Everyday

Walmart, home of those “everyday low prices,” is trading at all time highs thanks to a monster earnings report this week (carried by growth with higher net-worth consumers).

Shopify, synonymous with DTC, saw its stock drop 18% last week on weak Q2 guidance.

These two developments appear to be the first at-scale recognitions that we’re heading for a consumer slowdown—something the National Retail Federation said at the beginning of the year that it expected to see.

File the macro under the “stuff you can’t control” category. If that’s all you do, though, it’s a missed opportunity.

Inflection points in consumer behavior seem like the ideal time to run customer development.

Have a customer who is still buying? Ask them where they’ve cut back. Ask them why they haven’t cut you.

Have a customer who is buying less frequently? Ask them the same. Plus ask them why they’re not buying as frequently. Who are they buying instead.

Have a customer who isn’t buying anymore? Might be harder to reach them, but free product might do the trick. Ask them what’s changed, whether they’re buying DTC from anyone and why you didn’t make the cut.

Changing behaviors happen every day. But wholesale consumer behaviors don’t. Use the opportunity to get a bunch of customer development done more efficiently.