Jordan Nathan

Hey, this is Steve — the DTCCOO. It’s Black Friday 2025, and I’m breaking down DTC ecommerce best practices from brands that consistently execute at a high level. Next up: AloYoga.com. Alo’s homepage is a masterclass in clean, conversion-aware merchandising without feeling salesy. Here’s what they’re doing right: • Clear hero messaging The homepage hero is brand-forward and aspirational, highlighting newness first, with a clear “Shop Now” CTA for 30% off sitewide. It balances brand equity with promotion — something many brands struggle to do during Black Friday. • Strong category merchandising They immediately guide shoppers into relevant seasonal categories: Best Sellers, Outerwear, Sweatshirts, and New Arrivals. Everything aligns with winter use cases, making it easy for customers to find what they need without friction. • Gift-focused storytelling Their “Gifts for Every List” section uses lifestyle imagery to show how products fit into real moments — coffee runs, travel, lounging, and holiday mornings. This helps customers visualize the product in context, not just as an item on sale. • Shop by activity (persona-based navigation) One of the strongest tactics: shopping by activity. Yoga, Lounge, Pilates, Run, Train, Court Sports. This reframes product discovery around use case instead of SKU type — guiding customers toward the right product based on how they live, move, and train. This is how premium brands protect conversion during peak sale periods: clear hierarchy, intentional storytelling, and smart merchandising that removes decision fatigue. If you want help tightening your ecommerce experience, merchandising strategy, and operational planning for 2026, visit DTCCOO.com to learn more about my fractional COO services. Let’s make 2026 your best year yet.

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THE RISE OF "DUPE BEAUTY" IS HERE TO STAY. The global dupe beauty market is projected to grow by analysts from $4.6B in 2026 to $14.8B by 2036 — a nearly 13% CAGR. Top drivers: 1️⃣ PERFORMANCE is replacing BRAND as the decision driver Consumers are no longer buying labels — they’re buying results. If a product delivers the same shade, texture, and wear at a fraction of the price, LOYALTY BECOMES OPTIONAL. 2️⃣ Social media has turned comparison into conversion Dupe culture is powered by TikTok, creators, and side-by-side testing. Purchase now happens in minutes, not months. 3️⃣ Speed is the new competitive advantage “Fast beauty” is redefining the industry: rapid development cycles, instant trend replication, digital-first distribution 4️⃣ Premium is being democratized Mid-mass brands are mastering “affordable luxury”: premium aesthetics, improved formulas, and strong digital storytelling — without the prestige markup. 5️⃣ But scale brings risk Regulatory pressure, product safety, and high return rates will separate serious players from opportunistic ones. Dupe beauty is about re-engineering value, favoring performance, speed, and accessibility — simultaneously. #beautyindustry #dupe

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Dropping prices to win customers in the peptide space is usually the wrong move. Trust outsells cheap in this category almost every time. The buyer's real hesitation was never really about price. It's whether the store is actually legitimate, and whether the product is really what the label says it is. A lower price doesn't answer either of those questions. It just makes them louder, since an unusually cheap price on something people are already unsure about tends to read as another red flag, not a reason to buy. The brands winning at seven and eight figures in this space lead with a completely different stack instead: •Public COAs on every product page •Third-party purity testing •US-based fulfillment •Real contact details and a real business behind the site •Fast, tracked shipping Those signals do more for conversion than a discount ever could, because they remove the actual thing stopping the sale in the first place. And customers who buy because they trust the brand, not because the price was low, tend to come back more often, which makes them worth more over time than a customer who was only ever chasing the cheapest option. Competing on price in a category where price was never the real objection just leaves margin on the table for no reason. Build the trust stack instead, and the price can usually go up, not down.

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BUBBLE SKINCARE HIRES CENTERVIEW TO EXPLORE SALE, DISCLOSES SALES >$100M Bubble Skincare was founded in 2020 by Shai Eisenman designed for Gen Z with affordable, dermatologist-tested formulas and has scaled past $100m in revenues. Tracked beauty brands have traded for a median sales multiple of 4.3x with Medik8 at the high end of that range at over 9x. Eisenman is on record saying the brand did $1m in sales in 2021, and WWD has estimated that 2024 revenues are around $175m; in which case the brand could certainly be pushing into or over 1 billion dollar valuation territory depending on profitability. Centerview Partners' average consumer deal size this year is ~$1.3B (not including the Walgreens deal) which would be about a 7x sales multiple if Bubble landed there - premium, but in line with other skincare brands like Thayers (7.5x, L'Oreal) & Sol De Janeiro (7.5x, L'Occitane). Centerview has had a busy year on the emerging brands front having advised sell side on the acquisitions of Dr. Squatch, Alani Nutrition, Simple Mills, Thirty Madison

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Bad POS data costs real money. But almost no one wants to deal with it. FlowConnect ensures every system sees the same data — clean, aligned, defensible POS that’s actionable immediately, across partners. Upload once, no rework. We're excited to dig into this topic at NEMRA26 alongside our friends from RAB, IDEA, and JMA Group. If you care about commissions, trust, and faster payouts — this is the conversation. Thank you National Electrical Manufacturers Representatives Association for putting this on!

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