DTC Newsletter 📦

Direct-to-consumer insights from top performance marketers. Read by leaders at @CocaCola @Nike @KelloggsUS & @Unilever
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[DTC Newsletter 📦 @DTCNewsletter]

What happens when you put 40 DTC founders and operators in a room together?

A LOT of interesting conversations about where ecommerce is headed.

Last week, DTC Dines returned to Vancouver, and a few topics kept coming up:

→ Performance UGC: Brands are exploring creator models that pay based on Shopify GMV generated. More content to test, with less upfront risk, although paid attribution gets tricky.

→ Attribution: For brands selling through DTC, retail, wholesale, and Amazon, understanding what's actually driving growth is getting harder.

→ Retention: Rising Meta costs have more operators focused on email, SMS, and subscriptions to get more value from existing customers.

One of the best parts was watching founders who've been building in the same city and category for years finally meet and compare notes.

Huge thanks to @klaviyo and @dataships for helping make it happen!

Stay tuned for more DTC Dines coming in 2027 👀🥂

[DTC Newsletter 📦 @DTCNewsletter]

A protein brand kept getting support tickets about bags bursting in transit. Once the team had time to dig, the fix was a new bag vendor. Codee Burton of ShipBob on what clean data and freed-up time can find.

Get the whole discussion in the latest episode of the DTC Podcast: https://t.co/vaDwaWPAxj

[DTC Newsletter 📦 @DTCNewsletter]

"If the first thing a customer hears is from the carrier and not from you, that's a problem." Mike Fazio of AfterShip on why customers remember how they felt while waiting for a late package.

We dive deeper into your customers’ shipping experience in this episode of the DTC Podcast: https://t.co/vaDwaWQ8mR

[DTC Newsletter 📦 @DTCNewsletter]

"An overpromise can win you a click, but it can lose you repeat customers." Codee Burton of ShipBob on why your delivery date should come from where your inventory sits, not from a 5 to 7 day window.

Catch the latest episode of the DTC Podcast: https://t.co/5oCXjiW9EP

[DTC Newsletter 📦 @DTCNewsletter]

One of the biggest BFCM advertising mistakes is showing the exact same creative to everyone.

A shopper who's never heard of your brand and someone who's visited your product page five times are making two very different buying decisions.

Yet plenty of brands are serving both audiences the same "30% OFF SITEWIDE" graphic!

Instead, try:

For cold audiences, your creative needs to do more work. Show the product, demonstrate why it's worth buying, and give people a reason to care about the offer.

For warm audiences, get straight to the point. They already know your product, so make the discount impossible to miss.

And with Meta CPMs climbing, creative variety matters more than ever!

One Pilothouse account actually saw CPMs decrease year over year during Q4 after investing heavily in a wider mix of video creative.

Founder selfies, UGC, warehouse footage, lo-fi product videos. All of it.

The takeaway for BFCM: your offer should be obvious in every ad, but the way you communicate it should change depending on who's watching.

[DTC Newsletter 📦 @DTCNewsletter]

Is AppLovin living up to the hype? 👀

Cadense CEO Johannes Sauer shares how the platform delivers ROAS comparable to Meta at roughly $3,000 to $4,000 in weekly spend, while scaling remains limited. He also explains why the non-skippable format works for storytelling.

Hear more on the DTC Podcast: https://t.co/vJ8no4Dwga

[DTC Newsletter 📦 @DTCNewsletter]

Traditional TV advertising might be worth another look! 📺

Cadense CEO Johannes Sauer explains how affordable linear TV campaigns help reach older customers, including those without email addresses, while longer commercials give the brand time to explain its product.

Catch the full conversation on the DTC Podcast: https://t.co/vJ8no4E45I

[DTC Newsletter 📦 @DTCNewsletter]

Want more customers to actually finish your checkout surveys? 📊

Cadense co-founder Johannes Sauer shares how starting with easy demographic questions helped the brand achieve a 75% completion rate on an eight-question post-purchase survey, giving the team valuable customer insights.

Hear Johannes’ full strategy on the DTC Podcast: https://t.co/vJ8no4Dwga

[DTC Newsletter 📦 @DTCNewsletter]

Could pre-orders be the smartest way to launch a product? 👀

Johannes Sauer, CEO and co-founder of Cadense, explains how pre-orders helped validate demand before committing to production, with the brand selling two-thirds of its first container before shipping even began.

Hear the full breakdown on the DTC Podcast! https://t.co/vJ8no4E45I

[DTC Newsletter 📦 @DTCNewsletter]

BFCM is too important to wing. You need a plan!

Bring your goals, history, competitor activity, and live pacing together with @triplewhale's BFCM Command Center, then use Moby to see what needs attention while there’s still time to act.

Build the plan. Know when to change it.

Create your free account today! https://t.co/tdIUMelfKV #ad

[DTC Newsletter 📦 @DTCNewsletter]

As content becomes easier to produce, inbox competition is only getting tougher. 📈 On TWBERP, Jordan Gordon explains why segmentation, relevant messaging, and thoughtful email programming will become increasingly important as subscribers face growing volumes of repetitive promotional content.

Hear the full breakdown on TWBERP: https://t.co/Qhfa206xY8

[DTC Newsletter 📦 @DTCNewsletter]

What happens when brands actually respect their email subscribers? 📧
On TWBERP, Jordan Gordon walks through a real email list rewarming case study, sharing Klaviyo data and deliverability results to explore how sending practices and audience engagement can influence email performance.

Catch the full breakdown on TWBERP! https://t.co/Qhfa206xY8

[DTC Newsletter 📦 @DTCNewsletter]

Gmail is changing how promotional emails get prioritized. 📩
Today on TWBERP, Jordan explores how Gmail's new relevance-based sorting could impact email visibility as brands increase sending volume, with engagement signals playing a bigger role in which messages subscribers actually see.

Learn more and get ahead with TWBERP! https://t.co/Qhfa206xY8

[DTC Newsletter 📦 @DTCNewsletter]

→ Segment by engagement. Prioritize active subscribers and rethink how often you're emailing people who haven't clicked in months.

→ Audit your sending frequency. Look at whether additional campaigns are actually driving more unique clicks and revenue.

→ Make emails worth interacting with. Give subscribers relevant content, useful recommendations, and compelling reasons to click.

Get the full scoop from our resident email pro on TWBERP: https://t.co/Qhfa206xY8

[DTC Newsletter 📦 @DTCNewsletter]

Gmail changed how it sorts promotional emails. Let's talk about it.

ICYMI, Gmail's mobile Promotions tab now prioritizes emails by relevance rather than recency, so your latest campaign could appear BELOW an older email from your competitor.

For marketers relying on high email frequency, this could become a problem. Sending more emails doesn't necessarily mean more visibility, especially if subscribers aren't interacting with them!

So what should brands do? 👉

[DTC Newsletter 📦 @DTCNewsletter]

Where would you put an extra $100,000 during peak season?

@RuschDayne, co-founder and CEO of Vyper Industrial, says he’d push it toward TV, using lessons from previous inefficient spending days to invest earlier and build awareness around major cultural moments before Black Friday. 📺

This one’s worth the full listen on the DTC Podcast! https://t.co/nRjwBKSpFb

[DTC Newsletter 📦 @DTCNewsletter]

How can a growing brand borrow credibility from names customers already recognize?

@RuschDayne, co-founder and CEO of Vyper Industrial, explains how collaborations with Ford, Chevy, Hendrick Motorsports, and Realtree are shaping Vyper’s TV strategy around lifestyle, entertainment, and long-term brand building. 📺

Dayne breaks it down further on the DTC Podcast: https://t.co/nRjwBKRRPD

[DTC Newsletter 📦 @DTCNewsletter]

What happens when an abandoned cart gets a phone call from an actual person?
Vyper Industrial hired someone full-time to call and text potential customers, creating a personalized experience that can become something customers appreciate enough to talk about! 📞

Hear the full conversation with co-founder & CEO @RuschDayne on the DTC Podcast: https://t.co/nRjwBKSpFb

[DTC Newsletter 📦 @DTCNewsletter]

How much growth gets left on the table by demanding too much profit from every first purchase? @RuschDayne, co-founder and CEO of Vyper Industrial, explains how the team moved beyond its old 5 ROAS target and now scales against daily new customer CAC goals. 📈

Hear Dayne’s full take on the DTC Podcast: https://t.co/nRjwBKSpFb