Matt Bahr

Have you noticed more public company execs going “direct” with their communications? It’s all about building trust and credibility in formats people actually care about. Shopify's President Harley Finkelstein jumped on Stakeholder Labs’ After Earnings (from Morning Brew ☕️) show to break down the SHOP earnings for investors. Harley’s approach is a great example of how executive communications and branding is evolving. He makes himself accessible through social channels, shows genuine enthusiasm, and brings his passion for Shopify to the forefront. It’s an effective way to build trust for investors and customers alike. All while seeing realtime data on engagement via social channels. Loved this conversation (linked below). If you’re curious about how modern leaders are talking to investors, give it a listen. Full episode: https://776.vc/4dEPyam

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AI ad products present both opportunities and risks. Leveraging them optimally for consumer brands requires a lot of nuance - with a few of my thoughts in Modern Retail https://lnkd.in/gcYrqmV4

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I don’t like creating accounts and passwords on every site, but do like repeat purchasing because the products are good and their service is great. It’s just not convenient most of the time because it’s not instant. So I typically choose some substitute on Amazon, try something new, or wait till I have time. I also don’t opt-in for marketing offers, because I don’t want 1000 of them and then some more - but do want instant access to relevant offers - I always want a deal when I’m ready to buy. Who doesn’t? Node lets merchants engage with consumers on their terms. Instant organized access and actions on everything to do with commerce, without any hassles. Win win for both!

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Retail Media is passive income. When you hire us to do it. :) Kidding, been in all seriousness. It is probably the most MEASURABLE velocity tool. It is probably the most FLEXIBLE velocity tool. Here’s your go-to retail media platform list: -Kroger: 8451 -Ulta: UB Media -Target: Roundel -Costco: Costco Media -Best Buy: Best Buy Ads -Most Grocery: Instacart -Convenience: DoorDash -CVS: CVS Media Xchange -Walmart: Walmart Connect -Macy’s: Macy’s Media Network -Dollar Tree: Chesapeake Media -Sam’s Club: Sam’s Member Access -Home Depot: Home Depot Ad Center -Ahold (Food Lion, etal): AD Retail Media -Albertsons: Albertsons Media Collective -Walgreens: Walgreens Advertising Group -Chew.com: Chewy Retail Media (dotcom bonus) Citrus and Criteo can give you access to almost any other major retailers. There you have it. There’s your cheat sheet. Now, if you want it to be passive income… Or you want it to be passive velocity… Hit me up. :) ——— 🔹 We grow brands on Amazon. 🔹 We grow brands in Whole Foods, Walmart, Target, CVS, Macy’s, Instacart, etc. #ecommerce #retailmedia #retailmedianetworks #cpg #cpgbrands #retailstrategy #founderlife #instacart #ShopperMarketing #walmart #wholefoods

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Insane. Let’s talk about Rhode ❤️. I've never seen growth like this at this scale. ❤️ July, Rhode was #1 in skincare at $42M in US EMV. Rhode almost TRIPLED the second best brand. #2 brand = $17M EMV. ❤️ 2024, Rhode was #1 in GLOBAL skincare up 435% YoY (❗). $260M in total EMV. It is nuts 🥜. ---- Take a look at these numbers (2024 global): 📈 15.5k Creators, +188% YoY 📈 67.4k Posts, +262% 📈 176M Engagements, +462% 📈 2.8 BILLION Impressions, +356% HIGHLIGHTS ✅ FANTASTIC retention: 172% annualized retention. The same group of Influencers that talked about them last year, ~tripled their contribution this year from $67M->$181M in EMV. 35 of Rhode’s top 50 EMV-driving creators posted about the brand during the prior 12 months ✅ Rhode’s EMV breakdown during this time is evenly distributed across follower tiers: 31% by Micro, 22% Midtier, 25% Established, 22% Powerhouse **We love to see this! Brands with top-heavy EMV breakdowns don’t typically see sustained growth. ✅ ORGANIC love: Notably, only 1% of Rhode’s EMV total during this time was sponsored. It’s clear that people genuinely love this brand’s products—and love to organically post about them. --- 🔢 Top 3 Creators 2024 1️⃣ Mary Chau: $3M EMV, +59%, 123 posts 2️⃣ Caroline Granger: $1.9M EMV, +1.2k%, 148 posts 3️⃣ Matilda Djerf: $1.8M EMV, +9%, 33 posts 📸 Top Channels: 📸 Instagram: $167.6M EMV, +352% YoY 📸 TikTok: $86.4M EMV, +815%❗❗❗ 📸 YouTube: $5.1M EMV, +255% Those Tiktok numbers are insane. Both the growth and volume. --- 🏆 Notable Activation: While the brand’s Peptide Lip Treatment is a fan favorite, Rhode launched its Pocket Blush line in June, which quickly caused a frenzy online, and in the streets of NYC—where the brand hosted a “pocket-sized pop-up.” Creators and consumers rushed to get their hands on these mini blushes to do color swatches, first impressions, and wear tests. #RhodeBlush ranked among the brand’s top 10 hashtags in both June and July, driving a total $8.4M EMV across 1.7k posts from 872 creators. ---- The LA-based skincare brand founded by Hailey Bieber in 2022 is certainly on the Rhode* to world domination 😉. Nice work to everyone involved!!

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🎙️🛍️ Tune in to the latest episode of the Live ecommerce podcast with ⚡Neil Twa⚡ from Voltage Holdings, LLC as we dive into the world of social shopping! From the Amazon influencer program to the rise of live shopping, we're uncovering the secrets to success in the ecom world. Plus, we'll explore the impact of AI on content creation, the power of TikTok for building ecom businesses, and so much more. Don't miss out on all the valuable insights - there's a lot to unpack in this episode! #SocialShopping #Ecommerce #Podcast #AmazonInfluencerProgram #AI #TikTok #EcomBusinesses 💡🛒🚀 https://hubs.ly/Q02xBVxS0

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Controversial DTC topic of the day... Does your ecom business look at "Acquisition" and "Retention" as two separate things? Are both handled under one team, or separately?

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Who wants to join me at The Q4 Ecommerce Summit? If you’re in DTC or marketing, this is the event you don’t want to miss. My friends are hosting the ultimate Q4 Summit on September 26th in NYC, and they’re letting me bring a guest on the VIP list! Why should you attend? - Learn from 25+ experts in DTC and marketing - Take home actionable insights for BFCM - Network and recharge with peers before Q4 - Access exclusive tools and resources early This is by far the biggest event of the year. Harley from Shopify is headlining, and the rest of the speaker lineup is going to blow your mind. We’re talking about 500 brands and marketers, all in one place. Who’s interested in joining me? Drop a comment below, and I’ll pick one person to bring along as my VIP guest. Let’s crush Q4 together!

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DTC brand founders - If you're operating with a single ad spend x MER goal for the month you're making a HUGE mistake.. Because there is more than one ad spend x MER pair that will drive the same bottom line profit dollars. In fact, there are an infinite number of ad spend x MER pairs that will drive the same bottom line profit dollars. So instead of setting a single ad spend x MER goal each month, you should build a sensitivity analysis table of different ad spend x MER scenarios that ladder up to your net profit dollars goal for the month. If you don’t know how to do this, you need a Fractional CFO who understands eCommerce. Consider sending me a DM if you want to learn more. My firm Free to Grow CFO and I can help.

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How to increase a DTC brand's bottom-line profit with a lower MER (All savvy DTC brand founders and marketers understand this, but most don't)... Absolute contribution margin dollars are far more important to profitability than MER. MER is merely a relationship between revenue and ad spend, whereas absolute contribution margin is the actual dollars that contribute to and increase bottom line profitability. Many brand founders find this counter-intuitive, but the reality is that if taking a lower MER allows you to scale ad spend and top line revenue enough to offset the margin decrease caused by the lower MER, the result can actually be an increase in absolute contribution margin dollars and thus an increase in bottom line profitability. Check out the example below. If the ad buyer for this brand feels confident they can spend more than $380,292 at a 2.5 MER, then dropping MER from 2.75 to 2.5 actually drives more contribution margin dollars and more bottom line profit. Find this confusing? It's okay - you're not alone. Consider sending me a DM to learn how my team of DTC-focused Fractional CFO's at Free to Grow CFO can help.

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At 6 figures, vanity metrics are a distraction. At 7 figures, they're your downfall. After working with dozens of high-growth DTC brands, I've noticed a pattern: The ones scaling fastest focus relentlessly on actionable metrics. But first, let's address what many brands get wrong: ❌ Vanity Metrics (I call them the 'Growth Illusion') The total website traffic, social media follower count, and email list size might look impressive in the reports. But they're dangerous distractions. These metrics don't correlate with revenue or profitability. They often mask underlying issues in your business. Worse, they encourage short-term thinking over sustainable growth. It's gonna result in high marketing costs and low ROI. I've seen beauty brands with millions of Instagram followers struggle with tiny conversion rates. Fashion startups with massive email lists but negligible repeat purchases. These vanity metrics created an illusion of success while the businesses stagnated. Now, let's focus on what truly matters. ✅ Actionable Metrics Here are the 8 metrics that truly matter for ecommerce growth: → Conversion Rate → Average Order Value (AOV) → Customer Lifetime Value (CLV) → Cart Abandonment Rate → Revenue Per Visitor (RPV) → Add to Cart Rate → Gross Margin → Net Promoter Score (NPS) Unlike vanity metrics, these metrics give you a clear picture of your store's health. They reveal your true growth potential and areas for improvement. -- Stop chasing vanity metrics that look good on paper but don't drive growth. Remember, what gets measured gets managed. Follow me for more content on scaling ecom brands 🚀

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In 2024, 80% of DTC brands will miss out on claiming a larger share of an $8T market. International Expansion is a strong play. Don't believe me? Apple, Costco, Seasalt... and many more plan to open stores in new markets and fulfill cross-border sales. These businesses are vastly different. But international expansion is NOT a pipedream for mid-market DTC brands. For the best chance at success: > Start small with one new market > Localize content with quality translations > Work with an eCommerce Manager who knows the target market > Partner with local retailers or leverage Shopify Markets > Team up with an experienced tech partner like Anatta — we've helped AG1 and Four Sigmatic achieve serious global growth Despite the size of the opportunity, ShipBob recently discovered that only 20% of eCommerce brands plan to fulfill cross-border sales this year. But the 20% who do are set to grow much faster, because they’re getting in on the ground floor of entirely new markets. Not sure where to begin? Shoot me a DM–I’m here to help! #ecommerce #dtc #business

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I think new subcategories are one of the most effective ways to differentiate. You're not creating something entirely new (category creation), but establishing a sub-branch of an existing category - by introducing new must-have capabilities. It's what we're doing at Wynter. Yes it still involves more risk and making bets than the traditional way of competing, but with a much bigger upside. To find an opportunity to develop a new subcategory, you need to create a new set of "must-haves". These are characteristics early fans truly care about. Requirements to win the positioning game by building a new subcategory: - new or improved *must-haves* that provide a different/significantly better outcome or user experience - there's a visible brand driving this - early adopters jumping on this (word of mouth) The pre-requisite to subcategories is feature parity with the traditional categories. Tesla needed to argue that their battery range was adequate before people would seriously consider the new electric car subcategory it created. And then Tesla added new "must-haves" like crazy acceleration, big screens and self-driving capabilities to outcompete. Offerings without new "must-haves" won't be relevant, visible nor credible. Winning is no longer based on "my brand is better than your brand", but rather on being the ONLY (or at least the most relevant) brand for this subcategory. In case of Wynter, we deliver insights from B2B decision makers (detailed targeting options), on-demand, typically in 24 hrs, through a self-serve platform. Other players in the market research / qual insights space can't do any of that. Competitors lose because they lack the new "must-haves" this subcategory brings. The ultimate goal is to have your brand be the only one that is visible and credible with respect to delivering these new “must-haves", so choosing you over others becomes an obvious choice.

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Here's how TikTok's "virtuous cycle" helps DTC brands unlock growth with affiliates: ➝ Products are seeded to creators ➝ Creators produce content with the product ➝ TikTok's built-in commission program activates ➝ Creators get compensation (some for the first time) ➝ TikTok's algorithm boosts transaction-related content ➝ This content gets inherently more views/engagement ➝ Incentives/compensation grow as the content does ➝ This encourages more collective affiliate content ➝ So: more content = more growth for DTC brands Paul Jauregui of BK Beauty sums it up nicely in our newest podcast together: "The force driver of getting that momentum and building those trends of virality is now being pushed by commerce and transactions. You think of this virtuous cycle: A creator posts a video, tags the product. It's getting conversions. The algorithm's pushing it. It's getting more views because the algorithm's pushing it. Etc." Paul highlights how this shifts the seeding dynamic from outbound to inbound. Once enough creators have seen the product, they want in. It becomes an automated process for scaling the brand, all through TikTok. ➝ This episode is loaded with TikTok insight gold — if you want to know how to master TikTok Shops, this is a great place to start. The full episode is live now, linked in the comments.

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First Q4 for JBP.fyi All agencies currently using RetentionPro are DTC / ecom. With the holidays being the busiest time of the year, this is a good time to shift focus. So I am… ↓ Reducing time on sales, demos, & onboarding ↑ Increasing time on new products to launch in 2025 Still in the earliest phases of building a loved product, I’ll be placing bets to see what sticks. One of the experiments I'll be running: what performs better? a. Advanced technical products for an experienced audience OR b. Simple technical products for an introductory audience Preview of what’s to come: ✧ V2 of RetentionPro product + website (more flexibility + improved story telling) ✧ A tool that helps people launch their own project (for first time agency owners, brand builders, & tech founders) ✧ A tool to help win more clients by learning & testing up to 20 go to market tactics (ideal for any B2B company) ✧ Multiple info tools for under-served industries that (typically) never have enough ad spend to warrant account-level support from platforms & aren’t a great fit for good agencies. ✧ Tools to augment the process of auditing ad accounts, track/predict agency-wide cash flow & progress to financial goals, & async collaboration with platform account managers.

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Do you think being a brand owner on Amazon fully protects you? Think again. Insights From Lesley Hensell, Riverbend Consulting: Having a registered trademark and being a brand owner on Amazon can help in proving product authenticity, but it doesn’t guarantee immunity from scrutiny. Even brand owners have faced accusations of selling stolen goods or unsuitable inventory, which can seem shocking given their ownership. Amazon monitors some products, especially those commonly stolen in retail stores, more closely, increasing the risk for even legitimate brand owners. Brand owners must stay vigilant and proactive in addressing Amazon's concerns, even when their products are legitimate and authentic. #AmazonSeller #AmazonFBA #BrandProtection #ECommerceStrategy #AmazonBusiness #TrademarkRegistration #ProductAuthenticity #RiskManagement #SellerCompliance

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"#Nike has begun seeing cracks in its #DTC strategy. Brand digital sales dropped for the first time since 2015 last quarter*." The thing is having a website and apps is not a DTC strategy 🤷‍♀️ Retail and marketplaces look like a quick fix because they give immediate access to a broad audience. Top-of-the-funnel #marketing will give it an extra reach. But there's the only way to stay relevant to a broad audience - keep discounting! DTC allows for establishing deeper connections with the target audience which translates into better retention and larger basket size. But to do so a #brand needs to listen to its users 😏 #growth *Source: Modern Retail

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You've invested thousands into DTC. But Amazon beats you every time. Here's why... When I buy from Amazon, I'm pretty much guaranteed the following: 💲 𝗖𝗼𝗺𝗽𝗲𝘁𝗶𝘁𝗶𝘃𝗲 𝗽𝗿𝗶𝗰𝗶𝗻𝗴 It's built into their business model 🚚 𝗘𝘅𝘁𝗿𝗮𝗼𝗿𝗱𝗶𝗻𝗮𝗿𝗶𝗹𝘆 𝗳𝗮𝘀𝘁 𝘀𝗵𝗶𝗽𝗽𝗶𝗻𝗴 In Q1 they delivered 𝟮 𝗯𝗶𝗹𝗹𝗶𝗼𝗻 items same or next day (globally) 💳 𝗦𝗲𝗮𝗺𝗹𝗲𝘀𝘀 𝗼𝗿𝗱𝗲𝗿𝗶𝗻𝗴 Checking out takes seconds, not minutes 𝗜𝗳 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗰𝗵𝗮𝗿𝗴𝗲 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝘀𝗵𝗶𝗽𝗽𝗶𝗻𝗴, 𝗰𝗮𝗻'𝘁 𝗱𝗲𝗹𝗶𝘃𝗲𝗿 𝗻𝗲𝘅𝘁 𝗱𝗮𝘆 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗰𝗿𝗲𝗮𝘁𝗲 𝗳𝗿𝗶𝗰𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗱𝘂𝗿𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗰𝗵𝗲𝗰𝗸𝗼𝘂𝘁, 𝘆𝗼𝘂'𝘃𝗲 𝗮𝗹𝗿𝗲𝗮𝗱𝘆 𝗹𝗼𝘀𝘁 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝘀𝗮𝗹𝗲. So don't complain about your 1% conversion rate and wasted ad-spend on Meta when you haven't got the fundamentals right. Am I saying brands should abandon their DTC? It depends. But if you're going to do DTC, at least match Amazon's level of service. And whatever you do, don't forget about the 61% of shoppers who start their buying journey on Amazon. Agree?  Let me know in the comments. #amazon #brandstrategy #d2c #dtc #ecommerce #marketplaces #onlineretail #retail #retailstrategy #amazonvendor #amazonseller  

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I sat down with Cherene Aubert and asked her to share her complete playbook for offer testing in DTC brands. Here are 5 game-changing tactics most DTC brands completely miss: 1. You think your marketing is driving demand In reality, your offer could be the biggest driver. At Bobbie (infant formula brand), Cherene discovered: ↳ Turning off ads didn't slow demand ↳ Removing the welcome offer cut demand by more than half "The advertising wasn't driving the demand... It was the offer." 2. You force subscriptions on new customers Instead, focus on low-barrier introductory offers. Bobbie's approach: ↳ Offered a small "starter bundle" for first-time customers ↳ Didn't force subscriptions despite being subscription-focused "Every business has a different offer or introductory offer that is unique to them." 3. You prioritize business goals over customer needs Align your offers with how customers actually make purchases. Cherene's advice: ↳ Conduct customer research (surveys, focus groups) ↳ Think about your own buying behavior "You have to think about what the customer ACTUALLY wants." 4. You rely solely on discounts Consider alternative offers that don't cut into margins. Examples: ↳ Free merchandise ↳ Product samples ↳ Slow-moving inventory "Having a big discount can cut into your margins a lot more than having, say, a piece of merch." 5. You expect instant results Offer testing is a long-term strategy that requires commitment. At Bobbie: ↳ Spent 6 months on offer testing ↳ Had weekly cross-functional team meetings ↳ Tested new offers every 2-4 weeks "We made it a priority. We said we're going to make testing a priority for the business." - - - TL;DR 1. Effective offer testing can dramatically improve customer acquisition and reduce CAC. 2. Focus on customer-centric, low-barrier introductory offers. 3. Prioritize testing, involve cross-functional teams, and be patient. 4. Finding the right offer takes time. 5. Start by creating a prioritized list of offer ideas and systematically test them using the ICE framework (Impact, Confidence, Ease). Watch the full episode here:  https://lnkd.in/eXjpsYfX

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