Direct-to-Consumer Infrastructure: A Checklist Before You Launch
Direct-to-Consumer Infrastructure: A Checklist Before You Launch
Going direct means you own the customer relationship and everything attached to it. Most new brands build the storefront first and find the gaps later, when an oversold item ships late and the returns email has nowhere to land. The pieces that decide whether a customer comes back sit behind the checkout: inventory sync, fulfillment, support response times, and the data you are allowed to store. Those get bolted on under pressure instead of planned.
This is a five page checklist covering the five systems a direct-to-consumer business runs on, from platform choice through growth reporting. It hands you the specific items to stand up in each one and the order they belong in. It is written for an owner setting up their own store and picking their own vendors, not for a brand that already has an operations team doing this work.
What You Get- The five infrastructure layers laid out in order: technology, fulfillment, customer service, acquisition, and data management
- Four e-commerce foundation checks covering platform selection, inventory integration, secure payment processing, and mobile-responsive design
- The fulfillment set: warehouse processes, brand packaging, shipping partner selection, and a returns procedure that collects product feedback
- Customer service standards including multichannel support, self-serve product documentation, published response times, and a feedback collection loop
- Acquisition items that name the specific email flows to build: onboarding, abandoned cart, post-purchase, and re-engagement
- Data and growth requirements covering GDPR and CCPA compliance, loyalty programs, personalization, and a D2C reporting cadence
You can read it in one sitting and use it as an audit of what you already have. No course to sit through and no login to keep.
The same six things on every engagement
Whatever service you are looking at, this part does not change. It is how we run the work rather than what the work is.
Four steps, and you can stop at any of them
Nothing is charged until step three, and nothing is locked in after it.
Free audit
We look at your site and your market and tell you what we would do first. You keep the findings whether or not you hire us.
Fifteen minute call
We walk through what we found, answer questions, and say plainly whether this service is the right one for you right now.
Scope and number
You get the work and the price in writing before you commit to anything. No proposal three weeks later.
Work and report
The work runs against the plan and you get monthly reporting on the metrics agreed up front.
Why there is no number on this page
A fixed package overcharges the simple jobs and underdelivers on the hard ones. Three things decide what this actually costs.
Your market
Competing in a small town and competing across a metro are different jobs. Pretending otherwise helps nobody.
Where you are starting
Some sites need fixing. Some need replacing. We will tell you which one you have before you commit to either.
How much ground to cover
Five pages and ten keywords is a different scope to forty pages and two hundred. The number follows the work.
Ad spend is separate. Budget goes straight to Google or Meta on your own card, and our fee is stated on its own line.
Questions we get on the first call
If yours is not here, the audit call is free and there is no pitch attached to it.
How do I get a price?
Book the free audit. We look at your site and your market first, then quote the work in writing. Nothing is charged for that part, and there is no obligation after it.
Do I have to take more than one service?
No. Take one or take all thirteen. On the audit call we will tell you which one is costing you the most right now, and which ones you do not need yet.
Who owns the accounts?
You do. Everything is set up under your business with you as owner. If we part ways you keep the accounts, the data, and the history that goes with them.
Am I locked into a contract?
Monthly services can be cancelled with thirty days written notice. One-time projects are billed on the schedule in your quote. Nothing auto-renews for a year.
How long before I see something?
It depends on the service and your market. Paid channels move within weeks. Search work is slower to build and cheaper to keep. We will tell you which one you are buying before you buy it.
Can you guarantee a ranking or a result?
No, and be careful with anyone who does. Nobody controls Google's results. We will tell you what we expect to move, why, and then show you whether it did.
Start with the audit, not the invoice
Fifteen minutes, no pitch deck, and you keep what we find either way.