DTC’s Daily Digest brings you the latest news on the world’s fastest growing direct-to-consumer brands. In today’s edition: Allbirds to continue brick-and-mortar expansion; Booking.com and Grab expand partnership; and Nike and Under Armour new CEOs to change DTC businesses.

Allbirds to continue brick-and-mortar expansion

Allbirds is planning to continue its brick-and-mortar expansion with 20 stores next year, the company’s co-founder and co-CEO Tim Brown said Monday.

“We’ve got nearly 15 stores at the moment — 14 soon to be 15,” Brown said. “We’ll add 20 stores next year. Many of them in the states — we’ve got some overseas in China and the U.K. and in New Zealand.”

The shoe company started as an online retailer out of Silicon Valley and began opening stores in only the last few years, allowing shoppers to try on the sneakers before purchasing them. The stores have helped create even more buzz about the wool sneakers, which the company touts as an environmentally sustainable approach to footwear.

“We’re hugely excited about the channel,” Brown said. “It’s a great opportunity for people to touch our product, to try our product.”

Online retailers like Allbirds, Warby Parker, Casper and Everlane have begun to encroach on the real estate left behind as established retailers, like Sears and J.C. Penney, scale back their footprints. These e-tailers are garnering followings through social media and pop-up shops.

Booking.com and Grab expand partnership

As an extension of its current partnership, Booking.com and Grab have incorporated Grab’s ride-hailing service into Booking.com’s mobile app.

The collaboration will allow international travellers visiting Southeast Asia to make real-time transport bookings via the Booking.com app, in their preferred language and currency.

Currently, the service is live in Singapore and is due to roll out to Indonesia and Thailand by end of the year. It will also launch in Cambodia, Malaysia, Myanmar, Vietnam and the Philippines by early next year.

The new integration is yet another aspect of Booking Holdings and Grab’s strategic partnership, which effectively began following Booking Holdings’ USD$200m (£156m) investment in the service last year.

Since, Grab introduced hotel bookings (integrating Agoda and Booking.com into the app) in April in its mission to become an “everyday super app” for Southeast Asian consumers.

Now, by sharing its service on Booking.com, it is extending its reach beyond home turf to be a service provider of choice for international travellers entering the region. 

Nike and Under Armour new CEOs to change DTC businesses

Nike and Under Armour will each have new CEOs in 2020, but the sports apparel and footwear companies are expected to tread different paths en route to growing their digital businesses – and potentially adding new sponsorship deals with athletes.

Analysts estimate that both Nike and Under Armour’s annual revenue from direct-to-consumer sales is 20% and 35%, respectively, compared to their wholesale segments. Yet direct business is easily more profitable, with retailers taking home a larger percentage of revenue when wholesale partners like Foot Locker or Modell’s are cut out.

“Neither company will be 100% vertical, but it will be interesting to see how direct-to-consumer they are in five years,” said Matt Powell, sports industry advisor at the NPD Group.

Nike is currently on pace to surpass its goal of 30% revenue derived from direct-to-consumer sales by its 2023 fiscal year, according to analysts Needham & Company. Yet there will undoubtedly be a learning curve for Donahoe, whose background in technology has never required him to lead a consumer-facing brand.

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