The founders dive into their bold predictions for e-commerce in 2025, highlighting the rising challenges of paid advertising, especially on platforms like Meta. They stress the need for product innovation and uniqueness to thrive in saturated markets. The conversation shifts to the importance of creator partnerships for building engaged audiences. They also explore the diverse advertising landscape, including TikTok and AppLovin, and discuss the implications of recent changes in digital marketing dynamics.
Brands must prioritize product innovation and unique offerings to stand out in an increasingly saturated e-commerce market by 2025.
Building an owned audience through creator collaborations is essential, as traditional paid advertising strategies face rising costs and diminishing returns.
Deep dives
The Need for Innovation in 2025
2025 is expected to be a pivotal year for innovation in the D2C space, requiring companies to introduce unique and original products. Founders are encouraged to actively build their brand's presence and cultivate an audience rather than solely relying on paid advertising, which is increasingly competitive and limited to engaging a warm audience. With the market becoming saturated with similar products, it will be crucial for brands to distinguish themselves through uniqueness and proprietary features, particularly in an environment where consumers are bombarded with multiple similar ad options. To succeed, brands need to fundamentally rethink their development process, emphasizing innovation and the creation of products that offer clear differentiation in the marketplace.
The Importance of Convenience for Consumers
Convenience has emerged as a significant trend driving product development across various brands, especially in consumable goods. Companies are responding to consumer preferences by redesigning their offerings for easier access and use, such as producing smaller, portable sizes that accommodate modern lifestyles. This shift towards convenience illustrates the evolving needs of consumers post-COVID, compelling brands to rethink their strategies on how to attract and retain customers. Emphasizing ease of use not only appeals to existing customers but also serves as a mechanism to introduce new users to the brand.
Leveraging Creators and Influencers in Marketing Strategies
In the current landscape, building an owned audience and effectively leveraging creators and influencers have become essential components of successful marketing strategies. As organic reach on traditional platforms like Meta declines, brands are turning to creators with established followings to tap into their audiences and drive conversion. The value of influencer partnerships lies in their ability to create authentic connections between brands and consumers while providing credibility in a crowded market. This shift signifies a move away from traditional advertising methods, emphasizing engagement, trust, and relationship-building with consumers.
Navigating the Changing Advertising Landscape
The advertising landscape is rapidly evolving, particularly with increased restrictions on platforms like Meta that impact how brands can market products, especially in the health and wellness sector. This tightening of advertising policies has forced companies to adapt their strategies, with an emphasis on understanding privacy concerns and the types of products they can promote. As competition heightens and the need for differentiation becomes more critical, brands must focus on establishing unique value propositions to justify their products' prices and drive consumer interest. Ultimately, navigating this complex landscape will require careful consideration, experimentation with new platforms, and reliance on data-driven insights to ensure effective advertising efforts.
In this episode of Chew on This, Ron, Ash, and Ankit discuss their goals and predictions for e-comm in 2025. Key themes include the increasing difficulty of relying solely on paid advertising (especially on Meta), the necessity for product innovation and uniqueness to stand out in saturated markets, the growing importance of building an owned audience through creator collaborations and “building in public,” and the need for higher margins to support more diversified marketing strategies. They also touch on the challenges posed by evolving advertising platforms like TikTok Shop and Meta’s changing policies regarding health and wellness brands.
📈 Increased Difficulty of Paid Advertising: The founders emphasize the rising cost and diminishing returns of paid advertising, especially in saturated markets like supplements. They highlight the need to diversify marketing strategies and build owned audiences.
💡 Product Innovation is Key: Brands must prioritize unique, proprietary, and high-value products to differentiate themselves. The era of easily marketing commoditized goods is over. Significant investment in R&D is crucial.
🤝 Creator Economy Dominance: Leveraging creators and influencers to build brand awareness and reach target audiences is paramount. “Building in public” and cultivating an owned audience are essential for long-term success.
📊 Platform Diversification: The discussion emphasizes the need to move beyond reliance on Meta and explore other channels like AppLovin, YouTube, and Pinterest, while acknowledging the challenges and costs associated with each.
🤔 Evolving Platform Policies: Meta’s tightening policies on health and wellness advertising, particularly regarding targeting specific medical conditions, present significant challenges for brands in this sector.
0:00 - Intro
1:51 - Creating convenient and consumable products
3:11 - Brand differentiation in saturated markets
4:17 - Product uniqueness is essential for success
5:29 - Innovating to stand out in 2025
7:10 - Channel influence on consumer trends
9:31 - Changed prerequisites for launching a product
12:02 - Differentiation is crucial as competition increases
19:02 - Adapting to market changes and consumer behavior
22:19 - Differences in advertising algorithms
23:34 - Effectiveness and evolution of advertising channels
25:07 - Measuring the impact of advertising on revenue
29:30 - Recommendations for diversifying advertising strategies
31:02 - Targeting specific medical conditions in advertising
35:06 - Balance between safety and usefulness in content
37:15 - Producing quality products and unique marketing strategies
39:01 - Evolution of knowledge access and learning methods
41:30 - Final chews
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