Direct-to-consumer sales play a key role for hydration brand Liquid I.V. because of how widely available its products are through other retailers.
Aaron Jones, vice president of ecommerce for the brand, told Digital Commerce 360 that Liquid I.V. must have a “unique value proposition” on its DTC website, liquid-iv.com. In addition to its DTC website, Liquid I.V. largely sells wholesale and through Amazon’s marketplace.
It was one of the top-selling brands on Amazon by units sold during the marketplace’s Prime Day sales event this year. Although Liquid I.V. did not share specifics about its number of units sold, third-party research firm Numerator identified the brand as the third-largest seller on Amazon by volume during the Prime Day 2025 sales event.
What Liquid I.V. does differently when selling DTC
In addition to selling on Amazon’s marketplace, Liquid I.V. sells direct-to-consumer and wholesale through retailers including Walmart, Target, Costco and Kroger.
“Overall, we are more developed on Amazon than we are in direct-to-consumer, and that’s mainly a factor of the different roles that the channels have to play within our strategy,” Jones said.
Liquid I.V.’s direct-to-consumer site is more for loyalists and consumers still learning about the brand, Jones said.
“We can’t win on shipping,” he said. “We ship a lot slower than an Amazon or other online retailers. It’s not easy to get to. People don’t think in their head, ‘Hey, I’m gonna type in liquid-iv.com‘ as a first-stop shop for something that’s available everywhere.”
Instead, Liquid I.V. focuses on three key ways to make it “exciting to shop” on its site:
- Its subscription program
- Its “endless shelf”
- Customer experience
The endless shelf refers to Liquid I.V. holding onto all of its flavors. That’s especially key for loyalists who can no longer find their favorite flavors elsewhere.
As part of the customer experience, Jones said Liquid I.V. launched a partnership with Formula 1 that included adding a fully interactive racing game on its website. The game got more than 50,000 engagements as consumers sought to win free tickets to the Las Vegas Grand Prix.
How Liquid I.V. leverages subscriptions
One commonality between how Liquid I.V. sells on its DTC website versus on Amazon is that it offers subscriptions through both. However, the way it uses subscriptions differs by channel.
On Amazon, subscriptions are a large portion of Liquid I.V.’s business — and a growing one, Jones said. Consumers can opt to “Subscribe & Save” rather than making a one-time purchase of Liquid I.V. products.
And they can do that on Liquid I.V., too — but with more flexibility. Consumers making a subscription purchase on Liquid I.V.’s site have the option to mix and match flavors.
Liquid I.V. promotes its subscription options on its direct-to-consumer (DTC) website. Image credit: liquid-iv.com
That helps make Liquid I.V.’s DTC site more flexible, which in turn makes consumers happier and more likely to convert, Jones said. It “allows consumers to pick whatever they want, put it together and get it delivered in a really forecastable way.”
Jones declined to share which company powers the technology behind its DTC site’s subscriptions.
“But I will say that subscription, customization and putting the power into the consumer’s hands is so critical,” Jones said. “You would think it would be a pretty standard, copy-and-paste solution that there would be available, but in reality, our brand is so catered to the consumer at every turn that we actually need a ton of customization that can’t be just found out of the box somewhere.”
Liquid I.V. uses a third-party logistics (3PL) company for its DTC sales fulfillment. That 3PL also fulfills its DTC subscription sales. Liquid I.V. relies on the networks of its partners for its wholesale business. Additionally, “if inventory’s light in a network somewhere, we might use our own network to satisfy customer orders,” Jones said. “So sometimes it’s a hybrid model.”
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