Jennifer Lopez and Bella Hadid Both Have This $180 Blanket Coat
This fall, Lopez is rocking the DSTLD Women's Wool Blanket Maxi Coat.
Our portfolio model significantly increases revenues, decreases operating expenses, and establishes brand longevity.
Our strategy reflects what traditional luxury holding companies have done for decades. But instead of wholesale first, we modernized the model to reflect how consumers discover and shop today, which is digital-first.
By eliminating administrative and operational responsibilities for our brands, we stimulate creativity, innovation, and a maniacal commitment to the product and customer experience. This in turn drives emotional customer connections and brand longevity
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Revenue Notes:
In 2018, we changed the supply chain from Asia to Europe, so we had no denim in stock for almost 6 months from May to September, which resulted in very low revenue for 2018 and created an abnormally low YoY comparison. There 2018 would have been 50% to 75%+ higher, which would make 2019 revenue growth around 65% to 75%.
Gross Margin Notes:
Gross margin increase is driven by volume purchases. Currently we are ordering minimum quantities. We would expect a significant decrease in cost per unit with orders for every increase in 1,000 units per style or 1% annually. This significant savings would . be slightly offset by higher inventory write-offs associated with larger orders and more style risk.
Contribution Margin Notes:
Contribution margin increase is driven by volume discounts in packaging and shipping costs. We would expect small decreases in packaging and shipping rates, but combined should equate to 0.5% annually.
Total Operating Expenses:
We would expect to leverage our salaries and benefits. We should not have to hire people at the same rate as our revenue growth.
We would expect to leverage our operating expenses as these are more fixed and do not require the same growth rate as revenue.
We would expect to leverage our marketing due to higher repeat customer revenue, which allows us to drive higher revenue without the same customer acquisition cost. The higher our repeat customer rate, the more leverage we get in marketing expenses.
Debt and Old Payables:
We expect to pay off our old payables between now and the end of 2020, as these need to be cleaned up.
We expect to pay off our debt with an equity raise in late 2020, which would significantly lower any potential dilution from this raise.
Dowling recently joined DBG with the strategic intent to leverage her extensive retail track record. She strongly believes in the formidable opportunity at hand within the holding group model given her tenures at similarly structured organization such as Tapestry (Coach, Kate Spade Stuart Weitzman) and Swatch Group (Harry Winston, Omega, Breguet).
During her tenure at Coach, Dowling conceived of and executed their inaugural collaboration with Selena Gomez. The campaign was recognized as one of the global brand’s most effective 360 marketing programs, leading to double digit sales growth, an overnight increase in stock price, and established a significant milestone in their continuous pursuit to reposition themselves amongst millennials.
“The portfolio model achieves three major wins from a marketing perspective: 1. Internally, my team has greater creativity across multiple categories 2. Externally we are able to communicate at scale given the combination of branding budgets 3. Greater budgets enable my team and our brands to focus on tailored, targeted, and relevant content to continuously engage each customer base in a way that builds brand loyalty and an emotional customer connection.”
Selena Gomez in DSTLD
In late 2016, we took a price increase in denim to offset higher product costs. We did not experience a decline in customer demand or AOV, which suggests we have pricing power in the future, if we need it.
In Fall 2018, we focused our marketing on leather jackets and leggings, which are $300 to $400. We saw a significant increase in the leather category, which suggests we have more pricing power and product opportunity than originally thought.
In Spring 2019, we launched several new categories, all of which have sold well. This also supports the belief that our customer will support new categories if relevant and well made.
2017 gross margin expansion was driven by a late 2016 price increase.
2018 gross margin expansion was driven by leather revenue, which has a higher gross margin.
We believe that we will experience meaningful gross margin expansion over the next few years. Our current production quantities are close to the minimums, which means we will experience volume discounts every year as we grow. This includes both fabric and cut & sew.
DSTLD and ACE are utilizing the same factories and fabric mills whenever we can, as long as it does not impact the brand or the product. This should also help drive gross margin expansion.
2018 customer retention rate increased 25% versus 2017,
The retention rate increase was driven by a broader product offering and a focus on repeat customer communications, especially in email.
We plan to increase our retention rate in 2019 by analyzing the data and trends of our repeat customer behavior. Based on this data, we will create different customer buckets and specific messaging and photos for each of these buckets.
We also believe that new product category launches and higher product prices will continue to driver a higher AOV.
We acquired new customers at an exponentially higher rate than planned due to targeting new user psychographics plus broader audiences and interest groups.
We significantly expanded our customer reach because we increased our cost to acquire new customers. We knew this would result in acquiring a higher quality customer. As expected, new customers are both higher quality and spending more.
Interestingly, our return on ad spend remained the same. This suggests we have much more acquisition power than we thought.
Most importantly, we know this accelerated growth is sustainable.
Created a systematic content generation strategy that feeds new content to our targeted audiences, increasing relevance scores, which increased deliverability and has yielded a 200% increase in impressions.
By integrating targeted SMS triggers into our marketing strategy, we’ve been able to see 12x increases (6% to 72%) in click-through-rates & 19x increases in (3% to 58%) conversion rates.
By shifting from simple one time product notifications, to longer term campaigns, with multiple touchpoints at different moments of the customer journey we’ve successfully increased total volume sales 79%.
By targeting new and repeat demographic audiences with curated content specifically surrounding higher AOV items, in this case, specifically leather jackets, we provided a lift to the entire leather category revenues by 40%.
1300% increase in users engaging with content
While incredible, the increase in engagement to site was achieved by leveraging a channel, Instagram Stories, that is not heavily impacted by the platforms algorithm, and therefore received favorable engagement rates.
67% increase in click through driven by cohesive ad strategy
By infusing our paid advertising channels with consistent content specifically created for each individual channel to optimize each individual opportunity
54% increase in time on site driven by editorial imagery
By researching user behavior utilizing heatmaps and click tracking, we’ve ascertained that users engaged more with editorial content on site, and implemented a strategy that yielded the results above.
20% Decrease in Bounce Rate driven by congruent content
By creating congruent campaigns, matching content from first impression through the entire customer journey, we decreased our bounce rates (users leaving site without interacting).
We believe that buying and building a portfolio of five to ten brands that can each generate $50 to $100 million in annual revenues has the potential to quickly scale revenues and profitability.
Revenue Growth with Low Risk
We believe we can drive incremental revenue through cross marketing our brands to customers and reduce fashion and trend risk by owning brands in different categories. Our goal is to use some of our expense savings to re-invest in the highest performing marketing channels.
Reducing Expenses & Increasing Margins
Through shared resources in operations, marketing, technology, fulfillment, and customer service, we believe we can significantly reduce redundant operating expenses. We also see the potential to generate meaningful volume discounts, which could lead to gross and operating margin expansion.
Individual Brand Amplification
Authentically enabled at scale by collectively leveraging the budgets and team expertise
Audience-first Mindset
Integrating feedback and data from each brand to inform strategies across all channels
Continuous Engagement
Informed dialogue through each communications partner maintains brand loyalty
DSTLD | Premium Denim + Essentials
ACE Studios | Luxury Suiting and Sportswear
DBG's FIRST PORTFOLIO BRAND
DSTLD’s mission is to design and craft luxury-grade denim and essentials.
DBG's SECOND PORTFOLIO BRAND
ACE Studios is a luxury suiting and sportswear brand focused on quality, fit, and performance.
This fall, Lopez is rocking the DSTLD Women's Wool Blanket Maxi Coat.
DSTLD is one of a slew of “ethical” fashion companies trying to minimize their environmental impact, guarantee living wages, and keep their prices low.
Celebrities often introduce us to brands we never knew we needed in our closets, one being DSTLD.
Clearly, supple black leather, shiny silver hardware, and a dash of devil-may-care attitude is all you need in a jacket this fall. And if it also boasts the perfect fit and doesn’t break the bank? Well, that’s a win-win in our book.
Refinery29 gets an exclusive inside look at how our denim is made in one of our Los Angele factories.
A BuzzFeed editor endorses our best-selling High Waisted Skinny Jeans in Black as a must-have.
DSTLD's Leather Moto receives the 'Esquire Endorsement.'
Selvedge jeans and luxe basics with a vague L.A. vibe (but, you know, in a good way).
Want to dress like a Vogue editor? Turns out, it may be easier than you think. A recent article on Vogue.com took an in-depth look at what the glossy's staffers really wear, and there was one common theme: lots and lots of jeans.
DSTLD's $350 Leather Moto is a hidden gem of the internet, with designer-level quality at direct-to-consumer prices. We ranked it as the best affordable leather jacket you can buy, and it's been a mainstay of my closet for the past year — growing softer and more customized over time.
The direct-to-consumer denim essentials brand has tapped Laura Dowling to lead marketing as the newly established Digital Brands Group continues to refine its platform approach.
The Denim Disruptors of LA Have Come East
We are thrilled with the support, excitement, and questions from our investors (and investors to-be!) on our call last month. Due to the overwhelming demand, we’ll be hosting another webinar for our community on Thursday, December 5 at 1:00 pm PT.
On the webinar, we’ll introduce you to the newest member of our leadership team: Reid Yoeman, who has joined us as CFO and COO. We will also address the questions we received during and after the webinar regarding the dilution associated with the acquisitions, what an IPO means for your investment, and the IPO timeline.
Thursday, December 5
1p PT / 4p ET
We are excited to share with our customers and investors that we received our third “buy” rating from First Stage Investor and EarlyInvesting.com, which is a first-ever for the publication. This the third year in a row that they we have received a “Buy” rating from them.
First Stage Investor helps members build an investment portfolio of early-stage private companies by researching startup opportunities and recommending their top picks to their readers. First Stage Investor is an independent research company, and does not accept compensation from any company for their research.
Below are three highlights from their review, and links to all three “Buy” recommendations
“DSTLD has exceeded our expectations in several key areas: sales, customer growth, cost efficiency, profit margin expansion, product line additions and supply line management.”
“ DSTLD was able to significantly reduce risk to growth, business and profit margin in just a year’s time – a major achievement that more than justifies its valuation.”
“The company has made progress in three particularly crucial ways...It’s selling more expensive items...It’s lowering expenses...It’s improving customer acquisition costs.”
READ THE RECOMMENDATIONS
August 2016:
https://earlyinvesting.com/score-100x-gains-coming-58-billion-market-disrupter/
September 2017
https://www.dropbox.com/s/gwfpj6h2pzzllug/2017_FSI-September2017.pdf?dl=0
October 2018
https://www.dropbox.com/s/gpi84zqc03tsusr/Tripling%20Down%20on%20DBG.pdf?dl=0
We are thrilled with the support, excitement, and questions from our investors (and investors to-be!) on our call last month. Due to the overwhelming demand, we’ll be hosting another webinar for our community on Thursday, October 24 at 1:00 pm PT.
On the webinar, we’ll introduce you to the newest member of our leadership team: Reid Yoeman, who has joined us as CFO and COO. We will also address the questions we received during and after the webinar regarding the dilution associated with the acquisitions, what an IPO means for your investment, and the IPO timeline.
Thursday, October 24
1:00 pm PT / 4:00 pm ET
Reid will join us on the call. Below is a brief overview of work history: :
Help us welcome Reid to the team!
Great news!
Great News! We’re now approved to accept investments in all 50 states.
For the past few months, some of our customers and fans from Arizona, Florida, Nevada, New Jersey, New York, North Dakota, Texas, and Washington, have had difficulty investing or have noticed that their investment has not yet funded. This is because our offering did not have a broker dealer that is required to accept investments from those states. As of today, that has all changed!
If you tried investing, or started an investment, and you live in Arizona, Florida, Nevada, New Jersey, New York, North Dakota, Texas, and Washington, you can now complete your investment!
Thanks for your patience and support - we’re excited to have you as part of the DBG family!
Thanks,
Hil Davis