Before grabbing her morning coffee, Lindsay Jackson, the chief marketing officer at Made In cookware, opens up Instagram. She goes straight to the brand’s DMs, where, typically, 20-30 customers have submitted questions and comments about everything from product dimensions to how to care for a saucier. She then settles in and reads them all.
“[The inbox] is the best place for us to keep our finger on the pulse of what our consumers are talking about, reacting to [and] asking of us,” Jackson told Modern Retail. “DMs are, in my opinion, the best place to keep yourself honest, because the consumers are giving you unfiltered feedback 24/7, 365 [days a year].”
Made In is one of a number of brands turning to Instagram DMs to collect feedback, talk with shoppers and source ideas for new products. While brands could commission a study or hire an agency to gain consumer insights, doing so can be expensive and time-consuming, executives told Modern Retail. Instead, by reading and responding to shoppers’ DMs, brands can get a quick and less costly look into their customers’ minds.
It’s a tactic that’s proving valuable for emerging brands, as well as seasoned ones. Plainspeak, a women’s supplement brand, launched earlier this summer and is sending a free sample to anyone in the U.S. who DMs the brand on Instagram. Plainspeak has sent out thousands of single-serve sachets to date, co-founder Sara Brooks told Modern Retail. But what’s been most valuable about the tactic hasn’t been volume — it’s been the conversations with recipients over DMs, Brooks said.
“Women reach out asking to try the product, but they also ask questions about ingredients, how to use it, why we formulated it the way we did, subscriptions [or] serving sizes,” she said. “Sometimes, they just want to tell us that the brand resonates with them.” Brooks or her co-founder responds to all messages. “Those conversations give us a level of insight that would be very difficult to get from a traditional marketing campaign,” she said.
Plainspeak is now preparing for a broader commercial launch, so these DMs are proving to be a “very large, very real-world feedback loop,” Brooks said. For instance, right now, the brand’s Strength Water supplement is subscription-only, but some people have asked whether they can buy one bag à la carte. Others have asked why there are 18 servings instead of 30, if the product is something you can take daily. (The answer: Not everyone takes servings consistently.) Plainspeak is using these insights “to inform how the product and brand evolve,” Brooks said.
Similarly, adaptive intimates company Springrose turns to DMs to collect customer feedback about its bras and underwear. Founder Nicole Cuervo reads every message — she said she gets 10-20 a week — and relays findings to the rest of the team. The DMs are “less customer support, in terms of, ‘Let’s help you with an exchange,’ and more like, ‘Oh, you found this part of the product not ideal.’ Can we then take that back into product development in the next batch of production?” she said.
Springrose, founded in 2020, also uses DMs for product testing. It sends prototypes to customers and asks them to send feedback via DM. The strategy tends to be more effective than email, Cuervo said, because people seem more willing to send “chunks of text” via Instagram. It has led to some valuable insights. Through speaking with users about its sports bra, Springrose ended up changing the fabric of the bra, the direction of the bra’s magnet and the positioning of one of its gripping devices.
Cuervo shared that Springrose also gets requests for new products through DMs. “For example, we’ve been asked for adaptive chest binders, which is definitely something we want to do, and it’s on our roadmap,” she said. At the same time, Cuervo explained that the brand wants to take the time to do proper research before launching a new SKU. And, she added, intimates can be personal by nature. “So, we try to see: Is there consensus?” she said.
Sproos, a DTC showerhead company founded in 2020, gathers requests for new colorways through Instagram DMs and comments. Sproos launched three showerhead colors in 2024 and decided to add two new colors every year. Periodically, the brand makes an Instagram post soliciting customers’ ideas for new shades. Some folks respond by DM, too, and the brand then runs top results by “super fans” on its Instagram broadcast channel, co-founder Benjamin Fix told Modern Retail.
This tactic is how Sproos ended up launching orange and lilac showerheads, Fix said. “We look to see if there’s a trend,” he said. “If there are 20 people saying, ‘We want pink,’ then it becomes pink. We don’t try to make it too complex.”
Sproos also uses DMs and comments to understand people who aren’t its core customer, Fix said. He explained that some people write to the brand to request a more muted color, like silver, for an older relative. That feedback helps Sproos figure out where it could expand. Similarly, while Sproos is popular with renters, it’s getting more requests from homeowners. Many ask for shower valves in the same color as the showerheads. “We’re not there yet, because it requires a plumber,” Fix said. “But, we start to marinate [on that] and get the feedback.”
Even companies that sell multiple brands are finding DMs useful. Fashion Pass, a clothing and accessory rental subscription service that launched in 2016, will restock styles based on repeated DM requests, a spokesperson confirmed to Modern Retail. Feedback on fit (like “runs small” or “need more XL”) also impacts what size runs the company buys. Similarly, consistent negative fit feedback means Fashion Pass may not restock a particular style or brand.
Brands that have been around for decades are finding DMs to be powerful tools, too. Pink Chicken, an apparel brand for children and adults, is celebrating its 20th anniversary this year. Each day and night, its founder, Stacey Fraser, gets on Instagram, reads through DMs and writes customers back. She typically gets a dozen messages a day. “That’s one of my favorite things to do,” Fraser told Modern Retail. “That connection keeps me grounded and keeps me connected to the ‘why’ behind all of it.”
Fraser explained that Pink Chicken takes patterns of feedback seriously, and that when customer comments and messages align with sales, “It’s a no-brainer to make a change.” For instance, last fall, customers asked for the Jennifer dress in more patterns, so for spring 2026, Pink Chicken added a floral and a conversational print. Pink Chicken also tends to roll out short sleeves or long sleeves for fall. But, after customers requested more sleeveless styles for back-to-school, “We gave it to them, and it’s been wildly successful,” Fraser said.
Bra brand Evelyn & Bobbie, which was founded in 2013, has received many DMs asking for a smaller band and a larger cup size, dating back to 2022. These insights, along with other feedback, were part of the inspiration behind the brand’s Busty bra, which launched this year. “What’s remarkable is how often patterns in our Instagram DMs and survey responses emerge at the same time,” founder Bree McKeen told Modern Retail. “When we begin seeing the same request consistently across both channels, we know that … there is a real unmet need and a signal to start innovating.”
Sometimes only a few requests can be enough to spur change, explained Jackson of Made In. She mentioned instances in which the brand has received comments and DMs like, “My scrambled eggs always stick on this pan.” In response, Made In’s in-house content team films a video showing how to solve the issue and publishes it on social media.
“There are some real benefits to moving at the pace of the internet and the pace of our consumer,” Jackson said. “We’re not briefing an agency and using an insights report to say, ‘People have issues with stainless steel.’ We’re like, ‘Watch us do this thing. Here’s how you do it.’”
There have also been times where one person’s comments and DMs inspire merchandise changes. For months, one of Made In’s longtime chef customers, Fermín Núñez, kept asking for a fish basket for his next restaurant. Made In didn’t make premium fish baskets, finding them too niche for home cooks. “Well, it turned into a two-year-long troll [campaign],” Jackson said, laughing. “So, of course, eventually, we just had to start developing a fish basket. … Now, we can’t keep it in stock.”
Ultimately, executives agree that DMs and other free, direct feedback are proving invaluable to innovation. As Jackson put it, “The fastest way to hear from your customer on what’s resonating and not is to read their comments directly.”
What we’re reading
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