Intentional LTV

Designing growth. Not hoping for it.

Author

Pietro Saccomani
July 10, 2025

Too many brands treat LTV like the weather. Something that just happens.

The thought is that if you build a great product, deliver a great customer experience, LTV will follow.

If you're serious about building a defensible, profitable DTC brand, you can’t afford to be passive about lifetime value.

High LTV doesn’t magically emerge from a great product. It comes from intentional design: aligning your acquisition strategy, product mix, customer journey, and engagement systems to earn that second, third, and tenth order.

Not enough brands craft a deliberate strategy to drive higher LTV. They sit back and hope that they’ve done enough to get customers to come back.

Today we’re going to talk about making the shift from hoping for LTV… to designing for it.

The mistake with LTV

A lot of brands assume that delivering a good experience will naturally lead to customers coming back.

It’s akin to a “build it and they will come” mindset. Just have a good product and a good CX and they’ll want to buy again.

That’s the wrong approach.

The reality is: great customer experience and a strong product aren’t enough. They just keep you in the game.

If you want customers to return, spend more, and stick around longer, you need to actively engineer that outcome.

The three most common LTV blockers

Contrary to popular belief, product and CX don’t drive LTV.

But they can kill it.

This is the first place to look on your path to higher LTV: find what’s blocking it.

Most brands think they need more campaigns, more emails, more offers, more engagement.

Sometimes, you just need fewer roadblocks. Start by clearing the path.

Here are the most common LTV blockers to look for:

1. Product & CX

“Great CX” isn’t a growth strategy in itself.

But it can be a disqualifier.

  • Bad product

  • Poor support

  • Slow fulfillment

  • Difficult buying experience.

These all give customers a reason not to come back. No matter how good your re-engagement campaigns are.

2. Repurchasing friction

Is it easy for someone to buy again? What’s standing in the way?

You need to make it easy. The bar for convenience is getting higher every day.

Customers forget about your brand. They forget what they bought the first time. They get sent back to the first step in the funnel for re-orders, when they should be able to skip the queue.

If they have to go searching – or if you’re not front-of-mind – you’re losing potential value.

This is why mobile apps are a powerful LTV driver. They reduce friction to near-zero:

  • One-tap reorders

  • Persistent visibility via push notifications

  • Faster, more personalized shopping experience

Apps keep your brand where it needs to be – in the pocket, on the home screen, top of mind. And most importantly, they make it easy for your customers who want to buy every week.

3. A reason to buy again

Sometimes, it’s not that you’ve got a bad product. But there's no logical reason for multiple purchases.

In an Operators Newsletter a while back, I saw Sean Frank, CEO of Ridge, admit that their brand was not an ideal business model.

Their core product is a durable good (a high-quality metal wallet), which people don’t need more than one of.

This can create an LTV “ceiling” of sorts. Think of a mattress brand. You’re not going to drive more LTV by sending more emails and telling people to buy another one.

If your brand’s in this situation, you need to build reasons to return:

  • Expand into adjacent SKUs (e.g., Ridge adding wedding bands, phone cases and luggage)

  • Drive gift purchases (launch gifting bundles, market to existing customers pitching your product as a gift option)

  • Introduce consumables or subscriptions (like Eight Sleep adding supplements)

Accessories, upgrades, parallel product lines… there’s usually something you can do to add a logical second (and third, fourth) purchase.

The Intentional LTV Framework: 5 moves to drive more value from your existing customers

As mentioned already, if you want to increase LTV, don’t wait and watch and hope. Design for it.

It’s not about one-off re-engagement flows either. It’s about designing the customer journey in a way that drives more repeat purchases and more long-term loyalty.

You can think of this in five distinct steps:

  • Acquisition

  • Onboarding

  • Engagement

  • Expansion

  • Advocacy

Build LTV into each step of the customer lifecycle with this framework.

1. Acquisition (seek out high-LTV customers)

Not all customers have the same potential.

Optimizing solely for CPA or ROAS often means acquiring poor-fit customers that typically don’t buy again.

Analyze customer segments, channels, campaigns, products and geography to see what delivers the best LTV, and double down.

You don’t need to ignore customers in low-LTV segments (especially if they’re profitable on the first order). But if LTV is the goal, make it easier by going after the kind of people who are more likely to buy again.

2. Onboarding (prime customers to buy again)

The first purchase is not the finish. It’s the first step in your retention flow.

Once you get the first conversion, start setting the table for the second.

  • Reinforce their decision (great unboxing, “welcome” push/email, education)

  • Introduce product use tips and routines

  • Mention what “next” looks like (e.g., other customers buy X next)

  • Make sure the lines of communication are open (get them on your lists, if not already – prompt the customer to download your app).

Your goal post-purchase isn’t to upsell immediately, but to set the tone for ongoing value.

You’re sowing the seeds for the next purchase and building onboarding flows that create momentum toward the next milestone.

3. Engagement (continued contact between buying cycles)

Too many brands only get in contact with their customers when it’s time to push a sale.

The problem with this is, most of the time, your customers aren’t in the market to buy.

It depends on the product (grocery, food & beverage or other high-frequency items often have constant buying cycles). But most products, your customers aren’t looking to buy every week.

The brands with the strongest loyalty don’t wait months between contact, or constantly push purchases.

They drive regular, habitual, engagement that keeps their brand top of mind.

  • Lightweight, non-salesy push notifications and content (e.g., tips, stories, value-adds)

  • Building habit loops with useful nudges (e.g., refill reminders, routines, seasonal hooks)

  • Surface your values, brand personality, and community, not just SKUs

This is where push notifications shine for retention: they’re cheap, direct, and create a durable relationship over time.

(Want a deep dive on doing push the right way, + examples from real brands? Read this)

4. Expansion (add more buying opportunities)

Once someone’s bought, how do you make that relationship bigger?

This is where you start introducing more logical ways for people to buy again – or buy more (which is a forgotten factor in LTV).

  • Launch product pairings and bundles to expand basket size

  • Create cross-sell automations based on order data (e.g., “bought X, now try Y”)

  • Build a roadmap of complementary SKUs to unlock second and third order use cases

5. Advocacy (turn high-LTV customers into brand advocates)

Advocacy isn’t just a feel-good brand move. It’s a high-ROI growth loop.

The final step is to encourage and incentivize your customers to spread the word and promote your brand.

Advocates buy more, refer others, create content, and attract people like them – your ideal future customers.

  • Highlight and reward top customers (loyalty, surprise & delight, early access)

  • Actively collect UGC, testimonials, and reviews

  • Launch shareable experiences (e.g., refer-a-friend flows, community drops)

  • Build community around your brand

The best part? Not only do these customers drive more revenue from others, the act of advocacy makes them more engaged too.

We deep-dived this topic last week. If you missed it, read the newsletter here — and check out our podcast episode on UGC with Alonzo Nieves

Final thoughts: how to take control of LTV

LTV isn’t theoretical. It’s logical.

Think analytically about how you’re going to get customers to buy more.

  • Craft your catalog for repeat purchases (complementary products, consumables, bundles and giftables)

  • Keep engagement going – more touchpoints, more visibility.

  • Seek out & nurture high-LTV customers. Optimize your acquisition strategy around these buyers.

  • Cut out the blockers preventing people from buying again (or making it harder than it needs to be).

It’s not just about sending more emails, or writing better copy. It’s about building your customer journey around long-term value.

Bottom line: don’t wait for LTV to happen. Successful brands don’t leave it to chance.

Design for it, and you’ll unlock profitable, compounding growth that no ad budget can match.

Quick Hits

Tariffs Are Back on the Menu

The tariff extension period has ended and now it looks like they’re back. Trump has announced that tariffs will start being put into place from August 1, with letters sent to various nations informing them of the coming changes.

US Online Shopping Numbers in Decline

Tariffs are having an effect on consumer behavior, a recent study found.

Around one third of shoppers have been buying earlier than planned this year, to avoid coming tariffs, while a similar share have delayed or stopped their online purchases.

Outside of groceries, all sectors are seeing lower rates of online purchases.

Bearish? Maybe, for the short term. But remember that any industry has peaks and valleys. Online shopping isn’t going anywhere, and there are going to be rewards waiting for those who survive through the tough times.

Is “Made in the USA” Too Expensive?

The idea of tariffs is to bring more manufacturing back to the US, but brands are finding that’s easier said than done.

There’s been a lot said since the tariff situation started on how difficult it is to truly manufacture everything stateside.

This article looks at how multiple brands are being impacted by tariffs, plus higher US manufacturing costs, and are having to decide whether to eat the costs or pass them on to the consumer.

TikTok Building New US App

Reports say that a new, US-specific version of the TikTok is in development — and it may be in line to be sold to a group of US investors.

Welcome news for any brands doing big numbers on TT (as well as anyone who was worried about missing their own TikTok fix).

Has the TikTok Algorithm Been Figured Out?

On the subject of TikTok, one creator shared in a Reddit post how he cracked the algorithm to grow an account to 10M followers.

Legit? Maybe. The post is 1 year old, though, so there’s a chance it’s now out of date. But if TikTok is part of your strategy, give it a look.

Customers Referred by ChatGPT Have 28% Higher AOV?

So this post claims.

The word is, brands are seeing more and more sales originating from Chat GPT. And more interesting is that they’re seemingly more valuable customers — spending more in each order.

Just another reason to make sure you’re looking at AI search optimization right now.

(Good time to revisit the post from a couple of weeks ago on AI-native shopping)

&Collar Free Shipping Test

The next best thing to A/B testing your own store is seeing the results from other brands.

&Collar ran a free shipping test — and now have an interesting decision to make between a lower threshold w/more conversions vs a higher threshold w/higher profit per visitor.

Sure to be a good debate on what’s best.

Reacting to Meta Hot Takes

This was fun. Taylor Holiday and Andrew Faris got together to react to the most viral hot takes floating around the internet regarding Meta Ads.

If you’re running ads, and wondering which X threads and viral gurus are legit, and which are rubbish, you’ll have a good time with this.

That’s all for this week.

I’ll be back in touch next week, with more on how successful brands are doing CX and retention right.

Remember to check out our podcast on Spotify and YouTube. We’ve got some great guests coming up, so go ahead and sub to be the first to get the latest episodes.

If there’s any topic you’d like to see us dive into, for either the newsletter or the podcast, just shoot me a message here.

Also, jump on our new Subreddit, to start or join deeper discussions on the same kind of topics we explore here — CX, retention and sustainable growth. It’s a great way to link up with others on the same path as yours.

Until next time,

Pietro and The Retention Edge Team

PS: want to boost retention, revenue and profitability? If so, launching your own app could be the best move you make this year.

See how: go to our website to get a preview of your app for free, or shoot me a DM on LinkedIn to talk about it.