Good morning,
A sellout looks like proof you got the launch right.
For Telfar, it also meant customers kept missing the bag they wanted. The brand tried a different way to sell it: let people order first, then make the bags they chose.
The useful lesson is bigger than preorders. When your launch sells out, do you actually know how much demand you left behind?
Today: We unpack Telfar’s preorder window, share a free BFCM funnel workshop, catch five ecommerce updates and check whether last year’s sale buyers came back.
Free Paid Ad Funnel Workshop
Build Your Black Friday Funnel
Your Black Friday discount is only one part of the sale. The ad needs to give someone a reason to click. The landing page needs to turn that interest into an order.
For this workshop, we’re drawing on our breakdown of seven brands that reached $100M in under four years to help you plan your Black Friday campaign.
We’ll cover:
How to build a Black Friday offer beyond “X% off”
How to turn that offer into ad angles for different shoppers
What each ad’s landing page needs to show to earn the sale
How to decide which offers, ads and pages to test first
Come with your product. Leave with a plan for your Black Friday funnel.
Free live session with Kaushal Pratap, founder of DTC Daily.
Wednesday, November 11, 2026 · 9:00 AM Central Time
Hosted by Kaushal Pratap, founder of DTC Daily
While You Were Building
In the Headlines
Reddit is testing ads in search results. The placements are limited to selected advertisers for now. If shoppers research your category on Reddit, watch how query-level intent changes the channel.
TikTok Shop gives sellers a fuller performance view. New Business Compass views cover video, LIVE, search and promotions. Check which activity drives orders before raising holiday spend.
A higher Google Ad Strength score did not always mean better conversion. Adalysis found mixed results across ad setups. Judge your own ads by conversions and cost, not the diagnostic score alone.
Shopify reports 32% revenue growth in Q3. Merchant activity kept growing ahead of the holiday quarter. The sharper question for your store is whether your share of that demand is growing too.
Whatnot will charge sellers for USPS weight adjustments. For US shipments sent from November 4, underreported package weight can hit the seller ledger. Weigh the packed box before setting a shipping profile.
On Socials
1/ A perfect review page can look less believable. Maxwell Finn shares the case for showing the full spread of verified buyer feedback. Treat the research as a trust signal, not a license to manufacture a rating mix.
2/ More email branches do not automatically mean better retention. Matias Perelli’s point is worth testing against your own flows: where does added complexity improve a customer’s next step?
Today’s Deep Dive
Telfar Turned Sellouts Into a Production Plan
Telfar’s Shopping Bags sold out so quickly that a restock told the brand very little about the people who could not get one.
So in 2020, it opened a limited preorder window called the Bag Security Program. Customers could choose any color, size and quantity. They paid upfront and waited months for delivery.
A sellout showed demand existed. It did not show how many people wanted each size and color.
1. Give the missed customer a way to order
A drop ends when stock runs out. Telfar’s preorder window stayed open for a set period, so more shoppers could place a real order instead of joining a waitlist or hoping to catch the next restock.
Telfar named the mechanism and made the preorder the event itself.
2. Let orders reveal the mix
Every preorder specified a bag, size and color. That gave Telfar a clearer demand signal than a sold-out page. The brand could see what customers committed to buying before fulfilling those orders. That is the crucial shift for a business deciding what to make next.
3. Make the wait explicit
Telfar’s own help page says orders shipped three to six months after purchase. This was a trade-off customers could evaluate before paying. The program was a past, limited-time initiative, not a current always-on offer.
What to copy
If a product repeatedly sells out, test a short preorder window before committing to the next large batch. Show the choices, full price and realistic delivery date. Then use actual orders to plan the size of the run and the mix of variants.
A sellout tells you stock ran out. A preorder tells you what customers still want.
Daily Growth Rep
📊 Today’s Growth Rep: Check last BFCM’s buyer quality
Pull customers whose first order was during last year’s Black Friday week. How many bought again after the sale ended?
Why this works:
Sale-week revenue alone can hide a cohort that never returns.
The answer helps set this year’s new-customer discount and acquisition budget.
Your rep:
Export last year’s BFCM first-time buyers.
Count how many placed another order in the following 12 months.
Compare that rate with a similar non-sale cohort.
Report: “I know whether last year’s deal buyers came back.”
Decide your discount with the customer’s next order in view.
In Case You Missed It
See how its early-access ad, signup page and sale page worked together before the discount went live.