Overview

Expanding an Amazon-focused brand into direct-to-consumer (DTC) channels isn’t just an added sales avenue—it’s a strategic leap towards omnichannel e-commerce success. In an episode of the Marketplace Masters webinar by MerchantSpring, expert Brice McBeth (Founder and CEO of Reap Commerce) revealed how integrating Amazon with a DTC omnichannel strategy can create a powerful “halo effect” that boosts growth and profitability. Amazon sellers and agencies are learning that an Amazon to DTC expansion isn’t about abandoning the marketplace; it’s about harnessing both channels in tandem to amplify brand presence, customer lifetime value, and overall sales.

In this article, we synthesise McBeth’s insights into a clear roadmap for Amazon agency professionals. You’ll learn why even the most successful Amazon brands should build a DTC channel, how to leverage the synergy between Amazon and DTC (the “halo effect”), and what practical steps and pitfalls to consider when crafting a multi-channel retail strategy. Whether you’re an Amazon-focused agency or a brand owner, these thought leadership tips will help you navigate the challenges of dual-channel management and emerge with a stronger, more resilient business.

Why Amazon Brands Should Embrace DTC Channels

Selling on Amazon has immense advantages—massive reach, built-in trust, and high conversion rates. But if Amazon is your sole channel, you’re likely leaving growth opportunities on the table. Here’s why expanding to a direct-to-consumer channel is worth the investment:

• Own the Customer Relationship: On Amazon, you “rent” the customer relationship—Amazon handles the transaction and retains most shopper data. A DTC channel (your own website or store) lets you collect first-party customer data, email addresses, and purchase history, empowering you to build a customer loyalty program and tailor marketing to your audience. McBeth emphasises that DTC expansion is often about learning more about your customers. It allows brands to run experiments with pricing, branding, and product development in ways that aren’t possible on Amazon’s closed platform.
  
  
• Brand Experience and Innovation: Your DTC site is a blank canvas for your brand’s story. You control the design, content, and messaging fully, which helps in crafting a premium customer experience. You can test new product bundles, exclusive DTC-only items, subscription models, or limited editions. Many brands use their website as a laboratory for innovation—trying out new flavours, formats, or features with a subset of customers before rolling them out more broadly. As McBeth noted, having your own e-commerce site means you can experiment in a more controlled fashion with things like packaging, product pages, or AI-driven personalisation, without being confined by Amazon’s template.
  
  
• Mitigate Marketplace Risk: Relying 100% on Amazon sales is risky. Changes in Amazon’s algorithm, stockouts at FBA warehouses, or an unexpected suspension of your listing can bring sales to a halt. A DTC channel acts as a safety net. For example, McBeth shared a case where a product (a specialty nasal spray) was temporarily taken down on Amazon due to a flag, yet loyal customers sought it out on the brand’s website, preserving about 80–85% of sales during the outage. In other words, a strong DTC presence can backstop your revenue if Amazon experiences hiccups. The converse is also true: if your website has an issue, Amazon can pick up the slack. This redundancy is invaluable for business continuity.
  
  
• Broader Market Reach: Not all customers start their shopping journey on Amazon (though the majority do). By being present on multiple channels, you cater to different shopping preferences. Some shoppers prefer buying directly from brand sites for the personalised service or unique offers, while others trust marketplaces for convenience. In fact, 80% of Amazon sellers sell across different platforms, reflecting how common multi-channel strategies have become. A DTC channel opens opportunities to capture sales from those who don’t shop on Amazon or who discover your brand via social media, Google search, or retail stores. It’s about meeting customers wherever they prefer to shop.
  
  

“We have to get real about consumer behaviour. People don’t go to Oreo.com to buy cookies, LandOLakes.com for butter, and Tide.com for detergent. They either go to the store or they go to Amazon. As much as we want people to come to our website, that can be a difficult expectation for a low AOV consumable.” – Brice McBeth, Reap Commerce

• Learning and Optimisation: Treat your DTC expansion as a learning exercise. Initially, it might not match Amazon’s sales volume or efficiency, but it’s a long-term investment in your brand’s resilience. As McBeth advises Amazon-focused brands, success in DTC may take time and resources—it’s not guaranteed profit from day one. However, the insights you gain (like which ads drive traffic, which products shoppers bundle, and how customers navigate your pages) are invaluable. You can apply those learnings to improve Amazon listings and vice versa, creating a virtuous cycle of optimisation.
  
  

Benefits and Drawbacks of Managing Both Amazon & DTC

Embracing an omnichannel e-commerce approach means juggling two very different sales channels. What are the pros and cons of each, and how do you manage both without burning out or confusing your strategy?

Amazon (Marketplace) Channel – Pros:

• Unmatched Traffic: Amazon is the most visited e-commerce site in the U.S. Millions of prime-ready shoppers can discover your product via search or category browsing, generating sales you’d struggle to get on your own site. Amazon acts as a huge top-of-funnel engine if you have good Amazon SEO and ads.
  
  
• High Trust & Conversion: Amazon’s frictionless checkout, fast Prime shipping, and robust review system make shoppers very comfortable buying from unfamiliar brands on the platform. The conversion rate on Amazon pages is famously high (Amazon.com is one of the highest-converting e-commerce sites on the planet). Customers know they can easily return items and that Amazon’s customer service will step in if something goes wrong. This trust factor is hard to replicate on your own site from scratch.
  
  
• Logistics Handled: With Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA), storage, shipping, and even customer service for orders are taken care of. This allows you to scale without immediately investing in warehousing and shipping operations. It’s a plug-and-play infrastructure for fulfillment.
  
  

Amazon - Cons:

• Limited Customer Data: You get very little insight into who your customers are. Amazon won’t share their email addresses or allow you to remarket to them off-platform easily. Building a customer community or doing advanced CRM is nearly impossible.
  
  
• Fee Structure: Amazon takes a cut (referral fees, FBA fees) that can be around 15% or more of sales. This can make margins tight. It’s the price for the traffic and convenience, but it stings for established brands that could drive repeat sales more cheaply on their own site.
  
  
• Competitive Pressure: On Amazon, your product sits next to competitors’ at all times. Shoppers can compare reviews and prices in one click. You might feel pressure to lower prices or spend more on ads to keep up. Also, counterfeiters or copycats can appear, and Amazon may even introduce its own private-label version of a winning product. It’s a constant battle for visibility and the buy box.
  
  

DTC (Direct-to-Consumer) Channel – Pros:

• Brand Control: You own your website; hence, you control branding, user experience, and storytelling. You’re not confined to Amazon’s standard product page layout. This is crucial for premium or mission-driven brands that want to differentiate through content and design.
  
  
• Higher Lifetime Value Potential: By capturing customer contact info and nurturing the relationship (through email marketing, loyalty programs, retargeting ads, etc.), you can increase repeat purchase rates. Over time, a loyal DTC customer might be far more profitable than one-off Amazon buyers. You can encourage subscription orders, upsells, or referrals that Amazon wouldn’t facilitate.
  
  
• Diversified Revenue & Resilience: As mentioned, having a DTC channel insulates you from Amazon’s rule changes or outages. It also diversifies your marketing mix—you can tap into SEO (Google searches), content marketing, social media, and influencer campaigns to drive traffic to your site, instead of relying solely on Amazon Ads.
  
  

DTC - Cons:

• Customer Acquisition Costs: “If you build it, they won’t necessarily come.” Driving traffic to a new website is challenging and often expensive. You’ll likely invest in paid advertising (Google, Facebook/Meta, etc.), and those costs can be high. The ROAS (return on ad spend) reported by these platforms can be misleading, as McBeth warns, often double-counting or missing cross-channel touches. It takes careful analytics to ensure your DTC marketing spend is efficient.
  
  
• Operations & Fulfillment: Running your own e-commerce operation means handling fulfillment (picking, packing, shipping) or paying a 3PL, managing your own returns, and providing customer service. These operational costs and efforts are often underestimated by brands used to Amazon doing the heavy lifting.
  
  
• Lower Immediate Trust: A customer stumbling onto “YourBrand.com” might be hesitant to hit “Buy” compared to purchasing on Amazon. You don’t have the instant credibility of Amazon’s name. You have to establish trust with badges, reviews (maybe imported from Amazon or collected via Yotpo/Trustpilot), generous return policies, etc., to convince a first-time visitor that your site is safe and reliable.
  
  

“Amazon.com is the highest converting website on the planet, and it’s not exactly the prettiest. Meanwhile, many brands’ own sites struggle to hit a 2% conversion rate. It’s ironic—companies ask agencies for a ‘cool’ website, but what they really need is a site that sells. Don’t let gut feeling or flashy design trump data and usability.” – Brice McBeth

Balancing Both: The key to managing both channels is to let each play to its strengths without one cannibalising the other. For instance, McBeth points out that certain products might be better suited to one channel. Bulky, heavy items that ship in multiple boxes (e.g. furniture sets or fragile equipment) might be a nightmare for Amazon’s logistics, but work fine via a specialised courier from your warehouse. Those could be DTC-only products. On the other hand, inexpensive consumables (snacks, toiletries, supplements) often thrive on marketplaces where consumers bundle many items in one cart.

Make a strategic decision on product assortment: you might keep your full catalogue on Amazon, but offer exclusive bundles or premium versions on your site to entice Amazon customers to give it a try. What you shouldn’t do is aggressively try to divert Amazon shoppers to your site in ways that violate Amazon’s policies (like packing promo inserts that say “Shop on our site next time for 20% off”). Not only could that get you in trouble with Amazon, it also might annoy customers. Remember, Amazon considers its shoppers their customers, not yours.

Focus on serving customers wherever they find you. If a customer discovers your brand on Amazon, reads reviews there, but then seeks out your website for a first purchase, great—you just benefited from the halo effect (more on that next). Conversely, if someone hears about you on social media and first buys via your site, you still want to support them post-purchase on Amazon (e.g., they might prefer to re-order on Amazon next time, so ensure your product is well represented there). The goal is to make your brand “omnichannel”, giving people a seamless experience and options.

The Halo Effect: How Amazon and DTC Amplify Each Other

One of the most intriguing insights from the webinar was how Amazon and DTC channels can create a halo effect for your brand. The halo effect refers to the phenomenon where success in one channel lifts the performance of the other, often in ways that are indirect or hard to measure but very real in aggregate. In the context of Amazon and DTC:

• Cross-Channel Discovery: Consumers today are multi-touch and cross-channel shoppers. They might see a Facebook ad or an Instagram post about your product (branding credit to your DTC marketing), then search for your brand on Amazon to check reviews and prices. In fact, a stunning 89% of U.S. consumers go to Amazon to check product reviews, even if they intend to purchase elsewhere. If your brand isn’t present on Amazon when they look, you not only lose that potential sale, but you also risk losing credibility—shoppers may question why you’re not on the biggest store in the world. On the flip side, being on Amazon with good reviews can seal the deal for a customer to buy on your website later, perhaps to take advantage of a first-time discount or a product bundle you offer there.
  
  
• Credibility and Trust Flow: There’s a psychological reassurance when a consumer finds a brand both on a reputable marketplace and via a branded site. It signals that the brand is established enough to operate in both realms. Positive reviews on Amazon can make a skeptical first-time visitor to your site feel more confident in the product quality (“If it’s rated 4.5 stars from 500 reviews on Amazon, it must be legit”). Likewise, a sophisticated, content-rich DTC site can make Amazon shoppers more comfortable that the brand is serious and not a fly-by-night seller. The brand consistency across Amazon storefronts, DTC site, and other channels builds a cohesive story. McBeth likens this to omnichannel marketing best practices: consumers expect a consistent message and experience whether they find you in a physical store, on Amazon, on your website, or on social media.
  
  
• Advertising Synergy: The webinar highlighted that running external ads (social media, search engine marketing, etc.) doesn’t just drive DTC sales—some of that demand inevitably spills over to Amazon. You might run a killer YouTube campaign that increases branded searches on Google and Amazon. Your Amazon sales then climb even if those buyers never clicked your Google ad, but went straight to Amazon to purchase after seeing your video. Similarly, investing in Amazon SEO (optimising listings, running Amazon PPC) can increase visibility so that people who see your brand elsewhere find a well-ranked Amazon listing when they search. The more touchpoints a consumer has with your brand, the higher the chance they convert on one of them eventually. This halo effect is essentially the result of multi-touch attribution, where each channel reinforces the other.
  
  
• Measuring the Halo: One challenge is attribution—as marketers, we love to know which dollar drove which sale. But McBeth stresses that you often have to accept a bit of ambiguity. You might see your overall sales rising when you add a new channel or campaign, even if direct attribution is murky. For example, no analytics tool will perfectly capture that a Facebook ad impression led to an Amazon purchase two days later. Incrementality testing is one way to gauge the halo effect: pause a campaign or channel and see if the other channel’s sales dip correspondingly. In one case, McBeth’s team observed that when they had to pause Amazon sales for a product (due to a policy flag), the brand’s DTC sales increased as loyal customers sought the product on the web, but total combined sales still dropped about 15-20%. When Amazon came back online, the total was higher than either channel alone. This proved quantitatively that the presence on both channels was driving incremental sales that neither could capture alone. While exact measurement is tough, the takeaway is clear: a dual Amazon-DTC presence creates a sum greater than its parts.
  
  

“The reality is, most consumers hit 15 or 20 touchpoints before purchasing. Maybe they see you in a store, then visit your website, then check Amazon for price and reviews. If you’re not there on Amazon as a backstop to all those other touches, you’re doing your brand a disservice.” – Brice McBeth

• Avoiding Channel Cannibalisation: A common worry is “If I sell on my own site, won’t I just be taking sales away from my Amazon store (or vice versa)?” According to McBeth, if managed properly, cannibalisation is minimal compared to the upside. Sure, a fraction of customers will choose one channel over the other for a given purchase. But by being present on both, you cater to both audiences: the convenience-driven Amazon Prime shopper and the brand-loyal fan who might prefer buying direct. Moreover, your marketing strategy can delineate roles: use broad, discovery-focused campaigns to drive Amazon sales (where conversion might be easier for new customers), and use retention and loyalty tactics to drive repeat purchases on your DTC site (where you don’t pay Amazon fees and can offer subscriptions or bundles). In the end, as long as total sales are growing and margins are healthy, it matters less which channel “got” the sale. Both channels together are building your brand’s equity and customer base.
  
  
• Consistent Pricing and Messaging: One practical tip: maintain consistent pricing across Amazon and DTC to avoid irritating customers. If your website consistently offers lower prices, Amazon could suppress your listings (Amazon’s algorithms watch for being undersold). Conversely, if Amazon is cheaper, your DTC customers may feel ripped off. Align your pricing strategy (taking into account Amazon fees and shipping costs appropriately) so that pricing isn’t a deciding factor for the customer. Instead, give them a positive reason to shop on your site (exclusive products, first-time bundle offers, loyalty points) while not alienating your Amazon shoppers. Consistency in brand messaging is also key—ensure your brand story, values, and look-and-feel carry across both channels, so wherever a customer engages, they recognise the brand.
  
  

Practical Strategies for DTC Expansion (Beyond Just Ads)

Setting up a Shopify store or a standalone website is relatively easy these days. The real challenge is optimising your DTC channel so it thrives alongside Amazon. The webinar emphasised that succeeding in DTC requires a different mindset and skillset. Here are some best practices and strategies shared:

1. Implement Robust Tracking & Analytics: Don’t rely solely on the platform-reported metrics from Google Ads or Facebook Ads to judge performance. As McBeth points out, metrics like ROAS (return on ad spend) can be wildly misleading if taken at face value. Invest in a first-party analytics solution or use tools that track multi-touch attribution. By placing first-party cookies on your site (respecting privacy laws/GDPR, of course), you can track a user across multiple visits and channels. Consider using Google Analytics 4 (which is geared towards event and user path tracking) or more advanced attribution software that can de-duplicate conversions across channels. This will help you understand if that Facebook campaign is mostly driving conversions that show up as “direct” or “organic” in analytics (halo effect), or if Google Ads branded campaigns are cannibalising what would have been free direct traffic, etc. Having a clear picture of your marketing efficiency ratio (total marketing spend vs. total revenue, similar to TACoS on Amazon) for DTC will keep you honest about profitability.
   
   
2. Know Your Customer Lifetime Value (LTV): One of the biggest advantages of DTC is the potential for repeat business. But you can’t capitalise on that if you don’t measure it. McBeth expressed surprise at how many brands (even mid-sized ones) don’t know their customer lifetime value or retention rates. Set up systems to calculate metrics like 3-month, 6-month, and 12-month LTV and repeat purchase rate. If you find that, say, 30% of customers who buy Product X once from your site come back to buy again within 6 months, that greatly affects how much you can spend to acquire those customers initially. LTV data can justify higher acquisition costs when the payback is there. It can also inform what products to upsell or when to push subscription programs. Use tools or even just spreadsheets with your order history to compute cohorts of customers and their value over time. This data-driven approach is crucial; otherwise, you might prematurely kill DTC ad campaigns that are unprofitable on first purchase but profitable when factoring in repeats.
   
   
3. Optimise the On-Site Experience for Conversions: Driving traffic is only half the battle; your website needs to convert visitors into buyers. This is where conversion rate optimisation (CRO) comes in. McBeth’s agency background in conversion optimisation provides a lesson: don’t just make a “pretty” website—make an effective one. Test your site layout, product pages, checkout process, and messaging. Implement A/B tests on headlines, call-to-action buttons, or landing page designs. Use tools like Google Optimise or Optimizely, or even run user testing sessions to spot friction points. The goal is to approach your DTC site with the same rigour you apply to Amazon listing optimisation. On Amazon, you might experiment with different images or bullet points to improve conversion; on your site, do the equivalent. For example, test whether adding a prominent review widget (perhaps even pulling in your Amazon reviews for social proof) increases checkout rate. Or see if a free shipping bar (“You’re $10 away from free shipping!”) boosts average order value. The beauty of DTC is that you have unlimited flexibility to test and iterate. Use it to your advantage.
   
   
4. Don’t Overuse Discounts & Promotions: Many DTC brands immediately resort to heavy discounting—“Get 20% off your first purchase!” pop-ups everywhere—in an attempt to lure customers. McBeth cautions against leaning too hard on discounts. While promotions can jump-start sales, they can also train customers to expect discounts and erode your margins long-term. If your whole DTC strategy revolves around undercutting your Amazon price or constant coupon codes, you might win some initial conversions, but at the cost of profitability and brand positioning. Instead, focus on value-add promotions: free gifts with purchase, bundles, or loyalty points for next time, rather than straight price cuts. If you do use a welcome discount, keep it modest (e.g., 10%) and consider whether you truly need it once your brand has some awareness. The most successful omnichannel brands maintain consistent pricing and use other perks to differentiate their DTC offer (such as extended returns, special content/community access, or first access to new products). You want DTC customers because they love your brand, not because they were the lowest price seekers (those will just stick to Amazon).
   
   
5. Leverage Amazon Insights to Improve DTC (and Vice Versa): Use each channel’s data to support the other. Your Amazon sales data and reviews can tell you which products are hits, what questions customers frequently ask, and what complaints or praises they have. Use that to create better FAQs and product descriptions on your DTC site. For instance, if Amazon reviews highlight that your skincare product “has a strong lavender scent,” make sure your DTC page mentions that upfront (it could be a selling point or a warning for those sensitive to scents). Similarly, use DTC site data to improve Amazon listings. If you notice on your site that certain product images get more clicks (you can track clicks on the image gallery or use heatmaps), update your Amazon imagery accordingly. 
   
   If a particular blog post on your site (say, a “How to Use Product Y Guide”) is getting a lot of traffic and assisting conversions, consider incorporating that information into your Amazon A+ Content or include a QR code in your Amazon packaging that leads to that content. Cross-pollinate insights: your DTC is your playground for content and storytelling—feed the best performing content into Amazon. Meanwhile, Amazon is your quantitative goldmine for what sells at scale—use that knowledge to focus your DTC efforts on hero SKUs that can anchor your store.
   
   
6. Use AI for Deeper Customer Understanding: In the webinar’s conclusion, McBeth hinted at a cutting-edge approach his team uses: employing AI to analyse customer behaviour data and build refined customer personas. This goes beyond traditional demographics. By feeding your website’s behavioural data (pages viewed, time on site, repeat visit patterns), purchase data (products, value, frequency), and third-party enriched data into an AI model, you can uncover patterns that wouldn’t be obvious manually. The AI might identify, for example, that a segment of customers who buy high-end bundles also tend to come from certain traffic sources and respond to specific messaging. It then generates persona profiles and even suggests “creative briefs” on how to market to them. This level of insight can dramatically improve your DTC marketing efficiency. 
   
   While not every brand is ready to build an AI model in-house, keep an eye on emerging tools that bring this capability to a wider market. The takeaway for now: try to segment your DTC customers meaningfully (by behaviour or value, not just basic demographics) and personalise your outreach. Even simple segmentation—like VIP customers vs. one-time buyers, or email subscribers vs. non-subscribers—can let you tailor retention campaigns. The more you treat customers as distinct groups with distinct needs, the better you can target them on both your site and via lookalike audiences on ad platforms.
   
   
7. Holistic KPIs vs Channel KPIs: Finally, establish some unified metrics to judge your overall business performance, not just each channel in isolation. For example, track total combined revenue and profit from Amazon + DTC. Calculate an overall “blended CAC” (customer acquisition cost) across all channels, and an overall marketing spend ratio (the MER or “total advertising cost of sales (TACoS)” when you combine channels). Many sophisticated brands have moved to evaluating marketing spend at the aggregate level – if the blended MER is improving, they care less about the individual ROAS of, say, Facebook vs. Google ads. This prevents over-optimising one channel at the expense of the other. 
   
   For instance, your Google Ads might look less profitable when you launch Amazon because some conversions shift to Amazon, but overall sales might be higher. A siloed view would incorrectly suggest cutting Google spend, whereas a holistic view shows it’s still driving value via the halo effect. So set targets like “Overall e-commerce sales up 50% year-over-year at 20% total ad spend/sales ratio” rather than “each channel must hit X ROAS.” This encourages the team to work as a unified commerce team rather than an Amazon team and a DTC team competing internally.
   
   

Common Pitfalls and How to Avoid Them

Even with a solid strategy, there are landmines to avoid when expanding from Amazon to DTC (or vice versa). Here are some common mistakes highlighted in the session, and tips to sidestep them:

• Pitfall 1: Depending Solely on Platform Data: If you only look at Amazon’s dashboard and Google Analytics/AdWords reports in isolation, you will get a fragmented and often false picture of performance. For example, Amazon’s Advertising Cost of Sale (ACoS) might appear high, but it might not account for sales that occurred later organically. Google might report a conversion that actually happened on Amazon. Solution: Use third-party or unified analytics as discussed, and always sanity-check platform data with overall sales trends. Look for the correlation, not just the reported causation. If increasing Facebook spend sees your Amazon sales climb in tandem, that’s a good sign of a halo, even if Facebook Ads Manager can’t take credit for those Amazon sales.
  
  
• Pitfall 2: Over-Indexing on One Skill Set (Creative vs. Analytical): E-commerce is a blend of art and science. Some brands pour all their effort into beautiful design, slick branding, and creative campaigns, but neglect measurement and optimisation. Others obsess over data, spreadsheets, and tweaking bids, but underinvest in brand story and connection. McBeth’s advice is to balance both. Solution: If you’re a numbers-driven marketer, consider hiring or consulting with a creative agency to ensure your brand voice and imagery resonate emotionally (especially important on your DTC site and social media). If you’re more on the creative side, make sure you partner with someone or use tools that keep your numbers honest (especially important when analysing ad spend and conversion data). A truly successful dual-channel strategy needs both compelling creative marketing and rigorous data analysis.
  
  
• Pitfall 3: Knee-Jerk Discounting: As mentioned, relying on constant discounts can hurt your brand and margins. It might also upset your Amazon channel if you undercut prices too often. Solution: Develop a promotional calendar that uses discounts strategically (for example, major holidays or product launches) and intersperse them with other campaigns (content marketing, influencer partnerships, PR) that don’t train consumers to expect a sale. If you have excess inventory or need to run a sale, consider using exclusive promo codes for targeted groups (like a code for a specific podcast audience or a one-time site popup offer) rather than sitewide sales that anyone can access repeatedly.
  
  
• Pitfall 4: Inconsistent Customer Experience: If your branding, messaging, or service levels differ greatly between Amazon and DTC, customers will notice. For example, if your Amazon product packaging is different or lower-quality than what you send to DTC customers, you’ll hear about it in reviews. Or if your website promises a lifetime warranty but your Amazon listing makes no mention of it, an Amazon customer might feel shortchanged. Solution: Strive for consistency. Unify things like packaging, insert a branded thank-you card or support contact in both channels’ orders, and ensure policies (warranties, guarantees) are aligned as much as possible. If anything, over-deliver on Amazon customer service to match what you’d do on your own site, since any negative Amazon review is public. Tools like MerchantSpring (with its cross-marketplace analytics) can help you monitor performance indicators in one place so you maintain quality across channels.
  
  
• Pitfall 5: Neglecting Amazon while Focusing on DTC (or Vice Versa): Some brands fall into the trap of favouring one channel internally, leading to misallocation of resources. For instance, a brand enthusiastic about DTC might let their Amazon listings go stale—no fresh content, stockouts not addressed promptly, slow responses to Q&A—which leads to lost sales and a damaged brand image on that platform. The opposite can happen too: focusing only on Amazon optimisation and letting your website languish with slow load times or outdated info. Solution: Allocate dedicated owners or teams for each channel, but have them collaborate closely. Set minimum standards for both channels (e.g., <1% Amazon stockout rate, all DTC site inquiries answered within 24 hours, etc.). Regularly audit both your Amazon presence (content, reviews, ads) and your DTC site (speed, SEO, mobile usability) to ensure neither gets neglected. Remember, customers see one brand; they don’t care that you had separate teams running the channels. To them, a stumble on one is a reflection of your brand as a whole.
  
  

In summary, many pitfalls are avoidable with a customer-centric approach. Always put yourself in the shopper’s shoes: They don’t see “channels,” they see your brand wherever they encounter it. Make sure every encounter—be it Amazon, your website, a social media page, or an email—is consistently excellent.

Conclusion: The Future is Omnichannel – Embrace the Halo Effect

For Amazon-focused brands and the agencies that support them, expanding to DTC is no longer a question of if, but when and how. The webinar with Brice McBeth underscored a pivotal insight: success in modern e-commerce comes from leveraging the best of both worlds. Amazon offers scale, convenience, and credibility, while DTC offers control, insight, and intimacy with the customer. When orchestrated together, they create a halo effect that can catapult a brand’s growth far beyond what either channel could achieve alone.

As you venture into this omnichannel strategy, remember that it’s an iterative journey. Start small, learn, and iterate. Measure what you can, but accept that some facets of cross-channel influence will be nuanced. The brands that win are those that remain agile—adapting their tactics based on data, customer feedback, and the ever-evolving digital landscape (including new technologies like AI that can give an edge in understanding consumers).

Most importantly, keep the customer at the centre. Provide value and a seamless experience at every touchpoint. A customer who discovers your product on Amazon, follows you on Instagram for updates, buys from your website next, and then subscribes on Amazon for convenience doesn’t see multiple channels—they just see a brand that was available whenever and wherever they wanted. Be that brand.

MerchantSpring, the host of Marketplace Masters, specialises in helping agencies and sellers get unified analytics and reporting across Amazon, DTC (Shopify), and other marketplaces. If tracking your Amazon DTC omnichannel performance feels daunting, the right tools can make it considerably easier to pinpoint opportunities and measure the impact of changes.

Ready to put these ideas into action? Don’t just take our word for it – see it in practice. Check out the full webinar with Brice McBeth for even more nuanced discussion and real examples of Amazon–DTC synergy. If you’re an agency or brand seeking to streamline your analytics across Amazon, Shopify, and other channels, consider getting in touch with MerchantSpring. Our platform is purpose-built to give you 360° visibility into your e-commerce performance – including metrics like customer lifetime value, repeat purchase rates, and more – so you can clearly see the impact of your omnichannel strategies. Let’s transform the way you manage marketplace and DTC channels, turning potential conflicts into complementary growth drivers.

Interested in diving deeper? 📈 Watch the on-demand webinar for a firsthand look at these strategies in action, and subscribe to our Marketplace Masters series for more expert insights. If you have questions or want to explore how MerchantSpring can help your agency automate reporting and uncover growth opportunities, contact us – we’re here to help you master the omnichannel marketplace. Here’s to unlocking your brand’s full potential on and off Amazon!