How the Direct-to-Consumer Shift Accelerated Overnight

In a WWD-produced webinar, Craig Harris, industry principal, apparel, fashion and accessories at Oracle NetSuite, and Billy Thompson, coinventor and president at Thompson Tee, joined WWD executive editor Arthur Zaczkiewicz in discussing the impact the coronavirus pandemic has had on sales and business operations, a shift to direct-to-consumer models from traditional retail and wholesale businesses and the steps Thompson Tee made to successfully pivot during a disruption. The coronavirus pandemic has had an impact on every industry, from fashion and beauty to home and grocery. In the fashion industry specifically, major retailers and brands experienced severe repercussions including shuttering doors and manufacturing facilities leading to employee furloughs and some companies even filing for bankruptcy. Early reports found retailers were canceling orders and postponing payments hitting vendors hard. “We were seeing a significant shift in businesses wanting to be able to upgrade in a direct-to-consumer environment,” Harris said. “That shift was already under way as stay-at-home orders started closing stores and preventing companies from business, and simultaneously, it caused some very big retailers to cancel their wholesale orders, which had a ripple effect.” During the shutdowns, Harris said, consumer brands that had the ability to execute direct-to-consumer were able to preserve sales and even

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