NWLAB runs marketing for DTC online stores: paid media with a dynamic catalog, retention email marketing and checkout conversion optimization. It is for stores with an active catalog and an operation ready to scale revenue past the first order, starting at $1,500 per channel per month. We work remotely with stores in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia and Brazil.
No commitment. Just context, judgment and clarity.
Results vary by context. We use our diagnostic to frame feasibility before any projection.
E-commerce accounted for 17.1% of total U.S. retail sales in Q2 2026, at $340.2 billion seasonally adjusted
U.S. Census Bureau, 2026
Average documented cart abandonment rate: 70.22% across 50 studies; 40% of shoppers who abandon blame extra costs like shipping, taxes and fees
Baymard Institute, 2025
18% of shoppers abandon because the site wanted them to create an account, and 17% because checkout was too long or complicated
Baymard Institute, 2025
Digital wallets lead U.S. e-commerce at 40% of transaction value, ahead of credit cards at 32%
Worldpay Global Payments Report, 2026
Automated email flows drive nearly 41% of email revenue from just 5.3% of sends, with revenue per recipient nearly 18x that of campaigns
Klaviyo, 2026
Meta reports a 20% better CPA with Advantage+ sales campaigns, formerly Advantage+ shopping. It's the platform's own number, so test it in your account
Meta, 2026
We build the marketing operation for DTC online stores: paid traffic with a positive ROAS, email marketing that recovers carts and lowers CAC, and conversion optimization that makes the same traffic worth more.
DTC e-commerce competes on three fronts at once: traffic, conversion and retention. Focus only on traffic and your CAC climbs while your margin shrinks. Ignore retention and you keep buying the same customer back at acquisition price. DTC stores that grow sustainably have paid traffic tuned toward high LTV customers, email that brings the customer back, and a product page and checkout that do not leak conversions.
A creative that was never tested on a small budget should not get a big one. Raising spend on a bad ad accelerates the waste, not the result.
Abandoned cart flows bring in the highest revenue per recipient of any email flow, $6.77 on average (Klaviyo, 2026). It is the most underrated channel a store has: among shoppers who click an abandoned cart email, 39.46% go on to buy (Omnisend, 2026).
Every unnecessary field in the checkout lowers the completion rate. Of US online shoppers, 17% have abandoned an order because checkout was too long or complicated, and the average US checkout shows 23.48 form elements when 12 to 14 can be enough (Baymard Institute, 2025).
A 3x ROAS means media eats a third of revenue: at a 60% margin the sale still turns a profit, at a 20% margin every order loses money. With no margin and LTV analysis, campaign optimization is calibrated to the wrong number.
Before raising spend, we work out contribution margin by product and the break-even ROAS for each line: at a 40% margin, anything under 2.5x loses money. Then we check the Meta Pixel and Conversions API, value-based conversions in Google Ads and the GA4 purchase event with the order ID, so each order counts once.
The product feed is what Google Shopping and the Meta catalog run on: titles with brand, model and the attributes people search for, GTINs, and price and stock that match the store. We group products into sets by margin and sell-through, so spend goes to what makes money, not just to what sells most.
Google Shopping and Performance Max capture people already searching for the product; Advantage+ sales campaigns and catalog ads on Meta create demand among people who don't know the brand yet. We test creative on small budgets by angle and format, and only scale what pays back on first-order CAC.
Extra costs are the top reason U.S. shoppers abandon a checkout, so shipping cost and delivery dates show up on the product page, with a free shipping threshold tied to AOV. Wallets like Shop Pay, Apple Pay and PayPal, guest checkout, reviews and a visible return policy count as conversion work, not details.
Email works the list with welcome, abandoned cart, post purchase and replenishment flows timed to how fast the product runs out. We track 90-day repeat rate and LTV by first-order cohort, and that number sets how much CAC the store can afford next month.
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Free DiagnosticUS$ 2.47M in tracked revenue for clients, at a weighted ROAS of 7.96.
Accounts managed by NWLAB, 2023 to 2025
Who it is for
Online stores with an active catalog, steady inventory and their own storefront (Shopify, WooCommerce, BigCommerce or similar) to send traffic to
Brands that know, or want to find out, their margin by product and are fine optimizing for profit, not just ROAS
Categories with natural repeat purchase, like beauty, apparel, pet, supplements and food, that want their customer list to earn
Teams that can ship new creative often: short video, UGC, product demos
Who it is not for
Stores with frequent stockouts or shipping times that already draw complaints: paid media only speeds up the problem
Brands that sell only on Amazon or another marketplace, with no store of their own to keep the customer data
Anyone who wants to scale ad spend without touching the product page, checkout or email
It's the path a brand controls from the first ad to the repeat order, selling direct on its own store instead of through Amazon or another marketplace. The stages are discovery (paid media and content), conversion (product page and checkout), first purchase and retention (email and repeat orders). The upside over a marketplace is that the customer data and the margin stay with you.
Any ROAS above your break-even point, which is 1 divided by your contribution margin: at a 40% margin, break-even is 2.5x; at 25%, it's 4x. That's why there's no universal good number, and comparing yours to another store's average is misleading. On first orders, running close to break-even can make sense if repeat purchases bring the profit later.
Our floor is $1,500 per channel per month. Above that, the ceiling is the CAC your margin and LTV can carry, not a fixed share of revenue. On a tight budget, focusing on two channels, Google Shopping and Meta, and scaling what pays back beats spreading a little money across five.
Start where the demand already is: if people search for your product or category, Google Shopping captures that intent first; if the product has to be seen to be wanted, Meta creates the demand. Most DTC brands end up needing both, with Shopping at the bottom of the funnel and Meta on discovery and catalog retargeting. A clean product feed powers both channels.
Time your follow-up to how the product gets used: a replenishment email right before a 30-day supply runs out does more than a generic discount blast. Add a post purchase flow with usage tips and a review request, then a win back flow for customers past their usual reorder window. Track 90-day repeat rate by first-order cohort to see whether it's working.
Welcome, abandoned cart, post purchase and win back, in that order. Klaviyo's 2026 benchmarks show automated flows bring in nearly 41% of email revenue from 5.3% of sends, so they pay off before you scale campaigns. Browse abandonment and back in stock flows come next.
Show the full cost early: 40% of shoppers who abandon blame extra costs like shipping, taxes and fees (Baymard Institute). Offer guest checkout and wallets like Shop Pay, Apple Pay and PayPal, and cut every field you don't need. Then back it up with an abandoned cart email and a catalog retargeting ad.