Why eCommerce & Direct-To-Consumer is the future for Consumer Goods companies
Debbie Morrison • November 16, 2022

Australia's FMCG industry is in a state of flux, with special thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic. As each wave of coronavirus infection spread across the nation, brick and mortar stores have been forced to shutter their doors—leaving many FMCG companies struggling to stay afloat.


But all’s not lost for the retail world. Indeed, while wholesalers and traditional retail channels fell by the wayside, another challenger rose to the occasion: eCommerce.


In April 2020, during the first few months of lockdown, over 200,000 Australian shoppers started shopping online for the first time. This surge in eCommerce spending would barrel onwards to reach US$62.3 billion in 2022, up from US$49 billion in 2021 and US$38 billion in 2020.


But the pandemic isn't the only reason why eCommerce is on the rise.


In fact, it's just one of many factors that are coming together to create a perfect storm for FMCG companies to finally make the switch to direct-to-consumer (D2C) models. And in order to secure a competitive foothold in the growing D2C space, companies need to take advantage of eCommerce and digital transformation as a whole.


Let's take a look at why eCommerce and D2C are set to shake the foundations of the FMCG space.


1. eCommerce is growing—fast.

There's no denying that eCommerce is on a meteoric rise, with the figures we provided above showing this in no uncertain terms. In fact, it's growing at such a rapid pace that it's set to overtake traditional brick-and-mortar retail within the next decade.


This is thanks in part to the ever-growing list of eCommerce platforms and marketplaces, such as Amazon and Catch, which are making it easier than ever for companies to sell online. But it's also due to the fact that consumers are becoming more comfortable with buying things sight unseen. In other words, they're becoming more trusting of the online shopping experience.


2. There is a growing focus on going local.

The pandemic has also shone a light on the importance of supporting local businesses. Indeed, as global supply chains have been disrupted, many consumers have turned to local companies in order to get the items they need.


This trend is likely to continue even after the pandemic ends, as people have become more aware of the importance of buying from brands that are closer to home. In fact, a recent study found that 71% of Australian consumers said they were more likely to buy products from a company that was based in Australia.


In response, eCommerce marketplaces such as eBay are making it easier for local companies to find an audience, whereas they'd have a much more difficult time breaking into traditional retail channels.


3. D2C makes for more efficient, resilient supply chains.

The traditional retail model—in which FMCG companies sell their products to wholesalers, who then sell them on to retailers, who finally sell them to consumers—is no longer fit for purpose. In fact, it's become increasingly convoluted and outdated, especially in the age of eCommerce.


What's more, as we've seen with the COVID-19 pandemic, this model is also extremely vulnerable to disruption. This is because there are so many different links in the chain that it only takes one weak link to cause the whole system to break down.


On the other hand, D2C models are much more streamlined, as there is no need for wholesalers or retailers. This not only makes them more efficient but also much more robust in the face of disruption.


4. D2C models allow brands to better connect with their customers.

D2C models have a number of advantages over traditional retail models, the most notable of which is that they allow companies to build direct relationships with their customers. This is thanks to the fact that they cut out the middleman, giving companies direct access to customer data and feedback.


What's more, D2C models also give companies more control over their pricing, product development, and branding. And because they're not relying on wholesalers or retailers to sell their products, they're far more agile and responsive to change.


5. Digital, online payments are growing in popularity.

Another factor that's driving the growth of eCommerce and D2C is the increasing popularity of digital, online payments. Indeed, as consumers become more comfortable with making online purchases, they're also becoming more comfortable with using digital payment methods.

And that's not just limited to the usual suspects, such as PayPal, Apple Pay, and Google Pay.


There are also Buy Now, Pay Later services such as Afterpay, which allow users to pay in installments without using a credit card. There are even subscription services like Amazon Prime, as well as online marketplaces such as Facebook Marketplace that make it easier for both merchants and other consumers to sell to people directly.


A digital-driven future for FMCG

The writing is on the wall—eCommerce and D2C are the future for FMCG companies. Thanks to a number of factors, such as the growing popularity of online shopping and the increasing use of digital payment methods, more and more companies are making the switch to the D2C model. 


It's clear that digital transformation is pivotal for FMCG companies that want to stay ahead of the curve and remain competitive in the years to come. And there's no reason why your company can't be one of them—but only with the right people in place to lead the charge.


At ELR Executive, we've spent the last two decades building the expertise and network of suppliers and retailers that will allow your business to succeed in the digital age. So, if you're ready to make the switch to eCommerce and D2C, we can help. We've put together a guide that outlines the key steps you need to take to find the right people for the job.


Download your copy at the link below.

ELR Executive Guide to Building a Culture of High Performance


And if you're ready to take your business to the next level, you can reach out today to see how we can help you find the leadership you need to succeed.

Your Culture Report Won’t Show You This

By John Elliott • June 6, 2025
On paper, they were fully resourced. No complaints logged. No formal red flags. Delivery metrics holding steady. But behind closed doors, the signs were there. Delays. Fatigue. Silence in meetings where pushback used to live. And a growing sense that key people were leaning out, emotionally, if not yet physically. When the cracks finally showed, the conclusion was predictable: “We need more people.” But that wasn’t the real problem. The problem was trust. And most organisations never see it until it’s too late. The Hidden Cost of Disengagement In Gallup’s 2023 global workplace report , only 23% of employees worldwide reported being actively engaged at work. A staggering 59% identified as “quiet quitting”, psychologically detached, going through the motions, doing only what their job description demands. Source: Gallup Global Workplace Report 2023 Disengagement is expensive. But it’s also quiet. It doesn’t show up on a balance sheet. It doesn’t send a Slack message. Disengagement isn’t new, just silenced. And in executive teams, it looks different. It looks like polite agreement in strategy meetings. It looks like leaders shielding their teams from unrealistic demands, instead of confronting the system causing them. It looks like performance metrics still being met… while people emotionally check out. The issue isn’t always capability. It’s safety. Psychological, political, and professional. Many senior leaders don’t raise concerns, not because the problem isn’t real, but because they don’t believe they’ll be heard, supported, or protected if they do. And this is where the failure begins. The Leadership Lie No One Talks About We talk a lot about leadership capability. About experience, commercial acumen, execution strength. But we don’t talk enough about context. Every leadership hire walks into a culture they didn’t create. They inherit unwritten rules, quiet alliances, and legacy power structures. If those dynamics are broken, or if trust is fractured at the top, no amount of capability will compensate. According to a 2022 Deloitte mid-market survey, 64% of executives said culture was their top strategic priority. But only 27% said they actually measured it in a meaningful way. We say culture matters. But we rarely structure around it. And so new leaders walk in with pressure to perform, but little real insight into what the role will cost them emotionally, politically, or personally. We Don’t Hire for Trust. And It Shows. In executive search, the conversation is often dominated by pedigree and “fit.” But fit is often a euphemism for sameness. And sameness doesn't build trust, it maintains comfort. We rarely ask: Does this leader know how to build trust vertically and horizontally? Can they operate in a low-trust environment without becoming complicit? Will they challenge inherited silence, or unconsciously uphold it? Instead, we hire for confidence and clarity, traits that often mask what’s broken, rather than reveal it. And when those hires fail? We call it a mismatch. Or we cite the usual: “lack of alignment,” “wasn’t the right time,” “they didn’t land well with the team.” But the truth is often uglier: They were never set up to succeed. And no one told them until it was too late. The Cultural Infrastructure Is Missing One of the most damaging myths in leadership hiring is that great leaders will “make it work.” That if they’re tough enough, experienced enough, skilled enough, they’ll overcome any organisational dysfunction. But high-performance isn’t just personal. It’s systemic. It requires psychological safety. A clear mandate. The backing to make hard decisions. The freedom to speak the truth before it becomes a PR problem. When that infrastructure isn’t there, when the real power dynamics are unspoken, good leaders stop speaking too. And the silence spreads. What Trust Breakdown Really Looks Like Often, the signs of a trust breakdown don’t show up in dramatic ways. They surface subtly in patterns of underperformance that are easy to misread or excuse. You start to notice project delays, but no one flags the root cause. Teams keep things moving, quietly compensating for the bottlenecks rather than surfacing them. Not because they’re careless, but because they’ve learned that early honesty doesn’t always earn support. New leaders hesitate to make bold calls. Not because they lack conviction, but because the last time they did, they were left exposed. Board reports look flawless. Metrics track nicely. But spend five minutes on the floor, and the energy tells a different story. These are not resource issues. They’re relationship issues. And the data backs it. According to Gallup’s 2023 State of the Global Workplace report , just 23% of employees worldwide are actively engaged. Worse, around 60% are “quiet quitting.” That’s not just disengagement. It’s people doing only what’s safe, only what’s required, because trust has quietly eroded. Gallup also found that managers account for 70% of the variance in team engagement, a staggering figure that reinforces just how pivotal leadership trust is. When people don’t feel psychologically safe, they shut down. Not dramatically. Quietly. Invisibly. What’s breaking isn’t the org chart. It’s the ability to speak plainly and be heard. And by the time it’s visible? The damage is already done, and someone calls for a restructure. “Low engagement is estimated to cost the global economy $8.8 trillion, 9% of global GDP.” Gallup, State of the Global Workplace 2023 So What’s the Real Takeaway? If you’re seeing performance issues, before you jump to headcount, ask a different question: Do the leaders in this business feel safe enough to tell the truth? Because if they don’t, the data you’re reading isn’t real. And if they do, but you’re not acting on it, then they’ll stop telling you. Leadership doesn’t fail in obvious ways anymore. It fails in the gap between what people know and what they’re allowed to say. And the price of that silence? Missed opportunity. Reputational damage. Cultural decay. Sometimes, the problem isn’t who you hired. It’s what you’ve made it unsafe to say.

The Energy’s Gone, But Everything Still Looks Fine

By John Elliott • May 27, 2025
Why Culture Decay in FMCG Is a Silent Threat to Performance It doesn’t start with resignations. It starts with something much quieter. A head of operations stops raising small problems in weekly meetings. A sales lead no longer defends a risky new SKU. A team member who used to push ideas now just delivers what they’re asked. Nothing breaks. Nothing explodes. It just... slows. And from the outside, everything still looks fine. The illusion of stability In food and beverage manufacturing, where teams run lean and pressure is constant, performance often becomes the proxy for culture. If products are shipping, if margins are intact, if reviews are clean, the assumption is: we're good. But that assumption is dangerous. According to Gallup's 2023 global workplace report, only 23% of employees worldwide are actively engaged, while a staggering 59% are "quiet quitting ", doing just enough to get by, with no emotional investment. And in Australia? Engagement has declined three years in a row. In a mid-market FMCG business, those numbers rarely show up on dashboards. But they show up in other ways: New ideas stall at the concept phase Team members stop challenging assumptions Execution becomes rigid instead of agile Everyone is "aligned" but no one is energised And by the time the board sees a drop in revenue, the belief that once drove the business is already gone. The emotional cost of cultural silence One thing we don’t talk about enough is what this does to leadership. When energy drains, leaders often become isolated. Not because they want to be, but because the organisation has lost the instinct to challenge, question, or stretch. I’ve seen CEOs second-guessing themselves in rooms full of agreement. Seen GMs miss red flags because nobody wanted to be "the problem". Seen founders mistake quiet delivery for deep buy-in. The emotional toll of unspoken disengagement is real. You’re surrounded by people doing their jobs. But no one’s really in it with you. And eventually, leaders stop stretching too. We train people to disengage without realising it Here’s the contradiction that most organisations won’t admit: We say we want initiative, but we reward obedience. The safest people get promoted The optimists get extra work The truth-tellers get labelled difficult So people learn to conserve energy. They learn not to challenge ideas that won’t land. They learn not to flag risks that won’t be heard. And over time, they stop showing up with their full selves. This isn't resistance. It's protection. And it becomes the default when innovation is punished, risk isn't buffered, and "alignment" becomes code for silence. Boards rarely see it in time Boards don’t ask about belief. They ask about performance. But belief is what drives performance. When culture begins to fade, it doesn't look like chaos. It looks like calm. It looks like compliance. But underneath, the organisation is hollowing out. By the time a board notices the energy is gone, it’s often because the financials have turned, and by then, the people who could've helped reverse the trend have already left. In a 2022 Deloitte study on mid-market leadership, 64% of executives said culture was their top priority, yet only 27% said they measured it with any rigour . If you don’t track it, you won’t protect it. And if you don’t protect it, don’t be surprised when it disappears. The real risk: you might not get it back Here’s what no one likes to admit: Not all cultures recover. You can try rebrands. You can run engagement campaigns. You can roll out leadership frameworks and off-sites and feedback platforms. But if belief has been neglected for too long, the quiet ones you depended on, the culture carriers, the stretchers, the informal leaders, they’re already checked out. Some have left. Some are still there physically but not emotionally. And some have started coaching others to play it safe. Once that happens, you're not rebuilding. You're replacing. So what do you do? Don’t listen for noise. Listen for absence. Absence of challenge. Absence of stretch. Absence of belief. Ask yourself: When was the last time someone in the business pushed back? Not rudely, but bravely? When did someone offer an idea that made others uncomfortable? When did a leader admit they were unsure and ask for help? Those are your indicators. Because healthy culture isn’t silent. It’s alive. It vibrates with tension, disagreement, contribution and care. If everything looks fine, but no one’s really leaning in? That’s your problem. And by the time it shows up in the numbers,t might already be too late.