How Weekly Product Drops Saved My Brand and Unleashed Our Best-Selling Product

The Problem: Great Acquisition, Terrible Retention

In 2018, Feat Clothing was at a crossroads.

We were killing it at customer acquisition. Our marketing was on point. People were finding us and making that crucial first purchase. But then... silence.

Our retention numbers were abysmal. Customers would buy once and disappear forever. In the DTC world, that's a death sentence. Customer acquisition costs were rising, and without repeat purchases, our unit economics were underwater.

We needed to give customers a reason to come back. But how?

The Weekly Drop Strategy

The solution came from a simple question: What if we gave customers a new reason to visit our store every single week?

That's when we implemented what might sound insane to traditional retail brands:

We decided to drop a new product every single Friday.

Not just any products—completely custom, private label pieces that we could test without the traditional inventory risk.

The key was my partnership with Apliiq, a company that enables brands to launch custom private label products with virtually zero risk.

How It Worked: The No-Risk Product Testing Machine

Here's the system we built:

1. Friday: Launch a new product on pre-sale We'd put the product on our site, send emails, blast SMS, and push it on social media.

2. Collect real customer data for 7-10 days We measured pre-sale revenue, organic social engagement, email click-through rates, and SMS response.

3. Let customers vote with their wallets No focus groups or surveys—just real purchasing data.

4. Only mass-produce the winners Products that hit our thresholds moved to bulk production. The rest? We fulfilled the pre-orders and moved on.

The magic of this approach? We eliminated inventory risk almost entirely.

The Apliiq Partnership: Our Secret Weapon

What made this entire strategy possible was our partnership with Apliiq. Here's what they provided that traditional manufacturers couldn't:

• Seamless Shopify integration: Apliiq plugged directly into our store to collect pre-sale orders

• Direct-to-customer fulfillment: They manufactured and shipped orders straight to customers

• 100% private label: Everything was branded as Feat, with no trace of Apliiq

• Low minimum orders: We could test products without committing to thousands of units

• Production handoff: When we found winners, Apliiq helped us transition to bulk production with detailed specs

Without this partnership, we would have been stuck in the traditional retail trap: guessing what might sell, committing to large production runs, and praying we got it right.

The Unexpected Breakthrough: BlanketBlend Is Born

Four weeks into our weekly drops experiment, something incredible happened.

We put up a pre-sale for an ultra-soft, fluffy hoodie. We thought it might do OK.

It exploded.

We were selling THOUSANDS of units on pre-order. The demand was unlike anything we'd seen before. The comments on social were going crazy with people raving about how comfortable these hoodies looked.

We had accidentally discovered what would become our signature product: BlanketBlend.

This incredibly soft, fluffy hoodie line has been our #1 product for FIVE STRAIGHT YEARS. All because we had a system that let us test products rapidly and identify true market demand.

Without our weekly drops strategy, we might never have discovered it.

Results: 50% Improvement in Repeat Customer Rate in Just 30 Days

The impact was immediate and dramatic:

• Within the first month, we saw a 50% improvement in repeat customer rates

• Loyal customers now had reasons to come back week after week

• Email and SMS engagement skyrocketed as customers anticipated Friday drops

• Our most successful products moved into our core line, creating a data-proven product assortment

The strategy transformed not just our retention, but our entire approach to product development. We went from guessing what might work to KNOWING what would sell.

Common Objections (And Why They're BS)

I hear the same excuses from brands about why they can't implement this strategy:

"We don't have the resources to develop that many products." → You don't need to reinvent the wheel each week. Simple variations on core styles work great for testing.

"Our production minimums are too high." → That's exactly why you need a partner like Apliiq who eliminates this constraint.

"Our production timeline is too long." → Pre-sales give you the runway to produce while maintaining cash flow.

"We can't afford to test that many products." → You can't afford NOT to. The cost of one failed major product launch far exceeds the cost of 10 small tests.

These are limiting beliefs, not real constraints. With the right partner, you can bypass all of them.

Lessons Learned

If you're going to implement this strategy, here are my key takeaways:

1. Support each launch with beautiful imagery We learned that high-quality photos and videos dramatically improved conversion rates on new products.

2. Be transparent about pre-order timelines Customers are happy to wait if they know what to expect.

3. Create urgency with limited quantities We often limited pre-orders to create FOMO and drive faster decisions.

4. Use customer feedback religiously Comments on social posts about new products often revealed exactly what customers wanted next.

5. Find the right production partner This strategy lives or dies based on your ability to produce small batches efficiently.

Why 9 Out of 10 Brands Should Be Doing This

The weekly drop strategy isn't just for fashion brands. It works for virtually any product category where you can:

• Create variations on core products

• Test at small scale before committing

• Use pre-sales to gauge interest

The old model of guessing what customers want, making huge inventory commitments, and hoping for the best is dead. Brands that succeed today test constantly, move quickly, and let real customer data drive decisions.

With partners like Apliiq removing the traditional barriers to product testing, there's simply no excuse not to implement this strategy.

Stop leaving money on the table. Stop guessing what might sell.

Start dropping new products weekly, and let your customers tell you exactly what they want to buy.

Your BlanketBlend breakout might be just one Friday drop away.

-Parker Burr