Hydration brand Liquid I.V. continued to grow its sales on Amazon during Prime Day, but it is also testing ways to increase its direct-to-consumer (DTC) ecommerce business.

That involves finding ways to differentiate the brand’s DTC and wholesale offerings, according to Danielle Grover, senior director of ecommerce at Liquid I.V.

“Summer season is definitely our peak,” Grover told Digital Commerce 360. “That’s where we need to find different moments throughout the year to really make each quarter be its own and have its pop.”

She noted that the Cyber 5 (Thanksgiving through Cyber Monday) is also a big selling season for Liquid I.V. and the key moment for Q4. However, it has to take a different approach from a product standpoint for that than for its summer sales. Last year, Liquid I.V. launched a hot chocolate flavor for the Cyber 5.

That “sold incredibly well — sold out on TikTok within the first three weeks,” Grover said. “And then we were able to replenish very fast.”

But how consumers purchase from Liquid I.V. on Amazon and TikTok varies from how they can buy from its DTC ecommerce site.

How Liquid I.V. approaches DTC ecommerce sales

“We’re doing a lot of A/B testing on our site,” Grover told Digital Commerce 360. “How is our customer finding our website? How are customers acting on our website? Are they going to shop all? Are they going to specific product lines? How are they basket building?”

On its DTC site, she said, Liquid I.V. has “really leaned in on increasing AOV.” That entails ways it allows consumers to build out their baskets, she said. One way is through bundling. Consumers can create their own bundles on Liquid I.V.’s DTC ecommerce site, as opposed to purchasing preset bundles through the brand’s other channels.

Liquid I.V.’s campaign of “buy three, get one free” has been successful, she said. It also has been working to identify “the perfect amount of pouches” it wants consumers to buy, she added.

“We also take into account, across all platforms, what size product are we selling?” Grover said. “And then what is that repeat rate that we want them to come back and buy? On ecom, we sell a pouch. So it’s identifying that, okay, that pouch should be about a month’s worth of supply.”

At that point, Liquid I.V. would want a customer to come back to make another purchase, if they aren’t using the subscription option on its DTC site.

Preparing for Q4 sales

“We definitely take the learnings from Prime Day, especially with how long Prime Day is, and now Black Friday, Cyber Monday being the Turkey 12,” Grover said.

The “Turkey 12” refers to the 12-day period from the Thursday directly preceding Thanksgiving through Cyber Monday.

For example, Grover said Liquid I.V. takes what it has learned from a four-day sales period’s strategy (like Prime Day) and expands it to see how it would work as a 12-day strategy.

She said “Q4 is definitely a slower time” for the brand.

“But we’re leaning into those moments of how we continue to make Liquid I.V. important and in those consumers’ lives during more colder months,” Grover said.

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