How much revenue is on your to-do list?

☐ Launch that new color
☐ Test that hero product
☐ Enter that next market

✈️ Mike Beckham reveals how to go international without a new warehouse

📦 MacCoy Merkley shares why you should release more products and how

📈 Top 5 headlines from consumer (DTC) news with links + summaries

Mike Beckham CEO, Simple Modern

Expand Internationally Without Opening Another Warehouse

Going global used to be something brands only considered once they got past $50M.

You had to:

• Set up regional warehouses
• Split inventory across markets
• Forecast demand before selling

That is no longer the case.

With Portless, brands can serve customers in 85+ countries from one inventory pool by storing products near their factories in Asia and shipping each order directly to the customer.

Product arrives in 5-8 business days, with local carrier tracking and customs clearance handled for you.

They just released their International Expansion Playbook, which reveals how to enter your first three markets in 90 days. How?

• Pick your next market
• Calculate shipping and taxes
• Localize payments + returns
• Review results after launch

I wish we had something like this when I started Simple Modern.

You don’t need to wait until $50M to find out whether customers overseas want what you’re selling.

MacCoy Merkley CMO, Portland Leather

How We Release 5,000 SKUs a Year (Maybe You Should, Too)

Portland Leather Goods is on pace to launch more than 100 products in 2026. Roughly 5,000 new SKUs.

Whenever I say that, founders gasp.

But we discontinue about as many SKUs as we create. And only one or two are acquisition plays we blast across Meta.

Everything else?

• New colors
• Limited runs
• Small batches
• Collectibles

Aimed entirely at people who already own one of our bags.

Here’s my hot take:

If you give me 7 minutes of your time, I’ll explain why that is, what you should make, and how to launch — based on our exact system at Portland Leather.

Plus, the easiest way to find your next winner.

1️⃣ Release More, Sooner
2️⃣ Give Each Product a Job
3️⃣ Let Marketing Take The Lead
4️⃣ Instead, Ask: “What Will Sell?”
5️⃣ Keep Your Mistakes Small
6️⃣ Match Launch to the Goal
7️⃣ Find Your Hidden Winner

 1. Release More, Sooner 

When I started at PLG in 2018, I had exactly one thing to advertise. The Classic Tote.

For about 18 months, that was the whole show.

Then, at the end of 2019, I printed a photo on my HP inkjet, walked into the warehouse, slapped it on the table, and said, “Someone’s making this.”

The prototype took about two hours. We spent a couple more weeks arguing over the details.

Then we launched. Immediate hit. It passed the Classic Tote and is still one of our foundational products, selling millions today.

Our entire team realized:

I know, I know. Not every brand should make 100+ new products every year. AG1 prints money on a single SKU.

Here are five signs you should:

☐ You are not making a billion dollars
☐ You’re squeezing Meta for CRV
☐ You’ve had the same hero for years
☐ Your email list is full of past buyers
☐ Customers would love a new variant

Check, check check?

K, let’s move on.

 2. Give Each Product a Job 

Every product needs to do one of two things:

1. Acquire new customers
2. Bring existing ones back

For us, it’s mostly the latter. We release new SKUs on Tuesdays and Thursdays at 11am.

• New colors
• Leathers
• Sizes
• Patterns
• Closures
• Limited editions
• Accessories

Those hours look almost like Black Friday every week.

Many of those drops sell +90% to returning customers. With zero Meta dollars behind them.

Last time I checked, a dollar of returning-customer revenue was roughly 5x more profitable than a dollar of new-customer revenue.

The products we build for each job look nothing alike.

Acquisition heroes need to be strategically generic. Broad appeal. Easy to understand. Only a couple per year. They should give us a fighting chance to rewrite our CAC math.

Returning-customer drops can be weird. Narrow. A specific color, a specific shape, little collectibles only our super fans will understand + gobble up.

Heroes bring people in. Drops bring them back. You and your marketer need both.

 3. Let Marketing Take The Lead 

I have this fever dream.

Someone says, “Hey, you’re good at marketing. Help me.” They shovel bad product decisions at me and poke me with a stick.

“Make Meta work. Make Meta work.”

That’s not how this goes.

At PLG, sometimes Curtis (our CEO) and I send our designers on a mission based on a trend we’re seeing. Other times, we go “grocery shopping” to get ideas.

Our design team is 13-14 people in our factory in Mexico, run by one of our longest-tenured employees. At any moment there are hundreds of prototypes floating around her office.

Once, I found an old, forgotten pattern sample in a back corner. We released a whole collection around that pattern.

It did seven figures in revenue.

Your best marketer can’t make Meta sell a product nobody wants. But they can help you create one people do.

 4. Instead, Ask: “What Will Sell?” 

Drops are the easy part. Super fans tell us exactly what they want.

Our Insiders Facebook group has hundreds of thousands of members with an average LTV of $3,600. It’s our focus group, our feedback loop, and our launch pad. I love those people.

I also know they are not our prospective customer.

Taking acquisition product direction from your super fans is like concluding the whole world loves navy and neon green because your favorite team is the Seahawks.

No, dude. Those are the home team colors.

Match the feedback source to the product’s job. For heroes, you need broader signal:

• Category size
• Competitor bestsellers
• What a cold audience thinks

We used to lay potential new hero bags on a table and ask our team, “Which one do you like?”

Answers were all over the place. Everyone has a favorite.

Then Curtis changed the question:

The winner was unanimous. Now we use this process for every hero, and our last few have all been hits.

 5. Keep Your Mistakes Small 

No one in the history of ecommerce has ever forecast a launch correctly. You either order too little or too much.

We prefer too little. Why?

A while back we launched a line with gorgeous vegetable-tanned leather. The good stuff, what all the high-end artisan brands use. We named it the Veg Tan collection and made thousands of bags because we had high conviction.

It flopped.

Now compare that to our April Fools’ promo this year: The Bagalloon.

A gigantic, ridiculously impractical leather hot-air balloon bag. No interior pockets. Unzip the lid and everything falls to the bottom. We promoted it with intentionally bad, low-res AI imagery.

Half the internet thought it was real. The other half thought we were “scamming” people. Thousands of people talked about it on socials. It was awesome.

We made a couple hundred. They sold out in 38 minutes. Roughly $50K in revenue.

Could we have made + sold more?

Yes. But that’s not the point.

The point is to make small bets and leave room for weird ideas without needing each one to be a homerun. You can always scale the winners.

I know what you’re thinking …

If you’re stuck with big MOQs, here are four simple workarounds:

1️⃣ Sell It Before You Make It

Run a preorder to your email list. If it doesn’t hit a certain threshold, you just saved yourself a warehouse full of mistakes.

2️⃣ Pay More Per Unit

Most factories will go under MOQ for a higher price. Eat the margin on round one + order at full scale once you know it works.

3️⃣ Create New Variants

A new color on a proven pattern does’t need new tooling or samples. Minimums per color are often lower than per style.

4️⃣ Start Small, Literally

Straps, charms, and small goods tie up far less cash than a new bag. Same collector energy, a fraction of the risk.

 6. Match Launch to the Goal 

Different products have different jobs.

Here’s how we launch:

Returning-customer drops:

☐ Tease 1-2 weeks out on social
☐ Leak to our existing customers
☐ Drop every Tue + Thur at 11am
☐ New-arrivals on the homepage
☐ Email and SMS (as needed)

Because our community is insane, most drops sell-out before we can even send an email or SMS about it.

Hero launches:

☐ Line up affiliate content
☐ Shoot lifestyle creative
☐ Seed trusted creators
☐ Send 2-4 emails + SMS
☐ Turn on paid day one

We don’t only seed creators to get UGC. We ask them to leave an honest review on the product page before it goes live.

At launch, paid campaigns alongside the purchase surge we know is coming from returning customers gives the algorithm signal right away. After that we nurture it: new creative, coax the budget up, see if the thing has legs.

We added affiliate content in 2026.

Our TikTok Shop blitz did $1M in 20 days. Affiliates are now on the docket for every major promotion.

 7. Find Your Hidden Winner 

Here’s the easiest way to find your next winner.

Pull your product sales report in Shopify and look at the returning-customer rate.

You might find a little sleeper SKU that sold to 90%+ returning customers with zero ad spend.

Then do two things:

1️⃣ Extend Them
Fresh colors, sizes, and shapes for returning.

2️⃣ Test Them in Ads
If your customers love it, new ones might too.

 What’s Your Excuse? 

Nothing was stopping us from making that 2019 bag a year earlier. We just hadn’t done the work.

I’d bet the same is true for you.

A new color your customers would buy tomorrow. A weird idea that deserves a small batch. A hero sitting in a prototype pile.

“I don’t have time”? Neither did we.

“What if it flops”? Make fewer of them.

“We don’t own a factory”? Pre-sell it.

Your marketer + your P&L will thank you.

Was this helpful? Bug Aaron if you want me to share my “brand cult following” playbook in a future newsletter.

THE FEED

​Can Cuts Survive Its Own Success? Steven Borrelli’s Plan to Win Again​

​How Two DTC Brands Launch Hundreds of New Products Every Year​

​5 Hard Questions for Building a Company Culture That Lasts & Profits​

​Unless You Know This Number, Your DTC Brand Is Running on Hope​

The Trends

The five top stories from this week in commerce and DTC.

1. Amazon Opens Shop Direct to More Brands: Amazon​

Amazon launched a free portal that lets eligible brands connect their existing stores and product catalogs to Amazon search and Alexa for Shopping. Shoppers can discover products Amazon doesn’t carry, then click through to the brand’s website to buy.

Eligible products can also use Amazon’s “Buy for Me” checkout agent. Merchants retain responsibility for pricing, fulfillment, returns, and customer service, with integrations available through providers including Feedonomics and Salsify.

2. Holiday Spending Rises, Mostly on Price: Visa​

Visa forecasts US holiday retail sales will grow 4.5% this November and December, but just 1.1% after adjusting for inflation. Consumers plan to spend an average of $777 on gifts, up 5.6% from last year.

Physical gifts are taking priority over experiences as travel costs rise, while roughly one-third of shoppers earning under $100K say they’ll switch to cheaper brands or stores for holiday purchases.

3. L’Occitane Agrees to Sell Elemis: PAI Partners​

Private equity firm PAI Partners agreed to acquire Elemis from L’Occitane Group after seven years under its ownership. The skincare brand nearly doubled net sales during that period, reaching more than $300M in fiscal 2026.

The US now represents roughly half its sales, and nearly half its business comes through online channels. PAI plans to expand the brand’s US presence, digital business, and premium retail distribution.

4. Google Simplifies PMax Creative Tests: Google Ads​

A Performance Max update spotted this week lets advertisers turn creative edits into an A/B test directly from the asset group editor. Brands can compare new headlines, images, and other assets against their existing creative, with controls for traffic split and test duration.

The feature remains in beta, and the option to automatically apply winning changes is switched on by default. Assets are locked against further edits while the experiment runs.

5. Helen of Troy Rejects Takeover Bid: Helen of Troy​

Helen of Troy — whose portfolio includes OXO, Osprey, and Olive & June — rejected a $37-per-share cash offer from Empower Brands, jointly owned by Spectrum Brands and Oaktree. The proposal valued the business at approximately $1.6B.

Its board unanimously said the offer substantially undervalued the company, which is pursuing a turnaround and plans to reinvest $66.5M –$70.5M in tariff refunds into consumer demand and business capabilities.

With thanks and anticipation,
Aaron Orendorff
🤓 Chief Executive Officer

P.S. (Disclaimer): Special thanks to Portless for sponsoring today’s newsletter.

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