This is what a great DTC website looks like

Why Athletic Brewing’s website works so well for both new customers and loyal repeat buyers.

Author

Pietro Saccomani
May 15, 2025

Most people think retention begins after the first sale - when you fire off a welcome flow, send that first SMS, or nudge them to download your app.

But the reality is simpler: retention starts the moment someone lands on your site.

That first experience (what they see, how it feels, how easy it is to take action) sets the tone for everything that follows. If it’s confusing or overwhelming, there may never be a second chance.

Retention starts with the first purchase

It’s often said that the second sale is most important for retention. And while this is a major inflection point (where one-time customers become much more likely to buy again), it’s not the most important sale.

The most important sale is the first one. Without turning new visitors into buyers, there’s no second sale. No matter how good your retention strategy is.

Customer entry points

Many brands lose potential customers because of the paradox of choice; they don’t know where to start.

Imagine a new customer, new to your brand. Perhaps coming to your site on a recommendation from a friend, or because of something interesting they saw on social media.

Your typical website has a “shop all products” CTA in the hero, which is often overwhelming for brand new customers.

A better idea? Give them a clear entry point; a signpost that says “New? Start here →”

It’s like when you’re in a restaurant. There are “recommended” items on the menu, and the servers are trained to answer when you ask “what’s good here?”

Your brand’s website should do the same (especially if it’s a unique product category).

How Athletic Brewing’s website balances new-customer entry points with direct paths for repeat buyers

Athletic Brewing is a great example of the importance of entry points, and how to do them well.

  • They’re selling a unique product, in a category they helped create (Non-alcoholic craft beers).

  • They’re reliant on repeat customers, leading to the challenge of balancing new customers vs returning customers for CRO.

  • The website happens to look great to boot.

I broke down their web experience step-by-step, so you can take pointers for your own site.

Homepage flow: product-first, frictionless buying paths, with clear entry points

What I like the best about their site (and what gave me the inspiration for this breakdown) was that they offer a clear entry point.

The hero features a single product - a clear place to start for someone trying NA beer for the first time.

Below the hero, you get a wider range of products; best sellers, trending products, limited editions.

And what’s really great about this is you can get all the important product details and add to cart directly from the homepage. We’re zero clicks in, and you can be on the way to checkout.

Below, another featured product; another entry point for new buyers.

Lower down on the page, we get to brand storytelling, social proof. If you’re still scrolling at this point, you need this extra information. But if you wanted to go straight to purchase, they don’t make you dig through this extra content.

I also like the way they approach their nav menu.

Athletic’s nav works because it doesn’t assume everyone shops the same way.

Some are driven by visual cues. Others look for the word “shop”.

When you expand the hamburger menu, you get both options - category icons and a plain text “Shop”.

They offer multiple paths; functional, making sense for different shopping styles. There’s even a mini-nav in the middle of the homepage, with another way to get to the shop.

Category pages & PDPs

On category pages, products stand out, with clean presentation and conversion-driving tags like “Best Seller” or “Limited.”

The Plus symbol on the product image lets you add to cart instantly (minimizing the # of clicks), while saving space (desktop features a full “Add to Cart” wording on hover).

The PDP layout is nicely dialed in:

  • Reviews sit above the product title, directly below the images (a good move for this kind of product).

  • Purchase options are stacked clearly: one-time, subscribe & save, and member pricing.

  • Scroll down for flavor notes, nutritional info, pairing ideas (love this) and UGC.

The hierarchy works. Just like on the homepage, extra info is easy to find, for shoppers who want more info, but doesn’t get in the way of those who want a quick purchasing experience.

You can browse different products directly from the PDP as well, which I really like.

It’s like a product shelf in a grocery store. You can basically pick up and inspect different products like you would if you were standing in front of the shelf, without constant clicking back and forth to category pages.

Takeaways

Here are the key things to learn from Athletic Brewing’s site.

  • Retention/acquisition don’t fight with each other. Both work towards the same goal.

  • Athletic’s website is optimized for both; they have clear entry points for new shoppers, and quick buying paths for return customers.

  • Make it easy: reduce buying to a few clicks as possible. Their customers can really browse and buy directly from the homepage.

  • Use hierarchy to guide the journey: from entry point → product shelf → deeper brand content.

Thoughts? Anything you disagree with? Any brands or categories you’d like me to break down in a future newsletter?

Reply and let me know.

Quick Hits

Tariff Cuts

The US and China have agreed to a 90-day tariff truce, reducing US tariffs on Chinese goods from 145% to 30% and China's tariffs on US goods from 125% to 10%.

Great news for brands. While there’s still a chance they return after the 90 days, this at the very least gives brands more room to put together a contingency plan (and perhaps stock up).

Are the Tariff Rollbacks a Lifeline for Shein & Temu?

With tariffs on Chinese imports paused, the two discount giants (whose US business was looking dead in the water), may get a reprieve.

Reports say the two brands are taking this opportunity to stock up their US warehouses (so no more $89 tariff bills for shoppers).

The removal of Section 321 still hurts them, and others. But the horizon is looking a little less gray.

Shopify Achieves 27% Revenue Growth in Q1

Shopify posted a strong Q1, with revenue up 23% YoY and gross profit growing even faster at 33%. The company credited merchant success and product adoption as key drivers of success.

It remains to be seen how much the turbulence of the last month and a half will affect their Q2 performance; but overall, Shopify appears to be steadily taking over the DTC ecommerce market.

“We have the greatest product catalog in the world”

On the subject of Shopify, the company’s president Harley Finkelstein gave a talk on their Q1 results, and specifically on their AI strategy.

The Cost of Growth

Is growth all that matters?

Sean Frank shared a story of a a founder whose business appears to be crushing it… but they themselves are getting very little out of it.

This is a surprisingly common situation.

How Many Ecommerce Stores Have a Mobile App?

Mobile apps remain a vastly underutilized asset for ecom brands. Just how much so? We dug into the data to see how many ecommerce brands have their own app.

Some key takeaways include:

  • Roughly 4.5% of US stores with $100K+ in monthly revenue have an app, while over 10% of brands doing $1M+ per month have one

  • The more SKUs, the more likely a brand is to have an app

  • Shopify brands are slightly below average in app adoption (WooCommerce stores are more likely to have an app)

  • Custom-built ecommerce sites are 2x more likely to have their own app

Dive deeper into our research in the link below 👇

Can “Best Sellers” Kill Your Brand?

I found this a fascinating read. It introduces the idea that “hot” products that really take off (like viral hits) can be a danger sign for brands.

Chasing short-term revenue from a few hero products might boost cash flow, but it risks stalling innovation, training customers to only want discounts, and boxing your brand into a narrow identity.

Push Notification Benchmarks

Push notification provider Pushwoosh just released a study on push performance across various industries, looking at opt-in rates, click-through rates, and daily/monthly active users.

Takeaways?

  • Retail apps score around the overall average in terms of opt-in rates

  • Ecommerce apps CTRs (on iOS) are double the average for all industries (slightly lower for Android)

  • Ecommerce apps see a little below average numbers for daily engagement, but monthly engagement is stronger (showing the power of apps and push as a long-term retention driver)

50% of Shopify Businesses Are Worth $0

This great talk between Andrew Faris and Fan Bi looks at how half of all Shopify businesses are fundamentally flawed, 25% are on the fence, and just 25% are good, healthy businesses.

Common issues include:

  • Gross margins < 40-50%, post-shipping and fulfillment

  • Ad spend eating 30–40% of revenue, leading to flat or negative contribution margins

  • Weak retention, with no compounding value

  • Bad debt

  • Vendor issues

  • Unrealistic growth expectations

Definitely worth a watch/listen.

How Much Are You Automating?

One of the most underrated unlocks for brand operators right now? Learning to use automation tools like n8n (or hiring someone who can).

Whether it’s syncing data across tools, streamlining post-purchase flows, or building scrappy internal dashboards, no-code/low-code automation is a cheat code for scaling smarter.

The Power of Testing

Most brands aren’t testing enough things.

It’s crazy how much impact small changes can make; even as little as light vs dark color schemes. This newsletter shows measurable results from quick, easy tests.

If you’re not testing elements of your PDPs, opt-ins, cart drawers, you’re probably leaving money on the table.

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.

Remember to check out our podcast on Spotify and YouTube, and give it a like/comment/sub if you found the content useful.

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 start getting more profitable, repeat sales? 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.