Dive Brief:

• Online retailers ring up the bulk of sales generated on the web, yet consumers prefer to buy from brand sites, MarketingLand Reports, citing survey data from BrandShop, a digital commerce solutions provider.

• While 78% of the 1,055 U.S. shoppers surveyed by BrandShop buy online, mostly from Amazon, 82% expect to be able to complete a purchase on a brand’s site, and 90% said they would buy directly from a brand if they could.

• Nielsen’s “Global Trust in Advertising” report revealed that branded websites are the second-most-trusted advertising format, following recommendations from friends and family — evidence of a critical marketing and e-commerce opportunity for brands, according to MarketingLand.

Dive Insight:

While shoppers might like the convenience of purchasing directly from a brand’s website, consumer products vendors across sectors, from fashion and accessories to beauty and home furnishings, must tread cautiously when it comes to direct-to-consumer sales.

Brands have to walk a fine line between growing via digital channels without alienating their retail partners.

Consumer brands that do sell online work to avoid that conflict by making retailers a “key part of their e-commerce and digital marketing strategies,” according to Internet Retailer. Strategies to minimize conflict include crafting highly targeted email marketing campaigns that don’t overlap with in-store assortments and promoting retail partners’ sites and store events on brands’ sites, Internet Retailer reported.