• by Laurie Sullivan  @lauriesullivan, July 13, 2020

Four of the 25 D2C brands SimilarWeb identified as holding on to website traffic from Q1 to Q2 have seen massive growth, including Youth to the People, New Age Beverages, CUUP, and FringeSport.

Each quarter, SimilarWeb analyzes the IAB 250 Direct Brands using its datasets and methodology to analyze the website traffic and growth of these sites. This year the company put together a list of the 25 fastest-growing D2C brands.

Outdoor furniture seller Outer and flip-flops maker Hari Mari tapped into seasonal trends to gain impressive quarter-over-quarter growth rates among top D2C brands, regardless of difficult times and the COVID-19 pandemic.

Outer received its largest share of traffic from paid search at 39% in the second quarter, compared with 11% in the first quarter. Top trending paid keywords demonstrated the company’s digital strategy targets long-tail SEO keywords that its specific audience was searching for, such as “outdoor furniture for small spaces and patio furniture with built in footrest.”

Cubcoats’ marketing strategy included a heavy investment in paid acquisition resulting in a massive quarter-over-quarter increase in referrals, from 1% to 25%. Display ads rose from 11% to 18%, and direct traffic rose from 27% to 35%.

“While traffic to these brands has increased across marketing channels, dramatic growth is only achieved when trending interest is coupled with search spending,” the report explains. “In Q2, Outer received its largest share of traffic from paid search (17x higher than Q1). Top trending paid keywords show us that their digital strategy targets long-tail terms (e.g., patio furniture with built in footrest) that are in line with their ideal consumer.”

The report identifies four trends that helped these brands reach success.

• Targeting well-segmented groups, for example, pivoting to in-demand products, such as face masks for children, present niche market growth opportunities.
• Aligning brand-to-consumer is key, so become socially responsible and eco-friendly to build customers' loyalty.
• DIY is growing as some consumers are still stuck at home. The do-it-yourself mindset has taken preference, so brands need to diversify to ensure further growth.
• Seasonal is good, but pay-per-click spending is better. Seasonally focused brands that outperform their category are doing so by bidding heavily on keywords that target their customer base.

The top 15 D2C brands in terms of growth in website visits for Q2 2020 compared with prior quarter:

• Liveouter.com – 53,000 visits, up 659.1%
• Cubcoats.com – 57,000 visits, up 337.3%
• Harimati.com – 42,000 visits, up 159.5%
• Prioritybicycles.com – 83,000 visits, up 155.1%
• Youthtothepeople.com came in at number five with 180,000 website visits, up 112.3%
• Draperjames.com – 342,000 visits, up 193.9%.
• Clare.com – 54,000 visits, up 185.9%
• Backdrophome.com – 47,000 visits, up 174.4%
• Fordays.com – 43,000 website visits, up 172.6%
• Mentedcosmetics.com – 408,000 visits, up 165.4%
• Athenaclub.com – 25,000 visits, up 164.7%
• Actandacre.com – 17,000 visits, up 160.0%
• Dormify.com – 17,000 visits, up 148%
• Globein.com – 153,000 visits, up 139.3%
• Newagebev.com – 206,000 visits, up 139.0%