Why E-commerce Makes Brands Lazy

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Welcome to this spooky issue of The DTC Insider newsletter. 🎃 👻

We strive to deliver the latest growth marketing news and trends in the DTC space straight to your inbox every Wednesday.

Topics we’ll cover today:

💠 Google Tests New AI Tool For Large Advertisers
💠 Why E-commerce Makes Brands Lazy
💠 The Power of Science-Backed Nutrition

Why E-commerce Makes Brands Lazy

In the latest edition of Commerce Roundtable event, there was a debate around whether the "e" should be removed from "e-commerce".

And it got me thinking 🤔

After all, "e-commerce brands" are businesses—not just "online businesses."

For some reason, when a brand opens a brick-and-mortar store, they know they need to do some heavy lifting for it to work:

👥 Get Customers:

Getting foot traffic isn't easy, and they know that.

But they don't just sit and wait. Instead, they:

➝ Hand out flyers

➝ Host an inauguration event

➝ Partner with other local stores, schools, and more

➝ Among many other actions to drive traffic

On the flip side, many e-commerce brands rely heavily on paid ads (or not even that), and have never (or rarely) done anything else to acquire customers.

🤝 Provide Great Customer Experience:

Once someone comes through the door...it's a big deal!

Many people need help, and if nobody assists them, they'll walk away.

Need to return a product? No problem.

Many brands have neglected customer experience for years, and now they're paying the price for it.

💬 Ask For Feedback In Real-Time:

In-store staff engage with customers and can instantly ask for feedback on products or experiences.

E-commerce brands can replicate this by using live chat support or conducting post-purchase surveys, actively listening to customers, and acting quickly on feedback.

🔄 Display Social Proof Visually:

Customers walking into a store can see other people shopping, purchasing, and enjoying products.

E-commerce brands should emphasize reviews, customer-generated content, and live product ratings to mimic that “buzz” of people buying.

What do you think?

Agree? Disagree? Both?

Reply to this email and let me know.

IN PARTNERSHIP WITH CHARGEFLOW

Your BFCM marketing strategy is set, but what about your revenue recovery strategy?

According to Mastercard, eCommerce fraud spiked by 35% during last year's BFCM period.

Chargeflow, the leading Chargeback management platform eCommerce, trusted by thousands of brands, is offering $10,000 in free managed Chargebacks until the end of the year.

Whether you've just heard about Chargeflow or you're already familiar with it, now's the best time to onboard it If you like the service, you can keep using it. You'll only pay for chargebacks they successfully recover for you.

If you don't find it useful, you can easily uninstall it with just one click. There's no risk in trying it out.

Google Tests New AI Tool For Large Advertisers

Google is testing a new AI tool called "Search Bidding Exploration," aimed at larger advertisers.

The goal? To find valuable, low-traffic search queries that drive conversions.

Here’s what it does:

📈 Expands reach beyond traditionally high-traffic keywords.

🎯 Automatically adjusts tROAS targets: Lowers them by up to 10%.

🔍 Finds converting, low-traffic search queries: Uses AI to identify untapped traffic opportunities.

However, there’s a catch. ⚠️

This tool only works for campaigns without budget limits, making it exclusive to big-budget advertisers.

For those willing to take risks and go beyond traditional search terms, it’s an opportunity to uncover new growth paths.

Bottom line?

Advertisers using unlimited budget campaigns and tROAS strategy can enable the feature in campaign settings.

If you’re looking to scale and have the budget to handle some risk, this tool offers a new way to boost reach and performance.

--
Follow me on LinkedIn for more growth marketing updates.

It’s Not Too Late to Drive Black Friday Sales

Black Friday marks the most streamed period of the year on Roku, and Roku Ads Manager makes it easy to reach your audience during this all-important kickoff to the holiday season. Roku’s self-serve platform lets you set up, optimize, and measure CTV campaigns in real-time so you can focus on driving results. Plus, innovative ad formats like Action Ads let viewers instantly engage with your brand and even shop directly on-screen with a click of their remote – perfect for holiday shopping.

Drive Black Friday Performance

The Power of Science-Backed Nutrition

Numbers are important.

But they don’t tell the whole story.

That’s something Marc Washington, founder & CEO of Supergut, knows firsthand.

When he started, he focused heavily on engaging directly with the community:

💭 Commenting

✍ Posting

👂 And listening to what customers were saying

Is this scalable?

Even if it's not, doing things that don't scale helped him - and many other great founders - find product-market fit and refine his value proposition.

Curious to learn more about how Marc built Supergut from the ground up?

Catch the latest episode of The DTC Insider podcast! 🎧

We discussed:

👉 Achieving 4x Revenue Growth: Strategies and key factors
👉 Balancing Aggressive Growth with Profitability
👉 Expanding from DTC to Physical Retail: Timing and challenges
👉 Unique Value Proposition: Communicating healthy appetite control
👉 Leveraging Earned Media: Social media, influencers, and creators
👉 Customer Retention: Tactics for achieving a 50% subscription rate

Tune in:

📹 YouTube
🎧 Apple Podcasts
🎵 Spotify
🌐 Website

More episodes our listeners love:

💎 The Secret Sauce Behind BattlBox's Success with John Roman

💎 IQBAR’s Journey to 10,000 Locations And $50 Million with Will Nitze

💎 Supplement Brand Bootstrapped $10,000 and Built It Into Sales of $30 Million in Three Years with Ronak Shah

💎 Unlocking 9-Figure Growth: The Blueprint That Transformed Two Brands with Brett Swensen

💎 Navigating Growth Beyond Your Niche with Podium Nutrition’s CMO

Also Happening in the DTC space

📰 Instagram Downgrades Video Quality for Less Viewed Clips
📰 TikTok Wants to Turn Millions of Americans into Paid Shopping Influencers
📰 76% of US Consumers Use 3 or More Channels To Do Holiday Shopping

Want To Crush It This Q4?

For those brands thinking, "I'm not sure about changing my agency right now" — I totally understand. It’s a big decision.

But here’s the truth: after auditing 20 brands recently, we found that many have been stuck in a revenue plateau for 2, even 3 years.

So, the question is: will you stay in the same place for yet another year, or will you draw a line in the sand and start a new chapter for your brand?

It’s not too late!

At BSR Digital, we have just 2 spots left for brands that want to make a big impact this Q4.

Will one of them be yours?

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