How WCRC ranked Australia & New Zealand's Most Trusted D2C Brands 2026

The WCRC D2C Trust Score

Direct-to-consumer brands succeed when a stranger trusts them enough to buy for the first time and then comes back. So WCRC built the WCRC D2C Trust Score, which gives most of its weight to Consumer Trust, Brand Recall, Positioning and Brand Love. Together these four carry 80% of each score. Every brand is scored out of 100.

Three rules

1. Founded in Australia or New Zealand and still owned and controlled there. Brands bought by groups from outside the two countries are not eligible. Australia and New Zealand are treated as one market, so a New Zealand-born brand with an Australian owner qualifies, and the reverse.
2. Sells mainly direct to consumers. The brand was born selling direct (online, by app, by phone or by mail order) and still does, or it sells mainly its own-label products through its own stores and website. Brands that sell mainly through other retailers, store chains that mostly sell other companies' brands, restaurants and referral sites are not eligible.
3. Publishes its revenue. The brand or its owner has lodged revenue with the ASX, the NZX, ASIC or the New Zealand Companies Office, or the company has publicly stated its own revenue, for a full financial year ending in 2025 or 2026.

Some companies do not publish how their sales split between direct and other channels. In those cases WCRC judged from the company's own description of how it sells, and says so in the brand's watch-out.

WCRC reviewed more than 170 direct-to-consumer brands from the two countries, and the 100 that qualified are ranked: 80 from Australia and 20 from New Zealand.

Notable brands not ranked

• Afterpay: Founded in Sydney, but owned by Block, Inc. of the United States since 2022.
• The Iconic: Founded in Sydney, but owned by Global Fashion Group, which is registered in Luxembourg.
• Aesop: Founded in Melbourne, but owned by L'Oréal of France since 2023.
• Zimmermann: Founded in Sydney, but majority owned by Advent International of the United States since 2023.
• Country Road: Founded in Melbourne, but owned by Woolworths Holdings of South Africa.
• Trade Me: Founded in New Zealand, but owned by Apax Partners of the United Kingdom since 2019.
• Youi: Owned by OUTsurance of South Africa.
• Eucalyptus (Juniper, Pilot, Kin, Software): Founded in Sydney, but bought by Hims & Hers Health of the United States in June 2026.
• Canva, Cotton On, Who Gives A Crap, Showpo, DISSH, Haigh's Chocolates and others: WCRC could not find published revenue for a full financial year ending in 2025 or 2026.