Newsletter #59 - 3 upsell strategies to double your AOV

Hello, I'm Evan. I'm taking over D2C Academy from here.

Before Bigblue, I co-founded DOSE, a French beverage brand that took off in 9 months: 244M organic social views with zero ad spend, 150 000+ cans sold (sold out three times), and listings in 1 400+ supermarkets.

I spent hours pulling apart what the best brands do, hunting for sharp strategies worth testing.

Most of what you'll read here, I learned the hard way: how to get strangers to buy once, then twice, then ten times, without torching your margin in the process.

D2C Academy lands every two weeks with what the best e-commerce and retail brands actually do to grow.

As a founder, you already know that growth is not just about acquiring new clients. Retention, repeat sales and upsells are what compound over time. One upsell system, built once, lifts average order value by 10% to 30% and keeps adding revenue to every order after.

The numbers back it up. True Classic turned plain tees into a $250M brand; Unbottled gets nearly half of its customers to buy again, and JENNY BIRD added around $130 to orders when shoppers accepted its post-purchase offer.

These brands excel in customer acquisition, their edge is what they do after the first purchase. They get more from every customer they already pay to win, without additional marketing spend, focusing on three moments most brands overlook:

• In the cart, right before the customer pays;
• After checkout, once the first order is locked
• During delivery, while they wait for the parcel

Here is exactly how three of the best brands work them.

1. Gamify the cart to lift every order

True Classic: +$35 per order

True Classic turned a $3 000 idea into a $250M+ business in under five years. Acquisition and product brought in millions of customers. But their cart strategy is where the brand increases the value of every order it wins: in-cart bundles add about $35, with a simple "spend more, unlock more" mechanic that nudges shoppers to build a bigger basket.

• Set spend tiers: put two or three rewards in the cart likefree shipping, a free gift, a bonus item. Use a progress bar that shows how close they are to unlocking next one.
• Use real urgency to the offer: like low-stock triggers, or a same-day shipping cut-off, so the customer feels the need to act now.
• Upsell on the same page: let buyers accept the offer inside the cart without loading a new page. Every extra click costs you orders.

2. Upsell a second product after checkout

JENNY BIRD: +$130 per accepted offer

JENNY BIRD is an eight-figure global jewellery brand, growing over 50% year over year and worn by stars like Selena Gomez & Hailey Bieber.

Its upsell move happens after the customer has already paid: a one-click product offer appears on the thank-you page, matched to what the shopper just bought or nearly bought.

• Wait until the order is done: show the offer after payment, when trust is highest to lock the order right after.
• Make it feel like styling: recommend the matching piece, another colour, or an item the shopper already considered but hasn't bought yet..
• Keep it one click: let buyers add it to the same order without re-entering payment details or going through checkout again.

3. Turn the delivery window into your second storefront

Unbottled: nearly 50% repeat rate

Unbottled scaled roughly 20x in its first year, remained profitable throughout, and became France's reference in plastic-free cosmetics, now sold online, at Sephora, and in its own shops.

It uses the window between the time where and "order placed" and "parcel delivered" as prime selling space.

• Own the delivery wait: Unbottled runs its tracking emails and tracking page in its own brand look and voice. Those emails reach an 80% open rate, 3x higher than a typical marketing email.
• Put one offer where attention peaks: three of four buyers open the tracking page, where Unbottled drops a $10 voucher toward the next order.
• Turn the unboxing into a reason to come back: recyclable packaging and a card signed by the co-founder make the delivery memorable, giving customers a reason to reorder and refer others.

Hope you enjoyed this newsletter!

Speak soon,

Evan

E-commerce Expert @ Bigblue