Partners Coffee: Shifting Social Media Landscape Demands New D2C Strategies

Amid rapid changes in social media, Partners Coffee noted that, for smaller, direct-to-consumer (D2C) brands, marketing on these platforms is becoming less and less worthwhile compared to more direct communication.

In an interview with PYMNTS, Andrew Costaris, director of customer experience at the coffee roaster, which operates a D2C site, a wholesale business and a few locations in New York City, outlined how these shifts have affected the company’s eCommerce marketing strategy.

“I’ve noticed that marketing as a whole is becoming a lot less dependent on platforms like Twitter, Instagram, Facebook,” he said. “Those are very much starting to atrophy in terms of the engagement we’re seeing. Email, SMS — the platforms where we’re able to reach out to the customers and create an actual relationship with them — are where we’re seeing the most success at this moment.”

Sure enough, few consumers have been purchasing food or beverage products through these social media platforms, as research from PYMNTS’ study “Tracking the Digital Payments Takeover: Monetizing Social Media Edition,” created in collaboration with Amazon Web Services, revealed.

The study, which drew from a population-balanced survey of nearly 3,000 United States consumers, found that, among the 14% of shoppers who purchased a product through any social media platform, just 29% had used Instagram to buy food and beverage products, and only 23% had used Facebook. YouTube and TikTok proved more popular, at 40% and 33%, respectively.

Costaris attributed the downturn he has seen to the instability in social media in recent months, such that, while major brands may have the resources to invest in keeping up to date amid rapid shifts, generating high-performing content across platforms, it is becoming harder for smaller brands to find and engage their audiences.

“There is a lot of noise on all of these social media platforms,” he said. “If one isn’t changing its name one week, then another is launching a new competitive platform the next.”

Additionally, Partners Coffee sells products both for individual purchase and as subscriptions, and Costaris noted that, while more consumers continue to subscribe, growth in that channel is slowing. He attributed this stagnation to “overall subscription fatigue.”

Consumers are cutting back on subscriptions, according to data from the June edition of PYMNTS’ Subscription Commerce Readiness study, “The Subscription Commerce Readiness Report: The Loyalty Factor,” created in collaboration with sticky.io. The study, which was based on a survey of more than 2,000 U.S. consumers, revealed “the lowest recorded number of subscriptions per subscriber since February 2021,” with the average amounting to just 2.6.

Costaris said the brand’s tests of discounts for subscribers have not meaningfully boosted subscription engagement and the brand’s customers seem to be more motivated by consistent order accuracy and punctuality, with clear communication about estimated delivery times.

“My focus will always be split 50/50 between subscriptions and just encouraging repeat buyers regardless of what incentives we can offer,” Costaris said. “There’s always going to be a not-small minority of people who just don’t want to subscribe.”