Ecommerce Playbook: Numbers, Struggles & Growth

Luke Austin, President of Common Thread Collective, joins Richard Gaffin to explain how to keep shoppers engaged after your Black Friday sale goes live.

They break down the Power 30, the holiday window that accounts for 55% of Q4 website revenue in the data discussed, and the offer decisions that deserve attention throughout it. Luke shares examples of brands using VIP hours, featured-product flash sales, and changing gifts with purchase to give customers fresh reasons to visit and buy.

The conversation covers how to prepare those moments, adapt to sales and inventory, and keep each offer easy for shoppers to understand.

In this episode:

• Building a holiday calendar around early access, Black Friday, Cyber Monday, and the shipping cutoff

• Why Luke prioritizes offer strategy alongside the media plan during peak shopping days

• What happened when one brand added its bestselling product line back into its holiday offer

• Planning fresh offers and messages within a single day

• Using inventory, margins, and minimum order values to shape gifts with purchase

• Keeping a consistent promotional theme as individual offers change

Show Notes:

• Q4 waits for no one. AppLovin is offering $5K ad credit when you spend $5K. Go to applovin.com/ctc to set up your first campaign

• Learn more: https://commonthreadco.com

• Track your brand’s performance: https://statlas.io

• Work with us: https://commonthreadco.com/pages/contact

• Have a question for the Ecommerce Playbook? Email [email protected]
  

Joy Sharma, who leads CTC's seven-figure service offering, joins Richard with one goal: give every 7-figure ecommerce brand a clear BFCM prep playbook before the season hits.

They walk through five areas in order from least to most impact.

• Housekeeping: Make sure your ad account billing limit is higher than your expected spend. Check your Commerce Manager, confirm your pixel is firing with 90%+ match rate, and clear any blockages before November.

• Offer: Your discount needs to be 20% or higher. Anything below that doesn't register. Simplify it — no tiered structures, no math for the customer. If your BFCM customers have weak LTV, build bundles around AOV instead of chasing subscriptions. And have something for your whales — Joy has sold $1,000 bundles for brands with $50 products. People don't realize how rich their best customers are.

• Email and SMS: Run at least three emails a week during the pre-Black Friday period. One email a day during Black Friday week. Up to three emails on Black Friday and Cyber Monday. Immediately after Cyber Monday, run a two-day extension. Then shift to a free shipping cutoff sale. Most brands stop on Cyber Monday. That last window has a lot of revenue left in it. Send on your peak hours — use your historical data to find them.

• Landing page: The homepage is the hero. Run your ads there. Add a countdown timer, a sticky bar, slashed prices in a different color, and at least three product blocks (bestsellers, highest AOV, highest margin). Build a whale bundle. Turn off your evergreen first-time-buyer pop-ups.

• Creative (highest impact): CTC's research across hundreds of brands found that BFCM-specific ads drive only 30% of total Meta spend during the holiday period. Evergreen carries 70%. Don't sacrifice October ad production to make more November ads — October ads spend 50% more over Q4. But nobody makes enough Black Friday ads. One brand went from $5K a day to $55K a day by making 1,500 ads. Creative hierarchy: frames first, then catalogs with sale creative, then statics with offers overlaid, then video remixes of top performers, then new creator content if you have capacity.

BLACK FRIDAY AD RESEARCH: https://commonthreadco-global.com/bfcm

Show Notes:

• Go to https://www.universalads.com/middleman and use code UACTC to get $2,500 in matched ad credits when you spend $2,500.

• Learn more: https://commonthreadco.com

• Track your brand’s performance: https://statlas.io

• Work with us: https://commonthreadco.com/pages/contact

• Have a question for the Ecommerce Playbook? Email [email protected]

By the time Black Friday arrives, Skullcandy wants customers ready to buy.

Evin Catlett, Skullcandy’s Global VP of Ecommerce and Growth Marketing, joins Taylor Holiday live at Commerce Roundtable in San Diego to explain how the brand uses TikTok Shop and creator content to build demand ahead of its holiday promotions. She shares what helped TikTok Shop gain traction after a slow start and how her team selects products for creator campaigns that support sales across Skullcandy’s website, Amazon, and retail stores.

In this episode:

• Building a digital growth strategy inside a brand with extensive retail distribution

• Why Skullcandy kept investing in TikTok Shop after a slow launch

• The role of creator content in generating demand across sales channels

• Coordinating Black Friday offers across DTC, Amazon, and retail

• Evin’s approach to investing before the sale so customers are ready to purchase

• Giving shoppers reasons to buy directly through loyalty benefits and exclusive products

• Planning for holiday sales through Christmas and the end of the year

Key takeaway: Evin reports seeing retail sales of specific products move within weeks of creator campaigns. Measuring the full impact across channels remains a work in progress.

This episode is brought to you by:

- Trybe: https://bit.ly/4xXvD08

- Alia: https://bit.ly/4yuP8ON

- Bill: https://bit.ly/4e9JQQm

Show Notes:

• Go to http://outersignal.com/thread to get 50% off your first two months

• Learn more: https://commonthreadco.com

• Track your brand’s performance: https://statlas.io

• Work with us: https://commonthreadco.com/pages/contact

• Have a question for the Ecommerce Playbook? Email [email protected]

Justin Palmer, Founder & CEO of Home Life Brands, joins Taylor Holiday live at Commerce Roundtable in San Diego to discuss Black Friday customer retention and turning holiday shoppers into customers who stay.After 12 years in pet ecommerce, the company behind iHeartDogs and The Hero Company prioritizes acquiring customers in September and October, when they’re more likely to buy again during the holidays. Justin explains how member discounts, early product access, and daily inventory planning shape the brand’s Black Friday and Cyber Monday strategy.For DTC brands preparing for BFCM 2026, Justin shares an approach to driving repeat purchases and building membership revenue around products customers don’t need every month. Charitable experiences and personal impact updates give members an ongoing reason to engage beyond the initial discount.In this episode:- Why September and October acquisitions tend to return during the holidays, while November and December buyers are more often one-time gift shoppers- Finding the intersection of three customer interests to develop more specific products and ad creative- Building membership revenue around products with limited natural repeat purchase frequency- Giving members early access and discounted pricing before Black Friday- Testing product concepts with existing customers and cold audiences before ordering inventory- Using daily inventory projections to adjust pricing and ad spend ahead of the shipping cutoff- Giving iHeartDogs members a reason to stay through meal donations, monthly rescue flights, and personal impact dashboards- Producing AI ad creative at scale when predicting winners is increasingly difficult- Building toward automated offers, from a discount idea to a landing page and published ad creative- Why Meta remains the primary acquisition channel, and where TikTok Shop, Amazon, and AppLovin fit- Moving media buyer compensation toward contribution margin rather than last-click revenue aloneKey stat: Justin says memberships account for roughly 25% of the business’s revenue, helping provide stability outside the holiday season.Community impact: The Hero Company has also funded more than $2 million in donations to organizations that match veterans with service dogs.This episode is brought to you by:- Trybe: https://bit.ly/4xXvD08- Alia: https://bit.ly/4yuP8ON- Bill: https://bit.ly/4e9JQQmShow Notes: Go to ⁠https://www.universalads.com/middleman ⁠and use code UACTC to get $2,500 in matched ad credits when you spend $2,500.- Learn more: https://commonthreadco.com- Track your brand’s performance: https://statlas.io- Work with us: https://commonthreadco.com/pages/contact- Have a question for the Ecommerce Playbook? Email [email protected]

Kyle Yeoman, President of Groove Life, joins Taylor Holiday live at Commerce Roundtable in San Diego to explain why the brand is pulling back on discounts.

With profits tripling, Kyle breaks down the changes behind Groove Life’s turnaround, from cutting operating expenses to rebuilding product pages. He also shares the brand’s Black Friday plan: start the Wednesday before, run the sale for one week, and stop.
In this episode:

• What changed when discounted sales grew from 20% to 40% of revenue
• Why brands get stuck in “discount prison” and what it takes to get out
• Groove Life’s 2026 plan to reserve discounts for Father’s Day and the holiday season
• Why fixing operating expenses came first
• The product page changes that lifted conversion rates 61% YoY on the updated pages
• Why Groove Life is keeping its Black Friday sale to one week
• How the brand approaches linear TV and YouTube beyond traditional attribution

One thing worth noting, Kyle reports that site changes cut Meta CPA in half, measured on the same seven-day click attribution window.

Key stat: Kyle reports that site changes cut Meta CPA in half, measured on the same seven-day click attribution window.

This episode is brought to you by:
Trybe: https://bit.ly/4xXvD08
Alia: https://bit.ly/4yuP8ON
Bill: https://bit.ly/4e9JQQm

Show Notes:

• Q4 waits for no one. AppLovin is offering $5K ad credit when you spend $5K. Go to applovin.com/ctc to set up your first campaign
• Explore the Prophit Engine: https://commonthreadco.com/pages/prophit-engine
• The Ecommerce Playbook mailbag is open — email us at [email protected] to ask us any questions you might have

Kyle Yeoman, President of Groove Life, joins Taylor live at Commerce Roundtable in San Diego to break down one of the most counterintuitive pivots in DTC: committing to fewer discounts and watching profits triple. Kyle shares the exact framework Groove Life used to escape "discount prison" — and the site changes alone that cut their Meta CPA in half.

In this episode:

• How Groove went from 20% to 40% of revenue through discounts — and what that revealed

• The "discount prison" problem: why you can't turn off what you built your funnel on

• The 2026 reset: fix OpEx first, then eliminate year-round promotions

• Why rebuilding one PDP drove 61% YoY conversion rate improvement

• The exact Q4 strategy: no sale until Wednesday before Black Friday, one week only

• How linear TV remnant + YouTube operates outside traditional attribution

• The mindset shift: constraint as competitive advantage

Key stat: Meta CPA cut in half — seven-day click, apples to apples — from site changes alone. No ad changes required.

Show Notes:

• Q4 waits for no one. AppLovin is offering $5K ad credit when you spend $5K. Go to applovin.com/ctc to set up your first campaign

• Explore the Prophit Engine: https://commonthreadco.com/pages/prophit-engine

• The Ecommerce Playbook mailbag is open — email us at [email protected] to ask us any questions you might have

Tyler and Alex from TBAR just joined CTC — and in this episode, Shack sits down with them right after their first-ever stage presentation at Commerce Roundtable to break down everything they know about building winning TikTok Shop programs.

This is the tactical breakdown behind one of the fastest-growing creator commerce agencies in the space: how they built their client roster (Ridge, David Protein, Jones Road and more), why video volume beats virality every time, how they structure creator communities in Discord, and where social commerce is heading next.

In This Episode:

• Why TikTok limits views on shoppable videos (and why that actually doesn't matter)

• The GMV Max algorithm explained: why it's a slot machine, not a science

• How to get 3 videos back for every sample you send

• The creator community flywheel: Discord, coaching, competitions, retainers

• Halo effect to Amazon, Shopify, and retail — when to expect it and how to measure it

• Where social commerce is heading: YouTube Shop, Meta Reels, and live selling

Show Notes:

• Go to https://bit.ly/4cbihFx to Claim $25,000 in Lutiq platform credits

• Explore Tikok Shops; https://commonthreadco.com/pages/tiktok-shop-agency

• Explore the Prophit Engine: https://commonthreadco.com/pages/prophit-engine

• The Ecommerce Playbook mailbag is open — email us at [email protected] to ask us any questions you might have

8 year CTC veteran Garrett Hord sits down with Randall to break down what separates the brands that crush Q4 from the ones that scramble.

For many ecommerce brands, 50% of annual revenue and contribution margin lands in a single 30-day window, November 13 through December 13. Most brands treat it like any other month. The ones that win treat it like a machine.

In this episode, Garrett walks through the frameworks, patterns, and tactical mistakes he's seen across 8 years and hundreds of brands — including CTC's "four peaks theory," the October cohort principle, and why squeezing the sponge is the most common Q4 killer.

Topics covered:

• Why 50% of revenue hits in just 30 days — and how to be ready

• "The Machine": submitting your Q4 plan for a back-check before BFCM

• Pulling revenue forward: the right way vs. the wrong way

• CTC's four peaks theory for Q4 promotional strategy

• The October cohort — why it has the highest short-term LTV of the year

• The "double dip" strategy: acquire new customers pre-BFCM, convert them on the spike

• Squeezing the sponge: the most common Q4 mistake

• Why brands that miss July–October targets almost never catch up in November

What season of ecommerce are we in, and who will win the next 5 years

Want to put your Q4 plan through The Machine? https://commonthreadco.com/pages/contact

Show Notes:

• Go to http://outersignal.com/thread to get 50% off your first two months

• Explore the Prophit Engine: https://commonthreadco.com/pages/prophit-engine

• The Ecommerce Playbook mailbag is open — email us at [email protected] to ask us any questions you might have

CTC just acquired TBAR Partners — the fastest-growing TikTok Shop agency in the country. In this episode, Luke sits down with co-founders Tyler Brechbiel and Alex Rudolph to walk through the origin story, the playbook behind their results, and what this partnership means for ecommerce brands.

Tyler and Alex built TBAR from a college dorm room in June 2025. Sixteen months later they're managing over $5M in monthly GMV for brands like Ridge, HexClad, and Grüns — and now they're part of Common Thread Collective.

In this episode:

• How TBAR went from zero to managing Ridge, HexClad, and Grüns in under 18 months

• The creator recruitment and Discord community system that 3x's video output per sample

• Why video volume and GMV have a direct correlation — and how to use that

• The "blitz launch" strategy that sold Naked Sundays out of inventory overnight

• How Ridge's tracker card — their worst D2C seller — became their top TikTok Shop product

• The volume-based competition that generated 7,000 videos in a single month for Ridge

• Why 90% of TikTok Shop revenue comes from the top 10 affiliates — and how to find them fast

• What GMV Max actually is and how to feed it correctly

• TikTok LIVE selling and the halo effect into Meta, Amazon, and retail

• How Statlas will track the full demand cascade for TBAR's brand roster

Show Notes:

• Go to https://bit.ly/4cbihFx to Claim $25,000 in Lutiq platform credits

• Explore the Prophit Engine: https://commonthreadco.com/pages/prophit-engine

• The Ecommerce Playbook mailbag is open — email us at [email protected] to ask us any questions you might have

Black Friday is not won in November. According to CTC data, brands that grow their active customer file by 10% or more this year have a 77% chance of beating last year's BFCM — with a median result of 40% growth. The brands that hold back in September are the ones that underperform in Q4.

Topics covered in this episode:

• Why your active customer file is the single biggest predictor of BFCM performance

• The data: 77%, 50%, and 30% — what your customer file growth tells you right now

• How CTC defines and measures the active customer file across Shopify brands

• Why short-term LTV peaks in the first 30 to 60 days after acquisition

• Why that window gets heightened heading into BFCM, not reduced

• The case for leaning into acquisition spend now rather than saving it for November

• How to measure the incremental impact of your media spend in September vs. BFCM

• What incrementality factors are and how CTC has seen them across brands

• The step-by-step September playbook: file, scenarios, moments, measurement

• Why the fear of pulling revenue forward or confusing your BFCM offer is overblown

Show Notes:

• Q4 waits for no one. AppLovin is offering $5K ad credit when you spend $5K. Go to applovin.com/ctc to set up your first campaign

• Explore the Prophit Engine: https://commonthreadco.com/pages/prophit-engine

• The Ecommerce Playbook mailbag is open — email us at [email protected] to ask us any questions you might have