Behind The Tool: Yarden from Varos

Varos is a data-driven platform that offers benchmarking and competitive analysis services for Direct-to-Consumer (D2C) brands. It helps D2C brands gain valuable insights into their marketing performance, conversions, retention, and revenue by comparing their key performance indicators (KPIs) with those of their competitors in the same industry and spending category. 

Varos is the largest e-commerce and SaaS data co-op globally, with over 4,500 companies participating, amounting to $4 billion in annual ad spend and $15 billion in revenue tracked

Through Varos, brands and agencies can access real-time market data, allowing them to make data-driven decisions and set strategic goals effectively. The platform helps users understand whether spikes or dips in their metrics are universal industry trends or specific to their business, enabling them to uncover actionable opportunities for improvement. 

With Varos, D2C brands can optimize their marketing efforts, allocate budgets more efficiently, and stay competitive in the rapidly evolving digital landscape, ultimately enhancing their overall performance and ROI.

LET’S GET STARTED WITH OUR CHAT WITH THE FOUNDER OF VAROS, YARDEN.

Where did the idea for Varos come from? You have an interesting background pre-Varos in private equity and consulting - how did that experience come into play with building Varos?

This was a big problem when I was working in private equity. In diligence, we could never really have a grasp on if a company is efficient or not and if there are optimizations to be made. The main way we were trying to do that is to compare to other companies, but there was never any data available. 

What is the #1 pain point you solve for your users? Before Varos, how would a D2C brand go about finding such comprehensive market data to base KPIs against?

- Companies are very data driven, but only with their own data. They have no sense of the health of their business in the context of the broader market;Varos provides an objective view for that.

- Varos tactically tells you where to improve relative to the differences you have in KPIs to competitors.

- Companies can now answer the question,  “was this spike in ___ due to me or the market?” That answer leads directly to action.

Before Varos, you likely relied on virtually useless blog posts that have some benchmark data but were mainly built for lead gen and don’t go into any granularity (i.e., no real normalization to sub-category, size, product price, region, demographics, etc.). All of the content out there, including heftier (and often expensive) industry reports, are just capturing a moment in time and quickly become stale. The other option would be to call a friend.

How do D2C brands actively use Varos? And how frequently are they leveraging the platform to guide business decisions - quarterly, monthly, etc?

D2C brands usually leverage Varos on a weekly basis. They’re checking how they performed last week compared to the market,putting this data in their weekly reports, and making strategic adjustments. Every few weeks they’re doing a deeper analysis of where they can improve and applying optimizations to their marketing strategy and creative. 

Who is your ideal customer (eCommerce brand side) - what is their revenue size, stage of growth, etc? Are they already using market data at all?

We have companies in eCommerce and SaaS across all verticals, ranging in revenue from $1M-$200M. Oftentimes it’s the CEO, CMO, Head of Harketing or Head of eCommerce that uses Varos. 

They are not already using market data, other than traffic data (i.e., Similarweb). This type of information and the quality needed to make decisions is simply not available publicly. 

What’s the ultimate vision for the tool?

The ultimate vision for Varos is that you look at your brand’s data compared to our market data in the same cadence and with the same importance that you look at your own data.