Hey everyone,

Welcome back for another bite to chew on.

If you look at the last few years of DTC, the playbook was simple: acquire cheaply, maximize the first cart, and hope they come back.

But as we look toward 2026, the game is changing. 

Ad inventory isn't getting cheaper, and the one-and-done transaction model is becoming a silent killer for growth brands like ours.

We recently sat down to completely re-architect Obvi’s strategy for the next year. 

The conclusion? It’s time to play the long game.

While most brands are panicking over daily ROAS, at Obvi, we’re fundamentally shifting the focus from immediate profit to lifetime value.

Today, we’re breaking down the three pillars of the 2026 roadmap and exactly how we plan to execute it.

Let’s get into it.

On the Menu:

For 2026, we are making a specific shift in how we approach growth at Obvi.

We are making sure every first order is subscription-focused.

This is a deliberate change in our model, and we know exactly what it will cost us.

By prioritizing subscriptions on that first interaction, AOV could potentially take a hit. 

Why? Because our priority shifts from maximizing the cart value to simply getting as close to break-even as possible on the front end.

In the short term, this looks different from the high-AOV plays we have discussed in the past.

But we’re doing this because by focusing on subscriptions, we are betting that the value of the second, third, and fourth orders matters more than the margin of the first.

We aren't trying to maximize immediate profit on day one. 

The strategy is to simply cover our acquisition costs initially, so we can be as profitable as possible on the subsequent orders that come in.

It’s a volume and retention play. We are accepting the dip in front-end AOV to secure the long-term value of the customer.

Here is the catch to the 2026 strategy: If we intentionally lower our front-end AOV to secure a subscriber, we create an immediate revenue gap.

This makes the post-purchase experience mission-critical.

In the past, post-purchase might have been a nice bonus. But for the 2026 roadmap, it has to be absolutely dialed in to make up for the AOV dip that comes from focusing so heavily on subscriptions.

We cannot afford a passive Thank You page.

So our strategy is to cross-sell like crazy from the moment a customer puts anything in their cart.

If we’re focusing on a subscription for a certain product, the flow immediately after that purchase has to support the customer's broader journey.

What does this look like in practice?

We’re immediately serving them offers for other types of collagen that will help them achieve their specific wellness goals.

By offering crazy deals and promotions in this specific window, we can grow the transaction value before the customer ever leaves the site.

The math is simple: The post-purchase offers account for the dip in AOV we took on the front end. This allows us to lock in the subscription and still hit our revenue targets.

If you also want to pivot to a strategy that prioritizes LTV over immediate AOV, your cross-selling and post-purchase experience has to be a sophisticated revenue engine.

Most brands treat the path from cart to thank-you page as a fixed, rigid flow.

Aftersell by Rokt turns that full journey (cart → checkout → post-purchase → Thank You page) into a performance channel.

It’s not just about slapping a generic upsell at the end of the experience. Aftersell helps you intentionally design and monetize every moment of the purchase journey without killing your conversion rate or breaking customer trust.

Aftersell is a comprehensive suite built to analyze how customers move through your purchase flow, identify hidden growth opportunities across the journey, and help you act on them — all without heavy dev work.

Here is why it’s the engine powering our new retention model:

Brands using Aftersell consistently increase AOV by up to 30%, driving reliable, incremental revenue at scale.

If you are serious about making that bottom-of-funnel stage work for you in 2026, let the data tell you where your leaks are.

Get an audit of your post-purchase workflow here!

The final piece of our 2026 puzzle is contextual consistency.

In the past, it was common for brands to run specific ads that dumped traffic into a generic funnel. 

But for 2026, we are doubling down on testing specific landing pages for different marketing angles.

And we aren't stopping at the landing page, but taking it a step further.

We are customizing the post-purchase flow to match the specific landing page the customer came from.

Here’s the exact workflow we are implementing:

If someone is shopping for hair products, showing them a generic weight loss upsell creates friction and breaks the narrative.

By dialing in the messaging and having real intention behind what we offer to each user, we ensure the experience feels personal rather than transactional.

We are aligning the ad, the landing page, and the upsell into one cohesive story.

The kicker: If you spent money to acquire a customer on a specific hook, don’t switch the script at the finish line. The idea is to keep the conversation focused on exactly what they came for.