Ecommerce Funnel Stages for More Sales & Conversions: DTC Marketing Examples + Tactics
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Today’s customer journey is complex, messy, and anything but linear.
Add to that mounting difficulty in tracking shoppers, and it begs the question, “Does the ecommerce funnel still exist?”
Short answer: No. Long answer: Yes, with a but.
Far from one-directional, funnels still represent genuine psychological experiences. These events are more looped than linear, spontaneous than orderly, emotional and meandering than logical and successive.
Nonetheless, more people enter your sales funnel than buy your product.
This reality can transform the funnel from an out-dated relic into a profit-generating machine. Together, let’s explore …
3 questions + 5 top-to-bottom examples so you can sell more through your ecommerce funnels.
What follows is not for the faint of (funnel) heart.
That’s why we put everything into a single, jaw-dropping download.
Even better, we partnered with EcomExperts’ Andrew Durot — who spent $5k at 45 of the biggest Shopify brands to screenshot every stage — and Longplay Brands’ Jess Chan to give you …
Part 1
More than an ad linked to a landing page supported by an email flow, marketing funnels encompass everything shoppers encounter …
Given their complexity, let’s set the stage by defining our terms.
An ecommerce funnel is a map of your customers’ journeys — five stages that represent how you attract (top), convert (middle), and maximize (bottom) value:
At the top, sales funnels attract new potential customers.
It begins with awareness when someone experiences your brand for the first time.
Acquisition is the lifeblood of growth, which makes traffic sources a balancing act between net-new audiences and product-fit shoppers. The former is about incrementality; the latter, profitability.
In the middle, they convert potential customers into actual customers.
Sales funnels not only help you understand the journey, they also guide optimization. Especially in the consideration and conversion stages.
Once you’ve earned a shopper’s attention, staying top of mind has to be blended with persuading them to buy. Address objections, remove barriers, and answer the driving question: Why is this product worth more than its price?
At the bottom, funnels maximize the value of existing customers.
They don’t stop at purchase — what’s known as ecommerce CRO (conversion rate optimization). They’re continuous. And they’re cyclical. Increasing lifetime value (LTV) after the first purchase stretches marketing dollars beyond your customer acquisition cost (CAC).
Post-purchase strategies coupled with retention and word-of-mouth (WoM) unlock your marketing efficiency ratio (MER): Total sales ÷ total ad spend.
The result? A flywheel of returning customers in the middle and more new customers at the top.
At the top of the funnel (ToFu), potential customers should have low-to-zero awareness of your products and brand. Demand generation occurs primarily through paid social with the lion’s share on Meta.
Think of these ads like billboards: General, broadly targeted, and loaded with your brand’s overarching message or value proposition.
As DTC brands scale, the awareness stage expands to reach increasingly wider audiences. HexClad, for example, creates binge-worthy cooking content on YouTube, TikTok & TV commercials.
No hard selling. Just great ‘edutainment,’ native styles, and high production.
HexClad’s paid strategy likewise centers on edutainment, directing visitors to best-selling collections, best-selling products …
… or a long-form landing page with:
In other upper-funnel cases, organic content and social ads go to the brand’s homepage. If so, you’re likely targeting people who need more information about you, your brand, and your products.
The awareness stage lacks purchase intent. That’s okay.
Ten Thousand tailors its homepage to cold audiences. Rather than promote a specific angle, it includes general information about its mission:
It doesn’t cater to one audience but to a wide range of people who may come across the site.
Consideration occurs when someone is familiar with your brand but hasn’t made a purchase. The middle of the funnel (MoFu) should guide new visitors by blending information with persuasion.
Ten Thousand takes a three-pronged approach centered on its Interval Shorts:
First, visitors arrive through broadly targeted ads: “Workout gear that moves with you.” The landing page contains social proof — press logos, ratings, and reviews — but majors on the short’s benefits + features.
Second, visitors to the PDP come via slightly more specific ads: “Shorts for every workout.” Detailed product information, immediate purchase options, and social proof greet them.
Third, Ten Thousand deploys user-generated content (UGC) to various short-form landers — FERMÀT shops with influencer videos, best sellers, and reasons why advertorials.
For innovative products that require substantially more education, marketing during the consideration stage can look like a college seminar.
Filterbaby’s landing page uses interactive data, scientific research, and case studies to show how Filterbaby 2.0 helps reduce impurities.
Notice it focuses more on the problem than the product.
After all, why would someone consider buying a solution if they don’t understand the problem? The lesson finishes with a straightforward option to purchase, backed by dermatologists and a waterfall (pun intended) of reviews.
Hostage Tape cleverly unites upper-funnel content from Reddit, Instagram, and YouTube (some paid, most organic) with middle-funnel emails.
It’s a powerful consideration combination …
Offsite points of discovery leveraged in prepurchase campaigns.
Here, people enter the bottom of the funnel (BoFu).
They’ve become aware of your brand, considered buying your product, and are finally ready to purchase. Taking someone from consideration to conversion demands:
Every brand listed above includes at least one pop-up to collect email addresses and phone numbers, followed immediately by a welcome flow on both channels.
Ten Thousand uses a near-universal pop-up swapped out for a product-specific incentive on its Interval Shorts pages.
Filterbaby’s welcome email continues the problem-then-solution angle without neglecting to deliver the promised 20% off.
Hexclad’s highly stylized pop-up features a $75 off coupon redeemable upon the new subscriber’s second purchase.
Next, give every shopper (new or returning) a compelling reason to take action — the “almighty” offer.
Singular focus can make or break the sale.
Without congruence between …
… drop-off rates will be high; purchases, low.
Jack Archer’s funnel exemplifies singular focus.
Hostage tape adopts a similar approach, routing shoppers from ads to matching landers straight into Shopify’s checkout.
The post-purchase stage happens after the sale; however, that doesn’t mean the first sale is over.
Hostage Tape encourages higher AOV through both a cart pop-up + post-purchase upsell. Each has a countdown timer. And each is for the very same product.
Once customers click “place order,” they expect to receive a confirmation, tracking number, instructions on how to use the product, and assurance they’ve made the right choice.
That is precisely what Hostage Tape delivers, wrapped in copy perfectly suited to its tone and voice.
In the customer stage, one-time buyers come back for more.
Nailing this part of the funnel is crucial to your business’s health. Retention and repeat orders mean a higher MER, which allows you to spend more on CAC.
Tools to increase lifetime value include:
These incentivize more spending, gamify the customer experience (CX), and get current customers excited about sharing your brand with friends and family.
Subscriptions work best for products consumed regularly — supplements, food and beverage, skincare, cleaning products, etc. More critical, you must give the customer an incentive to charge their card on a recurring basis.
Purdy & Figg’s entire business model hinges on subscriptions.
That applies to top-of-funnel creative — like its curiosity-piquing “this secret” or audio recordings framed as text messages — as well as to mid-to-bottom-funnel ads.
Nearly its entire catalog leads to a seasonal landing page (updated for different calendar moments) where the ads’ themes reappear:
In contrast, Filterbaby, Daily N’Oats, and Aplós offer lucrative discounts to those who choose subscription plans over one-time purchases.
Subscriptions equate to more revenue without additional marketing costs, which is why they’re so valuable.
Brands that offer high-ticket, one-time-purchase items benefit more from going wider with multiple customers than going deeper with one. Referral initiatives encourage current customers to share your brand with friends and family in exchange for a better price on their next order.
After a post-purchase survey, Lomi introduces its “Refer a Friend” program: $50 for successful email, text, or social referrals.
Burrow, Jack Archer, and Casper prompt buyers to enter their own names and email addresses, then do the same for their friends. This brings in new shoppers while encouraging repeat sales.
Referral programs work as a hands-off approach to garnering qualified word-of-mouth marketing.
Another avenue for increasing repeat purchases is rewarding those who already support your brand through credits and exclusive access to new launches. Think Starbucks’ iconic rewards program.
Loyalty programs maximize customers’ LTV, word of mouth, and purchase frequency. Peach & Lily’s Peach Perks doles out points for new purchases, leaving reviews, and sharing on social media.
Similarly, Obvi’s Club Obvi offers an all-encompassing discount and free shipping, gifts, and access to new products. The twist? It charges $129 for membership, generating revenue while ensuring that only the most devoted people are inside.
Jones Road Beauty takes a different approach through the JRB Roadies Facebook Group.
Rather than rely on discounts, the Roadies group builds an intimate community of like-minded people. Over 45,000 superfans share beauty tips, exchange ideas, and come together in one place centered around the JRB ethos.
With the five stages firmly in place, the next question becomes …
Part 2
Social media is the primary source to acquire top-of-funnel traffic.
In contrast to search — which depends on shoppers taking the first step toward an existing need (demand capture) — social interrupts users to activate a dormant want (demand creation).
Because of its massive user base, Meta remains the biggest growth channel on which to run ads. TikTok, Snapchat, and YouTube are valuable secondary sources.
Common formats include static images, explainer videos, founder stories, UGC, and “ugly” ads — handwritten text on Post-It notes, whiteboards, etc.
Creative is one of the most important aspects of paid social media. For effective content, use actors in the same demographic as your target audience or storylines that resonate with your base.
As bonuses on creative methodology, check out four recent posts from Cherene Aubert (ILIA Beauty), Andrew Faris, Jess Bachman (response to Andrew), and Taylor Holiday.
Above all … clear beats clever.
Hostage Tape’s creative arsenal varies widely. But never at the expense of clearly presenting its value proposition.
Enabling Advantage+ Creative adds a carousel layer at the bottom of each unit. Meta pulls these products from your catalog feed based on a shopper’s browsing history or its anticipated conversion rate.
Once someone has been to your site, retargeting allows you to serve them even more direct-shopping ads. Dynamic Product Ads (DPA) and Advantage+ Catalog Ads pull straight from your product feeds.
These function either as reminders of exactly what “warm” shoppers (i.e., lower in the funnel) have already shown interest in or as upsell and cross-sell opportunities.
Organic social can be produced and distributed in-house or earned from outreach, relationships, and product seeding.
Facebook and Instagram are the largest platforms for paid marketing, so harness that same network for organic reach — particularly short-form Reels. Depending on your audience, TikTok, YouTube, and Snapchat should follow.
Earned social media comes from influencers or micro-influencers, creators, and customers who post about your products to their followers.
To illustrate from different verticals, Jack Archer (fashion), Aplós (beverage), and Popsmith (home goods) …
All leverage a variety of social content across networks.
Product seeding — sending items to people without any strings attached — is one of the quickest ways to gain fans and build relationships. The simple gesture of shipping someone free products returns long-term dividends in awareness, consideration, and even conversion.
Content from those unsolicited posts makes for top-performing paid creative because it’s authentic and natural.
SEO improves your products’ organic discoverability on search engine results pages (SERPs) — most notably, Google.
Because it doesn’t depend on ad platforms for placement, SEO helps overall marketing efforts by increasing the total amount of traffic without increasing spend.
Essentially, there are two sides …
Honing off-page SEO ensures you select the right words in terms of monthly search volume. It also improves your domain authority through the quality and quantity of backlinks to your site.
Great on-page SEO demands placing your keyword into the right places: the URL, H1–H4 (headings), alt texts on images, and variations throughout the body copy. It also complies with what Google calls “EEAT”: experience, expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness.
SEO draws in customers at all stages of the sales funnel.
Pages and blog posts that answer specific questions can make your brand the first result when someone is looking for a product to solve their need.
Filterbaby, for instance, ranks for queries like:
Notice, however, that the results for “best water filter for clean skin” put Filterbaby’s own site below the sponsored content as well as review sites — in this case, mindbodygreen and Reddit.
Review sites help potential customers get trusted, third-party validation via listicles (ranked reviews of various product categories) or first-person advertorials.
Ten Thousand crushes this approach by dominating listicles in the top three organic positions for “best workout shorts for men”:
Often referred to as pay-per-click advertising, SEM is paid advertising to rank at the top of search engines. These ads come in different forms, such as standard text-based links or sponsored listings with product images.
SEM is one of the most direct response stages of an ecommerce funnel as you typically bid on branded keywords like “BRAND + CATEGORY” or keywords that answer your target search intent, such as “best + CATEGORY.”
It’s intended for traffic that’s at the bottom of the funnel and ready to buy.
Popsmith goes hard on SEM through Google Shopping and Amazon. Why? Because it’s a more niche product than something like fashion or beauty. That doesn’t mean it targets overly broad searches with high volume but low intent.
Instead, people looking for popcorn popper + qualifying terms — modern, retro, best stove, etc. — will find Popsmith at the top of SERPs.
Pop-ups, email marketing, and SMS generate revenue at the bottom of a funnel. Although they’re owned channels, they shouldn’t be relegated to retention.
Instead, all three are powerful mechanisms in the consideration, conversion, purchase, and customer stages.
For consideration to conversion, pop-ups trigger moments after new visitors arrive.
Popsmith, Simple Modern, and HexClad each start with a “teaser” screen — a binary question that prompts visitors to continue with the click of a button (a miniature or “micro” yes).
The next two screens ask for an email address then a phone number.
Popsmith incentivizes SMS by increasing its discount from $30 to $40. Simple Modern and HexClad keep their discounts static while implying SMS completes the sign-up process by altering the CTA.
Ten Thousand adopts a sitewide pop-up that gets swapped out for a product pop-up on the Interval Short landing page.
In contrast, Jones Road Beauty, Beekman 1802, and Ridge open with interest selectors to personalize messages based on a subscriber’s needs.
For conversion to purchase, combine your email + SMS welcome series along with abandonment flows.
The key? Unleash everything in lockstep with new subscribers’ onsite activity.
Send your first email + text immediately. Vary the flows at roughly two-to-one — for every two emails, one SMS. And do not hold back. Over-index on frequency during the window from sign-up to purchase.
Women’s undergarments brand Honeylove executes this masterfully. Over six days, it sends seven emails and three texts.
When triggered, three types of abandonment should interrupt the welcome series:
For purchase to customer, leverage every available opportunity.
The time between someone buying your product and getting it delivered is perhaps the most crucial in ecommerce: Transactional notifications, review requests, and repeat orders.
At no other point in the funnel are people more engaged.
Take full advantage of this attention by …
Ridge develops a near Pavlovian reflex between order and delivery. Through email + SMS it updates customers at every step of the fulfillment process. It delivers multiple thank-you messages. Best of all, it sends every CTA to a branded shipping page — complete with how-to tips on organizing and customizing along with complementary products.
Up to this point, we’ve focused on stages and tactics from a variety of brands.
To bring everything together, let’s turn our attention to top-to-bottom examples from brands in three different verticals.
Part 3
Underneath all the marketing tactics lies a vital foundation.
The following brands employ different angles, styles, and offers in their funnels. One thing remains constant — a high-quality product that people want.
Acquired by OpenStore in 2022, Jack Archer specializes in upscale casual men’s apparel that “looks good, fits even better.” Its funnel is anchored on a signature SKU, the Jetsetter Tech Pants.
Due to the nature of apparel, success requires testimonials + reviews, commentary on fit, and high-quality creative at every stage.
Categorical SEO and SEM capture demand at the top of the funnel — traffic with an existing desire but without a brand or product in mind.
When an agnostic shopper starts their search for the “best tech pants” (a high-volume phrase used to describe performance fabrics that blend functionality with style), a sea of choices appears:
Despite the prominence of “Sponsored” and “Popular products,” top organic results devour clicks. There, beneath the waves of paid placements, Jack Archer beats out major competitors like UNTUCKit, Costco, and Old Navy.
How? By staying narrowly focused on its niche.
Jack Archer’s first-place organic result leads to a collection page where the brand begins to explain its differentiation and value propositions. New visitors are greeted with a welcome pop-up for 25% cash back on their first order.
For affiliate placements, the Jetsetter Pants appear across a host of mainstream publications — Time, Gear Junkie, and Rolling Stone among the most recognizable.
Having become aware of Jack Archer from search, owned results, and third-party blogs, people typically dive deeper to find out: “Are they really that good?”
Awareness turns to consideration.
Jack Archer dominates branded search so that anyone investigating its products finds exactly what they want. It also boasts positive offsite reviews on Reddit, Trustpilot, and YouTube — critical sources in generating equally positive AI results.
As consideration leans toward conversion, shoppers look for reviews beyond those the brand hosts or shares. That’s why Jack Archer augments its onsite reviews with YouTube and product-specific advertorials.
Rather than a roundup of multiple brands, The AdultMan’s article is a dedicated dive into Jack Archer’s range. Hands-on testing with original (UGC-style) photography by someone other than the brand goes a long way.
From the review, visitors are taken straight to the Jetsetter Pants PDP.
This is the conversion stage, where a visitor ideally turns into a customer.
Alternatively, the journey might begin on a demand-generation channel like social.
Jack Archer ads go to one of three places: (1) landing pages, (2) PDPs, or (3) FERMÀT shopping experiences. On the landing pages, it reiterates many of the value propositions highlighted further up in its funnel:
It also presents the same welcome pop-up as before. Congruence creates momentum; momentum pushes toward conversion. The welcome text and email arrive immediately with their promised 25% cash back.
Alongside the landing page and PDP, Jack Archer sends paid traffic to various standalone funnels hosted by FERMÀT.
Visitors arrive at a variety of video shops + advertorials that include collections tailored to their interests, embedded PDPs, as well as a unifying offer that stacks $99 for free shipping with “Spend $149+, get a free Anytime tee.”
“Add to Bag” immediately triggers the free Anytime Tee pop-up. Shoppers can select from recommended products, merchandised to match their chosen size, with a click. Then, select the free t-shirt’s size and color in the same window.
Upon entering cart to checkout, Jack Archer puts best practices into action:
Post-purchase kicks off with …
Simultaneously, buyers receive their order confirmation.
Finally, because they’re categorized as (potential) repeat customers, Jack Archer keeps buyers updated on new products, seasonal releases + sales, restocked items, and referral incentives — some personalized, some general.
The goal? Engage, stay top of mind, and extend LTV.
In other words, Jack Archer’s funnel ends by driving one-time customers back into the middle as repeat customers.
Glossier was launched in 2014 by Emily Weiss, who first built a cult following with her beauty blog Into The Gloss. The vision? Create a cosmetics company informed by real consumer feedback rather than boardroom decisions.
By 2019, it’d reached unicorn status ($1.2 billion valuation). Today, it’s one of the few first-generation DTC brands that continues to evolve and expand.
Glossier doesn’t center on a single hero product. Instead, it divides its range into two primary categories: skincare and cosmetics.
With massive awareness, Glossier branded search + organic content sits atop its funnel.
Its social runs the organic gamut.
And, naturally, written content from Into the Gloss through a site, newsletter, and social channels separate from Glossier itself.
On top of the brand’s own accounts — totaling over 5 million followers — Into the Gloss commands an additional audience of more than 2 million.
From awareness into consideration + conversion …
Glossier’s paid strategy mixes its well-known aesthetic with direct-response ads, performance UGC, and the same sort of get-ready, how-to creative that commands attention through organic channels.
With each, there are tight throughlines (congruence) between its ads, landing pages, product pages, and carts.
Creme de You is a shining example — one offer consistently presented at every stage matched with one product and supported by similar recommendations.
The same is true for Glossier’s email and SMS marketing, whether teasing new products with coming-soon samples or its “Fill a Beauty Bag” discount based on a minimum number of products.
Post-purchase is a thing of beauty.
Intermixed with Glossier’s regular campaigns, an 11-part sequence unfolds:
Best of all, Glossier anchors customers in community.
How? Through a closed group hosted on the Try Your Best (TYB) platform. Access is granted after purchase and managed through digital collectibles — online tokens inspired by the brand’s physical stickers.
Within TYB, members can complete challenges, register for IRL events, unlock perks, redeem them for discounts, free products, and exclusives, as well as interact with Glossier + other fans directly through “the g chat.”
Combined with further nurturing through email and SMS, it’s the kind of experience that propels new customers back to the top of the funnel … to become loyal customers and word-of-mouth advocates.
Carnivore Snax lives at the intersection of premium snacks and the ancestral health movement. In the +$3-billion convenient meat category, it sits on the high end of price and quality — more akin to artisanal food product than gas-station jerky.
Its unique selling proposition? The only snack product that is carnivore-pure, crispy like a chip, and sourced from made-in-the-US regenerative farms. Competitors might match one or two of those aspects, but not all three.
To establish its uniqueness and validate its price, Carnivore Snax relies heavily on social proof at every step of its funnel.
Nowhere is this more obvious than generating awareness.
In addition to Google Shopping and sponsored ads, Carnivore Snax is the very first non-branded organic result for queries like “best carnivore snack” and “best carnivore meat snack.”
The organic result leads to Carnivore Snax homepage, where new visitors are greeted with an endorsement from Joe Rogan, taste testing videos, and a smorgasbord of customer reviews.
Similarly, its shopping ads tower above adjacent competitors in terms of the quality and quantity of ratings.
With the broader category of carnivore diet still expanding, Carnivore Snax’s blog covers a range of search-friendly topics — something it’s already been rewarded for through traditional as well as AI search.
At the same time, it doesn’t shy away from consideration topics like addressing objections or competitors.
Paid efforts are where demand generation + consideration and conversion truly unite.
Across social platforms, Carnivore Snax aligns its creative, audiences, and offers in a near one-for-one manner. It does this by replicating socially native content — with an emphasis on sensory experiences and customer reviews — to video shops and robust PDP landers.
As one of the few brands to achieve significant scale on TikTok, its strategy is particularly helpful.
From product-centric, UGC-heavy videos to long-form, complimentary videos on landing pages, Carnivore Snax guides new shoppers from discovery to purchase effortlessly
Hosted through FERMÀT, “Shop All Snax” reveals an embedded collection grid without reloading the page. Similarly, clicking any of the products fires up a custom PDP on the same page.
Whether on the lander or PDP, “Add to Bag” goes straight to cart with free-shipping thresholds, related upsells, and a choice between immediate checkout — i.e., Apple Pay — or proceeding to Carnivore Snax’s Shopify.
To incentivize recurring orders, it emphasizes subscriptions with deeper discounts on PDPs and in cart, alongside its Hunt Membership.
As shoppers become customers, they’re given multiple options to increase AOV.
A final add-to-purchase product (positioned below free shipping); a series of affiliate offers on its thank-you page; email + SMS campaigns sprinkled between confirmation and delivery.
Rooted in 15 years of clinical expertise, Adapt Naturals was born from the work and passion of Chris Kresser — a functional medicine clinician, speaker, and author.
After realizing that most people couldn’t easily implement the diet and lifestyle changes he recommended, Kresser took his first product to market in 2022 as a way to translate “extensive clinical and research experience into a line of products accessible to a much wider audience.”
Through his newsletter, site, and podcast, thousands of Kresser’s followers became early adopters of the Core Plus Bundle.
Since then, it has introduced Bio-Avail (organ-meat supplements), Biome Protect (probiotic), Luminous Mind (nootropic formula), and others.
As a health and wellness brand, trust is paramount.
Adapt Naturals establishes credibility through a savvy mix of …
In essence, borrowing credibility from within the world of its audience and augmenting that with customer reviews while anchoring its overarching story in the expertise of its founder.
Educational content is a keystone of its awareness and consideration stages.
This takes place onsite via a variety of media formats (including quizzes), offsite (through Kresser’s blog linked in Adapt Natural’s main navigation), and especially through its email marketing.
On his blog, Kresser hosts a wealth of articles and ebooks. There, he links back to Adapt Naturals as well as to his podcast and other channels — most notably his own YouTube + appearances on other shows like the Joe Rogan Experience.
Whether through Kresser’s content or Adapt Natural’s quiz + pop-ups …
Much of the consideration and conversion stage is weighted toward email marketing.
Roughly an email a day for the first two weeks and beyond.
For paid acquisition, Adapt Natural’s middle-to-bottom ads continue the brand’s educational intensity. Lengthy, information-rich copy is coupled with explainer videos, memes, and a relentless pursuit of image testing.
Not surprisingly, the same long-form approach extends into its landing pages — advertorials that teach, build trust, and persuade with a decidedly scientific + benefits-highlighting tone.
Zeroing in on one version of Bio-Avail (of which there are many), the headline reads like a journal article meets breaking news. Questions + answers — backed meticulously by research — charts, reviews, logo reels, capped off with a dedicated FAQ section at the bottom.
Clicking through any of the “Shop Now” or “Get 30% Off” CTAs, Adapt Natural PDPs place first things first:
Moving from shopper to customer …
Its cart suggests supplements that match the previous selection of subscription versus one-time. Discounts are automatically appended at checkout.
Immediately after submitting an order, Adapt Naturals’ confirmation page presents two more opportunities to increase customer value. The cumulative effect? An AOV-lifting orchestration.
Much like its welcome flow to new subscribers, new customers experience nearly daily touchpoints as they await delivery, followed by a post-fulfillment flow:
Rather than recycled content, the two flows are completely unique — new subscriber versus new customer — with one overlap …
Adapt Naturals and Kresser’s commitment to health, transparency, and trust.
Popsmith has perfected popcorn with its nostalgic-yet-modern stovetop popper. Launched on Kickstarter in late 2023, it quickly raised $350k for initial production.
Today, the brand primarily generates awareness, consideration, and conversion through its hero product. Popcorn packs extend LTV into the post-purchase and customer stages.
Although Popsmith doesn’t dominate SEO in quite the way Ten Thousand or Nood does, search-friendly content creates an organic opportunity to raise awareness.
Kernels of Truth, its blog, serves as an encyclopedia of all things popcorn. The articles answer common questions and provide advice on everything from toppings to cleaning stainless steel.
Naturally, it includes plenty of recipes:
The ingredients? First, Popsmith’s Oh Sooo Buttery Popcorn Kit.
As a more niche product, Popsmith invests heavily in SEM through Google Shopping and Amazon, especially high-intent terms.
Like other consumable goods, Popsmith runs a dedicated Amazon Shop, merging awareness and conversion with a custom version of its DTC storefront.
Despite being less than a year old, the brand has received multiple reviews at outlets like Food & Wine, The Kitchn, and Thingtesting.
Winning House Beautiful’s Live Better Award in the Buzzy & New category wasn’t a one-and-done moment. Popsmith leverages it as a trust badge throughout the funnel.
Mixing PR with affiliate marketing, sponsored media in publishers like US Weekly and gift-giving favorite Uncrate ensure shoppers discover Popsmith wherever they turn.
On organic social, the brand highlights its deluge of “as seen on” mentions. Quite literally, a who’s who of mainstream publishers: US Weekly, PureWow, Glamour Magazine, and more.
Popsmith’s YouTube oscillates between recipes, luxury positioning, and competitor comparisons.
These tactics ease the transition from awareness into consideration + conversion.
Collaborations with adjacent accounts help you reach new audiences.
No Sailor incorporates Popsmith into a fitting trend: Dune’s sandworm popcorn buckets. He directs followers to check out the brand’s Instagram page. In turn, Popsmith’s link in bio sends visitors to its homepage, bringing more traffic into the funnel.
For paid social, lifestyle videos and explainer stills show viewers exactly how the popper works. Trust badges — most notably, House Beautiful’s Live Better Award — fuel Popsmith’s fire through premium positioning.
The ads propel shoppers to conversion via two avenues …
First, a landing page (FERMÀT shop) that opens one-for-one with the video used on Meta: “3 Reasons Why You Need This Stovetop Popcorn Maker.”
Creative continuity meets offer continuity: No navigation bar, no hamburger menu, just reasons to buy.
Second, a Bundle n’ Save PDP centers on the popper and popcorn kits, which dynamically stack savings as you select quantities. Further down the page, how-to content, an us-versus-them comparison, and reviews boost momentum.
Not only does the PDP contain a pop-up for $30 off, but Popsmith’s Facebook ads also insert the discount into the on-page experience. Opting in for SMS ups the savings to $40, giving browsers a strong incentive to become text subscribers.
Whichever channel someone returns through, the general discount code is automatically replaced with their custom code: $30 off via email or $40 via text.
Removing the need to write out codes and displaying them in both the cart + checkout — itemized dollar amounts (i.e., pricing strikethroughs) reinforced by total savings — creates the most powerful middle-to-bottom funnel experience we’ve seen so far.
Post-purchase, Popsmith intersperses receipt and tracking information with how-to emails.
“Getting Started with Your New Popper” and “Getting the Perfect Pop Everytime” illustrate how other companies should approach onboarding recent buyers …
Fully-branded emails delivered before and after the order arrives. Step-by-step instructions front-loaded with FAQs. How-to tips related to each product — in this case, Classic Kettle Corn and Oh Soo Buttery Popcorn. Links to (1) order more, (2) share on social, and (3) watch video tutorials.
In the customer stage, three types of follow-ups emerge.
The first two nudge customers to either place another order — the “Oops, need more popcorn!” club — or purchase an ongoing subscription.
The third type balances beautiful aesthetics for holidays, events, and celebrations with plain-text emails that engender intimacy and build relationships.
The final push for existing customers to become sources of new customers occurs roughly a week after delivery.
Popsmith’s request to “Leave a review” packs in …
As it should be, Popsmith culminates with a final push to burst aimed at making it effortless for both customers to come back as well as to bring new shoppers with them.
Despite the exhaustive ground we’ve covered, plenty of topics remain. Namely, how do you measure the effectiveness of your funnels?
Valid question. And one we’ll answer in coming weeks, giving it the depth + breath it deserves.
However, rather than heap more into this already overflowing guide, instead let’s end where we began — with a more urgent question:
Does the ecommerce funnel still exist?
As a linear, successive, and orderly progression: No.
But as a representation of the genuine psychological experiences shoppers experience on their path from discovery to purchase to returning customer: Yes.
No matter how looped, meandering, and haphazard today’s journey might be.
Oh, and one more thing …
Last call for the exhaustive funnel download.
I mean, you made it this far. Might as well give us your email address and enter our funnel, too.
