In this week's Lidl advertising you can find a matress from DTC brand Emma – The Sleep Company. Normally I am super doubtful to these offers from a brand perspective:
👨‍💻 No direct customer access and data
💶 Significant price discount vs DTC offering (149 Lidl/ 219 Emma direct)
🏪 No premium brand environment

But this time things might be different. With inflation hitting consumers straight in the face, layoffs in the news and and a possible recession on the horizon discount retailers will be the market share winners in a downturn scenario:
🥕 No matter how bad things will come people will always be grocery shopping
🥫 Consumers will shift from upscale chains towards discounters
🏀 Proven channel for non-essential goods

Aldi, Lidl and co could become the new hot sales channel for online and DTC brands. While e.g. Aldi has been very cautious with brand their biggest rival Lidl is extremely agressive when it comes to branded products. My favorite DIY example is Fiskars. The have a really well executed product line for discounters (as far as I can judge). Priced really aggressively it is available at Lidl during one week and permanently in the Lidl online store.