The direct channels saving brands from skyrocketing CACs

Six reliable, low-CAC margin protectors, and your playbook for when to use them.

Author

Pietro Saccomani
August 07, 2025

If you've been watching your profit margins get squeezed thinner each month, you're not imagining it.

CACs are climbing. Landed costs spiked in 2025. And there's only so much you can negotiate with your 3PL or supplier before you hit a wall.

The math is simple: you need sales that don't cost you $50+ in ad spend to generate.

That's where your Direct Sales Stack comes in. They’re channels you own. No bidding wars, no algorithm changes, no "CPMs just doubled because Mercury is in retrograde."

These six channels take more work upfront than throwing money at Meta. But every sale you pull through them is pure margin back in your pocket.

This is the best way to offset rising CACs and landed costs, and shrinking margins.

And the more sales you get from direct channels, the more breathing room you have to invest in growth, or just stay alive and comfortable while your competitors struggle.

Six direct revenue channels (plus how and when to use them)

1. Email – your baseline

Inboxes are crowded, open rates are down. Gmail’s making it easier to unsubscribe from lists, and adding ads in the promotions tab (one more thing you’ve got to contend with).

But it’s the cheapest way to reach the most customers, and it’s the most scalable.

You already have every customer’s email. And you can capture thousands more from visitors who haven’t bought yet. Cost per send is practically zero.

There’s no reason not to stay in touch with your list. The good thing about your emails going to the promotions tab? It’s basically impossible to send too many emails.

  • How to use it: Send multiple emails each week. Think constant contact. Build your core automations (welcome, abandoned cart, post-purchase, win-back). Segment where it matters (VIPs, first-time buyers, churn-risk).

  • Good for: Everything — from Black Friday campaigns to abandoned carts to simple brand awareness. Minimal risk.

Email is still the highest ROI channel most brands have, which is why the best brands send more emails, not fewer.

2. SMS – high-impact, high-cost

SMS is high-impact, but high-cost. You get 90%+ open rates and near-instant reads, but that power comes with a price.

Every send costs money, and overusing it will annoy people fast. Think of it like a loudspeaker: effective when used sparingly, but irritating if left blaring.

It’s more heavily regulated, and it’s now starting to filter out marketing messages (hello promotional tab for SMS).

Use it with care and intention, not with the scattergun approach you can get away with in email.

  • How to use it: Use SMS for high-value, time-sensitive communications rather than general updates. Build easy opt-out flows and respect quiet hours.

  • Good for: Flash sales and limited-time drops. Back-in-stock or low-stock alerts. Cart abandonment nudges and shipping updates.

When you need immediate action, nothing beats a message that lands on someone's lock screen in under 3 seconds.

3. Mobile push – the best pound-for-pound channel

Push notifications are SMS’ more flexible cousin. On a user for user basis, it’s your best channel.

They land directly on a customer’s lock screen, cost nothing per send, and are less intrusive than SMS. Push is immediate, highly visible, and can be used for quick nudges, sales, abandoned carts, feedback requests — all at a high frequency.

Push is such a quick win. The more app users you have, the bigger the win.

Many brands send daily push notifications. Some we studied sent as many as 3+ per day. This is, mind you, with every message at least being seen.

The biggest challenge is scaling. Getting enough people in your app, and getting those people to opt-in to push.

  • How to use it: Use push as a retention driver and engagement booster once a customer has downloaded your app. They’re perfect for timely nudges and automated triggers, keeping your brand top of mind (with high-potential customers) without adding cost to your send volume.

  • Good for: Abandoned cart and browse reminders. New product announcements or drops. Daily nudges, loyalty perks, and content updates.

Push notification deep dive

Want to go deeper on push? See how often leading brands send notifications, what kind of messages they send, and a full breakdown of their strategy in our new guide. Free for Retention Edge subscribers — hit the button below to get it.

4. Organic social – free ad space (if you can earn it)

Yes, organic reach is down, but here's the thing: every post that lands in your customers' feeds is free ad space you didn't have to bid for.

Your customers are already scrolling Instagram and TikTok for hours each day. They're seeing hundreds of posts, including ads from your competitors who are paying $20, $50, even $100+ CPMs for those impressions.

When your organic content shows up in that same feed? That's a $0 CPM.

The catch is you have to earn it. Algorithms don't owe you reach just because you posted. But the investment required is minimal (just time and consistency) while the upside is massive if you crack the code.

Focus on posting content your audience actually wants to see in their feeds, and you’ll find organic reach is not so dead after all.

  • How to use it: Stop thinking like a brand, start thinking like a creator your customers would actually follow. Post the stuff they'd save, share, or comment on even if your logo wasn't on it.

  • Good for: Building trust before asking for the sale. Staying visible between purchase cycles. Creating content that customers share organically (free word-of-mouth marketing).

The best part? Unlike paid ads, good organic content keeps working. A viral post from six months ago is still driving DMs and website traffic today.

5. Community (FB Groups, Reddit, Discord)

Community takes your organic presence one step further. It’s where your most engaged customers choose to gather.

Unlike social feeds controlled by algorithms, communities (like Facebook Groups, Discord servers, or Reddit spaces) give you more consistent reach and deeper engagement. People join because they want to be there, not because a platform decided to show them your post.

Communities don’t necessarily fit for every brand, and not every community approach fits each brand the same. Build where your customers already spend their time

  • How to use it: Share exclusive content, offer early access to products, and facilitate conversations between members. Invest in moderation and engagement so the space feels alive and customer-led rather than brand-broadcast.

  • Good for: Building loyalty and advocacy among top customers. Gathering product feedback and insights. Creating organic buzz around launches and campaigns.

Your most loyal customers will do your marketing for you, but only if you give them a place to gather and reasons to stay.

6. On-site chat & interactive experiences

If someone’s already on your site, you’ve got a golden opportunity to start (and drive) the conversation.

Live chat, interactive quizzes, and guided shopping tools help remove friction, answer objections, and drive shoppers towards higher value purchases.

Canna River is a great example — this brand we worked with has an interactive quiz on their website, guiding customers to the right product.

With AI-powered chatbots and product finders becoming more accessible, the barrier to offering a “concierge-like” experience on your site has never been lower.

Klaviyo’s new AI assistant is a great example of how your website is now a conversational channel

  • How to use it: Add live chat (or AI-powered concierge) and guided shopping tools (like quizzes). Quizzes, interactive features sell for you.

  • Why it matters: You’re reducing bounce, solving objections in real time, and collecting zero-party data along the way.

You're already paying to get people to your site. Use this as an opportunity to start the conversation immediately, instead of waiting to follow up later.

The P&L impact of direct channels

Every one of these channels is a lever that reduces your blended CAC and improves contribution margin:

  • Email, SMS, push = repeat purchases without paying Meta a dime.

  • Community & social = awareness without auction volatility.

  • On-site experiences = better conversion on the traffic you’re already paying for.

Don't wait until ad costs force your hand. Build this direct stack now, while your growth engine is still running.

The brands that master this mix? They're the ones weathering high-CAC cycles and still scaling.

Here's your homework: Pick one channel from this list you're not using yet. Set it up this week. Even if it only captures 5% of your sales, that's 5% less you're paying Meta for.

Quick Hits

Yotpo Shutting Down Email & SMS

Everyone in ecommerce has been talking about this. After spending the last couple of years building out their email and SMS capabilities as a core product direction, Yotpo are now pulling back entirely from these features. Instead, they're refocusing on what made them successful originally - reviews and loyalty programs - while partnering with dedicated email and SMS platforms rather than competing with them.

De Minimis Exception Gone — Worldwide

After the de minimis exception was removed for China and Hong Kong in May, it’s not been closed for all countries; closing a loophole of re-routing shipments through other countries, like Vietnam.

Ecommerce Still on the Way Up

Despite all the FUD around ecom, data shows it’s still in a great position.

Ecommerce is consistently growing as a percentage of retail sales, just about overtaking where it was in April 2020 (when many physical stores literally were not open).

Just as noteworthy is that it’s only around 20% — so there’s still massive room to grow.

The US is still behind other countries, such as the UK, South Korea and Indonesia (~30%) and China (47%) in ecommerce penetration.

Does Font Type Influence Buying Behavior?

This is interesting. Science says that people are more 5x as likely to buy fun or “hedonic” products (think cookies, ice cream, games) if they’re advertised with handwritten fonts.

Utilitarian products are the opposite — machine-written fonts perform better.

Worth thinking about and testing this, if it applies to your brand.

Andrew Faris: Every Financial Detail Of The Ecommerce Brand I'm Starting

Time to get down and dirty with the financials. Andrew Faris shares a goldmine of information in his latest video. He’s starting a new brand, and peels back the curtain to show every single financial detail; and how he’s building a brand from zero to profit.

What Were People Buying in July?

Shopify’s July product data is out, and it shows what kind of products customers were buying the most.

The big winners? Baby products and back-to-school gear.

Umbrella strollers and baby bottle sales were up over 1,000% in July. Some categories tied to back-to-school gear were up between 150%-470%. And people were also rushing out to buy tennis shoes, with sales up over 700%.

One of the Most Impactful Tests You Can Do

Are you testing shipping?

If not, perhaps you should. It can lead to small, yet significant gains, as this test shows.

Dude Wipes: $100M+ By Focusing on Fewer Products

I have no problem with scaling by expanding into broader product lines; but Dude Wipes’ success shows you can do just as well by going the other way, and doubling down on what you’re good at.

This is a great breakdown of their strategy, and when it works. For a deeper dive, check out the full podcast ep.

That’s all for now.

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

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.

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.