Consumer product super-conglomerate Procter & Gamble has just jumped into the direct-to-consumer market with the launch of their generically-named eStore.

The impact of this move on the retail world is potentially huge; it threatens the (already waning) relevance of brick & mortar stores by (again, potentially) undercutting them pretty dramatically on price.  This early effort doesn’t seem to be pushing the envelope on that front, but time will tell how low online prices can go when the middle man is removed from the equation.

… we see a couple of takeaways relative to our personal business model.  First, we’ve already been experiencing a rise in manufacturers entering into DTC marketing and it’s something that we encourage.  There’s no better way to control your brand by talking directly to your consumers.  Second, should this trend catch on, it will become a lot easier for all online merchants to compete.  It levels the playing field.  If all (or most) of your competition is online, you can compete head-to-head, without having to concern yourself with the apples to oranges comparisons that come with competing against brick & mortar operations.

(via TechCrunch)