ecommerce

When e.l.f. Beauty announced its $1 billion acquisition of Hailey Bieber’s skincare brand Rhode in May 2025, the DTC world did a collective double take. A two-year-old brand. Minimal SKUs. Built on TikTok. Worth 10 figures? That’s not just a win for celebrity-powered marketing—it’s a statement about where beauty, influence, and commerce are headed. This breakdown unpacks the deal terms, how Rhode scaled so quickly, and—most importantly—what non-celebrity founders should take away from it. Ins

Customer acquisition costs keep climbing. And yet, for most brands, 70–80% of first-time buyers never come back (Eli Weiss). That stat alone is a red flag for any operator chasing profitability post-iOS14. The math is simple: if you’re not converting the customers you already paid for, your margins are leaking. Retention isn’t a nice-to-have. It’s where the margin lives. The One-and-Done Problem Here’s what DTC brands are really facing: * 80–90% of customers buy once and disappear (Eli We

In April, a tariff tsunami slammed global supply chains. The U.S. dropped a sweeping 10% tariff on most imports—then followed with a jaw-dropping 145% rate on Chinese goods just days later (China Briefing, 2025). For DTC brands, the impact was immediate: China-to-U.S. cargo volumes plunged by up to 60%, and founders were forced into rapid-fire adaptation mode (Stord, 2025). Some are now turning chaos into strategy—reshaping sourcing, pricing transparently, and tightening ops for the long haul.