Retention is the new growth strategy 🤝

https://www.dtclive.com/ ** The newsletter for actionable insights and brand growth ------------------------------------------------------------ ** Welcome back, ------------------------------------------------------------ ** Are you leaving money on the table every time a customer hits "order confirmed"? ------------------------------------------------------------ This week, we're looking at why the post-purchase experience is an undervalued growth lever in DTC, and how brand loyalty is falling, causing retention loss, and what you can do about it. We've also got something sharp from our trusted partners at Rainy City Agency on a Meta update you'll want to action today. ** 🔁 Post-purchase is where the real money is ------------------------------------------------------------ Most of the conversations we're having right now are about acquisition. Which channels, which creative, which audiences? All important stuff. But there's a quieter opportunity that tends to get overlooked in the process: what happens after someone places their first order. The data keeps pointing to the same uncomfortable truth: the cost of winning a new customer is five times higher than keeping an existing one. Which means the brands getting the most out of their marketing spend are treating the moment after purchase as the start of a relationship, rather than the end of a transaction. https://www.dtclive.com A few of the things we're seeing work well for brands right now: ** Onboarding flows that build habit ------------------------------------------------------------ For products that involve a routine, like supplements, skincare or fitness gear, the first 30 days are where the habit forms. Brands adding a simple onboarding flow after purchase, like tips, usage prompts, "how's it going?" check-ins, are seeing meaningful lifts in repeat purchase rates. It's a relatively small investment for a significant return. ** Post-purchase surveys as a growth tool ------------------------------------------------------------ One question sent 2 days after delivery, for example, "What nearly stopped you from buying?" consistently surfaces insights that reshape your PDP copy, your ads, and your objection handling. Smarter replenishment timing If you sell a consumable product, it's worth auditing when your replenishment emails actually go out versus when customers are likely to be running low. A well-timed reminder a few days before they run out lands very differently from one that arrives two weeks after they've already reordered elsewhere. The takeaway for Q1: before you increase your Meta spend, make sure you're extracting full value from the customers you've already paid to acquire. The economics are significantly better, and the compounding effect over a year is enormous. ** Brand loyalty is falling, and how brands are responding to it ------------------------------------------------------------ If your repeat purchase rate has felt harder to move recently, you're not imagining it. New data from SAP shows that true brand loyalty, defined as unwavering, consistent support for a brand, dropped from 34% to 29% between 2024 and 2025 (https://emarsys.com/learn/blog/customer-loyalty-statistics/) . The causes aren't hard to diagnose. Consumers have more choice than ever, switching costs are low, and five years of heavy discounting across the industry has trained shoppers to wait for the best price rather than return out of genuine affinity. So, what are the brands that are actually holding onto their customers doing differently? They're making loyalty worth something again. Ouai, the hair and body care brand, is a good example. Rather than doubling down on a traditional points programme, they're moving toward what CEO Hannah Beals describes as "the gamification of loyalty." The idea is to reward customers not just for purchases, but for reviews, social engagement, repeat buying, and even wearing the brand's products in content. It's a subtle but meaningful shift in philosophy: from rewarding spend to rewarding the relationship. And the SAP data supports the direction: almost half of consumers who describe themselves as loyal to a brand show it through word of mouth and referrals, not just repeat purchases. ** Three things to audit in your own retention setup this week: ------------------------------------------------------------ Audit what your loyalty programme actually rewards. You're potentially missing your most engaged customers; the ones leaving reviews, sharing on social, and recommending you to friends. Those behaviours are worth recognising. Think about non-monetary rewards. Early access to new products, exclusive content, personalised offers, these create a sense of belonging. Look at your post-purchase communication. A well-timed check-in, a personalised recommendation, or even a simple thank you can do more for retention than another points reminder. The brands that come out of this loyalty dip strongest will be the ones that used it as a prompt to deepen the relationship with their customers. ** The Meta update that could change how you find influencers ------------------------------------------------------------ https://www.rainycityagency.com/ James from Rainy City Agency flags a quiet but significant platform change that's worth your attention right now. Meta Creator Marketplace has just added a genuinely useful feature: it now auto-populates a list of influencers who already follow your brand. That used to require paid discovery tools, manual scraping, or a lot of guesswork. Now it's built in. To access it: Ads Manager → Partnership Ads Hub → Creator Marketplace → Lists Why does this matter? Warm creators, people who already know and like your brand, convert at a significantly higher rate, typically around 95% better than cold outreach. They're lower friction, their content feels more authentic, and they're usually cheaper to work with. Before you go chasing a cold influencer with a big following and bigger fees, check who's already in your corner. It's a much smarter place to start. Want help setting this up, or for James to take a look at your ads? Book a Call (https://calendly.com/james-jago-rainycityagency/rainy-city-meta-ads-growth-discovery-call-clone) https://www.linkedin.com/in/james-jago-b80653101/ Contributed by: James Jago (https://www.linkedin.com/in/james-jago-b80653101/) , Head of Paid at Rainy City Agency (https://www.rainycityagency.com/) https://www.dtclive.com/podcast https://open.spotify.com/show/2O1n5chhtJrha1hH4uFjc8?si=69233254a6a8410a Follow on Spotify (https://open.spotify.com/show/2O1n5chhtJrha1hH4uFjc8?si=69233254a6a8410a) https://www.youtube.com/@dtc-live Subscribe on YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/@dtc-live) ** DTC Live On Air: ------------------------------------------------------------ ** In Conversation with Henri Lloyd ------------------------------------------------------------ RELEASING TOMORROW! We sat down with Harry, eCom Manager at Henri Lloyd, the iconic British sailing and heritage brand, to talk about what it actually takes to evolve a legacy brand for the DTC era. If you're navigating the tension between brand heritage and modern growth tactics, this one's for you. ** Also This Week… ------------------------------------------------------------ * Sumwon Studios, the group behind Missguided, has tripled revenue to $300m. Founder Nitin Passi has quietly built one of the more interesting models in fashion right now: on-demand production, real-time consumer data, and no overproduction. Units sold jumped 225% in 2025 to 25 million. The headline is the growth, but the more interesting thread for DTC brands is the underlying model: test small, listen to demand, scale only what works. * Lululemon opens its 13th London store, and it's leaning hard into community. The brand opened a 7,000 sq ft flagship on High Street Kensington last Thursday, and the interesting part is the strategy. Rather than a straight product launch, the opening weekend centred on community runs, local gym partnerships, and neighbourhood coffee collabs. It's a reminder that for DTC brands going physical, the store is increasingly the marketing channel, not just a sales point. *|POLL:RATING:H|* How relevant did you find the content in this edition? *|END:POLL|* See you next Thursday, Himani The DTC Live Team https://www.brightpearl.com/ ** #1 Retail Operating System ------------------------------------------------------------ Multi-channel merchants and wholesalers turn to Brightpearl to streamline operations, boost efficiency and stay ahead in a fast-changing retail landscape. Learn more (https://www.brightpearl.com/) https://www.dtclive.com/ https://www.instagram.com/dtclive/?hl=en https://uk.linkedin.com/company/dtclive https://www.youtube.com/@dtc-live https://www.tiktok.com/@dtclive Copyright (C) *|CURRENT_YEAR|* *|LIST:COMPANY|*. All rights reserved. *|IFNOT:ARCHIVE_PAGE|**|LIST:DESCRIPTION|**|END:IF|* Our mailing address is: *|IFNOT:ARCHIVE_PAGE|**|LIST_ADDRESS|**|END:IF|* Want to change how you receive these emails? 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