Cereal giant Kellogg’s is launching a new foray into the direct-to-consumer (D2C) market as it hires a new director of ecommerce platforms.
A job listing on LinkedIn for a director of D2C ecommerce platforms claims that the brand wants to “build industry leadership in ecommerce” and earn “first digital position” with customers.
It suggests that Kellogg views its D2C strategy as in its infancy, describing the job as a “greenfield opportunity to help Kellogg’s write the D2C playbook.”
The company saw net sales rise 5% to $13.5 billion in 2018. CEO Steven Cahillane said in a call to discuss the results that ecommerce could provide it with a “leg up” in the marketplace and said the company had increased investment in brand-building at a single-digit rate in 2018.
Taking Kellogg’s UK website as an example, it currently doesn’t allow customers to buy products online. It offers a number of downloadable promotions that can be used to buy products offline.
In the US, the site is more advanced, selling products and allowing customers to order personalised boxes and merchandise.
A number of brands are seeing some of their biggest sales growth from their direct-to-consumer ecommerce channels, such as Hugo Boss.
Kellogg’s had not responded to a request for comment by the time of publication.
Image credit: Kellogg’s