Attracted by the brand’s strong editorial presence, mission, and thorny growth challenges, I joined maude in 2022 to lead ecommerce and retention marketing efforts.

A common thread across my work at maude involves considering customers’ preferences in context with my capacity to influence their behavior. 

What do customers want to do? 

Why do customers want to do that? 

What is the probability that I can influence their behavior? 

In my opinion, two of the most common mistakes operators make include 1) falsely assuming a causal relationship between their actions and an outcome and 2) assuming they have the capacity to effect change where, when, and how they see fit. 

Recognizing one’s limits to effect change and the ambiguity that occurs when operating in the real world doesn’t betray deficiency as a marketer. It enables you to anchor strategy around achievable goals while increasing the speed and accuracy with which you and your team execute against those objectives.  

Since joining maude, we have used this approach to accelerate return customer revenue growth to meet that of new customer acquisition, and are building on our momentum. Below are several examples, applied.

Across ecommerce, many brands make their product available for both one time purchase and subscription regardless of what they sell. Rarely do we stop and ask why, or consider whether this strategy works.
 
Not all products work on a subscription model. Given how recurring customer revenue can help drive profitable business growth, those that can, should.

Intrinsic product attributes are the most significant factor in determining the viability of a product for subscription. Daily use products that need to be replenished more frequently will almost always work better than products that are used or need replenishment less frequently (i.e. probiotic supplements vs. hair conditioner). 

These inherent strengths are compounded by the power law of defaults that make subscription businesses so formidable. Linking a single decision to multiple purchases is more productive than linking a single decision to one purchase. For products that logically fit within a subscription model, I ask myself: 

Should this product be default available for subscription? 

Should this product also be available for one time purchase?

If made available for one time purchase, how many customers do I think I can upsell into a subscription relationship? 

At maude, we have unlocked significant value in the last year by leaning into different products' unique attributes, and considering how those attributes influence customers' default behavior. For certain products, that has meant removal from subscription entirely. For other products, a transition to a subscription-only model. 

Recognizing and leaning into these underlying currents has enabled us to drive incremental top- and bottom-line revenue growth across disparate products and categories. 

Maturing brands have to create new products that drive incremental new customer revenue in order to grow. But it is expensive to develop and produce new merchandise, and not every new product resonates with customers. 

Recently, I’ve been exploring how to increase the productivity of existing merchandise to drive revenue growth by reworking our approach to bundling. Jim Barksdale, the former CEO of Netscape said, “There are only two way to make money in business: one is to bundle, the other is to unbundle.” We have experimented with both to great effect. 

In the past, maude’s approach to bundling revolved around narrative and gifting, with names like the “Staycation Kit,” and expensive packaging that killed margin. We recently shifted strategies guided by a simple hypothesis: bundles can work when pairing popular products that are frequently purchased together, and can't when you don’t. We overhauled our entire offering, killing historically non-performant bundles and releasing six new ones.

The changes we made significantly effected topline revenue, lifting AOV, UPT, LTV, and contribution margin by decreasing friction and providing additional value to our customer. Critically, they showed us we have the ability to manufacture our own margin, and led us to begin rigorously testing the use of bundles to simultaneously scale spend and capture more profit.

Today, the lines between media and commerce are blurring as brands try to efficiently acquire customers, news companies seek out sustainable business models, and people spend more time on social media. Glossier began with Into The Gloss, media brands like The Strategist are increasingly branching into ecommerce, and TikTok is working on this at scale with TikTok Shop. 

I believe the brands who win this race will do so with more than great product and content that engages–it will require finding the right form factor and balance between the two across channels of distribution. This is where I’ve focused attention in my work with the maudern, the editorial arm of maude. 

Working closely with our content lead and design team, we’ve implemented rigorous iterative and swing testing around contextual commerce to more efficiently engage and convert customers at scale. It has enabled a strong positive feedback loop, with the insights gleaned from customers’ expressed preferences informing our strategic approach to content strategy, lead generation, audience segmentation, and automations. 

We’ve only just started to scratch the surface–a significant amount of opportunity remains and we are excited to continue learning.