Allbirds and Warby Parker built their brands as digitally native vertical brands (DNVBs), cutting out the middleman to offer lower-priced products directly to consumers. Now, they’re confronting many of the same challenges as legacy brands: slowing ecommerce growth, rising customer acquisition costs, and an increasingly crowded competitive landscape.

But even as they face the same pressures, the brands are taking very different approaches. Allbirds is pulling back from brick-and-mortar to refocus on ecommerce, while Warby Parker is continuing to expand its physical footprint.

Doubling down on digital: Allbirds recently announced it will close its remaining full-price US stores by the end of February 2026, keeping just two outlet locations domestically and a small number of flagship stores in London.

The company says the move reflects a sharp pivot toward efficiency. Rather than supporting a broad brick-and-mortar footprint, the brand is reallocating resources toward ecommerce, wholesale partnerships, and international distributors, channels it believes offer greater reach and operating leverage with lower fixed costs.

That strategy aligns with how many direct-to-consumer (D2C) brands are being rediscovered today.

• Nearly one-third (32%) of US adults say they typically discover D2C brands via online ads, and another 22% point to social media, found March 2025 data from Dyanta and Radial.
• Allbirds’ renewed focus on ecommerce and wholesale, especially through platforms like Amazon, signals an acceptance that scale and discovery increasingly happen off owned channels, even for brands that once prized exclusivity.

Hitting the bricks: Meanwhile, Warby Parker is leaning into physical retail.

• The eyewear brand now operates roughly 300 stores and plans to open 45 more this year, including shop-in-shops at Target.
• At the same time, it’s sunsetting its once-signature home try-on program, steering customers toward stores or virtual try-on tools instead.

That’s because Warby Parker’s physical locations aren’t just showrooms, they’re service hubs.

• Its eye exam business grew 44% YoY in Q2 and now accounts for 6% of total revenues.
• Even more importantly, about 75% of glasses purchases happen at the same location where an eye exam takes place, driving higher conversion and larger baskets.

This is a powerful advantage in a D2C environment where many brands struggle to create reasons for repeat visits. While only 17% of consumers say they typically discover D2C brands in person at major retailers, 22% say the ability to touch, feel, or try products would encourage them to buy more often from well-established D2C brands, per Radial and Dynata.

Why it matters: Many brands are still trying to figure out the right way to make D2C work.

• While nearly half (47%) of CMOs worldwide say D2C remains core to their business, another 42% are still experimenting with what actually drives growth, according to February 2025 data from Merkle.
• US D2C ecommerce sales will grow faster than physical sales in 2026, but physical sales will make up a more significant share of total retail sales, according to a May 2025 EMARKETER forecast.

The data reflects a new reality for D2C: There’s no single path forward. Success now depends less on where a brand started and more on what its business model can sustainably support next.

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