We spent the last few weeks auditing our inboxes.

Tore through everything from swimwear and supplements to skincare, apparel, snacks and more.

And after reviewing dozens of campaigns, a clear pattern started to emerge: the best brands weren't leading with products at all.

June was all about seasons, routines, travel, emotions, and specific moments in their customers' lives. The product was still there, but it wasn't carrying the entire email anymore.

This week, we're breaking down the four trends we kept seeing and what they mean for how brands earn attention today.

Also inside:

→ The thing keeping most brands from switching...
→ The quick take: The easiest revenue gains aren't always new customers
→ 4th of July Sale: $500 off eCom Email Certified
→ DTC scoop: Hot dogs on the golf course, chips from a $360M exit, e.l.f. coming for your shampoo, and why your omnichannel stack is probably broken.

The thing keeping most brands from switching...

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The quick take: The easiest revenue gains aren't always new customers

We audited our June inbox. These 4 trends were everywhere.

Open your promotions tab and scroll through the last couple weeks of emails.

You'll see swimsuits, supplements, skincare, hydration mixes, sneakers, and chocolate.

But here's what's interesting: most of those brands aren't actually leading with the product.

They're leading with summer. They're leading with travel. They're leading with routines, moods, occasions, and moments. The product is still there, but it's often playing a supporting role instead of being the entire story.

That's one of the biggest shifts happening in the inbox right now.

The brands getting attention aren't spending all their time explaining what they sell. They're spending more time helping customers see where that product fits into their life.

Let's look at what that actually looks like.

Nobody sells a product. They sell the season.

One of the clearest patterns across the inbox right now is how many brands are using summer as the entry point.

Take a look at a few examples:

• Cymbiotika: "Something to sip on this summer"

• Prose: "Skin feeling the heat, cherie?"

• HUMANTRA: "You need more than water this summer"

• Rothy's: "Press play on summer stripes"

The interesting part isn't the products. It's what they're leading with.

Every one of these emails starts with something the customer is already thinking about. The weather. Vacation plans. Summer routines. Longer days. The product becomes the solution to a seasonal need rather than the center of the conversation.

That's an important distinction because customers rarely wake up thinking about your SKU. They wake up thinking about what they're doing that day, where they're going, what they're wearing, and how they're feeling.

The brands that connect their products to those moments are making the buying decision easier before the customer even gets to the offer.

The best brands sell the moment, not the SKU

One of the strongest examples came from alice mushrooms.

Over a two-week period they sent emails with subject lines like:

• "BEAT THE 2PM SLUMP"

• "TAKE THIS ON THE PLANE"

• "HOTELS HIT DIFFERENT"

• "THE ULTIMATE SUNDAY RESET"

The product barely changes, while the context changes constantly.

Instead of finding new ways to talk about mushroom chocolate, they're finding new ways to talk about the situations where someone might want it.

That's what makes the strategy so effective.

Customers don't think about products the way marketers do. They think about outcomes, routines, frustrations, and aspirations. Nobody wakes up wanting mushroom chocolate. They wake up wanting more energy during the afternoon, a better travel experience, or a smoother Sunday reset.

The product becomes relevant because the moment feels relevant first.

HUMANTRA is doing something similar from a different angle. Rather than leading with moments, they lead with education. Subject lines like "Stop falling for these hydration myths" create curiosity around a problem before introducing the solution.

Different execution. Same principle.

The email isn't really about the product. It's about helping the customer see themselves in the story.

The "drop" has quietly replaced the promo

One of the more interesting shifts happening across apparel and lifestyle brands is the move away from constant discounting and toward launch-based marketing.

Dippin Daisys provides a great example.

Over the course of roughly ten days they ran a sequence that looked something like this:

1. 2 DAYS UNTIL DROP DAY

2. RESERVATION CONFIRMED: CLUB IBIZA

3. OUR FIRST EURO SUMMER DROP IS LIVE

4. CLUB IBIZA IS SELLING OUT

5. YOUR FAVS ARE BACK IN STOCK

6. COMING SOON: OUR SECOND EURO SUMMER DROP

What's notable isn't what appears in the sequence; it's what doesn't.

There isn't a discount driving the urgency.

Instead, the entire campaign is built around anticipation, exclusivity, scarcity, and momentum. Every email pushes the story forward.

Most brands use discounts to create urgency. Dippin Daisys creates urgency through sequencing.

That's a powerful shift because it protects margin while still giving customers a reason to act now. It's also why we're seeing more brands borrow tactics from sneaker launches, beauty drops, and creator-led releases.

The goal is to make customers feel like they're participating in something happening right now.

Discounts didn't disappear. They're just being used differently.

Despite all the discussion around drops and brand storytelling, discounts are still everywhere.

You'll still find brands offering 35%, 40%, and even 60% off throughout the inbox. What's changing is how the better brands are using those discounts.

Take Native's tiered offer:

• 20% off $35

• 25% off $50

• 30% off $60

The discount isn't really the point; it's being used to influence basket size and purchasing behavior.

Ritual takes a similar approach by offering stronger incentives when customers buy multiple products rather than rewarding the smallest purchase possible.

Meanwhile, some brands are starting to move away from promotional framing altogether. Instead of training customers to wait for the next sale, they're repositioning lower pricing as everyday value.

That's a subtle difference, but it matters. Customers respond very differently to "our pricing is now more accessible" than they do to "everything is 25% off this weekend." One builds long-term pricing confidence. The other can create discount dependency.

What marketers should take away from this

The bigger lesson here isn't that discounts stopped working or that every brand needs to launch a product drop.

It's that attention has become harder to earn.

The brands winning today are giving customers a reason to care before they ever get to the product. Sometimes that's a season. Sometimes it's a routine. Sometimes it's a story, a problem, or a specific moment in someone's day.

The product still matters.

It just isn't always the lead character anymore.

And the brands that understand that shift are building emails that feel far more relevant than another "20% off ends tonight" campaign.

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🍦 DTC Scoop:

A premium hot dog brand just raised $2M to own the golf course

Gleezy Dog, a double-smoked brisket hot dog company out of Charlotte, closed a $2M seed round led by Old Tom Capital. Founded by Bryce Rech, the brand moved 50,000 units in its first six weeks and is already distributed in 20+ states through US Foods, Sysco, and PFG. When a brand "owns" a specific occasion (golf course food, in this case), the email program can lean hard into identity and lifestyle instead of discounting. Niche audience, cult product, massive distribution velocity.

The SmartSweets founder is back, and this time she's coming for chips

Tara Bosch sold SmartSweets for $360M and just launched Snackish, a women-led chip brand hitting shelves across North America. Real potatoes, bold flavors, better ingredients. Second-act founders bring a built-in audience, and when your founder story is this strong, your welcome series should probably lead with it.

e.l.f. just walked into the haircare aisle with everything under $10

e.l.f. Beauty launched e.l.f. Hair: six products (shampoo, conditioner, treatment oil, anti-frizz spray, styling cream, and styling wand), all vegan, all clean, all under $10. The internet immediately clocked them as dupes for Olaplex and ColorWow. For a brand that built its empire on "prestige quality at drugstore prices," this is the playbook working in a brand-new category. New category = new flows, new segments, new reasons to come back.

Why omnichannel breaks at scale (and what to fix first)

Retail TouchPoints hosted ESW and Lazer Technologies execs who laid out a blunt hierarchy: fix product data first, then inventory visibility, then fulfillment orchestration, then add new channels. Brands that point AI at fragmented backend systems just accelerate the dysfunction. Your campaigns are only as good as the inventory and fulfillment data feeding them. If your back-of-house is messy, your front-of-house emails will promise things you can't deliver.

Annnnd that’s a wrap for this edition! 

Thanks for hanging with Chase and me. Always a pleasure to have you here.

If you found this newsletter helpful (or even just a little fun), don’t keep it to yourself! Share ecomemailmarketer.com with your favorite DTC marketer. Let’s get them on board so they don’t miss next week’s drops.

Remember: Do shit you love.

🤘 Jimmy Kim & Chase Dimond

PS - Your next best customer might be reading this right now. Want in? Email Jimmy to sponsor this newsletter and more.

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