Quip wasn't a pure marketing or brand play. From the get-go, it incorporated thoughtful product and service design, which brought something new to the category.

Hear from marketers at Quip, ScentBird, ThirdLove, and more on the current state of retail, and the importance of customer experience.

This is the route that standouts like DollarShaveClub, Harry’s, Walker & Co., Quip and Native have taken as they’ve entered the shelves of big-box retailers like Target and Walmart.

The D2C movement launched several startups that are destined to be power brands, if they haven’t achieved that status already: Peloton, Warby Parker, Glossier, Brooklinen, Chewy, and Quip, to name a few.

The category has also seen the emergence of direct-to-consumer (D2C) brands like Dollar Shave Club, Harry’s, Native and Quip disrupt incumbent brands’ dominance on physical store shelves to accelerate the ecommerce shift. As a result, we forecast the category has grown 188% between 2015 and 2020, an average of 23.6% per year.

Modestly priced recurring household purchases like toothbrushes (Quip) and razors (Dollar Shave Club) have found traction, as have entertainment subscriptions for TV content (Netflix) and music (Spotify). But higher-priced subscriptions walk a tightrope between customer acquisition and churn.