ESSOR: the making of DNVBs in the era of omnichannel and AI

The success of BOKA, a fluoride-free nano-hydroxyapatite toothpaste that has become a best-seller in the United States, is not a marketing anomaly. It is the product of a well-established mechanism, that of Essor, a group born in the Amazon ecosystem, which claims around 400 million dollars in turnover and operates around twenty brands, mainly in beauty and well-being.

We welcome Pierre Poignant, former manager of Alibaba in Southeast Asia and now CEO of Essor, to decipher the strengths of e-commerce in 2026, in particular on the DNVB model.

Testing on Amazon as a learning matrix, structuring data as a central asset, accelerating through physical retail, integrating AI into all operations and anticipating the rise of agentic commerce: the method is less intuitive than it seems.

Through Essor, another definition of the DNVB emerges. Built less on story, more on architecture, closer to an industrial logic, where product, distribution and technology are thought of as a coherent system.

Amazon as an industrial matrix

BOKA is the example of a new generation DNVB. The launch did not take place in stores, but on Amazon. The platform served as a laboratory with customer reviews which structured product improvement and explicitly expressed their expectations.

In a market dominated by groups like Procter & Gamble, the entry by Amazon made it possible to avoid head-on confrontation on the shelves. The traction obtained online quickly became an argument for physical SEO at Walmart and Target which amplified the success achieved for Boka.

The DNVB model changes in nature here, and it is no longer a question of “circumventing” traditional distribution, but on the contrary of reintegrating it once market proof has been established.

The end of the mid-range

Among the significant trends, Pierre Poignant decodes a structural phenomenon observed since 2022: the polarization of consumption.

On the one hand, the consumer scrutinizes the price, compares, waits for the opportunity. On the other hand, he agrees to pay for a differentiating or desirable product. A movement which is disinterested in the mid-range, the big loser in the sector.

To succeed in your DNVB, the positioning must be immediately understandable. In a polarized market, where the consumer constantly arbitrates between price and desire, ambiguity is paid for in cash. A brand can no longer afford to be “a little premium” or “reasonably accessible”. It must occupy a clear, defensible and coherent territory across all of its channels. This readability is not just about marketing; it conditions the pricing policy, the acquisition strategy, and the ability to maintain margins.

Omnichannel: from slogan to orchestration

Although the customer journey is fragmented, it is now perfectly measurable. Discovery on TikTok, purchase on Amazon, restocking in store. The channels feed each other. Essor observes the direct impact of a viral video on Amazon sales and adjusts its investments accordingly.

In this configuration, retail media takes a central place. Walmart has invested heavily in its online advertising capabilities, competing with Amazon on its home turf. For brands, this means increased sophistication in budgetary decisions and a unified reading of performance.

Omnichannel can no longer be a juxtaposition of channels; it requires real orchestration.

Subscription as infrastructure

Another trend, subscription to everyday products has become structural, particularly via Amazon Prime. For a DNVB, this provides revenue visibility, better logistics planning and stabilized customer relationships. This emerging dimension in Europe should develop in the coming years, a mechanism which profoundly modifies the management of cash flow and growth.

Agentic commerce: moving the interface

One of the most forward-looking points raised with Pierre Poignant obviously concerns the integration of AI agents into platforms.

Amazon deploys its Rufus solution; if Essor notices a drop in traffic on its product pages, it is without a correlated drop in sales. In other words, a growing share of transactions would take place through conversational interaction rather than traditional navigation.

At the same time, OpenAI’s announcements around conversational commerce suggest a similar development: the act of purchasing could take place without going through a traditional product page.

For DNVBs, this involves a new discipline, starting with fine data structuring, AI compatibility, the ability to be recommended by an agent rather than optimized for an internal search engine.

Internal AI: industrialization rather than storytelling

AI is not just a marketing subject, it is integrated into the creative studio, the supply chain, customer service and the development of the company’s internal tools.

While creative teams initially saw these tools as a potential threat, they are now using them to speed up production and focus more on concept and quality.

More structurally, the increasing ease of building internal applications weakens certain software intermediaries. If a company can connect its data and quickly develop its own tools, part of the SaaS dependency becomes arbitrable.

The transformation is organizational before being technological.

A DNVB more industrial than narrative

What Essor demonstrates is the evolution of the DNVB model. The first waves relied heavily on storytelling and direct-to-consumer marketing. The model is today more disciplined with the most complete control possible of the product, very detailed data management, omnichannel integration to change scale, and rapid adoption of AI.

BOKA’s success is not that of a “cool” brand, but of a product that meets consumer expectations, based on a solid architecture. In the era of omnichannel and AI, the DNVB that works is no longer just the one that speaks well to the consumer. It is the one that understands its channels, structures its data and anticipates the movement of the commercial interface towards agents capable of buying for it.