.
A brand can sell on bol.com to be found, in three boutiques to be seen, and on its own store to build the relationship. If you're weighing a marketplace against your own webshop, we compared them in Bol.com or your own webshop?
What a DTC brand needs from its own store
When you sell direct, your store isn't just a place to pay. It's the shop assistant and the shelf at once. We decide what the store must say before we decide how it looks, because on a DTC store, the words and the order of things do most of the selling. The things to get right:
Product pages that answer what a shop assistant would: what it does, who it's for, how it fits or feels, what's in it.
Proof: reviews, customer photos, press.
Delivery and returns, said early, on the product page, not only at checkout.
A way to stay in touch: an email sign-up and good emails after the sale, because the second order is where DTC starts paying off.
Screenshot: zourani.comRight under the button: ordered today, delivered tomorrow, a one-year guarantee, 30 days to change your mind and safe payment. In a shop, someone would answer those doubts in person. On a direct store, the page has to.
Two of our clients show how different this looks. Zourani, a red light therapy skincare brand, has one store in three languages for two countries, built to earn trust before the purchase with product education, comparisons, skincare rituals and reviews. VYOLA, a Belgian atelier for custom-made body jewelry, needed size guidance and a considered ordering flow. Both sell direct through their own Shopify stores, and in both, the store is where the relationship with the customer lives.
DTC marketing: the basics
The hardest part of selling direct is usually not the store, it's the traffic, because nobody walks past a webshop. DTC marketing comes down to three kinds of channels: the ones you own (your email list, your customers, your content), the ones you earn (Google, word of mouth, press, creators who like your product) and the ones you pay for (ads on Instagram, Google or TikTok). Paid is fast and easy to overspend on, so track the cost to win a customer from day one. We go deeper in DTC marketing: where to start, and into pricing, channels and timing in a DTC strategy for your brand.
DTC on Shopify
Shopify was made for exactly this, with the webshop, checkout and payments in one place. Shopify Markets lets one store sell in several countries and languages, Shopify POS keeps a pop-up or your own shop in the same system, and iDEAL costs €0.29 per payment with Shopify Payments.
Whether you call it a Shopify store, a Shopify webshop or a Shopify website, it's the same system. If you're at the very beginning, see our guide to starting a DTC brand on Shopify, or start with What is Shopify and how does it work? For the costs, see How much does a Shopify store cost in 2026?
DTC in the Netherlands
Dutch shoppers buy online a lot. According to the Thuiswinkel Markt Monitor, they spent €35.7 billion online in 2025, across 347 million purchases, and 13% of that, about €4.5 billion, went to webshops abroad. So your customers already compare you with stores from all over Europe.
Thuiswinkel Markt Monitor 2025, carried out by NielsenIQ for Thuiswinkel.org and Retail Insiders, published 31 March 2026 (checked October 2026).
Good to know in the Netherlands
Dutch shoppers expect iDEAL at checkout, which is gradually becoming Wero from 2026 (we explain it in
iDEAL and Wero
). Your store must show your KVK number, BTW number and contact details before someone buys, for example in the footer. Customers can cancel an online order within 14 days without a reason, and you refund them, including the standard delivery cost, within 14 days of hearing about it. They pay the return postage, unless you offer to or didn't tell them beforehand. Consumer prices include BTW, usually 21%.
And in Belgium
Belgian shoppers expect Bancontact. You show your company number (ondernemingsnummer) instead of a KVK number, the same 14 days apply, and selling in Flanders and Wallonia means Dutch and French.
NOT A TOOL
Direct means your store does the selling
I've seen €15K websites that don't convert.
Who we are, and what we do
We're Design by Karina, a boutique Shopify agency in Rotterdam. We design and build strategy-led Shopify stores for ambitious fashion, beauty and lifestyle brands. Combining brand strategy, UX and thoughtful design, we create shopping experiences that turn what makes you different into a reason to choose you.
Ecommerce strategy
Who is buying, what do they need to know, and what helps them choose your brand? We define the positioning, customer journey and store structure before design begins.
Shopify design
A store should feel unmistakably yours and make shopping intuitive. We design brand-led Shopify experiences, from the homepage to product pages, with mobile users in mind.
Shopify development & migration
Stores that are easy to manage and ready to grow. Moving from another platform? We plan the move with you.
Conversion & retention
What customers need to see, understand and feel before they choose, from product pages to the emails after the sale.
Growth after launch
We look at how real visitors use your store and make prioritized improvements over time.
Brand Sites
For coaches, creative studios and service businesses with something to say.
Why founders choose us
Strategy before pixels. Before opening a design file, we want to understand who buys from you and what they need to see first.
A background in product design. Before starting Design by Karina, I worked in product design at Uber, helping shape payment experiences for drivers.
Fewer projects, more care. We limit the number of projects we take on at a time, so I'm closely involved in every one.
We say it straight. If your own store isn't the next step for your brand yet, we'll tell you.
Launch is the starting line. After launch, we keep improving the store with what real visitors do.
More about how we work with direct brands on our page for DTC brands on Shopify.
What does a DTC store on Shopify cost with us?
How we work | From | Best for |
|---|---|---|
The Launch | €4,500 | Your first proper DTC store, with your brand applied to a proven Shopify theme |
The Atelier | €6,900 | An established brand that wants a store designed for it, not a template with a logo on it |
Migration | €900 | Added to a project, when you're moving your store to Shopify from another platform |
Growth Plan | €590 / month | A store that's already live. We pick the change that matters most, make it and report back every month, for at least three months. |
The short version
DTC, or D2C, means a brand sells its own products straight to its customers, mostly through its own webshop. It's B2C done by the maker. You keep the full price instead of about half and you know your customers, but you pay to find them and handle shipping and returns yourself. It pays off when customers come back, and many brands combine it with other channels. In the Netherlands, that store needs iDEAL, your KVK and BTW numbers and a clear 14-day returns policy, plus Bancontact for Belgium.
From the studio
What we see with clients
When a brand comes to us to sell direct, the first conversation is usually about how the store should look. It quickly turns into the questions their customers ask before they buy: will it fit, will it suit my skin, how long does it take, can I send it back. Those answers used to come from a shop assistant or a DM. On a direct store, they have to be on the page, in the right place, and that's often where most of our work goes.
Questions
What does DTC mean?
Direct to consumer: a brand sells its own products straight to the end customer, usually through its own webshop or shop, without a retailer or wholesaler in between.
What is the difference between DTC and D2C?
There's none. Both stand for direct to consumer. In English people mostly write DTC, in Dutch D2C.
What does D2C mean in Dutch?
The same as in English: direct aan de consument verkopen. A D2C merk sells its products to customers itself, usually through its own webshop.
What is a DTC brand?
A brand that makes its products and sells them to customers itself, with its own webshop at the center, like Glossier, Gymshark or, in Amsterdam, Gisou and Mr Marvis.
Is DTC the same as B2C?
Not quite. B2C is any business selling to consumers, including retailers that sell other brands. DTC is B2C done by the brand itself.
Is DTC more profitable than wholesale?
Per sale, usually yes, because you keep the full price instead of about half. But you pay to win each customer, plus shipping and returns, so DTC tends to pay off when customers buy again. Try the calculator above with your own numbers.
Is selling on bol.com or Amazon DTC?
Definitions differ. You sell to the consumer yourself, but the marketplace owns the checkout, the rules and much of the customer relationship, so it's usually treated as a separate channel.
Is Shopify good for DTC brands?
Yes, it's built for it, and DTC brands like Glossier, Gymshark and Gisou run on it. You get the store, the checkout, iDEAL and several countries and languages in one system, and Shopify POS if you also sell in person.
How much does a DTC Shopify store cost with an agency?
With us, The Launch starts at €4,500 and The Atelier, a store designed fully around your brand, at €6,900. Shopify's own plan comes on top, from €21 a month billed yearly.
What is the best DTC Shopify agency in Rotterdam?
That depends on what you need: some agencies are strongest in development, others in advertising or branding. We're one of the options: Design by Karina is a boutique Shopify agency in Rotterdam for founder-led brands that sell direct, starting with your brand strategy and what your customers need to see before they buy.
Your store, your numbers
Want a straight answer for your own store? Book a free call and we’ll walk through it together.
Sources
Shopify pricing, shopify.com/nl/prijzen: plans, card rates and the iDEAL fee, excluding BTW (checked October 2026)
Bol Partnerplatform, "Commissie": how bol.com commission is built, the kitchen example and BTW on commission (checked October 2026)
Shopify, "What Is Keystone Pricing?" (checked October 2026)
Thuiswinkel Markt Monitor 2025, NielsenIQ for Thuiswinkel.org and Retail Insiders, 31 March 2026 (checked October 2026)
KVK, "Online verkopen? Deze 10 basisregels moet je kennen"; Your Europe, "Returns and the right of withdrawal"; EU Consumer Rights Directive 2011/83/EU, article 13 (checked October 2026)
ABN AMRO, "iDEAL wordt Wero" (checked October 2026)
Brand examples: Retail TouchPoints, CNBC, Shopify Enterprise, gisou.com, FashionUnited and the brands' own sites (checked October 2026)
Karina Paviotti
Founder, Design by Karina
Karina Paviotti is the founder of Design by Karina, a boutique Shopify agency in Rotterdam. Before starting the studio, she worked in product design at Uber, shaping payment experiences for drivers. Today she leads every project, from strategy to launch, for founder-led fashion, beauty and lifestyle brands.
