👋 Happy Thursday! This morning I reviewed 40+ ecommerce news sources. These are the updates I'd tell a founder if we were having coffee.
Inside this issue:
📰 The Ecommerce Stories That Matter This Week
🎧 On The Pod: 11 Years Of Facebook Advertising Expertise In 30 Minutes
☕ Claus's Take: Your CAC Is Probably 50% Higher Than You Think
Grab your coffee. 3 minutes now. Better decisions all week
📰 THE STORIES WORTH YOUR TIME
📈 General Ecommerce News
🛒 Platforms & Marketplaces
📱Social Media, Search & Advertising
⭐ TOGETHER WITH Clustie.Ai*
Is your Shopify data working for you, or against you?
Clustie’s playbook features 100 battle-tested growth hacks used by top eCommerce brands to tighten funnels and maximize ad efficiency.
Instead of relying on platform guesswork, this guide shows you how to leverage your existing Shopify first-party data to build high-converting, predictable audiences.
🎙️ ECOMMERCE COFFEE BREAK PODCAST
11 Years Of Facebook Advertising Expertise In 30 Minutes
Most brands don't fail because they spend too little on Facebook ads. They fail because they scale the wrong campaigns.
I sat down with Sam Piliero, founder of The Moonlighters, to unpack the frameworks his agency has used for over a decade to help ecommerce brands scale profitably.
In this episode, you'll learn:
Why most brands hit a scaling ceiling—and how to break through it.
How to spot winning campaigns before increasing your ad budget.
Where AI helps, and where human strategy still beats automation.
🎧 Listen now: [Browser] • [Apple Podcasts] • [Spotify] • [YouTube] • [iHeart]
📲 Want to listen on the go? Download our free podcast app.
If you’d like to be a guest, or make a guest recommendation, please let us know!
☕ CLAUS'S TAKE
(One opinion. One lesson. One action.)
Your customer acquisition cost is probably 50% higher than you think.
I keep hearing founders say, "Our CAC is around $40." Then I ask one question: Does that include everything?
Usually, the answer is no.
Your Meta dashboard doesn't pay your designer. It doesn't pay your agency, your Klaviyo bill, your UGC creators, your AI tools, or the 20% discount you offered to win that first sale.
Here's the reality: A customer that appears to cost $50 to acquire often costs $75–$100+ once you include every marketing expense. Ignore those costs and you'll think you're profitable when you're actually losing money.
Here's what works: Calculate your fully loaded CAC every month. Then compare it to your customer lifetime value—not just your first order. Healthy DTC brands aim for an LTV that's at least 3x higher than CAC.
The brands that survive aren't the ones with the cheapest ads. They're the ones that know their numbers better than their competitors.
Your move: Open your P&L. Add every marketing cost from the last 30 days. Divide it by the number of new customers—not total orders. You may discover your "profitable" marketing isn't as profitable as you thought.
Here is my question to you: Have you calculated your fully loaded customer acquisition cost in the last 90 days?
Hit reply with YES or NO. I read every response.
Don’t forget to grab our free online seller resources.
That's it for this week. Thanks for spending a few minutes with me today. I'll be back Tuesday with more ecommerce news and ideas worth knowing.
~ Claus
If you want to revisit any past editions, you can find the full newsletter archive here.
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