DTC 3.0: Connecting Customer Data Through an Omnichannel Member Centre

Direct-to-consumer retail increasingly requires a brand to recognise and serve the same person across several channels. A shared member centre connects identities, behaviour and benefits across marketplaces, content platforms, mini-programs, stores and brand communities.

Rising traffic and store costs, combined with customers moving between platforms, make channel-by-channel operations less effective at retaining relationships.

Three stages of DTC

DTC 1.0: sell directly through a website or owned channel, reducing reliance on intermediaries and establishing direct contact.

DTC 2.0: expand into marketplaces, mini-programs, experience stores and pop-ups. More access points emerge, but customer records can remain fragmented.

DTC 3.0: coordinate those channels so discovery, advice, experience and purchase form a continuous relationship.

A shared member centre supports the third stage through identity, points, benefits and lifecycle operations.

Connect the fragmented records

Identity: use agreed phone numbers, member IDs, WeChat identifiers and authorised channel records to match the same customer where possible.

Benefits: make the applicable coupons, points, tiers and entitlement status consistent across connected touchpoints.

Behaviour: bring relevant browsing, enquiries, visits, trials and purchases into the profile to improve service and reduce irrelevant contact.

PEKON's omnichannel CRM supports the shared identity, tags, benefits and engagement rules required for this operating model.

Give channels complementary roles

  • Stores: product experience, fitting, advice and trust.
  • Livestreams and content: discovery, interaction, launches and limited releases.
  • Mini-programs and brand communities: private-domain customer engagement through membership, benefits, repeat-purchase contact and after-sales service.
  • Marketplaces: regular sales, search and major campaign conversion.

The member centre connects these roles. Performance can then be assessed through the relationship, retention and value over time, alongside each channel's sales. Retail software adds store recognition, redemption and service records to the shared view.

A customer journey across channels

Consider a running customer who discovers shoes on Xiaohongshu and provides information in a mini-program. A relevant Beijing store appointment is offered. At the visit, staff recognise the booking and interest, then help with a fitting. The customer later buys with a livestream coupon and arranges a size exchange through a brand service channel.

The customer need not understand the systems involved. What matters is that each interaction continues the previous one. For the brand, discovery, appointment, trial, order and service contribute to the same relationship.

Organisational coordination is also required

Broaden the measures. Cross-channel repeat purchase, retention, engagement and lifetime value should complement individual channel targets.

Create a working mechanism. E-commerce, retail, marketing, loyalty and service teams can review customer journeys together even before a wider organisational redesign.

Start with a limited journey. Test discovery-to-booking-to-store-service, or livestream-order-to-collection-to-after-sales, rather than attempting every connection at once.

Build a continuing relationship

DTC 3.0 does not require abandoning platforms. It requires reducing fragmentation between them. PEKON's project experience points to connected identity, transactions, service and team responsibilities as more important than the number of channels alone.

Frequently asked questions

How does an omnichannel member centre differ from a basic loyalty tool?

It adds cross-channel identity, consistent benefits, connected behaviour and coordinated contact to ordinary membership records.

What should the first step be?

Define identity, then connect one or two valuable journeys and verify the results before expanding.