Every place a stranger gets a better deal than a customer. Find them before you raise a price, because a rise makes every one of them visible.
Most DTC brands charge their best customers the most without meaning to. The welcome discount, the creator code and the cart email go to people who haven’t bought yet; the customer on their fifth order pays full price. At a new, higher price, next to a stranger’s 20% off, they notice.
In Britain, the Competition and Markets Authority took up a 2018 “loyalty penalty” super-complaint from Citizens Advice covering five markets Published. The Financial Conduct Authority then banned “price walking” in home and motor insurance: from January 1, 2022, a renewal quote can’t be higher than the price a new customer would get. It estimated the change would save consumers £4.2 billion over ten years Filed. No US rule covers a DTC welcome offer, but the regulators’ view is the customer’s: paying more for staying feels like a penalty.
If a stranger can get a better price than your best customer, your best customer will eventually find out.
Go through each place below and write down the best price a stranger can get and the best price a customer with three orders can get, for your top five SKUs.
| Where | What the customer sees | The fix |
|---|---|---|
| Welcome pop-up | A first-order discount offered on every visit, including theirs | Suppress it for known customers, or offer them something equal |
| Ad, affiliate and creator codes | Codes deeper than anything sent to customers, often on coupon sites within days | Cap public codes at your customer offer; expire and rotate them |
| “New customers only” bundles and trials | A set or starter price they’re barred from | Make the bundle open to all, or give customers a reorder bundle at least as good |
| Marketplaces | The same product cheaper on a marketplace than on your site | Match your own site, or sell a different pack there |
| Subscription first order | A first-box discount far deeper than the ongoing subscriber price | Narrow the gap (The Standing Order) |
| Cart and browse abandonment | A discount for leaving without buying | Remind without a discount; never send one to repeat customers |
| Winback | Lapsed customers offered more than active ones get | Win back with a reason, not a deeper code (The First Offer) |
| Referral | The friend gets more than the customer who referred them | Balance the two sides (Close the Loop) |
| Sales after a full-price order | The price they just paid, cut a week later | Price protection (chapter 10) |
Whether to have a welcome offer at all, and how deep it should be, belongs to The First Offer. The question here is narrower: who can see it, and what the people who’ve already bought get instead.
The fix is rarely the same code. It’s making sure customers never pay more than a stranger, and that what they get instead is worth as much: first access, a better reorder bundle, free shipping, a gift with the third order. My rule: a customer’s best available price on any SKU should never be worse than a new visitor’s, on any day.
This is one chapter of The Price Rise, which is free and readable in full on a single page with no form in front of it.