Nectarios Economakis

Everyone’s panicking about DTC being “dead” because Shopify numbers are down and Prime Day was weak. I’m here to tell you that you’re simply focused on the wrong things. The brands that are profitable on first purchase are doubling down and winning, even now. The brands dependent on cheap acquisition are getting ran over by reality. Here’s what’s actually happening: Most DTC "brands" were never brands at all → they were transaction machines disguised as businesses. And you know what happens when acquisition gets expensive? Transaction machines die. Think about Apple vs. Android: Switching doesn't just mean a new phone: 👉It feels like losing part of your identity 👉Messages turn green, your ecosystem breaks 👉Friends judge you for “downgrading” Now, think about your favorite DTC brand. If they disappeared tomorrow, would you feel like you lost part of yourself? So what do you do if acquisition is expensive and retention sucks? 👉Stop chasing new buyers 👉Focus on making existing customers feel like their identity DEPENDS on you Loyalty programs won’t save you. Make your brand so wrapped up in their identity that switching feels illegal. The DTC shakeout separates real brands from transaction machines. Tariffs and Shopify numbers are just noise. Now's the time to decide which one you are.

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Just published 6 podcast episodes all about AOV growth with operators from David, BREZ, BrüMate, DUDE Wipes, Fresh Chile and Aftersell by Rokt on the Chewonthis DTC podcast. We went deep on the exact tactics the top 1% of Shopify brands are using to increase their cart size. Here’s my favorite 4 👇 🌿 Brez – Think Bigger on Upsells Nick Shackelford’s team tested a full year’s supply post-purchase offer, right after a customer checked out. While the take rate wasn’t massive, the AOV spike per conversion made the math work beautifully. It’s a reminder: People aren’t only shopping for themself, think about the whole household. ☕ BrüMate – Bundle Based on Psychology, Not Price Most brands bundle for discounts. BrüMate bundles for desire. When they drop a limited edition colorway such as “Sunset Orange”,  they release it across multiple SKUs at once: the 40oz tumbler, the coffee mug, the water bottle. Customers don’t want just one… they want the whole matching set. It taps into the same psychology as luxury handbags or makeup palettes, we love cohesive collections. Example - Their “Mini and Me” bundle: a full-size tumbler + a matching kids version. No forced discounting, no random add-ons,  just a natural use case that drives up AOV without hurting experience. 🧬 David Protein – Make Customers Feel Smart for Spending More Instead of running “20% off” promos (which feel like markdowns), David Protein tested “Buy 4, Get 1 Free.” It outperformed percentage discounts because it rewards quantity rather than devaluing the product. The shift in psychology is subtle but powerful, customers feel like they’re making a smart, strategic purchase rather than just being sold to. 🌶️ Fresh Chile Co. – Turn Objections Into Revenue Shipping cost was their #1 customer complaint. So instead of racing to the bottom, Chris Lang launched a $199/year membership with free shipping, exclusive drops, and community access. It now drives 6 figures in annual recurring revenue and better yet, the community sells it for them. When someone complains in their 30K-member Facebook group, other customers jump in with testimonials and membership plugs. It’s objection handling on autopilot. — If you’re not optimizing the post-purchase moment, you’re missing your highest intent window. This series was one of our most tactical yet and we couldn’t of done it without our sponsor Aftersell by Rokt. Aftersell provides a simple way to implement all of the tactics mentioned above. #AftersellPartner

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Vibhor C. just revealed how Shopify Shipping became unrecognizable after two years of heavy investment. But most merchants have no idea these changes exist. "I get these messages on X sometimes where a merchant will go, 'Hey, I tried Shopify shipping after a year and this is a completely different product. I'm going to move to Shopify shipping now.'" We spent 40 minutes recording to break down what actually changed... → Automatic $200 shipping insurance on every package (Shopify covers the cost, most merchants don't even know it exists) → Bulk label printing for up to 250 orders at once, plus warehouse pick lists  → Volume discounts from UPS, USPS, FedEx, DHL without setting up carrier accounts → Amazon Multi-Channel Fulfillment managed directly from Shopify admin → Built-in address validation that prevents delivery delays and correction fees → Shop app push notifications that eliminate "where's my order" support tickets And ultimately, how shipping transforms from a cost center into a competitive advantage. If you're shipping 10+ orders per day, this episode will save you serious time and money. If you're avoiding Shopify Shipping because you tried it years ago, you need to hear what's changed. Just dropped. Check replies for links.

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My little biz has made $15-36k/mth for the past 4 mths All with "silly" videos. Here's how I do it 👇 I call it "Creative Delivery". First, understand: People don’t hate sales content. They hate OBVIOUS sales content. eeeeeeveryone says “add value.” But what most people call value is just.. → recycled advice in a prettier font → tips they’ve read 10 times → hooks that scream, “wait for the pitch at the end.” → and offers that feel like a bait-and-switch If your content feels like a setup for your offer... it’s already too late. (this is what makes LinkedIn SOOOOO BORING) But I also get it. Content is overwhelming. Differentiating yourself is hard. It can feel like a massive time-suck. Here's how I sell in my posts: I make the pitch feel like the payoff. And make the delivery is so fresh, it's fun to consume. It’s not just about WHAT you teach. It’s about HOW you say it. That’s what makes it FEEL valuable. The best creators don’t separate their sales from their stories. They wrap the offer INSIDE the insight. It’s all one continuous thread. THIS. is how you make people feel something. THIS. is Creative Delivery And if you’re tired of making “value posts” where you feel like you're selling a piece of your soul to get leads… You probably don’t have a sales problem. You have a delivery problem. And fixing that doesn’t take more tips. It takes a better angle. 🥔

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A brand was burning HOURS every Monday just to figure out one thing: 👉 “Which products do I need to reorder... and how many?” They weren’t even tracking inventory in Shopify. Their supplier just sent them a messy Google Sheet. Here’s how we built an AI agent that turned that chaos into a crystal-clear reorder system (and saved her hours every week): 1️⃣ Pull in the data We connected Triple Whale’s Get Data from Google Sheets step to automatically grab their supplier’s inventory sheet. 2️⃣ Add sales velocity Next, the agent pulled order history by SKU, so it could see exactly how fast products were moving. 3️⃣ Hard-code their formula They had their own restock rule: – Keep 67 days of stock on hand – Subtract current inventory – Factor in lead times (different for each SKU) Using Prompt-to-Python, we turned that formula into live code. ⚡ The Agent now runs the math and generates a simple report: ✅ What to reorder now ⚠️ What’s running low 🕑 What’s coming up soon 👌 What’s safe The founder’s reaction? “I can’t believe how much time this just saved me.” AI agents aren’t just for creative. They can run your ops. They can save you hours. They can tell you exactly what to do next. If you’re still buried in spreadsheets, it’s time to let an agent handle the heavy lifting. 🚀

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We've seen some massive changes over the last 3/4 months on our demo calls. There’s a real shift happening in DTC right now. If you go back even two years, the idea of tracking profitability outside of a monthly P&L was practically unheard of for most DTC brands. Back then, we were explaining contribution margin on every single call, and having to walk brands through why relying on in platform ROAS as their north star was not the goal! Fast forward to today, and the shift toward profit-first thinking in DTC is HUGE. It’s surprising it took this long, especially given the savage margin pressure brands are facing, not just from rising Meta/Google ad costs, but also tariffs, supply chain challenges, and inflation driving up operating costs across the board. Today, brands are coming to calls already knowing they can’t trust Meta or Google blindly, and they understand they need to track profit properly. Agencies are also leading the charge on educating their clients, and the rise of fractional CFOs is giving brands access to financial expertise that’s tailored to DTC. Ecommerce is no longer a marketing play, it's a numbers game wrapped in a marketing cloak!

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Shopify just made a big move for agentic commerce: yesterday they announced their agentic commerce tools, all available through an MCP server. For the first time, third-party agent developers can: 1) Search across Shopify’s entire merchant catalog (hundreds of millions of products) 2) Manage a cart session 3) Trigger checkout This is the first real “batteries included” setup for commerce agents, without any PCI or complexity involved. Millions of merchants are now agent-ready out of the box for commerce agent developers. But there are still gaps: the cart doesn’t yet support purchases from non-Shopify merchants, and multi-merchant carts still require multiple separate checkouts. There is also the issue of merchant control – millions of merchants in the catalog, but only a few can surface in the GUI at a time. Who gets shown first? Despite the challenges, this feels like a zero-to-one moment. Shopify is the first to make commerce agents first-class citizens. Others will follow quickly, and 2025 is shaping up to be the year agentic commerce becomes real. We wrote more about it here: https://lnkd.in/dPbVycgn

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There are 3 cadences that scale DTC businesses: → Daily = Pulse → Weekly = Pattern → Monthly = Performance Daily tells you what’s breaking now Weekly shows you what’s trending Monthly tells you where to reinvest or restructure The difference between a $1M brand and a $10M brand? The $10M brand isn’t smarter—they just never fly blind They check every signal, every layer, every timeframe If you’re not reviewing the machine consistently, You’re just hoping your brand grows

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