🤑 Connor Rolain on how HexClad added $2.3M incremental in 12 months
🥵 Derek Lauermann shares 5 brands winning summer + how you can, too
🤓 Aaron Orendorff (that’s me) doesn’t want you to read to the end of this email
Plus, the top five headlines in consumer.
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Connor Rolain
Head of Growth, HexClad
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Are You Letting Your Best Customers Spend as Much Money as Possible?
Every ecom operator obsesses over the frontend of their funnel.
- Landing page
- PDP
- Checkout
But at HexClad we unlocked $2.3M in incremental revenue over 12 months … post-purchase, without touching a single conversion-critical surface.
We’re not unique. Rokt Aftersell just pulled data from 17 million sessions across 50,000+ Shopify stores and found that the moment after checkout is one of the most valuable.
Their data shows that the cart converts four times more revenue per session than checkout.
Also, the same checkout offer swings from 0.35% to 6.20% acceptance based on placement alone.
Not to mention, stores running three upsell modules together — such as cart, post-purchase, and thank you page — generate 9X more revenue than stores running just one.
Those are just a few findings. Their Revenue Leak Report breaks down all four post-purchase stages with real numbers.
The coolest part?
You can instantly connect this report to Claude, Perplexity, or ChatGPT and compare it with your own checkout data.
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Derek Lauermann
VP of Growth, Grüns
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Ad Snack 🍬 5 Brands Winning Summer By Attaching Their Products to Moments
Remember when hearing the ice cream truck from three blocks away felt like the biggest event of the summer?
A lot of brands are chasing that feeling right now.
By attaching their products to …
… that consumers already care about.
Here are five examples (with snackable 🍬 lessons).
1. David Protein Ice Cream
David sells protein bars. Now it sells ice cream, too.
Protein ice cream.
An entire pint has:
- 250 calories
- 30g protein
- 2g sugar
Instead of extending the line with another bar flavor, David entered one of summer’s most loved categories and made it healthy.
They sold out in 28 minutes.
Snack 🍬
Everyone loves ice cream. Great launches don’t try to manufacture a craving, they show up inside one people already have!
2. Liquid I.V. x Off Campus
When Prime Video’s hockey-romance series, Off Campus (based on Elle Kennedy’s BookTok-favorite books) dropped this May and became the binge of the summer, Liquid I.V. was in it.
Literally. The brand was written into multiple episodes and then used the show’s lead characters to launch a Sugar-Free Ring Pop Cherry flavor.
They committed before the show was even cast, working with writers on the integration. It paid off.
The show pulled 36 million viewers in under two weeks and became Prime Video’s #1 show globally, with Liquid I.V. baked into the story.
Snack 🍬
Off Campus crushed. But Liquid I.V. didn’t know it would. Early bets with limited downside and massive upside can pay off big.
3. Poppi x Love Island Punch Pop
Poppi didn’t dream up a new flavor for summer. Instead, it brought back one fans already loved.
Punch Pop, Poppi’s top-selling summer flavor last year, returned this May as a limited-edition Love Island USA collab, on co-branded cans timed to the Season 8 premiere.
The can was just the entry point. Poppi also shows up in the show itself, placed and consumed by the islanders in both Love Island USA and Love Island UK.
It’s the brand’s second summer with the franchise.
Snack 🍬
What’s the through-line between soda and Love Island? There isn’t one! That’s the point. Poppi created a connection between its product and a cultural phenomenon that didn’t exist before. You can, too.
4. Grüns x Popsicle Firecracker
Would you rather take your greens or have a popsicle?
Me too!
At Grüns, we recently launched a limited-edition Popsicle Firecracker gummy. It’s the cherry, lemon-lime, and blue raspberry flavors of the ice pop you grew up with.
- Same greens
- Same 60+ ingredients
But now it tastes like the Fourth of July.
Snack 🍬
Even something as simple as a new flavor is a chance to capture a memory or moment your audience already loves, and ride the wave of seasonal nostalgia.
5. Vacation Sunscreen
Every other brand on this list borrowed a moment. Vacation built a company around one.
The “leisure-enhancing” sunscreen brand bottled a single feeling: Miami beaches in the 1980s.
Scents include:
- Classic Whip
- Pepsi Wild Cherry
- Pineapple Upside Down Cake
This harkens back to when sunscreen was associated with fun, a day at the beach or at the pool. Now it’s clinical and a little scary. Vacation is bringing back the fun.
Today it’s a top-selling sunscreen at Target.
Snack 🍬
Every category has a default vibe.
When everyone’s selling the same one, your edge might be selling a different feeling altogether.
TL;DR
The brands winning this summer are making people feel something. Whether it’s:
- Eating ice cream on a hot day
- Getting lost in a BookTok binge
- Binging Love Island with friends
- Enjoying a popsicle in the heat
- Hitting the beach on the weekend
They’re attaching products to experiences consumers already love. The feeling gets people in the door.
The product gets them to stay.
Derek Lauermann is the VP of Growth at Grüns; lessons drawn from other brands are based on public sources. Connect with him on LinkedIn or Twitter (X).
Help an Operator Out: He Built an 8-Figure Dog Brand, Go Deeper Vs Wider?
Big-Swing vs. Incremental: Our Ecommerce CRO Testing Framework
Curated by the editor of CPG Wire, the five top stories in commerce and DTC.
1. Reformed Closes $22M Round: LinkedIn
UK-based wellness brand Reformed closed a $22M funding round led by IRIS Ventures. JamJar Investments, V3, and FoodLabs also participated. Founded in 2024 by Neil Saada and Neil Marrakchi, Reformed specializes in functional coffee, matcha, and mocha products.
The company is profitable and quickly scaled to $70M in annual revenue. IRIS Ventures has a stellar wellness portfolio, including investments in Healf, Superlativa, and Olistic.
2. Backflip Officially Launches: Backflip
Backflip, a better-for-you cereal brand co-founded by YouTuber Ben Azelart and serial entrepreneur Shaun Neff, has officially launched.
Backflip debuted exclusively at Target with four flavors: Chocolate Sundae, Strawberry Milkshake, Fruit Galaxy, and Cinnamon Magic. Backflip’s cereal contains 6g of protein per serving and is free from seed oils, synthetic dyes, and gluten.
3. Belle Brands Acquires Versed: Cosmetics Business
Belle Brands, a beauty platform created by private equity firm Windsong Global, has acquired Versed, a clean skincare and makeup brand founded by Katherine Power.
Versed launched its skincare range in 2019 and expanded into color cosmetics in 2025, offering a total of 35 SKUs today. Versed joins JVN Hair, Pipette, and KVD Beauty under the leadership of veteran beauty executive and Belle Brands Global President, Teresa Lo.
4. Evergreen Expands Board of Directors: Nosh
Evergreen just added former Poppi CMO Andy Judd to its Board of Directors. In addition to helping scale Poppi to a $1.95B exit, Judd also helped build Yasso, ONE Brands, and Laird Superfood.
Evergreen launched in 2020 and today it’s the top-selling frozen waffle brand in the two largest natural retailers. The company is backed by Melitas Ventures, Terpsi Capital, and others.
5. Style Capital Backs Essential Parfums: Premium Beauty News
Style Capital, the private equity firm founded by Roberta Benaglia, invested in niche Parisian fragrance brand Essential Parfums. Benaglia served as the CEO of Golden Goose for four years and is also the Chairwoman of Zimmerman and Soeur, two luxury fashion labels.
Founded by Géraldine & Stanislas Archambault in 2018, Essential Parfums will use the capital to accelerate international growth, strengthen its retail and distribution network, and broaden its product offering.
Beta Launch! Do Not Share
I’m nervous to include this. That’s why it’s buried at the end. Later this week, we’ll be unveiling the Operators Portal … every word the hosts have said or written over the last few years.
- Every episode
- Every guest
- Every newsletter
- Every event
- Every social post
Meticulously collected into a single database, identified by speaker or writer + fully searchable:
The Portal isn’t just about staying up-to-date, favoriting episodes, and creating your own notes. It’s also the easiest way to find previous content.
Where did they talk about giveaways?
Boom! Here’s where …
However, that’s not what makes me nervous to release it.
What scares me is our …
“Ask the Operators” button.
That puppy is an AI trained on everything. It pulls together answers, cites hosts or guests, flags dated content (by month + year), compiles steps or takeaways, and links directly to every source — including timestamps.
Questions like:
- What is a holdout test?
- Should I use an MTA?
- Who is the best Operator?
Try it out for yourself.
All you have to do is create a free account.
My only request is to please not share it (yet). Instead, hit reply with any feedback before we share it with the world.
Or, write me back and say something nice! We’d love to include your recommendation in the launch.
With thanks and anticipation,
Aaron Orendorff
🤓 Chief Executive Officer
P.S. (Disclaimer): Special thanks to Rokt Aftersell for sponsoring today’s newsletter.