Welcome back! 👋

Had a blast last week at eCommerceDay Argentina. It was great connecting with so many friends and amazing people from the local e-commerce ecosystem.

Before we start with today’s newsletter…

Last week I started the poll below.

What are most people saying so far?

They still haven't decided what their Q4 promo actually is. 😕

Four weeks out (can’t edit the poll title below).

What's yours? One click, and I'll publish what everyone says next week.

Now, let's get into this week's edition.

Topics we'll cover today:
💠 The Key To Unlocking Real Growth
💠 Calculate the Real ROI From Your Q4 Sales
💠 Latest news in the DTC space

After a few recent conversations with founders, I felt like writing this to clarify something important.

My background is in computer science.

That means I didn’t just learn how to code. I learned how to build systems.

Before writing a single line of code, we had to gather info, define use cases, and create diagrams for every scenario.

So, how does that relate to e-commerce?

Most brands go straight to the “writing code” part.

They build offers, ads, and emails without any real planning...just a collection of “educated” guesses.

Why?

Because it’s easier. And faster.

I get it. I’ve done it too.

For a while, that was enough.

The golden years of e-commerce (hello, COVID) created the illusion that all you needed to scale was a product, a site, and some decent ads.

But that’s over.

Now, many brands are struggling, not because their ads suddenly stopped working, but because they don’t know what other levers to pull.

Is it more creatives?
Higher discounts?
More channels?

Here’s the truth:

Most brands are sitting on massive hidden revenue that has nothing to do with ads.

Let’s talk about the real growth levers (hint: most are outside Ads Manager).

Sure, there are levers inside the ad account.

But those won’t make or break your business.

If your brand is stuck on a plateau, improving your ad strategy alone won’t fix it.

Something else is broken...

You can’t outspend poor positioning.

You can’t scale without a clear value ladder.

And you definitely can’t build loyalty if your customer experience sucks.

The brands that keep growing focus on three things:

→ Understanding their customers
→ Building a roadmap
→ Optimizing their product journey

This isn’t theory...it’s the difference between a lasting brand and one running on gut feeling.

The best brands create a constant feedback loop with their customers to improve everything: offers, products, site, ads, emails, CX, all of it.

They use post-purchase surveys, communities, meetups, interviews…not just DMs.

You want to deeply understand:

→ Who they are
→ What they want (and how they want it)
→ Where they hang out

That insight becomes your foundation for smarter marketing and better decisions.

Once you understand your customers, you can spot new product ideas, collabs, and opportunities.

Put those into a simple plan.

Can’t plan a full year? Start with 90 days, defining 1-2 goals and 3-5 key actions.

Don't forget including:

→ Product releases
→ Partnerships (brands, creators, or communities)
→ Brand positioning or content strategy

This gives you clarity on what matters most, so your team stops reacting and starts building.

When we think “optimization,” we go straight to ads, emails, or the website.

But few brands ever analyze the product journey.

Ask yourself:

What do customers buy on their second purchase after Product A?

Which products are frequently bought together?

This insight, combined with customer feedback, can transform how you:

→ Build offers
→ Design upsells
→ Write emails (and time them better)
→ Structure your website
→ Create ad angles that actually match buying behavior

That’s how you make every part of your system work together...not just harder, but smarter.

Once you understand your customers, map your plan, and know the product journey, then you apply that to your channels.

Ads. Email. Website. CX. Everything.

Because if growth feels stuck, stop tweaking ads for a second.

Zoom out.

Your next big lever isn’t inside Ads Manager...it’s hiding in your system.

And if you’re not sure which lever that is for your brand, that’s the conversation I have most often.

Before we talk, I’ll have gone through your site, your live ads and your customer journey.

On the call I’ll name the three places I think you’re leaking revenue, and what I’d do about each one.

You get that whether or not we end up working together.

👉 Book your Revenue Leak Check here

Advertisers want to make the most out of this holiday season.

Yet many of them don’t know whether they are “winning” or not.

So, what can they do about it? 🤔

It’s always a good practice to analyze how customers behave after BFCM in previous years.

What’s the best way to do that on Shopify?

The Customer Cohort Analysis.

It’s a chart that shows how your customers have behaved over time since their first order.

You can see:

💰 How much they spent on previous holiday seasons and in the following months
📈 Customer retention rate over time
👨‍👨‍👦 Number of customers over time
💲 Net and gross sales
💴 AOV

Among other metrics.

Well, with the above-mentioned information, you can:

🔮 Predict how your customers will behave in this BFCM if you offer similar deals
📈 Brainstorm ideas to improve last year’s performance (ie. increase AOV by offering higher-ticket deals or decrease the time between purchases)
🎯 Filter the data by channel and product name, among other options

Understanding these metrics will help you make better decisions.

Such as spending a certain % of your estimated revenue.

Working on decreasing the time between purchases.

And many more.

That’s exactly what we do inside our Revenue Leak Check.

We overlay your customer purchase behavior with all your marketing touchpoints (ads, email flows, offers, website) to uncover revenue you’re currently leaving on the table.

It’s not guesswork. It’s your customers literally telling you what they want.

Want us to run a complimentary analysis and show you 3 high-impact opportunities hiding in your data?

👉 Book your Revenue Leak Check here

📰 YouTube is changing how it counts views [read more]
📰 Meta publishes holiday marketing guides [read more]
📰 Automated bidding comes to ChatGPT ads [read more]

If you found this interesting, please leave us a review. It’d mean the world to me.

Brian Roisentul is the founder & CEO of BSR, a growth marketing agency he started in 2013 to help e-commerce brands unlock hidden revenue by identifying misalignments between their marketing and customer behavior. He is also the host of The DTC Insider podcast, where he interviews thought leaders, founders, and directors in the e-commerce space.

Want to talk shop?
If your brand is doing at least 7 figures, apply here to get featured (for free) on The DTC Insider podcast and my team will get in touch.

Need help to grow your online sales?
Book a call with me and let’s explore how my team and I at BSR can help you.

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