Good morning.
Circle? Expanded.
Problem? Solved. ✅
Here’s what you’ll find in today’s newsie:
Let's get into it.
Last year, Meta CPMs rose 8% and Google CPAs jumped 34%. Cool. So you're paying more to reach the same shoppers, and BFCM is supposed to be your biggest profit window of the year.
Revenue is great. Keeping the margin is better. So what now?
Triple Whale analyzed $2.88B in customer revenue across 33,000 brands to put together a BFCM 2026 Prep Guide to what actually works.
It covers:
If you're setting budgets for November, download the BFCM 2026 Prep Guide before you start spending.
*Sponsored
Silk & Snow sells the stuff you spend a third of your life on: mattresses, bedding, weighted blankets, bedroom furniture. Their emails feel like that too. Soft colors, warm photography, nothing shouting at you.
Pilothouse’s email team spent some time in the Welcome and Abandoned Cart flows, since those are the two automations that catch shoppers when they’re most interested. The foundation is good. The tests below are mostly about timing and where the offer shows up, and none of them need a redesign.
Welcome Series: give subscribers the offer when they sign up
What’s working
Email 1 opens with “Hello! Make Yourself Comfy,” which is exactly how this brand should say hello. There’s a “Voted Most Popular” grid that drops new subscribers right into weighted blankets, bedding, pillows, and bath, plus a set of lifestyle shots showing the products in real bedrooms. It’s a nice first impression.
The opportunity
The $10 welcome offer doesn’t show up until Email 3, three days after signup. That same email has a great line in the header too: “As always, shipping is on us!” Email 1 doesn’t mention either one.
Email 1 lands seconds after someone decides they want to hear from you. That’s the moment to test the offer. By day three, some of that interest has had time to wear off.
What Pilothouse would test
Once the offer moves up, the rest of the series gets to do more teaching. Pilothouse would stretch it to four or five emails and give each one a category: mattresses, bedding, furniture. Each email can show what the products are made of, how the trial works, and what reviewers say. If someone browsed mattresses before signing up, they should probably hear about mattresses first.
Try this on your brand
Pull the open rate and placed-order rate for every email in your welcome flow. If your offer lives in Email 2 or later, and Email 1 is the one people open most, start there.
The Abandoned Cart flow is where Pilothouse found the biggest timing opportunity. That’s right after this. 👇
Nearly 75% of DTC brands launch holiday promotions by mid-November, leaving a few weeks to finalize your offer and what comes after it.
Beyond the Discount pairs survey data from 575+ operators and 700+ shoppers with platform data from Smile.io.
A few findings:
Get eyes on the data before your promo launches.
*In partnership with Smile.io
Abandoned Cart: think about how fast you follow up
What’s working
“Your Cart Looks Comfy!” is a fun headline for what’s usually a pretty dry email. And it shows the shopper the actual products they left behind, with prices.
The opportunity
In the flow Pilothouse reviewed, the first reminder went out two days after someone left their cart. The cart in the example had an S&S Mattress (525 CAD), a Bergen Wooden Nightstand (427.50 CAD), and a Premium Sleep Bundle (149 CAD). That’s over 1,100 CAD.
Someone spending that much may want some time to think, so a two-day gap makes sense on paper. They’re also probably looking at a few other brands during those two days. That’s why the timing is worth testing.
What Pilothouse would test
A couple of quick fixes
These don’t need a test. They just need fixing.
A third email for bigger carts
When someone’s sitting on a big cart, there’s often one specific thing holding them up. Will it fit in the room? When will it arrive? Can they pay over time? Is it actually worth it?
Silk & Snow could test a third email with a few different versions, each answering one of those:
Whichever version wins gives you a better read on what’s holding people back. That’s useful for product pages and ads too.
Try this on your brand
Look at your average cart value next to how long you wait before the first reminder. If your products are lower-priced, a faster first email may make sense. If they’re expensive, test both and see how long your customers actually take to decide.
Where Silk & Snow goes from here
The hard part is already done. Silk & Snow’s emails look and sound like Silk & Snow in every flow Pilothouse reviewed. The biggest opportunities now are in timing and sequencing:
Those cover two of the moments when shoppers are closest to buying.
🛒 Selling on Walmart Marketplace is one of this year's smartest investments. New Seller Savings 2026 is happening now. Sign up to unlock up to $75K in New Seller Savings to build your business on Walmart Marketplace.* Conditions apply.
🚢 Hormuz shipping risk is back on the radar ahead of BFCM. Two cargo ships sank near the Strait of Hormuz after separate projectile strikes. Check with logistics partners on routes, surcharges, and replenishment timing before locking in holiday inventory plans. Read more.
📊 Google is giving advertisers more control over channel spend, with a catch. New prioritization and budget allocation controls let you set limits for low-priority inventory, but Google says those limits are still “best effort” and can be exceeded. See the new controls.
🎁 Build the BFCM bundle before deciding how deep to discount. @MenachemAni recommends pairing complementary products around a hero item first, then deciding whether a free gift or discount makes the offer stronger.
🛍️ Shoppers are heading into BFCM with prices still climbing. US consumer prices rose 3.7% YoY in September, up from 3.4% in August. Make value easy to understand, then check your own margins, conversion rates, and order values before reaching for a deeper discount. Read more.
.svg)
.svg)
.svg)
.svg)
.svg)
.svg)
