Welcome back! 👋

If you know someone who'd enjoy The DTC Insider, I'd really appreciate you forwarding them today's edition.

Every referral helps us grow this community of founders and operators.

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

Topics we'll cover today:
💠 The New Customer Acquisition Flywheel
💠 Shopify Teams Up With DoorDash
💠 Latest news in the DTC space

Let me ask you something:

What’s your real system for acquiring new customers? 

If it starts and ends with “run paid ads”, we’ve got a problem.

Smart brands are looking beyond their ad account to unlock the next level of growth.

Take it from Obvi's founders ($50M ARR). They've once written the following in their newsletter:

Chubbies' founder (9-figure IPO) has posted this on LinkedIn:

In that same post, he added:

Taylor Holiday (CTC founder) has created a video explaining the same concept:

Think about it this way: 

CAC is higher → That leaves you with less $ to spend on acquiring new customers

That's the game most brands play, which typically leads to:

Flat revenue + Decreasing margins = A race to the bottom

Instead, smart brands are adding the following to the above reasoning:ç

CAC is higher → That leaves you with less $ to spend on acquiring new customers → More $ you need to make per customer on the backend → That's more $ you can spend on acquiring new customers 

I call it: The New Customer Acquisition Flywheel.

Here’s how it works 👇

1. Acquisition:

→ Paid traffic, influencers, organic
→ CAC is rising in 2025

🔄 Feeds into… 

2. First Purchase Optimization:

→ Messaging that addresses real pain points and needs
→ Smart bundles and order-building offers
→ Strategic upsells

🔄 Feeds into… 

3. Customer Journey Alignment:

→ Product recommendations based on actual customer behavior
→ Post-purchase flows timed to match real-world repurchase windows

🔄 Feeds into… 

4. Revenue Per Customer Increases (AOV & LTV):

→ CAC payback shortens
→ Margins improve

🔁 Which loops back to → You can afford to scale Acquisition again 

That’s the flywheel.

It’s not a hack.

It’s a system built to scale.

And it’s exactly how 7 and 8-figure brands break through growth plateaus.

If you’re already doing 7 or 8 figures and don’t have a flywheel like this in place…

You’re leaving money (and momentum) on the table. 

Want help fixing this? 

I’m offering a complimentary Revenue Efficiency Review for a few brands this week.

We’ll analyze your customer purchase journey, overlay your ads and key email flows, and deliver a one-page breakdown showing:

✅ Where you’re winning
❌ Where you’re leaking revenue
🛠 3 fixes you can deploy right away to increase AOV and LTV 

If you’re spending to acquire customers but not aligning what happens after they buy…

This is the fastest way to unlock hidden revenue and scale more confidently.

👉 Book yours here

A few weeks ago I wrote about conversational commerce.

The idea that brands should stop thinking about their website as the only place where customers buy.

This week, DoorDash announced a native integration with Shopify.

Brands can now sync eligible products from Shopify and make them available on the DoorDash marketplace, while managing inventory and orders from the same backend.

If you've been following Shopify's recent announcements, you'll notice a pattern. 

They're making it easier for merchants to sell wherever customers already spend their time.

ChatGPT
TikTok Shop 
Amazon

And now DoorDash.

What's interesting is that this isn't the same approach as Uber Direct.

Uber Direct lets brands use Uber's delivery network while customers still purchase through the brand's own website.

DoorDash is different.

Customers discover and buy products inside the DoorDash marketplace itself, giving brands access to a completely new demand channel.

For categories like groceries, snacks, beverages, pet supplies, beauty, supplements, and household essentials, that creates another place where customers can find your products without ever visiting your website.

I wouldn't be surprised if this eventually expands beyond the DoorDash marketplace itself.

Imagine a customer buying directly from your Shopify store while DoorDash handles the local delivery behind the scenes. 

Regardless of where this goes next, the direction is becoming clear. 

The brands that win over the next few years won't rely on a single storefront.

They'll make it easy for customers to buy wherever those customers already are.

--
Follow me on LinkedIn for more growth marketing content in the e-commerce space.

📰 Shopify's Brand New Collections Experience [read more]
📰 YouTube Offers Tips on Working with Shorts Videos [read more]
📰 How TikTok Shop is Changing Innovation for Food & Beverage Brands [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.

Want to discuss growth with other brands?
Join The DTC Insider Community, a place where founders, operators, and marketers can continue the conversation, ask questions, share what's working, and learn from each other between newsletter editions.

Promote your Business to 11,000+ People in the DTC Space
The DTC Insider (newsletter + podcast) reaches a highly qualified audience of DTC founders, directors, and marketers. Learn more about the sponsorship opportunities we offer for your business. If you’d like to become a sponsor, apply here.