DTC884: Peak End Rule, Welcome Email Flow and Sweet Loren TikTok

Good morning, 

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

🎉 Design Experiences That Stick
How the ‘peak end’ rule impacts customer experiences.

📧 High-Performing Welcome Flow
A proven sequence you can steal.

🚨 Daily Tariff Update
The end of de minimis impact.

🍪 Sweet Loren’s Viral TikTok Moment
How an accidental stunt fueled growth.

You’re reading this newsletter along with new subscribers from: Shmoody, Pushkin Press, and Ambience and Elixirs. 👋

👀 Can We Talk About Your CAC for a Second?

While most DTC brands double down on the same expensive channels, smart founders are building something they actually own—influencer communities that consistently promote their products. 💁‍♀️

But here's where most brands mess up: They play "influencer roulette"—sending products to random creators and praying they post. It's literally gambling with your marketing budget. 🎰

👉 There's a better way. Enter SARAL.

Over 250 brands like Obvi, Solawave, and R.E.M Beauty are crushing it right now:

• ✅ Building predictable influence systems
• ✅ Turning one-off posts into ongoing partnerships
• ✅ Creating a halo effect that makes ALL their marketing work better

Get owned marketing channels, reduced CAC, and—finally—growth you can actually predict and scale. 🎯

Stop renting attention and start owning your growth.

🎉 The Peak End Rule: Design Better User Experiences!

Have you heard of the peak-end rule?

UX designer Chris Nguyen shares an important insight for experience design:

Users judge an interaction based on its most intense moment (the “peak”) and how it ends. Not the entire journey.

In other words, we tend to remember just two key moments rather than every single step.

As Nguyen explains: “Pay attention to the most intense points and final moments of the user’s journey.” 

That’s how you build brand affinity and keep users engaged.

Here’s an example 👇

These two UIs deliver the same result, but the feelings they create are very different.

[Screenshot via @ DenisJeliazkov / X] 

• On the left: There’s a generic completion screen with a score, a green checkmark, and little emotional impact. It feels robotic and doesn’t leave a lasting impression.
  
• On the right:  Immediately you can tell this is a celebratory moment from the party popper emoji, animated confetti, and a playful message: “The more points you get, the more presents we give.” This turns a routine step into a reward, encouraging repeat engagement.
  

It even mirrors the user’s excitement with a cheerful “Interesting!” mimicking a two-way dialogue. 

The takeaway?

‍People remember how you make them feel.‍Design experiences that spark positive emotions so users associate your brand with joy and want to come back. Strategic messaging, warm language, and colorful animations can deliver that dopamine hit that keeps them engaged.

💋 They Say Beauty Is Pain…But Your Order And Delivery Experience Shouldn’t Be

💄 Shipfusion spent $8,000 to do a deep dive into the DTC cosmetics world, ordering from 110 leading ecommerce cosmetic brands, and they found: 

• 👀 75% of brands miss out on increasing AOV with no post-purchase offers
• 🌀 33% of orders arrived scuffed, and over 10% had damaged items
• 📦 Nearly 50% of brands used custom boxes, but only 36% had branded interiors 

👏 From shipping timelines to the unboxing experience, this report breaks down the key moves beauty brands are missing and what the industry leaders nailed. ✨

👉 Grab the Cosmetics Delivery Files to see what’s working, what’s missing, and how to win loyalty.

📦 Your Daily Tariff Check-In

Whether it’s a minor tweak or a major shift, we’ll keep you posted on the latest tariff changes—so you’re always in the know. 

August 17, 2025 update:

• The End of De Minimis Is Fast Approaching…
  
  
  • The end of the de minimis exemption, which allows shipments under $800 to enter the U.S. duty and tax-free, will be eliminated on August 29th.
    
  • The exemption has been barred for Chinese imports since May, but importers had planned to use this loophole from other countries.
    
  • LVK Logistics CEO Maggie Barnett shares that importers are "scrambling right now because they just thought [the elimination] wouldn’t happen so fast,” Barnett said.

🎧 How Pilothouse Engineers Welcome Email Flows That Convert

In this TWBERP episode, Eric and Jordan dive into the real tactics behind building high-performing welcome email sequences that are designed to increase purchase rate and decrease time-to-buy.

Rather than relying purely on discounts, Pilothouse recommends layering merchandising, education, and lifestyle storytelling in a structured flow that builds customer understanding and trust.

In this episode, we dive into:

• A Proven Welcome Sequence: Jordan walks listeners through how they can maximize early conversions and drive revenue.
  
  “Usually by the third welcome message, someone’s made their first purchase.”

• The Power of Educational and Lifestyle Content: Why businesses need to go beyond discounting and help customers see your brand's value. 

“If you can get inside someone’s imagination, you have an infinite budget.”

• Cadence Testing Tips: Jordan lays out how to test email frequency and optimize performance. 

👉 Listen to the full episode with Jordan here.

Sweet Loren’s went viral on TikTok last week after their social media manager, Ryan Weitz, accidentally changed the brand’s TikTok account name to Ryan. 

Since the platform doesn’t allow users to change an account name for 7 days, Ryan Weitz leaned into the mistake by posting hilarious updates about her coworker’s reactions, changing the logo to ‘Sweet Ryan’ and hosting Ryan meetups. 

The impact? A 28.8% increase in followers, 2.5+ impressions on TikTok and a whopping 46% increase in website sales. 

This is a great example of how brands can turn a mistake into viral content.

🔥 NexGrill, an outdoor cooking and heating brand, joined Walmart Marketplace in 2022. With access to millions of customers, zero monthly fees, and powerful ecommerce tools, they grew from a small startup to a global brand in just two years. Join now. *

📥 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.

Have you heard our latest podcasts?

• ✅ How Obvi Fixed Meta Pixel Poisoning & Recovered Performance 
• 🪄 AKNF 534: Google’s 90% “New Customer” Illusion
• ☠️ Ad-venturous 15: 6 Meta Ad Mistakes that Kill Scaling 
• 😎 TWBERP 46: The Only Browse Abandon Email You’ll Ever Need
• 💗 Mira’s Femtech Playbook: Why Community Should Precede Paid 
• 🧠 AKNF 532: What Smart Amazon Brands Do Differently 

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.