How a New DTC Channel Generated $60K in 30 Days

01 / The business challenge

Demand had shifted. The distribution model had not.

During the height of COVID-19, Almased faced a difficult combination of retail disruption and channel restrictions. Orders from brick-and-mortar partners, including drugstores, supermarkets, and smaller health-food retailers, slowed as consumers stayed home. Amazon was restricting inventory intake and limiting the introduction of new products, even while online buying accelerated.

The company also had a newly developed protein-shake flavor in inventory, with few practical opportunities to distribute it through its established retail network. That created pressure on inventory, sales goals, and the timing of a product launch.

Almased operated across business-to-business, retail, and Amazon seller relationships. Any new direct channel would need to account for those existing partners, not merely create another storefront.

02 / The strategic decision

Build an additional route to the customer.

As Digital Marketing Director, I recommended a direct-to-consumer approach that could serve customers while retail buying was constrained. The initial proposal met understandable concerns about channel conflict: leadership worried that selling directly could reduce store sales or weaken distributor relationships.

The solution was to test a separately branded Shopify storefront through a collaboration with one of Almased’s established Amazon sellers. This created a controlled way to introduce the new flavor, sell existing inventory, and gather real customer demand signals while maintaining the company’s broader retail strategy.

With CEO approval, I spearheaded the entire DTC initiative alongside the seller, from strategic direction and partnership coordination through launch planning and marketing.

03 / Leadership & execution

Make the launch work with the resources available.

The initiative launched without a dedicated budget for polished product imagery and other typical launch materials. We had to make practical decisions quickly, prioritize the assets that mattered, and coordinate the work across the seller relationship and the marketing channels available to us.

My responsibilities covered the business strategy, seller partnership, launch direction, and marketing priorities. The launch drew on a mix of channels, including the existing customer audience and other marketing activity. The goal was to build a credible buying experience, give the new flavor an opportunity to reach customers, and learn from actual purchase behavior.

• Channel strategy: Defined the role of the DTC store within a business built around retail, B2B, and Amazon seller distribution.
• Partnership leadership: Spearheaded coordination with a key seller to bring the storefront to market.
• Go-to-market direction: Guided the Shopify launch and marketing priorities despite limited production resources.
• Commercial measurement: Used direct sales and customer response as evidence to inform next distribution decisions.

04 / The outcome

$60,000 in Shopify sales in the first 30 days.

The newly launched DTC storefront generated $60,000 in sales during its first 30 days. That figure represents sales through the Shopify store, rather than revenue attributed to a single advertising or email channel.

Sales helped move available inventory, with strong interest in the new flavor alongside purchases of existing products. Just as importantly, the store gave the business a way to observe customer response before expanding the product through traditional distribution.

After restrictions eased, the new flavor subsequently entered retail stores. The DTC sales performance helped support that decision by demonstrating that customers were willing to buy it.

05 / What the experience demonstrated

A growth strategy is also a business strategy.

The most important part of this project was not the platform. Shopify enabled the storefront, but the value came from recognizing the commercial problem, identifying a feasible alternative, aligning a partner, and making decisions based on customer demand.

The result reinforced a principle that continues to guide my work: marketing channels should be evaluated as parts of a connected business system. Distribution, inventory, customer behavior, budgets, and performance data influence one another. Strong leadership brings those decisions together.