Case Study | How Brands Can Balance DTC and Wholesale

The notion that there are wholesale brands and direct-to-consumer brands is dying.

Just look at Glossier, one of the defining DTC start-ups of the last decade, which after years of resisting wholesale, began selling its $16 lip balms and $22 eyebrow pomades in Sephora in 2023. On the flip side is century-old Levi’s, a legacy wholesale brand that has been reducing inventory at multi-brand retailers in a bid to do 55 percent of its sales direct to consumers by 2027.

That’s the tip of an…