Growth & retention for consumer brands
Most brands don’t have an email problem. They have a second-purchase problem.
The first order is what a stranger buys. The second is what a customer decides, and it is the gate to every order after it. I rebuild the path between them in ninety days, and measure it against a holdout, powered before it’s promised.
Every figure says how it was measured, and nothing is added together across brands. None of these four is a holdout, and no Sprint holdout is published yet. That’s what the founding cohort is for: registered first, published either way.
The problem
Every brand runs on two calendars.
The one it sends on, and the one its customers actually buy on. The second order has a date, and most brands are guessing it. Flows get built once and never touched, campaigns lean on discounts, and nobody owns the number. Lifetime value is decided in that gap: the customer who comes back once is the one who keeps coming back.
I learned it at Gallery Furniture, where “Astros Win It All” brought a 500% surge in store traffic. The traffic was the easy part. The job was having something already standing that could catch it.
One engagement
The Second-Purchase Sprint.
Ninety days on your own Klaviyo account. I find where first-time buyers stall, rebuild the path to the second order and every order after it, and run it against a holdout long enough to read it, whatever it shows.
- Days 1 to 14The Read
Your repeat rate, time to second order and the size of your gap, from your own export. The holdout, designed first.
- Days 15 to 45The build
Post-purchase, the second-order offer, win-back and SMS, built live in your account.
- Days 46 to 90The test
The build runs against the registered holdout. The result is read when its window closes, even after day 90.
Free, and on the record
See how I think before you spend anything.
The Second-Order Teardown
I buy from a DTC brand, log sixty days of what they send after the first order, score it on twelve checks, and publish what I would build instead.
See how it works → Three minutesScore your second order
The same twelve checks, on your own brand, in your browser. See where the second order leaks.
Take the scorecard → Pre-registeredThe Holdout Registry
Every Sprint’s holdout goes on the record before launch. Founding Sprints publish the result when the cohort matures, whatever it shows.
Read the register →The record
What the business was, what I did, what happened.
Each case says what was counted and what was not. Where the denominator or the window was never established, the page says so.
Gallery Furniture
Co-led “Astros Win It All” and a 500% surge in store traffic, at a $100M+ revenue business. The journey and post-purchase I rebuilt caught it.
Read the case →Heated apparel$1.6M+email and SMS revenue, one winter seasonPlatform-attributedGobi Heat
One season carries the year. Cadence and segmentation built from pre-season through peak.
Read the case →Consumer electronics$1M+email and SMS, Black Friday to Cyber Monday, marketplace revenue excludedPlatform-attributedPunkcase
A sequenced offer calendar that built into the weekend and held through it.
Read the case →Men’s grooming~$8net-new acquisition cost against an $82 average orderPlatform-attributedChassis For Men
Creator-led YouTube in front, email and SMS monetizing behind it.
Read the case →Brand launch$100Kemail and SMS in the first 30 days, sent to the parent brand’s inherited listPlatform-attributed · first 30 daysPower Provisions
A launch built on an audience that already existed instead of a cold start.
Read the case →A relaunched retail portfolio250K+SKUs across six relaunched heritage brandsCompany-reportedRetail Ecommerce Ventures
Lifecycle across Pier 1, RadioShack, Dressbarn, Stein Mart, Modell’s and Franklin Mint.
Read the case →What the people I worked with say
One of these two reported to me.
A recommendation from a boss is easy to get. One from your own team is not.
“One of the strongest operator partnerships I’ve had in my career… He approached retention like a true revenue driver, not a support function.”
“A rare ability to combine strategic thinking with hands-on execution.”
Ten recommendations on LinkedIn, in full and unedited. Read all ten →
The library
Sixteen books. Free. No form in front of any of them.
About 250,000 words. Four core books carry the method and twelve field guides go deeper on one job each. Every chapter is its own page, so you can send a colleague one idea instead of a whole book.
The Second Order, weekly
One teardown, one idea, one number. Every Monday.
Five minutes, written for founders and retention leads at DTC brands. Starts October 12.