Issue 168: Oh look. Apple's helping... again. 🙄

Oh look, it’s 2025 and Apple is helping again. 😖

| TWEET OF THE WEEK

 _{The Billion-Dollar Question: How Do You Get More First-Time Buyers to Come Back?}

Everyone in DTC talks about increasing repeat purchases, but should you actually be focusing on that? 🤔 Eli Weiss breaks down why blindly chasing a higher repeat purchase rate might not be the smartest move.

Before You Push for That Second Order...

🔹 Benchmark First – Not all industries have the same repurchase patterns. A 40% repeat rate in beauty? Amazing. In furniture? Probably unrealistic. Know what’s good for your category.

🔹 Think Beyond Order #2 – If your AOV and LTV are strong, forcing a second order might not be the best play. Sometimes, it’s smarter to focus on increasing the value of customers who already come back.

🔹 Work With Existing Behavior – It’s way easier to encourage customers who already love your brand to buy more than to push first-timers into a second purchase they’re not ready for.

📢 Key Takeaway: Instead of obsessing over moving first-time buyers to their second order, focus on maximizing the habits of customers who are already coming back. That’s where the real retention magic happens. ✨

Full article here

| YOUTUBE UNIVERSITY

TARIFFS

| TOGETHER WITH POSTSCRIPT

How Does Your SMS Performance Stack Up?
Let’s Find Out.

Wondering if your SMS game is actually working—or if your competitors are lapping you? Postscript just dropped the most comprehensive SMS benchmarks report of 2025, analyzing data from 18,000+ Shopify stores across fashion, beauty, home goods, food & beverage, health & wellness, and more.

Here’s what’s wild:

• Back-in-stock texts are absolutely printing money—with some of the highest CTRs we’ve ever seen.

• Health & wellness brands saw subscriber LTV jump 38% just by mixing smart automations with educational content.

• Want the numbers for your exact niche? They’re in here—broken down by industry.

This report breaks down real SMS performance data—so whether you’re running welcome flows, abandoned cart reminders, or BFCM campaigns, you’ll know exactly where you stand (and what to fix). Plus, get industry-specific insights and growth tactics to make 2025 your biggest SMS year yet.

Stop guessing. Start scaling. 👉 👉 —See how your SMS really compares. Get the report.

| QUICK SHOTS

Barry Hott Anyone who sees a Super Bowl ad and thinks "we should make something like that for social media" is out of their damn mind.

@ariesnotebook Another booming Ecommerce trend:

Jeff Chen Great salespeople give EXTREME focus to

@social_savannah Here's what I'm testing this week to stop the scroll...

Nick Shackelford Your margin doesn't matter if your product doesn't matter.

@timjcarden 2025's Super Bowl will go down in history.

@boringmarketer Gemini is insane.

| HERE FOR THE MEMES

| AND IN OTHER NEWS…

| GET LINKED

Linda Bustos

Sharing 9 slick things you can stick at the top of Product
List pages 🔥

🛋️ Sofology’s “Sofasizer” (licensable through Hullabalook)

👖 Nudie Jeans’ interactive Fit Guide

👗 Torrid & Carhartt’s Shop by Fit cards with video hovers

👖 Zoe Kratzmann’s 2-step Fit & Wash filters

👚 Oxford’s Product Quiz hero banner

👕 Cuts’ Style & Fabric filter cards with description text

🧵 A Kind of Guise’s BTS how it’s made video

👗 Aritzia’s 360 rotating video subcategory tiles

👜 Moschino full grid width 360 rotating 3D product card (say that 3D times fast)

Notice the first 6 examples are 𝗽𝗿𝗼𝗺𝗼𝘁𝗲𝗱 𝗳𝗶𝗹𝘁𝗲𝗿𝘀?

These are a nice way to 𝘀𝘂𝗽𝗽𝗼𝗿𝘁 𝘀𝗶𝗺𝗽𝗹𝗲 𝗴𝘂𝗶𝗱𝗲𝗱 𝘀𝗲𝗹𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗴 and not leave shoppers to endless scrolling and fiddling with filter menus

Do you have a fave?

Click for the full post

| RECOMMENDED SOFTWARE & SERVICES

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• Stop paying $25 for punctuation errors. With Address Guard, real-time address checks and auto-corrections reduce unexpected carrier fees and failed deliveries. Are minor errors inflating your shipping budget? Our coverage in 240 countries and in-depth validation catch issues before they cost you. 👉️ Try now

• You know your email flows aren’t performing like they should—maybe even leaking revenue in ways you can’t see. 😬 Most agencies charge for “upgrades” without proving they actually worked. We don’t guess. We test, measure, and optimize—because every email should earn its keep. 🚀 Learn about the Email Flow CRO method here.

• BoxFort Commerce helps clothing & high-sku brands scale with efficient Shopify fulfillment. Unlike the Bobs & Monks of logistics, we ship hundreds of thousands of orders for 3 of our own clothing and jewelry brands, so it’s imperative that our processes are built around saving money & consistency. Learn more here.

| STAT ATTACK

| THE OUTRO

Could someone please call in and vote the technocrats out of the house?

✌️ Workspace6

☝️☝️☝️
They’re reaching 7, 8 and 9 figure merchants.

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