We don't need a three paragraph intro to answer your question: The answer is yes, direct-to-consumer businesses, e-commerce websites, and D2C business models are still worth it in 2025.
However, you need to ensure you fulfill these points:
It's not that e-commerce in 2025 is or is not worth it, it's simply that the market is highly saturated. With AI agents, AI tools, and websites pumped out like Star Wars droids, in order for you to truly break through, you need to be different. Also, to make you feel better, even with this saturation, the e-commerce market is expected to grow from $5.7 trillion in 2022 to $8.1 trillion by 2027.
While the market is saturated, there's still plenty of room for you.
[cta-btn title="Build Your Brand And Become A Member" link="/membership-pricing"]
First and foremost, it's highly recommend you choose an e-commerce niche for your product. With AI search and the digital landscape changing rapidly, niches have high-intent audiences that are ready to convert. Don't try your hand at selling supplements, unless your supplement has never come to market before. There is practically a supplement company for every person on Earth.
Warby Parker broke through the saturated DTC market because they were a pioneer in online eyewear sales that allowed consumers to test, try, and modify glasses to their wardrobe. That's a niche — custom, chic eyeglasses for the masses. Plus, the home try-on service gives consumers as much time as they need to decide if a pair of glasses is right from them. It takes out the "rushed" feeling of being in store and having to decide on a new pairbefore you leave.
You need to ask yourself: "Does my product solve a niche, needed problem in an e-commerce vertical?"
In 2025, it's hard to gain traffic, and it's even harder to reach users. What is your model for reaching your target audience? How do you plan to match their intent?
Even with AI, LLMs, acronyms and an abundance of LinkedIn spam posts taunting their services, echoing, "SEO is dead," organic is very much alive in 2025. Ensure your product has a user-friendly website, content written by you, and SEO-friendly e-commerce metadata to make your pages discoverable for crawlers and your consumers.
Running paid ads on Google, LinkedIn, Meta, and X offers yet another fantastic way to boost sales and traffic and garner high-intent traffic from possible members of your audience towards the bottom of the conversion funnel. Here you want to craft campaigns and assets around BOFU (bottom of funnel) keyword phrases directly related to the e-commerce niche you serve.
As an addendum to each campaign and channel function, you need to have a field, box, or form dedicated to capturing newsletter subscriptions directly or as run-offs from your other campaigns. This way, as other digital marketing channels gain momentum, you can continuously build to your owned and operated asset: Email subscriber list. With targeted email marketing campaigns, you can remarket to customers, fair any algorithmic shift, and have an audience that stays (relatively) the same over time — hopefully, with a dash of growth as your other funnels work to reach more consumers.
Social Media campaigns can make e-commerce a very worthwhile endeavor if you know what you're doing and where to market. LinkedIn, Meta, and X should be paired with paid social accounts and organic postings from your team. Much of these platforms are innately managed by AI; try to use your creative team to create UGC, or use micro-influencers, to get potent shares for your e-commerce niche.
All of these channels are only worth it when they work together under a clear distribution strategy. If your organic, paid, email, and social channels operate in silos, you’ll waste resources, dilute your message, and run the risk of overencumbering your team. Success in 2025 comes from aligning every channel toward the same audience goals, ensuring consistent touchpoints that reinforce your brand’s value at every stage of the funnel.
Your brand needs to make itself standout. Is it an AI tool? There are thousands and the list is growing everyday. Is it a sweatshirt? There are millions with types and graphics being pumped out at the speed of light.
You need a value proposition that solves a unique need and makes you different from your competitors. A great model is to add trending consumer angles to your value proposition.
You offer an AI assistant for data tracking and dashboard explanations? That AI assistant is trained using your private library of data, curated content, and reinforced by writers who are writing authentic content to develop a Retrieval Augmented Generation (RAG) AI bot, which increases its accuracy and value for a specific task.
You offer custom sweatshirts? Those sweatshirts are made from a unique pima-cotton Peruvian textile that only you have the supply chain set up for — think like the apparel company Kith.
Blend your value proposition into your story, vision, and voice across channels and community, and you have a real chance of differentiating yourself and bringing your product to the forefront.
Is E-Commerce still worthwhile? Absolutely. Check out the thousands of D2C brands still making this vertical tick in 2025. If you solidify a niche to enter, a method of reach/distributing your product and brand to consumers, and focus on a value proposition that makes you stand out, you can break into a saturated market.
Even as AI automates more of the digital landscape, the fundamentals of trust, quality, and differentiation remain timeless. Brands that adapt quickly, listen to their customers, and double down on authenticity will continue to thrive making e-commerce worthwhile for them now and into the future.
[inline-cta title="Discover More With Our Resources" link="/resources"]
The Snapchat Ads platform connects businesses with a vast and diverse audience, reaching 900 million monthly active users globally. It effectively targets younger demographics, with 75% of 13 to 34-year-olds in 25 countries actively using Snapchat. The platform utilizes innovative ad formats and advanced targeting to engage this key demographic, maximizing advertisers' impact and reach.
Everything you need to build a better D2C brand, business and tech stack.
