DTC1020: Shifting customer behavior, email segmentation, and more

Good morning,

Here’s what you’ll find in today’s DTC:

1️⃣ How this new customer behavior shift impacts your brand.
2️⃣ Is bad segmentation impacting your email platform?

You’re reading this newsletter along with new subscribers from: Dropps, Clearly Interiors, and Silver Jeans. 👋

‍💬 Replies Aren’t Engagement. They’re Buying Signals.

When customers respond to an SMS, they’re often at the closest point to conversion, asking about sizing, shipping, ingredients, or returns.

The problem: most brands still treat replies like support noise instead of revenue moments.

In this new report, DTC, with additional insights from Postscript, analyzed how 840+ operators handle SMS replies and what 1,000 consumers actually expect in that moment.

Inside, you’ll see:

• Where responses break down
• How fast customers expect answers
• What happens to revenue when purchase-blocking questions go unanswered

And more.

The full report is free.

‍💆 Customers Want Products That Make Them Feel Better

Something fundamental has shifted in how people shop.

According to Mintel's 2026 consumer trends research, buying decisions are now shaped by functional efficacy and… emotional wellbeing.

By 2030 wellbeing will extend far beyond physical health. It will encompass emotional balance, authenticity, joy and human connection – consumer behaviours will expect brands to reflect these values.

Consumers aren't just purchasing products. They're buying permission to feel better.

Across categories, this shift is already reshaping what sells and what doesn't.

Here are some key trend shifts happening in 3 popular product categories:

Beauty: Wellness Is the New Luxury

Consumers are pulling back from aspirational beauty and moving toward products that make them feel capable and grounded.

The prestige appeal of a brand name is losing ground to proof of function and emotional payoff — ingredients that work, rituals that restore, and products that fit into a life that's already stretched thin.

What brands can do:

• Use emotional language: Copy that signals calm, ease, and self-restoration will resonate more than status-driven copy.
• Lean into identity: Shift Messaging from physical results driven to identity reinvention. For example, “Reduce wrinkles” → “Support skin that keeps up with you.”
• Frame products as part of a routine, not a one-off purchase: Bundles and subscriptions perform well here.

Food & Beverage: The Ritual Economy

Eating and drinking have become deeply intentional acts.

Consumers are constructing mini-rituals around food (e.g. the morning matcha, the evening wind-down snack) and they want products that support those moments.

Create a sensory or emotional association (morning coffee, skincare routine, workout prep, etc.) in your language, packaging, and formulation.

Health claims still matter, but they need to be emotionally legible, not clinical.

What brands can do:

• Reframe health benefits around how a product fits into someone's day, not just what it does biologically.
• Shoot ritual-forward product photography and copy: “Your 3pm reset” performs better than clinical claims.
• Send email and SMS messages that reinforce ritual: Use copy like “your Sunday reset,” or “morning stack reminder.”

What ends up happening is the product feels like part of their identity and something they need to repurchase.

Home: The Sanctuary Mindset

Home has become a primary site of self-care. Consumers are investing in their spaces as emotional environments, not just functional ones.

Products that signal calm, comfort, and intentional living are outperforming purely aesthetic or trend-driven options.

What brands can do:

• Sell the feeling of the space, not the object: “Creates a room you actually want to come home to” is more compelling than just sharing product specs.
• Lifestyle imagery that promotes relaxation: Shows people reading, resting, unwinding. This outperforms styled empty-room shots.
• Cross-category bundles that create a “vibe”: Pairing a candle with a blanket and a sheet mask together perform well because they sell the ritual, not just the item.

The takeaway?

Consumers in 2026 are spending with intention, and they expect brands to meet them there.

The operators who will win understand that every product page, email, and unboxing moment is a chance to deliver both function and feeling.

Audit your messaging now: are you selling what the product does, or how it makes someone feel?

The best answer is both.

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‍Is Your Email Segmentation On Point?

Jordan, host of The World's Best Email and Retention podcast, breaks down the practical segmentation frameworks and models that increase clicks, protect inboxing, and generate more revenue from customers you already paid for.

What we cover:

• Why bad segmentation can hurt your email program
• How to structure engagement windows
• Prospect vs. buyer vs. whale splits using lifetime value
• Cohort-based discounting without training customers to wait for sales
• How to use SMS segmentation math to lower cost per click

🎧 Listen on Spotify

‍📊 You can lower CPA by 19% and bump your CTR 53%. How? Brands like Our Place, Instant Hydration, and RevitaLash use minisocial to partner with the creators that make it happen. See how!*

▶️ Meta simplifies click measurement. Link click attribution will now only count link clicks and exclude saves, and shares.

➕ Google’s Demand Gen campaign update. A new $5 minimum
spend will be enforced starting April 1st.

‍📥 Got a B2B Biz?

Join dozens of B2B companies finding demand-gen success through our niche community of 150k brand leaders and founders this year. Talk to our team to learn more.

Don’t forget to rate the DTC Podcast on Apple (⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️)

DTC Newsletter is written by Rebecca Knight and Frances Du. Edited by Eric Dyck.

Please note that items in this newsletter marked with * contain sponsored content.