Jonny Longden

Digital Experience Director | Helping you put experimentation at the heart of your business | Top Experimentation Influencer

My career has been driven by a singular obsession: fundamentally changing the way the business world makes growth and innovation decisions. For nearly two decades, I've forged a unique path using data and experimentation to ignite digital innovation and elevate customer experience.

While the term 'experimentation' has gained traction, I've observed a profound disconnect in its application. Too often, it's relegated to superficial A/B testing or seen as a tactical tweak, failing to deliver its true potential as a strategic driver of growth. This narrow focus leads to siloed learning, unquantifiable investment, and continued reliance on opinion and guesswork for critical business decisions.

This is why I champion Experimentation-Led Growth (ELG). At its core, ELG is about moving beyond mere 'optimisation' to build robust, evidence-driven operating systems for sustained business impact. It's about empowering organisations to de-risk ambitious innovation, accelerate learning velocity, and generate compounding commercial outcomes. My work focuses on integrating Growth Experimentation Systems & Engineering – connecting the strategic vision, the operational infrastructure, and the customer insights to ensure every investment drives tangible, measurable progress.

My unique blend of agency, client-side, and management consultancy experience at senior levels has equipped me with a holistic view of the digital landscape. From leading product analytics for Visa Checkout and building high-impact product discovery teams at Sky, to owning the P&L for front-end Digital Product at Boohoo Group, as well as scaling a digital experience consultancy from scratch, I've consistently applied an experimentation mindset to unlock significant commercial value.

I partner with visionary leaders – VPs of Growth, Product Directors, Digital Directors, and C-suite executives – who are determined to move past the limitations of traditional approaches. If you're looking to transform how your teams learn, ship, and grow; if you're seeking to embed genuine evidence-based decision-making across your organisation; or if you want to unlock step-change velocity and impact from your digital investments, let's connect. I'm keen to share insights and explore how a Growth Experimentation approach can redefine your trajectory.

Contact me at jonny@speero.com or +44 777 909 6222 to find out how we can help you grow.

Director, Digital Experience Services

90% of all changes made to websites are based on opinion and are a waste of time and money because…

It is impossible to know 1000s of customers
Your opinion is deeply biased
You can’t rationalise the irrational

Regardless of the size of your business, the answer is to put data and experimentation at the heart of your development operations. 

We help you do that. 

We take the guesswork out of decision making and provide consultancy and training, systems and frameworks, and experimentation agency services to help you reach your full growth potential.

Email me to learn how to put experimentation at the heart of your business: jonny@journeyfurther.com
Subscribe to my newsletter: jonnylongden.com/newsletter

A few months ago I wrote about evals - the AI equivalent of A/B testing - and why traditional experimenters need to understand them.

Well, the worlds just got closer.

Anthropic just released Claude Skills 2.0, and buried in the update is something that you need to take notice of: structured evals and A/B testing for AI skills.

What is it?

A "skill" is a reusable set of instructions that teaches Claude how to do a specific task - write a brief, triage research findings, summarise test results, generate hypotheses from analytics data. Think of it as a playbook you'd give a new analyst, except the analyst is an LLM.

The problem until now? No way to reliably test whether the skill actually works. Sound familiar? It should. It's the same problem we've spent years solving in experimentation programmes: how do you know a change is actually better, and not just different?

Skills 2.0 introduces:

→ Evals: structured test cases that benchmark a skill's output against defined success criteria
→ A/B comparison: run the same task with the skill on vs. off and measure the difference
→ Iterative optimisation: refine the skill based on results, re-test, repeat

This is literally the experimentation loop. Hypothesis → test → measure → learn → iterate.

Here's where it gets interesting for traditional CRO people specifically.

As the business world adopts Claude Code and similar tools to manage orchestration layers within both internal applications and external customer products, skills will become the playbooks for how things get done.

Your customer support team has a skill that triages tickets and drafts responses. Is it actually resolving issues faster, or just responding faster? Your product team has a skill that personalises onboarding flows. Is it increasing activation, or just generating plausible-sounding copy? Your marketing team has a skill that writes landing page variants. Are they converting better, or just different?

These are experimentation questions. And they need experimentation people to answer them.

The difference is that instead of testing what a user sees on a webpage, you're testing the quality of the instructions that power the system behind it. The skill IS the treatment. The eval IS the experiment.

This is where the experimentation discipline expands. Not replacing A/B testing on websites — but extending the same rigour to the AI layer that increasingly sits underneath everything.

If your organisation is building with AI, someone needs to be testing whether it actually works. That someone should be you.

My original article: https://lnkd.in/dT7c36Sx

#experimentation #AI #CRO #evals #LLMs

Chief Growth Officer @ Speero | Growth Experimentation Systems & Engineering | Product & Digital Innovation Leader

If you made 7-figures and fly around in private jets, why do you need to sell that playbook to people on LinkedIn? 🤔

Hello #Oslo. Just getting set up here for tonight's 𝗘𝘅𝗽𝗲𝗿𝗶𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗟𝗶𝘃𝗲 𝗺𝗲𝗲𝘁𝘂𝗽.

If you are working in digital product, growth, or experimentation and fancy some genuinely good conversations without the usual agency sales pitches, we kick off in just a few hours.

We have a great crowd of local leaders confirmed, but there is always room to squeeze in a couple more if you want to make a last-minute decision to join us. We will be digging into the messy reality of scaling experimentation, the psychology of user friction, and optimising for long-term loyalty—the stuff that actually drives business outcomes, not just superficial metrics.

The details:
• 𝗪𝗵𝗲𝗿𝗲: Mesh Nationaltheatret (Tordenskiolds gate 2, 0160 Oslo)
• 𝗪𝗵𝗲𝗻: Today. Doors open at 17:00, talks start around 18:00
• 𝗪𝗵𝗮𝘁: Good food, drinks (on us), and evidence-based discussion.
  
Grab a free ticket via the link below (or just turn up and come say hello). See you later.

https://lnkd.in/dK-xWD5e

#experimentation #cro #productmanagement #growth #digitalexperience #experimentationledgrowth #elg #growthexperimentation

#OSLO, you did not disappoint. Last night’s 𝗘𝘅𝗽𝗲𝗿𝗶𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗹𝗶𝘃𝗲 𝗺𝗲𝗲𝘁𝘂𝗽 was genuinely brilliant.

It is incredibly refreshing to get a room full of product and growth leaders together and not just talk about tactical A/B testing or surface-level metrics. Instead, we got into the actual, complex reality of human decision-making, customer behaviour, and building a culture of evidence.

A massive thank you to our speakers for bringing real substance to the table:

• Monica Solberg brought the reality check on what theory and glossy paper won't tell you about the messy reality of scaling experimentation.
• Håvard Maråk challenged the room to look beyond immediate conversions and optimise for actual, long-term loyalty.
• Christina S. gave a masterclass on the psychology of friction and how tiny moments make or break digital products.
  
Huge thanks to our co-hosts Jonas Moe and Joachim Furuseth for helping pull this together, and to our partners at AB Tasty for making it happen. Big thanks to Mesh Community for the amazing venue. 

To everyone from the local community who came out, shared a drink, and engaged in some proper critical thinking—thank you. It is exactly this kind of systems-level thinking that the industry needs to move forward.

Let’s keep the conversation going.

#experimentation #cro #productmanagement #growth #digitalexperience #experimentationledgrowth #elg #growthexperimentation

Building a sustainable experimentation program in a complex organization is not about running the most tests; it is about building a process that can withstand reality. In a B2C environment, the difference between a minor tweak and a strategic growth lever often comes down to the maturity of your experimentation culture.

This is why I am pleased to have Bjarn Brunenberg joining us at CIRCUS London this May.

Bjarn is the Experimentation Lead at TomTom and a recognized influencer in the A/B testing space. With deep experience in scaling growth for B2C teams—including his time at TomTom and Mollie—he specializes in turning raw data-driven insights into high-impact strategic growth initiatives. He is a two-time award winner known for his ability to organize and scale experimentation processes from the ground up.

At CIRCUS, Bjarn will be delivering a lightning talk—a high-energy, concise presentation designed to get right to the heart of a timely topic. These sessions are focused on sharing key messages and inspiring new conversations without the filler of a traditional conference format. He will also be presenting a session in our AI poster area, offering a more hands-on look at building automated growth workflows.

If you are a leader looking to move beyond siloed testing and toward a unified experimentation framework that drives real ROI, you need to see Bjarn in action.

Secure your seat at the table: https://lnkd.in/eXiYwFZu

See the full lineup for London (May 11 and 12): https://speero.com/circus

#Experimentation #GrowthMarketing #B2C #CIRCUSLondon #ABTesting #DataDriven #ProductGrowth #TomTom

Here's why every business should care about their product model.

The true product operating model has been demonstrated time and again to be, in most businesses, a more effective and efficient method for innovation and growth than the feature factory model.

One of the biggest, yet unseen, casualties of the feature factory is your data. Data is the lifeblood of your business and is essential for driving validated learning and growth.

You might not realise it, but your engineers and product teams are the ultimate custodians of your data. They are the ones who code the ability to capture it. Even if you have a fancy Tag Management System, it is often only as good as its implementation by your developers.

The significant problem with the feature factory is that nobody cares about the data. If product and engineering teams are just trying to deliver features on time, they rarely care whether a feature can be measured or optimised, or whether it provides any opportunity for learning and growth. They just want to ship it and move on.

While feature factories neglect data, true product teams are the custodians of growth through product experience, and to succeed, they absolutely need good data.

#experimentation #product  #productmanagement #growth #digitalexperience #growthexperimentation #featurefactories

Most growth teams are struggling with a "Frankenstein Stack" - a cobbled-together mess of isolated analytics, disconnected testing engines, and siloed data platforms that simply don’t talk to each other.

We recently collaborated on a research project with Amplitude and Eric Metelka to understand why organizations like FanDuel, Zwift, and Huckleberry Labs are moving toward a unified approach.

The findings confirmed what I see constantly in my consulting work: the biggest bottleneck to growth isn't a lack of ideas - it's the friction of disconnected systems. When your analytics and your testing engine don't share the same DNA, you aren't running an experimentation program; you're running a data-reconciliation program.

The technical "Unlocks" we found had massive commercial implications:

• 𝗩𝗲𝗹𝗼𝗰𝗶𝘁𝘆 𝗨𝗻𝗹𝗼𝗰𝗸: FanDuel more than doubled their experiment velocity in year one. By removing the friction of context-switching between tools, they shifted from simple "did we break it?" validation to genuine exploration and optimization .
  
• 𝗧𝗿𝘂𝘀𝘁 𝗨𝗻𝗹𝗼𝗰𝗸: Zwift has moved to testing in production. They trust their system enough to run live employee cohorts to catch bugs before a full rollout . Trust in data is the only way to kill the "culture of hesitation".
  
• 𝗜𝗱𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗶𝘁𝘆 𝗨𝗻𝗹𝗼𝗰𝗸: Huckleberry Labs solved the "identity crisis". In a world of shared accounts and multiple devices, they moved from device-level guesses to user-level resolution without any extra engineering lift .
  
If your experimentation program is stagnant, stop blaming your ideation. Stop blaming "opinion-driven" stakeholders. Look at your foundation .

Check out our new whitepaper, "𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗙𝗿𝗮𝗻𝗸𝗲𝗻𝘀𝘁𝗲𝗶𝗻 𝗦𝘁𝗮𝗰𝗸 𝗣𝗿𝗼𝗯𝗹𝗲𝗺," attached. 

For the full strategic breakdown of why organizations are making this switch, read the companion article here: https://lnkd.in/dqut_CqF

𝗪𝗲𝗯𝗶𝗻𝗮𝗿 𝗔𝗻𝗻𝗼𝘂𝗻𝗰𝗲𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁:

I’ll be sitting down with Eric Metelka from Amplitude on March 19th to discuss how to turn your stack from a graveyard of disconnected data into an engine for continuous innovation.

𝗥𝗲𝗴𝗶𝘀𝘁𝗲𝗿 𝗵𝗲𝗿𝗲: https://lnkd.in/dB6TrBv3

Stop optimizing the tool. Start optimizing the system.

#experimentation #cro #productmanagement #growth #digitalexperience #experimentationledgrowth #elg #growthexperimentation

Brand partnership • Chief Growth Officer @ Speero | Growth Experimentation Systems & Engineering | Product & Digital Innovation Leader

The Frankenstein Stack Problem

Experiment Live Meetups is coming to #Oslo #Norway!! 𝗧𝗛𝗜𝗦 𝗪𝗘𝗘𝗞 on 25th February and is ALMOST SOLD OUT. Register to secure your FREE place!

This is a FREE informal evening networking meetup for folks in digital growth, product, experimentation, data and UX, to be held in a TBC central Oslo venue. 

Experiment live meetups are a way to bring people together to meet, talk and learn from each other. There is NO SALES and NO PITCHING. The event is mostly chatting, eating and drinking (all provided), but we will also have a few talks from:

Monica Solberg, Head of Experimentation, Vend | “What theory and glossy paper doesn't tell you about scaling experimentation”

Christina S., Global Product Manager, Opera | "The Psychology of Friction: Why Tiny Moments Make or Break Digital Products"

Håvard Maråk, Manager of Dynamic Sales & Experimentation, Schibsted | "Optimising for Loyalty"

We're co-hosted by Jonas Moe of TV 2 and Joachim Furuseth of Coop Norge, and we have confirmed registrations from your peers at Norwegian, Hurtigruten, reMarkable, Tietoevry, Helly Hansen, Diakonhjemmet, Too Good To Go, Morrow Bank, FINN.no – mulighetenes marked, Apotek 1, Maverix AS,  Bislab,  Boxn, SuperOffice, EGGS, Part of Sopra Steria and more and counting. 

The event will be held at Mesh Community - Tordenskiolds gate 2, 0160 Oslo - https://lnkd.in/edaXyfNV

The event will be mostly informal chatting with above short talks;  light food and drinks will be provided. 

Thanks to our amazing sponsors AB Tasty; Kate Y. Feng, John Hughes 

REGISTER HERE: https://lnkd.in/dK-xWD5e

#experimentation #cro #productmanagement #growth #digitalexperience #experimentationledgrowth #elg #growthexperimentation

Imagine if, after JFK said this, NASA had got together and decided that the answer was simply to create a 'culture of experimentation' and to make sure that everyone had the tools they needed to run experiments.

There would never have been a person on the moon.

The modern business focus on experimentation is an obsession with tools, techniques and capabilities, often without any substance.

The moon landings succeeded because of the centralised, coordinated management of meaningful experiments and learning towards this goal and vision.

This is very different from just letting people run experiments.

Growth experimentation is, first and foremost, the critical thinking and management that tries to achieve strategy, vision and innovation. The technical aspects of running tests are merely one of the ways that this is achieved.

#experimentation #cro #productmanagement #growth #digitalexperience #experimentationledgrowth #elg #growthexperimentation

Founder - Customers Who Click | CRO for eCom brands - turning traffic into customers using "The U.A.M Method"

Most DTC brands want to scale their paid media. But few focus enough on converting that traffic.  

Customer acquisition costs are rising, and while brands invest heavily in driving traffic, too many are wasting thousands of dollars sending traffic to friction-heavy, confusing websites with poor user experiences.  

The brands that win are not just the ones with the best ads. 

They are the ones that ensure every click leads to a seamless, high-converting customer journey from the first visit through to repeat purchases.  

Yet, many brands still rely on best practices, gut instinct, or copying competitors instead of using real customer insights to optimise their websites and landing pages.  

This is where CRO comes in.  

Through data-driven research, behavioural psychology, and rigorous testing, we help brands remove friction, increase conversion rates, and maximise revenue from their paid traffic.  

Giving them room to scale comfortably, and profitably.

At Customers Who Click, we specialise in turning more visitors into buyers, helping ambitious e-commerce brands scale profitably and sustainably.  

We’ve helped businesses see real improvements, like:

🚀 MOD Lighting added $3,300,000 in additional annual revenue.
🚀 Ozarke saw an increase in Revenue Per User of 37.8%.
🚀 Groove increased conversion by 53% and AOV by 23% in 6 months.
🚀 D.Louise added $372,000 in revenue from their existing traffic.
🚀 neat. Doubled AOV and increased revenue by 102.3% with bespoke landing pages.

If you want to get the most from your paid media and scale efficiently, let’s talk.  

👉 Book a free conversion discovery session at www.customerswhoclick.com/apply

Or, if you’re not quite ready, follow along as I share practical tips and insights on optimising your website’s performance.

Will Laurenson

Customers Who Click is growing.

So I’m hiring a CRO Strategist.

Contract / freelance. Fully remote.

Open to different levels of but you must have real DTC / ecommerce experience.

I’m looking for someone who can:

- Lead client CRO strategy
- Run meaningful A/B tests
- Conduct real customer research
- Use behavioural analytics properly
- Turn insights into structured roadmaps

This isn’t a button-colour role.

You’ll take ownership.

You’ll challenge assumptions.

You’ll think commercially, revenue over vanity metrics.

If you understand ecommerce deeply and enjoy figuring out why customers buy (or don’t), we should talk.

Connect & DM me.

CV, portfolio, case studies, Loom - send whatever shows how you think.

Over 1,000 DTC brands downloaded our last ecommerce playbook.

So we decided to go bigger this year.

If you're running a DTC brand in 2026, this might be the most useful resource you read this year.

Together with some of the smartest operators in ecommerce, we created:

👉 How to Move the Needle in 2026

A collection of 18 real strategies brands are using right now to drive growth.

No theory.
No recycled advice.
Just practical changes that actually impact revenue.

Inside the playbook you'll see how brands are:

- Increasing revenue per visitor by +21% without driving more traffic

- Generating $32,835 in extra monthly profit from a simple shipping test

- Increasing abandoned flow revenue by 40% without changing email templates

- Improving conversion rate by 28% after fixing product discovery

- Cutting ad spend by 50% while maintaining growth

and many more...

Huge thanks to the partners who shared their insights:

Quickfire - Shopify Premier Partner, Rebuy Engine, Intelligems, Soar With Us, Octane AI, Zigpoll, Leaf Signal, Videowise, Nosto, Flare - Scheduled Delivery, Sweet Analytics, KnoCommerce, Order Editing, Littledata, PostPilot, Growthub

If you want the playbook

1. Like this post
2. Comment "PLAYBOOK"
3. Share this post to skip the queue

And I'll DM you the link.

$50m+ Generated for DTC Brands With CRO | Host of Customers Who Click 🎙️ (500,000+ downloads)

If your brand can’t clearly answer what it stands for, you don’t have a growth problem.

You have a trust problem.

This week on the podcast, I sat down with James Connell, CEO of LOULOU LOLLIPOP - a Vancouver-based baby lifestyle brand and certified B Corp - and we unpacked what “brand” actually means when the stakes are high.

And in baby, the stakes are very high.

One line from James stuck with me: “Good product is table stakes.”

That’s it. That’s the shift.

We talked about how brand isn’t colours and fonts. It’s storytelling. It’s trust.

It’s what you stand for when a parent is choosing something for their child.

Some of the parts I found most interesting:

– Why service, packaging, and fulfilment should be treated as part of the product

 – The idea that every touchpoint (including customer service) is something the customer has already paid for

 – Winning the “baby shower moment” and entering a family’s life from day one

 – Why creativity thrives when profitability is the constraint

 – And why execution beats perfection every time

We also got into B Corp values, hiring for lived culture (not brand docs that sit in a drive), distributor governance, and how AI could actually make online shopping feel more human again.

If you’re building a consumer brand and thinking beyond short-term conversion tactics, this conversation is worth your time.

Give it a listen and let me know what you think - link in the comments

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CEO Loulou Lollipop | Global Omnichannel Strategy | Brand Building | Awarded Canadian Marketer of the Year |

LOULOU LOLLIPOP

Most DTC brands don’t have a scaling problem.

They have a subscription, creative, and attention problem.

Just recorded a really interesting episode with Jim Phillips, co-founder of Graymatter - a mental performance supplement brand built around nootropics and cognitive optimisation.

What stood out straight away is that this isn’t a “we spotted a trend and jumped on it” story.

Jim built the company off the back of his own experience struggling with startup pressure, diving deep into neuroscience, and trying to literally make himself think better.

A few parts of the conversation that stuck with me:

They’re running a 94% subscription take rate…and are happy to lose money on the first purchase to maximise LTV

AI is already handling parts of their operations, and he’s convinced most “button-pushing” marketing roles will disappear

Their biggest growth lever right now? 

Not media buying…content iteration and creative testing at scale.

We also got into the stuff most people don’t talk about:

→ Why having data gave him an unfair advantage when launching

→ How they’re thinking about new channels like Amazon, TikTok Shop, and affiliates

→ And how a serious health scare completely reshaped his motivation as a founder

If you’re working in DTC, there’s a lot in here about where the space is actually heading, especially around acquisition, retention, and how AI fits into it all.

Worth a listen if you’re trying to scale profitably rather than just chase growth.

Let me know what you think if you give it a listen - link in the comments 👇

Want to unlock an extra 10% from your website?

Most 7–9 figure brands don’t have a traffic problem.

They have a funnel problem.

Before you brief another test, redesign a PDP, or blame your paid media team…

Look at this:

Sessions → Product Views (~65%)

Product Views → Add to Cart (~12%)

Add to Cart → Start Checkout (~45%)

Start Checkout → Complete Purchase (~55%)

These aren’t perfect benchmarks.

They’re directional sanity checks from working with high-revenue DTC brands.

Now here’s the strategic bit most teams skip:

Don’t optimise everything.

Find your biggest gap vs benchmark.

Start there.

If you’re converting 8% add-to-cart instead of 12%

→ That’s not a checkout issue.
→ That’s positioning, PDP clarity, offer strength, or intent mismatch.

If you’re only getting 30% checkout completion instead of 55%

→ That’s friction.
→ Trust gaps.
→ Payment UX.
→ Delivery anxiety.

Your funnel usually isn’t broken.

One step is.

And that step is where your next 10–20% revenue lift is hiding.

Senior teams scale faster because they prioritise bottlenecks, not ideas.

Go check your numbers before you plan your next test.

Want access to our Looker Studio Funnel Report? 

Comment FUNNEL below and I'll send it over 

(Must be 1st connection)

AOV is a terrible number to set your free shipping threshold with.

Look at the table below.

Most brands anchor their threshold to average order value.

But AOV is usually the mean.

And the mean lies.

Because it gets dragged up by:

- High-value customers
- Bulk purchases
- Seasonal spikes

So you end up setting a £100 threshold...

...based on an £83 mean AOV…

…when the most common order value is £44.

That’s not a lever.

That’s wishful thinking.

The modal value tells you what customers typically spend.

The mean tells you what happens once outliers get involved.

They are not the same thing.

But this doesn’t mean:

“Drop your threshold immediately.”

That’s too simplistic.

The real analysis happens here:

- Of carts below the threshold, how far below are they?
- Of carts above it, how far above are they?
- How many are actually close enough to be influenced?

On a call last week we found:

- Only 8% of abandoned carts were within £10 of the threshold
- Most carts above the threshold were massively above
- Most carts below it were massively below

So lowering it slightly wouldn’t suddenly “give away” shipping to everyone.

But lowering it slightly and improving upsells?

That turns it into a behavioural lever.

Free shipping shouldn’t be set on a whim.

It should be used strategically to change behaviour.

Do you know your modal order value?

Or are you setting thresholds off an average that hides whats really going on?

---
Follow me and hit the 🔔 on my profile for daily CRO tips to help DTC brands grow profitably.

You can also join our newsletter via the link in the comments and get weekly CRO deep dives straight to your inbox.

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“We went from 400 assets a year…to 400 a month.”

That line alone stopped me mid-conversation.

In this week’s episode, I sat down with Katherine Cousins, CEO of QUAY  and honestly, it’s one of those conversations that makes you rethink how fast this space is moving.

Katherine spent nearly 20 years in footwear (Timberland, Wolverine Worldwide) before stepping into Quay and helping evolve it from a social-first sunglasses brand into a serious multi-channel eyewear business.

But what stood out wasn’t just the growth, it was how they’re navigating it.

A few things we got into:

- How their “summer of AI” led to content that’s genuinely indistinguishable from traditional production

- Why they’ve scaled from 400 assets per year to 400 per month (and what breaks if you don’t adapt)

- The reality that 80% of customers still want to buy glasses in-store - despite everything we say about ecom

What I liked most is how balanced Katherine’s thinking is.

Yes, they’re pushing hard on AI and speed.

But she’s very clear: brand integrity comes first, and just because you can use something (like avatars), doesn’t mean you should - at least not yet.

If you’re working in ecom, growth, or even just trying to keep up with how messy this landscape is getting…this episode will give you a much clearer lens on what actually matters right now.

Give it a listen and let me know what you think, especially on the AI vs brand trade-off.

P.S. Are you increasing content volume right now, or trying to be more selective? Curious what people are prioritising right now?

Conversion Rate ↑ 20%.
Revenue ↓ 8.8%.

Look at the table below.

Nothing is broken.

Sessions are flat.
Orders are up.
Conversion rate improved.

On paper, this looks like a win.

It isn’t.

and this exact pattern shows up more often than most teams realise.

Here’s what happened:

- Conversion rate increased from 2.0% to 2.4%
- Orders increased by 20%
- AOV dropped from £50 to £38

Revenue fell.

Revenue per session fell.

And that’s the number that actually matters.

This is why we don’t optimise just for conversion rate.

Conversion rate moves because of:

- Traffic mix
- Discounting
- Campaign strategy

You can “improve” it by:

- Pushing heavier discounts
- Reducing prices
- Shifting acquisition channels

None of which guarantee better commercial performance.

Revenue per session forces a better question:

Are we extracting more value from the traffic we already have?

It captures:

- Conversion rate
- Average order value
- Traffic quality

In one number.

If you’re a Head of Ecommerce, ask yourself:

Are you reporting a metric that’s easy to celebrate...

Or one that reflects the P&L?

If you’re a founder:

Would you rather see conversion up...

Or profit up?

They are not the same thing.

---
Follow me and hit the 🔔 on my profile for daily CRO tips to help DTC brands grow profitably.

You can also join our newsletter via the link in the comments and get weekly CRO deep dives straight to your inbox.

“You might just be throwing money into a vacuum.”

That’s how Josh Roberts described paid media in 2025.

And honestly…he’s not wrong.

In the latest episode of the podcast, I sat down with Josh Roberts, co-founder of Very Special Games - the team behind Ransom Notes and a range of hugely successful tabletop games.

What makes their story interesting is how they’re scaling across DTC and retail at the same time.

Roughly 75% of their revenue comes from DTC, with the rest coming from retailers like Walmart, Target, and Barnes & Noble.

But once retail enters the picture, the data gets messy fast.

A few things from this conversation that really stuck with me:

- Why Meta ads are still their strongest acquisition channel, even though they’re far less predictable than they used to be

- How selling through retail forces you to build a much more sophisticated data stack just to understand if your marketing works

- Why TikTok performs far better organically than through paid media for their category

- And a fascinating point about the tabletop industry: brand loyalty is surprisingly weak - the logo on the box barely matters

We also got into the economics of licensing big IP (Star Wars, Futurama, etc.), why most tabletop games shouldn’t become apps, and how Josh is thinking about designing games that help kids with autism engage socially without feeling like therapy.

Really thoughtful conversation about the trade-offs between creativity, growth, and data.

If you work in DTC, paid media, or product-led brands, you’ll probably recognise a lot of the challenges Josh talks about.

🎧 Episode 291 is live now.

Give it a listen here: https://lnkd.in/ememaXYT

Most brands say they care about the customer journey.

Very few actually obsess over it.

In the latest episode of the podcast, I sat down with Michael G. Callahan , Global SVP & GM of Luminex Home Décor & Fragrance – PartyLite - a 53-year-old brand that’s gone from direct sales heritage to a digital-first DTC business operating across North America and Europe.

What stood out straight away was Michael’s mindset.

He told me:

“What I obsess about every single day is the consumer journey.”

And they take that seriously.

A few things we unpacked in this conversation:

- Why his team pressure tests their website daily, and even asks job candidates to buy a product during interviews

- How they’re experimenting with TikTok campaigns that don’t show the product at all

- Why their biggest growth lever right now isn’t acquisition…it’s loyalty and retention

- And the uncomfortable truth that your website will never be perfect, and that’s fine

We also got into some really interesting discussions around:

- Using AI for localisation without losing brand nuance
- Selling a premium product in a market full of £5 alternatives
- Why storytelling often beats product-led marketing in social

If you work in ecommerce, growth, or customer experience, there are a lot of practical insights in this one.

Michael was incredibly open about what’s working, what isn’t, and what they’re still figuring out.

Definitely worth a listen.

🎧 Listen to the episode via link in the comments

- - -

This episode is sponsored by the amazing Gavin Hewitson of In-box and his amazing Free Email Marketing Community on Skool - Get access FREE via the link in the comments

The agency matured.

The website hadn’t.

So we rebuilt it.

Over the last few years, our thinking has evolved a lot.

The strategy is deeper.
The testing is sharper.
he conversations with brands are more commercial.

But the old site didn’t reflect that.

It didn’t properly show:

- How we approach Customer Revenue Optimisation
- The strategic depth behind our experiments
- The standard of brands we work with
- Where we’re taking Customers Who Click next

Now it does.

The case studies are clearer.
The positioning is tighter.
The thinking is better represented.

And this is just the foundation.

We’ll be rolling out:

- A proper home for the podcast
- Detailed blog breakdowns
- More long-form insight into how we think about profitable growth

If you’re running a 7–9 figure DTC brand and scaling paid media feels harder than it should…

Start with the website.

It’ll give you a clear sense of how we approach growth.

Link in the comments...

You’re ignoring one of your highest-converting customers.

Not your competitors.
Not a new channel.
Your own customers.

I realised how big this was when I recorded my latest episode with Nick Kennedy, co-founder of Giftnote for Shopify.

Nick shared something that genuinely surprised me:

A gift customer converts 3x higher than a normal customer, and gift orders have ~30% higher AOV.

And yet…most brands have no idea who the recipient even is.

Traditionally, once a gift is sent, that’s it.

No visibility. 
No follow-up. 
No relationship.

As I said in the episode, the default mindset is:

“Well, they’re not our customers.”

But they absolutely could be.

We also dug into:

- Why gifting volume doubles in November…and doubles again in December

- Why around 12% of orders across brands are gifts

- How transactional messaging can stay GDPR-compliant

- Practical ways to make gifting an always-on strategy (not something you hide in January)

The big takeaway?

Gifting isn’t a seasonal UX add-on.

It’s a revenue lever hiding in plain sight.

If you’re running a DTC brand (or advising one), this is worth your time.

Give it a listen and tell me what you think.

Link in the comments 👇

Most Shopify advice is recycled.

Same playbooks. Same screenshots. Same “10x” nonsense.

This won’t be.

On Feb 25th (7pm CET / 1pm EST), 15 DTC experts get 5 minutes each to share one proven DTC hack.

No decks full of theory.
No 45-minute ramble.
Just what’s actually working.

I’ll be breaking down:

- The navigation change that lifted mobile revenue by 41.5%.

Simple fix.
Measurable impact.
No gimmicks.

Joining me:

🎯Phil Rees
Lada Khazanov
Phil Byrne
Jochen Hildebrandt 
Burak Yolga
Ernesto Barrientos 
Erin Watt
Anthony Morgan
Arni Gali "Arnius Galinskas"
AJ Saunders
Dušan Popović
Pasha Knish
Chase Coleman
Geoffrey Hurth

Hosted by Nick Penev.

If you run a DTC brand, manage growth, or care about improving unit economics - this is worth the 75 minutes.

👉 Grab your spot here: https://lnkd.in/eqCr7Kg2

Looking to sell or scale your 3PL? Get in touch ..

E-commerce Recruitment Expert | Amazon & DTC |Remote teams from Eastern Europe & LATAM | Junior to C-level

Commission Based PPC Advertising Pro. Digital Entrepreneur. Founder of Positive Sparks, Digification & The Digital Sparks Podcast

CEO at @Simpi | Transforming product experiences by creating intuitive instructions, enhancing customer satisfaction

Co-Founder & CEO @ Forceget Supply Chain Logistics

E-Commerce - Amazon Private Brands - Sales

Sr. Tech Partner Manager @ Triple Whale 🐳

Founder & CEO Enavi | We elevate the performance of 8 & 9 Figure Shopify Stores | Pioneering Human-Obsessed CRO

🏅 CXL Certified Conversion Rate Optimization & Digital Psychology Specialist (CRO) 💡 CRO Audits (UI UX, Heuristics) 🎯 Done-for-you A/B Testing 🛒 Landing Pages 📈 32.3x ROI per Test 📊 400+ AB Tests ⚡Ex Pulsetto

Your Next 250k Funding Raised Within 9 Months | Growth Advisor for D2C brands | NED

CEO @Byteout | Helping Amazon sellers go DTC | E-commerce & Shopify nerd 🎓

Helping brands level up on Amazon 🏆 Scaling FBA revenue with custom-tailored growth formulas

Growing Brands Through Content | Founder, Social Playbook | 180K+ Creator

Scaling Health/Beauty DTC Brands w/ Winning Creatives | $100M+ in Ad Spend | Ex-Aston Martin, Tinder, LVMH, Accor, Renault ◉ DM me and let’s chat

🚀 Co-founder @ XTREME POWER brands 🔥 eCom Hot Sauce and 10x5 Hack Series 🤝 Partnerships Advisor @ hellotax and 100+ Companies in the eCom Space 🎙Webinar Host 🏠 Fully Remote since 2010! Long before it was cool 😎

“You’re not doing your job unless you’re pissing off some percentage of people.”

That’s what Eric Bandholz said to me on the podcast this week.

And honestly…he’s probably right.

Eric is the founder of Beardbrand - 13+ years in, navigating a category that’s no longer growing

Search demand for beard care? Flat to down.
Competition? Higher than ever.

They’ve had three consecutive years in the red.

So this wasn’t a “how we 10x’d” episode.

It was a real conversation about:

- What happens when your category matures

- Why top-of-funnel gets exponentially harder

- The difference between a hook and clickbait

- Why brands that try to offend no one become completely forgettable

- Repositioning Beardbrand as a fragrance house disguised as a beard care company

- Selling out limited editions while traffic declines

The part that stuck with me most?

The idea that modern marketing almost requires a point of view strong enough to repel some people.

Because if everyone nods politely…no one remembers you.

Give it a listen, link in the comments

You can only optimise one for the next 90 days

- Conversion Rate
- Average Order Value
- Revenue Per Session

Which are you choosing?

Let us know why in the comments

You can only optimise one for the next 90 days:

They removed 70–80% of their team’s workload.

By answering seven questions.

This week I sat down with Simon Jablon, Creative Director and owner of Linda Farrow - the luxury eyewear brand he rebuilt from zero into a globally distributed business operating in around 100 countries.

What we unpacked wasn’t theory.

It was this:

Most teams are drowning in work that shouldn’t exist.

We talked about:

 – Why being busy isn’t the same as moving the needle
 – How comfortable tasks quietly replace meaningful ones
 – Why B2B customers often get treated like admin
 – And how simplifying just seven recurring questions removed up to 80% of internal workload

One line that stuck with me:

“I employ people to talk to other people, not service the master that is admin.”

If you run a brand, lead a team, or feel like you’re constantly firefighting… this one will probably hit.

🎧 Link’s in the comments.

P.S. What’s one recurring task in your business that probably shouldn’t exist anymore?

Founder/CEO Linda Farrow

Linda Farrow

“Everybody in ecommerce is doing the easy lift.”

Buy Meta ads.
Buy Google ads.
Scale until it gets expensive.

But what happens when that stops working?

That’s what I unpacked this week with Barclay Saul, CEO and co-founder of Kyrgies.

Kyrgies is built around a single product - felt slippers made in Kyrgyzstan - and a very deliberate decision not to chase trends or commoditised categories.


Barclay didn’t even start in ecommerce. He was a music teacher before building the brand. But his background around factories and garment production gave him a deep respect for quality control and long-term thinking .

In this episode we got into:

- Why they’ve significantly dialled back Meta spend
- Why word of mouth has always been their strongest channel
- The decision to pull the plug on Amazon entirely
- How ranked-choice customer surveys shape product decisions
- When customer research works…and when gut instinct matters more

And a fascinating scientific study showing their vegetable-tanned leather soles actively kill bacteria in the home

What I liked most about this conversation is that it wasn’t theory.

It was about making uncomfortable decisions:

- Reducing dependency on paid.
- Building wholesale relationships.
- Running trunk shows.
- Expanding internationally.

Growing in ways that require more effort, but build more resilience.

If you’re feeling the pressure from rising ad costs, or you’re too reliant on one acquisition channel, this one’s worth your time.

Have a listen and let me know your biggest takeaway.

Link in the comments

This has got to be the most generic, bland pitch email I have ever received...and they still managed to disqualify their guest 😂 

Tip for pitching to podcasts:

1. Give me a 2 sentence intro about you or the guest you're pitching.

2. Give me 3-5 bullet points about why you're a fit for the show

Thats it. 

That's all I need.

I don't need an essay, i dont need some 500 word cover letter.

Just give me a few short lines that make me say "yeah great, sounds like a fit, lets chat!"

If you're interested in coming on Customers Who Click - Drop me a DM, we're always open to new guests.

Just be someone who is involved in ecommerce/DTC and we'll get along just fine.

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