Happy Monday, Cowboys.
We covered a lot of ground last week, from the collapse of the "open rate" to the rise of shoppable TV. If you’re feeling like the playbook is changing under your feet, it’s because it is.
Here is the high-level download of everything that mattered on the Ecom Cowboy Show last week.
PARTNER: POSTSCRIPT
Focus is a revenue multiplier.
There is a temptation in this game to use "all-in-one" platforms because having your data in one place feels safe. It’s a trap. When a company focuses on ten things, they get out-executed by the company focusing on one thing.
There is only one partner whose sole goal is to make SMS your biggest revenue generator: Postscript.
I speak from experience here. When I was brand-side, I had a top 1% account on Postscript simply because I listened to them. If you want SMS to actually move the needle this year, you go to the specialist.
THE STRATEGY
1. The "Walled Garden" Era might be over We sat down with Cory Dobbin from Otherside, and the thesis is scary but necessary: Most brands are playing a game they can’t win.
The Problem: CPMs are up 130% in 5 years. AI overviews are eating search traffic. You are paying more for less control.
The Solution: "Connected Performance Ads." Stop treating channels as silos. CTV should strengthen display; mobile should enhance audio. The future belongs to brands that build an ecosystem, not just a Facebook ad account.
2. Retention is a Merchandising Issue Alex P dropped a harsh truth that hurts to hear: The #1 reason customers churn isn’t your slow website or your email frequency. It’s because you don’t have anything else they want to buy.
If you are selling a single hero product with a long replenishment window, your LTV is capped before you send a single email.
The Fix: Build retention into the product line before the purchase. Ensure your assortment is congruent with the hero.
THE TACTICS
3. The "Zero-Spend" Rule Luke Austin highlighted a metric that is silently killing ad accounts: The Zero-Spend Rate.
The concept: You might have 200 "active" ads, but the algorithm is only spending on 10 of them. The rest are ghost ads, cluttering your account and confusing the machine.
The move: Weekly inventory purges. If an ad doesn't earn spend in a defined window, kill it. Focus on "Angle x Offer x Format," not just changing button colors.
4. Sweetgreen x Function Health Sweetgreen isn't just selling salads; they are selling outcomes. Their new collab with Function Health bundles food with education and membership credits.
The lesson: Don't just collab for clout. Collab for identity. Move your customer from "consuming product" to "adopting a protocol."
PARTNER: AMP
Stop flying blind.
If you, your boss, or your team are guessing at your numbers—or flying back and forth between five different tools to figure out your profit—you are wasting time.
Lifetimely by AMP gives you board-level reporting on P&L, CAC, LTV, and customer behavior instantly. They also have a suite of tools including Upsell and Back in Stock. Make it easy on yourself and scale with confidence.
THE FUTURE
5. Is the Phone Dead? TechCrunch reports (and VCs agree) we might not be using iPhones in 10 years. The interface is inefficient.
What’s next: Contextual AI. Devices like the "Sandbar" ring or AI pins that act as "thought companions" rather than distraction machines.
Why it matters: As interfaces change, the way we capture attention changes. Prepare for a screen-less future.
6. Gmail’s AI Inbox = The End of Open Rates? Google is rolling out summaries for emails. Instead of reading your 1,000-word newsletter, users might just see a two-sentence AI summary.
The threat: If your "meat" is buried at the bottom, it won’t get read.
The pivot: Write for the summary. High-value, information-dense content wins. Fluff dies.
7. Pinterest on Roku "Shoppable TV" has been a buzzword for a decade, but Pinterest might have cracked it. They are launching a show called Bring My Pinterest to Life on Roku. Watch the show -> Save the Pin -> Buy the product. The funnel just got integrated into the living room.
WATCH THE FULL BREAKDOWN
We go deeper on all of these stories, including the receipts, the tweets, and the arguments, over on the channel.
The tools change, the algos update, and the platforms shift. But the job remains the same: Sell good products to people who need them.
Keep your head on a swivel.
See you on the next one.
— The Ecomm Cowboy Team