Tag Archive for: e-commerce

How Hyper Growth DTC Brands Leverage PR

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Three forces are reshaping how hyper growth DTC brands leverage PR in 2026: AI shopping agents, tariff-driven price increases, and TikTok Shop. Clients ask me about all three, and the answer keeps landing in the same place: architecture. Owned, branded, and earned media, working together. How you use each one depends on your narrative, your brand, and the landscape you’re competing in. There’s no generic playbook underneath any of this.

If You’re Invisible in AI Search, the Fix Might Not Be PR

When a client comes to me because their brand doesn’t show up at all when someone asks ChatGPT or Perplexity for a recommendation, we diagnose where the real gaps are first. Sometimes the problem is technical: site structure, product data, when that’s the case, we can point them in the right direction, because that’s not what we do. And that should always be up to par before any kind of e-commerce PR. Sometimes it’s content, both branded and earned, which is squarely our lane. Most of the time it’s some combination; it’s our job to help navigate the priorities based on business goals.

Most of our clients already show up in AI search. What they want is to show up better: a sharper narrative, more favorable comparisons, stronger placement against competitors. That’s a different problem, and it’s architectural rather than technical. It still comes down to the same three levers, owned, branded, and earned media, but how you weight each one depends on the brand’s narrative and the landscape it’s competing in. A regulated brand with tight legal review uses that architecture differently than a founder-led brand willing to take a strong public position. There’s no universal fix.

AI-referred visits to retail sites were up 393% year over year in Q1 2026, according to Adobe’s Q1 2026 Digital Insights report, covered by eMarketer, and that traffic converts 42% better than other sources. Getting the reputation architecture right pays off. The fix is rarely one tactic. If you want a sense of where your own brand’s gaps sit, we run AI brand trust audits as part of the Fingerprint Strategy.

Balancing the Practical with the Political

Tariffs pushed import costs up 18-25% on beauty and personal care and 20-30% on CPG and household goods in 2026, according to ATTN Agency’s analysis of more than 200 DTC brands. Eighty-seven percent of merchants raised US prices in response, per Yotpo’s 2026 DTC Index.

Navigating customer messages like this are increasingly fraught with political overtones.

Getting it right is urgently important. Our default advice is transparency. Tell people what changed and why. But as with anything political, that kind of message needs more than a transparent tone. It needs brand consistency and real nuance, because the same sentence can read as principled to one customer and performative to another, depending on how the brand has positioned itself up to that point.

TikTok Shop Sells. It Doesn’t Build the Reputation That Sells You Next.

TikTok Shop is a legitimate sales channel, and I’m not going to tell a client to walk away from sales. US TikTok Shop revenue is projected to top $20 billion in 2026, and live shopping converts at 8-12%, well above the 2-4% typical of an e-commerce site. Influencers are a real driver of that. Sixty percent of TikTok users say they trust a product more when a creator introduces it than when a brand advertises it directly, according to a 2025 generational report from Zeno Group’s Michael Brito, with Gen Z the heaviest users of the platform.

Influencer trust and AI-search authority are two different things right now, and treating them as the same thing costs brands more than they realize. AI models aren’t crawling TikTok content the way they crawl news coverage and reviews. They’re weighting sources that are hardest to fake, which today means media outlets more than social platforms. Reddit is the cautionary example here: a platform that built real trust and then couldn’t control bot activity fast enough, and the whole platform’s credibility took the hit for it. Every social platform carries some version of that risk, which is exactly why I don’t expect AI systems to weight social content the way they weight earned media anytime soon.

There’s a reach problem too. Pew Research puts TikTok use at 37% of US adults as of 2025, which means 63% of American adults aren’t on the platform at all, including the vast majority of people 50 and older. A brand building its entire reputation inside TikTok is invisible to most of the country. And even inside TikTok’s own audience, 62% of users say they use the platform to look at product reviews or recommendations before buying, per Pew. People are checking, even on the platform built for impulse buys. I know I don’t buy anything on TikTok until I’ve looked up the company and the product somewhere else first.

Quick Answers

Why isn’t my brand showing up in AI search?
It depends which camp you’re in. If you don’t show up at all, the gap is usually technical (site structure, product data) or content-related (branded and earned media), and we diagnose which before recommending anything. If you already show up and want to show up better, that’s an architecture question, narrative, comparisons, placement, built from owned, branded, and earned media working together.

Who should write our tariff price-increase communication, PR or leadership?
Delivery is secondary. What matters is that the message stays consistent with everything the brand has said before, and that it’s transparent by default with extra nuance if the pricing story is politically charged. We’re almost always consulted on the narrative regardless of who drafts the final copy.

Should DTC brands rely on TikTok Shop instead of press?
No. TikTok Shop is a real sales channel, and influencers are real borrowed credibility on it, especially for Gen Z. But AI search doesn’t weight TikTok content the way it weights press coverage, and 63% of US adults aren’t even on the platform. A brand that skips earned media for TikTok is invisible to both audiences.

What’s the one PR investment that pays off across AI search, tariffs, and TikTok Shop?
Architecture that compounds: owned, branded, and earned media working together, rather than a tactic that expires this quarter. Earned media is the hardest input to game, which is exactly why AI systems weight it, and it’s also what feeds AI models the data, insights, and points of view they need.

If there’s one instruction I’d give a CMO that applies across AI search, tariffs, and TikTok Shop, it’s this: invest in the architecture that keeps adding value over time, not the tactic that works this quarter. The halo effect of a trusted brand is well documented. The IPA’s Effectiveness Databank found that ad campaigns which significantly increase brand trust are 41% more likely to drive a major business result than the industry average, see customer-acquisition gains of 39% versus 28% for typical campaigns, and cut price sensitivity nearly twice as much, 11% versus 6%. Trust doesn’t just feel good. It makes every other dollar a brand spends work harder.

I don’t see a day coming where the platform tax for AI stops being content. It might expand into social media eventually, but I wouldn’t bet on it happening soon, for the same reason Reddit had to fight bot manipulation for years before anyone trusted its content again. AI systems are going to keep weighting the sources that are hardest to game, and earned media is the hardest one to game, period. It’s also the one that keeps AI fed: real data, real insights, real points of view, not recycled ad copy. Edelman’s 2026 Trust Barometer put it plainly this year: lead with earned, scale with paid, and make sure your proof points are the kind AI search can actually find.

That’s the narrative architecture we build for DTC PR clients under the Fingerprint PR Strategy, and it’s the same one behind every pillar in this piece. AI search, tariffs, TikTok Shop, they’re symptoms. The cause is always the same: whether a brand has built a reputation that holds up when someone actually goes looking.

 

Sources


The Invisible Asset, written by Avaans Media founder Tara Coomans, is the PR ROI framework that builds brand equity, drives valuation, attracts capital, and wins high-stakes moments. It’s built for CMOs defending budgets, CEOs preparing for a capital event, and operators in regulated categories. Get the book →

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Should DTC Brands Join the Metaverse?

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Key Takeaways

  • Learn from Existing Brands: Before diving into the metaverse, DTC brands should observe and analyze how established brands like Nike and Gucci have approached their ventures. Understanding successful strategies and potential pitfalls can inform their own entry, especially through partnerships that expand audience reach.
  • Educate and Engage Consumers: Many consumers are unfamiliar with virtual goods and NFTs, so DTC brands should consider educational initiatives to build trust and interest. Offering relatable virtual products, such as avatars or event tickets, can ease customers into the concept and enhance their overall engagement.
  • Focus on Activation, Not Just Presence: Simply entering the metaverse isn’t enough; brands need to have clear activation strategies that resonate with their audience. As consumer understanding of the metaverse grows, brands should prioritize meaningful interactions rather than aiming for early mover status without a solid plan.

Because of the competitive nature of customer acquisition, hyper-growth DTC (D2C) brands are always looking for ways to improve word of mouth and awareness. So it’s no surprise that a lot of fast-growing DTC brands of all sizes are asking, “should we join the metaverse?” The answer to should DTC brands join the metaverse naturally depends on several external factors. From an awareness and PR perspective, there are some considerations before DTC brands joining the metaverse.

What Have You Learned From Watching Other Brands?

Brands like Nike, Warner Brothers, Gucci, and Wendy’s are already in the metaverse. Have you watched these brands closely and experienced their ventures? CMOs and founders intrigued by the metaverse and its opportunities should be sure to sit back and watch a bit. What worked, what didn’t? What inspiration can you take from these digital experiences? Notice many of these ventures are co-branded, which is a great way to double the potential audience size – so what partnerships would enhance the digital introduction of your DTC brand? Gamers are already intimately familiar with NFTs and Virtual goods, so what games appeal to your audience? From breakfast cereal to gaming super powers to fashion add-ons there truly are endless ways for DTC brands to join the metaverse.

Have You Tried Virtual Goods Yet?

46% of consumers haven’t bought a virtual good yet because they don’t understand how it works and 35% might try it if it comes from a brand they trust (full report here). Those two considerations are a lot to unpack. But if your customers are curious early adopters, AND they trust your DTC brand, a great way to test the waters is to experiment with virtual goods (NFTs) like music, memes, or even artwork.

If your customers are curious, but midrange adopters, maybe you set the stage and start educating your consumers a bit, adding to that trust bucket so when the day comes for your brand to fully invest, your customers are ready to come on the journey with you. . The key to intriguing your customers to start their virtual good collection is to pair it with another passion or interest. Virtual goods like avatars or virtual event tickets are easy enough to understand to most consumers, even if they aren’t ready to use them or engage with them yet.

There’s a tremendous value in being the trusted brand that takes your customers by the hand to introduce them to the digital landscape that will make social media look like a flash in the pan.

What Will You DO Once You Get to the Metaverse?

With something like the metaverse, the end goal isn’t to BE there, it’s to activate there. Given that for most consumers, the metaverse is just some vague notion they don’t know how to even access, you’ll need to take stock of where this lands on your priority list. If your customers aren’t in the 18-34 age range of typical NFT purchasers, then this is a pretty big consideration.

Now, if your only goal is to be an early mover, and you have the bandwidth, that is the financial and team resources to do so, by all means, go for it, it’s an interesting brand move right now and it may even get you some press. Media coverage over brands with placement in the metaverse won’t garner attention for long – the metaverse will be as common as having a website and social media. And yet, even now, simply being in the metaverse itself doesn’t garner media attention. You’ll want to activate in some interesting, notable way. The options are endless, but keep in mind that your audience is likely to be small, but starting with a metaverse experience is a great way for the brand and its customers to connect in the virtual world.

 

The “Ready Player One” vision of the metaverse isn’t quite here yet. For one, adoption hasn’t reached a tipping point yet, but it won’t be long. Today’s consumers are now used to moving into new platforms every few years and the metaverse will follow a similar trend of other platforms: younger people will start, but soon their parents will follow, then their parent’s friends. Instagram was the domain of the youthful for a long time, then its users expanded; for TikTok that process was much faster some of the most vibrant TikTok hashtags belong to GenX, and they’re in their 50’s already. The metaverse is coming, tomorrow’s brand will be there.

As a digitally forward PR firm, we can help you maximize the digital world. Give us a call. 

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