Good morning, eComm legend.

There’s a moment in every great online seller’s journey when the game changes. One day, it’s all about chasing trends and optimizing margins. The next, you realize—oh, this isn’t just about keeping up with the news. It’s about knowing what to do with it.

This week, we’re switching things up. Because while it’s fun to track Amazon’s latest chess moves and TikTok’s monetization experiments (like watching a friend keep restarting a side hustle that definitely won’t work), the real money is in strategy. Not just reading headlines, but understanding how to actually grow.

So let’s do this. Today, instead of leading with another breaking eCommerce plot twist, we’re throwing it back—to one of the biggest DTC wins of all time: Casper. The mattress company that made an offer the industry couldn’t refuse and sold $1M worth of ‘bed-in-a-box’ in its first 28 days.

Why? Because studying Casper now is like trying to learn to golf like Tiger Woods when you can’t hold a club yet. Their playbook is gold, but only if you know what parts apply to your level.

If you’ve ever wondered what it really takes to scale from idea to empire (and how to borrow the best moves for your own business), today’s your day. And don’t worry, we’ve still got the news you need—because Amazon, TikTok, and Meta refuse to let eCommerce sit still for five minutes.

Let’s get into it.

In today’s agenda:

1) 💤 Casper: From 0 to $1M in 28 days.

2) Amazon’s new move: Now featuring... other websites?!

3) TikTok Shop is testing a subscription model 🔁

4) Meta’s new ad tool: “Let me cook” 👩‍🍳

1) 💤 Casper: From 0 to $1M in 28 days.

Casper didn’t just sell mattresses—it took over the sleep industry like a well-orchestrated heist, outmaneuvering legacy players and rewriting the rules overnight. The company did what seemed impossible: selling a single, premium, “one perfect mattress” online, bypassing the traditional showroom shuffle, and hitting $1M in sales within 28 days. Their journey from zero to their first million is a masterclass in product innovation, branding genius, and digital growth tactics.

One mattress to rule them all.

The mattress industry was a tangled mess of choice paralysis. Dozens of brands. Hundreds of models. Confusing pricing. Casper’s founders saw the chaos and thought, “What if we just made one great mattress and sold it directly to consumers?”

So, they did.

With a price range of $500 to $950 (the Queen landing at about $850), Casper offered luxury without the markup. Cutting out the middlemen meant better materials for less. The idea: Simple sells. And customers loved it.

The risk-free revolution.

Buying a mattress online without testing it first? Sounds crazy. Casper knew skepticism was their biggest hurdle. Their answer: a 100-night, risk-free trial. If you didn’t love it, you could send it back. No questions asked.

It was a bold bet, but it paid off. Millennials, especially urban dwellers used to buying big-ticket items online, flocked to the offer. As orders flooded in, Casper’s team scrambled to scale production without sacrificing quality. They weren’t just selling mattresses; they were selling trust—and it was working.

Everywhere, all at once.

Casper didn’t just rely on word-of-mouth. They went all-in on digital marketing. They knew their audience: tech-savvy, podcast-loving city dwellers.

Podcasts? Bet. Casper became one of the most recognized sponsors on major shows like WTF with Marc Maron, Serial, This American Life, and Reply All. Hosts personally tested the mattresses, read ad copy in their signature styles, and offered promo codes. It felt organic, like a friend recommending a product—not just another ad.

But they didn’t stop there. Right from launch, PR was a huge driver: Casper managed to get featured in dozens of prominent outlets like The Wall Street Journal, CBS, Bloomberg Businessweek, TechCrunch, and The Verge.

Beyond traditional PR, Casper kept coming up with newsworthy ideas that journalists couldn’t resist writing about. One example was Casper’s Nap Tour: box trucks outfitted with Casper mattress nap pods. People could step in and take a short nap on a Casper mattress in these pods, which even had phones that played bedtime stories. The cost of a couple of trucks and some staff was relatively low for the nationwide PR exposure it garnered.

Paid advertising, yes. But smart.

But they didn’t stop there. Casper got aggressive with search engine marketing (SEM). They found a clever way to dominate Google search results: buying multiple ad placements leading to different domains: Casper’s website, its Amazon listing, and review pages. For a search like “best mattress,” Casper controlled up to six spots on the results page. If you were in the market for a mattress, it was impossible to ignore them.

They also ran some unconventional ad campaigns aimed more at PR than direct response. A notable one was a series of surreal 3 A.M. TV ads Casper aired, which had low-fi visuals and a phone number for an “Insomnia hotline” with pre-recorded messages – and crucially, no direct sales pitch at all.

The data-driven machine.

Casper wasn’t just making smart marketing moves—they were optimizing everything in real time. Data dictated their decisions. If analytics showed customers hesitated on the shipping page, Casper adjusted messaging to highlight free shipping earlier in the buying process. The result: fewer abandoned carts, more conversions.

This feedback loop—data → insight → action → data—was a core part of their strategy. And it worked.

Scaling at breakneck speed.

Success brought new challenges. With skyrocketing demand came the need for serious capital. After an initial organic sales surge, Casper needed fuel to sustain growth.

Investors took notice. Casper raised $1.85M in seed funding before the launch, followed by a $13M Series A just two months post-launch. The numbers proved what they already knew: the unit economics worked. Customer acquisition cost (CAC) versus margins looked solid, and venture capitalists were eager to fund the next big consumer brand.

The secret sauce: a perfectly executed playbook.

Casper didn’t just disrupt an industry by accident. They had key advantages from the start: founders with deep experience in product design and manufacturing (from The Merrick Group, NASA, and Ideo), early capital, and a clear vision. But their execution is what turned an idea into an empire.

They nailed:

• A clear USP in a market desperate for change.

• Smart demand validation, proving people wanted their product before over-investing in inventory.

• Flawless digital marketing, from social engagement to Google ad dominance.

• A seamless purchase funnel, eliminating friction at every step.

• A killer feedback loop, turning customers into brand evangelists.

Casper didn’t just sell mattresses. They redefined how consumers shop for sleep. And they did it all with a cardboard box and a dream.

2) Amazon’s new move: Now featuring... other websites?!

Amazon is now sending customers to other websites from its own search results. Yes, you read that right. Amazon is now sometimes acting like a high-traffic mall directory, pointing shoppers to brands' own sites. If you run an eCommerce store, this is a massive shift that could either be your golden ticket or your worst "oops, I didn't optimize for this" nightmare.

What’s actually happening: If a customer searches for a product on Amazon and Amazon doesn’t sell it (or doesn’t want to), they might see a link to buy it directly from the brand’s website. It’s like Amazon saying, "Hey, we don’t have it, but our cool indie friend over here does." If your brand gets included, that’s free exposure to Amazon’s ridiculous traffic numbers. If you’re not? Well, someone else is eating your lunch.

How to make this work for you:

• Get Buy with Prime set up. If you’re already selling through your own site, this Amazon feature lets Prime members get free two-day shipping from you—huge trust booster.

• Optimize your site for conversions. If Amazon’s sending you traffic, but your site looks like a 2008 MySpace page (RIP Tom), people will bounce.

• Track referral traffic from Amazon. Use UTM parameters to see how much traffic you’re actually getting. If it's working, lean in harder.

• Make checkout stupidly simple. If your cart process has more steps than a SoulCycle class, you’ll lose those sweet, sweet impulse buyers.

This test is currently limited, but Amazon doesn’t experiment for fun. They’re gathering data, and if it works for them (translation: makes them more money), expect this to expand. If you’re an eCommerce owner, your action plan is clear: optimize your DTC site like your business depends on it—because, well, it kind of does.

Sources: amazon.com

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3) TikTok Shop is testing a subscription model 🔁

TikTok just dropped a new e-commerce plot twist: subscriptions. Yes, like that gym membership you forgot about but for, let’s say, skincare and snacks. They’re testing a feature that lets buyers subscribe to products at a discount, locking in repeat customers for sellers. It’s basically Amazon’s “Subscribe & Save”.

Why this matters: If you sell anything that people buy more than once—think vitamins, coffee, face masks, dog treats—this is your moment. Subscriptions mean predictable revenue (less of that feast-or-famine sales cycle), better inventory planning (so you don’t run out right after a video goes viral), and an actual chance to turn one-time buyers into forever customers. Bonus: TikTok will probably give an algorithmic hug to sellers using the feature, meaning more eyeballs on your store.

How to get in: Bad news: It’s invite-only right now, like some elite members-only club but for e-commerce nerds. Good news: TikTok loves expanding features when they make money. While you wait, do these:

• Optimize your best repeat-buy product (subscriptions work best on high-repurchase stuff).

• Start collecting emails (because when this launches for real, you want to tell your customers directly).

• Experiment with “subscribe-like” offers (bulk discounts, VIP buyer perks—get customers in the habit).

• Get loud on TikTok Shop Live (TikTok pushes sellers who use all their features).

• Apply to every beta TikTok rolls out (you never know when they’ll open the doors).

The fine print: Not everyone gets to play yet, and TikTok loves to test features only to yank them away. But if subscriptions take off, they could make TikTok Shop a serious Amazon competitor for repeat purchases. If you’re selling stuff people need regularly, start strategizing now.

Sources: businessinsider.com

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