Grow Fragrance — Weekly Digest

Week of May 26, 2026 · Trending data: last 7 days (May 26 – June 1) vs. prior week (May 19–25) · May close included

✏️ Corrected June 10

This narrative was regenerated after a data-quality audit. Two sections changed: the Google table now uses settled attribution pulled June 10 (the original used same-morning provisional data, which understated revenue ~60% and dropped the Seasonal PMAX campaign), and the May close below was added (the original month-close trigger failed to fire). Full audit trail: docs/Weekly_Digest_QA_Review_2026-06-10.md.

📅 May Close

Shopify (DTC): $223,592 net — down 16.4% YoY · Amazon: $80,831 gross ($53,343 net) — down 11.9% YoY · Wholesale (QBO ledger): $9,514 — up 90.6% YoY ✅ · Cross-channel: down 16.1% net YoY

Wholesale is the only growing channel — and it's growing much faster than previously reported: the QuickBooks wholesale ledger shows May 2025 at $4,990 vs May 2026 at $9,514 (+90.6%), not +20%. Katelyn's manual Amazon figure ($81,992, Seller Central gross) reconciles to the Hub's computed gross within 1.4% — that number is now computed automatically each month-close. All revenue here is Hub basis (net = gross − discounts − returns − platform fees) except where labeled gross; Shopify Analytics "Total sales" runs ~8–10% above gross because it adds shipping + tax.

The Last 7 Days — How It's Going

Shopify (May 26 – June 1): $38,483 revenue · 691 orders · $55.69 AOV
That's ~$5,497/day and ~99 orders/day. Down 15.8% WoW on revenue and 14.3% on order count. If this daily pace holds through June, that projects to roughly $165K Shopify for the month — significantly below May's run rate. The softening is broad-based, not isolated to one channel or product.

Total ad spend (7d): $19,655 (Meta ~$13,463 + Google ~$4,194 + Amazon remainder)
Blended MER: 1.96x — down from 2.03x last week. Every dollar of ad spend is generating $1.96 in Shopify revenue. Still healthy, but the directional trend is negative: spend dropped 12.8% WoW, but revenue dropped faster (15.8%).

Meta — Week Over Week Trend

M Meta Campaign Buckets
BucketThis Week SpendTop Ad ROASPurchasesVerdict
Retargeting$4,1954.19x65✅ Anchor ad still strong
CM Master (prospecting)$6,2601.82x56⚠️ Volume leader, mixed efficiency
CM New Customers$1,9091.77x24⚠️ Below 2x benchmark
DPA / Catalog$1,0994.69x23⚠️ Best performer is paused
TOTAL$13,463168Spend-weighted efficiency declining

What's happening

Total Meta spend is down ~5% WoW. The bucket-level story is polarized: Retargeting's anchor ad (Strikethrough Midnight Orchid) is still the best performer at 4.19x ROAS and 112 purchases, but that one ad is carrying the entire retargeting bucket. CM Master is the biggest spender at $6,260 but efficiency is mixed — the best creative there (Evergreen Bathroom Spa) runs at 1.82x while the volume leader (Linen POV Fastest-way V3) is at 1.39x.

The pattern

The account is top-heavy. Two ads (Midnight Orchid and Linen POV) account for over $4,000 of the $13,463 total spend. When those two ads have a bad day, the whole account feels it. That's a creative concentration risk.

M Meta Daily Trend
DaySpendRevenueROASSignal
May 26 (Mon)$2,124Attribution pending
May 27 (Tue)$1,419Attribution pending
May 28 (Wed)$2,514Attribution pending
May 29 (Thu)$2,889Attribution pending
May 30 (Fri)$1,989$3,8091.91xSoft
May 31 (Sat)$2,528$4,7041.86xSoft
Jun 1 (Sun)$2,571Attribution pending

Note: Campaign-level revenue attribution is sparse for Mon–Thu and Sunday due to how the data flows into the Hub from CSV imports. The ad-level data from Windsor has complete attribution — that's what powers the top ads table above. Backfilling campaign-level revenue from Windsor is a separate data health task.

M Top 5 Active Ads — 7-Day Performance
  1. Strikethrough Pricing Midnight Orchid Bundle (Retargeting) — $1,615 spend, 4.19x ROAS, 112 purchases. The retargeting anchor. Consistent performer but watch frequency — it's been the workhorse for multiple weeks.
  2. GF-95-Evergreen Bathroom Luxury Spa (CM Master) — $2,054 spend, 1.82x ROAS, 84 purchases. Best prospecting creative. Above the 1.5x benchmark.
  3. Linen POV Fastest-way-to-get-ready V3 (CM Master) — $2,454 spend, 1.39x ROAS, 72 purchases. Highest volume ad in the account but below the 1.5x benchmark. Getting the most budget but not the best efficiency.
  4. Coastal-Tide Product Focus (Retargeting) — $1,223 spend, 2.42x ROAS, 49 purchases. Solid retargeting secondary.
  5. Coastal Tide Nancy Meyers Hook (CM New) — $1,635 spend, 1.77x ROAS, 56 purchases. Best new-customer creative.
M Ads Paused This Week That Had Revenue
  • New Arrivals sticker | DPA — was running at 4.69x ROAS with $215 revenue. This is the highest-ROAS ad in the entire account and it's paused. Reactivate immediately.
  • Coastal-Tide Product Focus (Retargeting) — 2.42x ROAS, $2,957 in revenue. Above benchmark. Unclear why this was paused.
  • Linen POV Fastest-way V3 (CM Master) — 1.39x ROAS, $3,409 revenue. Below benchmark but high volume. May have been paused intentionally.
  • Linen Guests-5-min-away V1 (CM Master) — 1.45x ROAS, $552 revenue. Close to benchmark.
  • Midnight-Orchid Strikethrough V3 (CM Master) — 1.06x ROAS, $356 revenue. Below benchmark. Pause makes sense.
  • Linen Pretend-you-did-laundry V2 (CM Master) — 1.05x ROAS, $403 revenue. Below benchmark.
  • Linen The-$16-hack V3 (CM Master) — 1.03x ROAS, $533 revenue. Below benchmark.

Google — Week Over Week Trend

G Google Campaign Buckets
CampaignThis Week SpendROASConversionsClicksVerdict
Branded Search$2,0285.64x (prior wk 6.85x)123948✅ Above 5x benchmark
Scents PMAX$1,3352.16x (prior wk 1.79x)36604✅ Improved, above 1.8x
Seasonal PMAX$1,0401.94x (prior wk 2.30x)24383⚠️ Slipped, still above threshold
Branded PMAX$3043.77x (prior wk 1.78x)17149✅ Big jump
TOTAL$4,7093.71x (prior wk 4.00x)2002,084Slightly softer, healthy

What's happening (settled data, June 10): Google is healthy at 3.71x blended ROAS. Branded Search is the workhorse ($2,028/week at 5.64x, above the 5x benchmark). Scents PMAX improved from 1.79x to 2.16x. Seasonal PMAX slipped from 2.30x to 1.94x but stays above threshold. Branded PMAX jumped to 3.77x on small spend. Budget is well allocated — protect Branded Search, let the PMAX campaigns optimize. (The original version of this section judged provisional same-morning data and read as a broad decline; settled attribution shows the opposite.)

G Google Daily Trend
DaySpendRevenueConversions
May 26 (Mon)$551$98713
May 27 (Tue)$366
May 28 (Wed)$637
May 29 (Thu)$1,298
May 30 (Fri)$740$2,16825
May 31 (Sat)$602$3,03730
Jun 1 (Sun)$666

Saturday was the strongest day — $3,037 revenue on $602 spend (5.04x). Thursday's spend spike ($1,298) with no attributed revenue looks like an attribution gap, not actual poor performance.

Email — Campaigns & Flows

K Campaigns Sent This Week
CampaignRecipientsOpen RateClick RateCVRRevenueRPR
Last Call Spring Email 202638,37972.1%0.8%0.19%$5,114$0.13
Notes from Durham (May 26)34,80377.3%1.0%0.13%$3,407$0.10
Pacific Driftwood Scent Feature (May 31)32,96573.9%0.8%0.16%$3,298$0.10

Total campaign revenue: $11,818 across 169 conversions. Open rates are strong (72–77%). Click rates are low (0.8–1.0%) — the emails are getting opened but not driving clicks. The Pacific Driftwood scent feature is performing in line with the others despite being a single-scent focus.

K Top Flows by Revenue (Rolling)
FlowRecipientsCVRRevenueRPR
(RIQ) Welcome Flow — Email #117,81210.1%$109,201$6.36
[RIQ] Cart Flow — Email 1 (OLD)7,7074.3%$26,519$3.45
[RIQ] Checkout Flow — Email 1 (OLD)4,4385.5%$18,358$4.14
[RIQ] Browse Flow — Email 1 (OLD)11,4542.0%$14,101$1.23
[RIQ] Cart Flow — Email 1 (NEW)6,6742.7%$12,002$1.81
Scent Quiz Welcome3,9574.7%$10,317$2.69

The Welcome Flow is the revenue engine at $109K and $6.36 RPR. The Cart Flow OLD vs NEW split shows the OLD version significantly outperforming (4.3% CVR / $3.45 RPR vs 2.7% / $1.81). Worth investigating whether the NEW version is actually an improvement.

Flags: Post Purchase 1st Order flow is consistently below the $0.15 RPR threshold across multiple message variants. This is the highest-volume post-purchase touch and it's underperforming.

Website — GA4 (Last 7 Days)

Sessions (6 full days): 11,129 · Conversions: ~562 · CVR: 5.05%

DaySessionsCVRSignal
May 27 (Tue)1,9373.9%Low CVR on high traffic — broad paid day
May 28 (Wed)1,9676.2%Best day — likely email or retargeting surge
May 29 (Thu)1,6724.1%Lower traffic, lower CVR
May 30 (Fri)1,9394.9%Recovering
May 31 (Sat)1,8665.5%Weekend uptick in intent
Jun 1 (Sun)1,7485.7%Strong weekend CVR
A Top Traffic Sources (7d)
  1. google / cpc — 196 sessions (GA4 underreports vs. Google Ads due to sampling)
  2. (direct) / (none) — 134 sessions
  3. Klaviyo / email — 122 sessions
  4. google / organic — 68 sessions
  5. facebook / cpm (Instagram Feed) — 39 sessions
  6. facebook / cpm (Mobile Feed) — 32 sessions
  7. facebook / paid — 30 sessions
  8. facebook / cpm (IG Stories) — 21 sessions
  9. bing / organic — 13 sessions
  10. chatgpt.com / ai-assistant — 2 sessions, 2 conversions (100% CVR)

Notable: chatgpt.com as a referral source with 100% CVR on a tiny sample. Worth watching as an emerging channel. The combined Facebook placements (~122 sessions) roughly match Klaviyo email (122) — paid social and email are driving similar traffic volumes to the site.

Top Sellers — Last 7 Days (Units)

P Shopify Top 10
#ProductUnits
1Woodland Sage Air + Fabric Spray164
2Coastal Tide Air + Fabric Spray137
3Linen Air + Fabric Spray136
4Blondewood Car Freshener124
5Cabana Air + Fabric Spray107
6Coconut Soleil Air + Fabric Spray100
7Golden Grove Car Freshener96
8Blondewood Air + Fabric Spray94
9Pacific Driftwood Air + Fabric Spray93
10Golden Grove Air + Fabric Spray83

(Note: 369 additional units from products with null product names — likely bundles/discovery sets where the line-item product name is missing in the orders data.)

What stands out: Woodland Sage continues to dominate at 164 units with no dedicated paid creative — it's pure organic/email/flow demand. Car Fresheners hold two top-10 spots (Blondewood #4, Golden Grove #7), confirming the format is gaining traction. Sprays dominate 8 of the top 10 slots. No candles or diffusers in the top 10 by units.

Customer Experience — Last 7 Days

Snapshot: 165 tickets · 722 Shopify orders · ticket-to-order ratio: 22.9% (roughly 1 ticket per 4.4 orders)

  • 77 open / 88 closed
  • 114 email / 38 chat
  • AI closed: 42 tickets · AI handover: 40 tickets → AI close rate: 51.2% (42 of 82 AI-processed)

Returns & exchanges: 26 tickets out of 722 orders → 3.6% return rate. Slightly above the prior week's ~3.2%. Still healthy for DTC fragrance.

Flags:

  • ✅ Chargebacks: 0 open
  • ⚠️ Stale tickets (48h+ open, return/handover): 7 open — these need attention
  • ✅ VIP tickets: 0 open

Shopify cross-check (from Gorgias): 722 orders, $45,404 revenue in the Gorgias analytics warehouse vs. $38,483 from fact_shopify_daily. The $6,921 gap is expected — Gorgias uses a different attribution window and includes orders that may not have fully processed yet.

Return themes from ticket subjects: Watch for candle scent-weakness complaints — prior weeks have shown a recurring pattern of "not strong enough" and "can't smell it" mentions on candles (Hibiscus Tea, Woodland Sage, Golden Grove). If this trend persists, it's worth adding a "how to maximize candle scent throw" piece to the post-purchase flow for candle buyers.

Forward Outlook — What to Expect This Week

Revenue projection: At $5,497/day Shopify, June is on pace for $165K. Combined with Amazon (~$80K monthly pace), cross-channel would be ~$245K. That's below May's pace and not enough to reverse YoY decline. The path to improvement runs through two levers: (1) Meta creative refresh to replace fatiguing ads, and (2) email campaign cadence to capture the organic demand that Woodland Sage proves exists.

Meta forecast: The account is running below benchmark across all four buckets when measured at the campaign level. But the ad-level data tells a more nuanced story — Strikethrough Midnight Orchid (4.19x) and Evergreen Bathroom Spa (1.82x) are performing well; it's the long tail of underperforming creatives dragging the aggregates down. The DPA "New Arrivals sticker" being paused at 4.69x ROAS is the single biggest immediate opportunity.

Google is stable. Branded Search at 5.64x is reliable; Scents PMAX improved to 2.16x. No changes needed. (Corrected June 10 with settled attribution.)

Email is reliable. Three campaigns sent, all performing in the 72–77% open rate band. The Welcome Flow at $109K revenue and $6.36 RPR is the account's most valuable automated asset. Post Purchase 1st Order flow consistently underperforming is the biggest optimization opportunity.

Action Items This Week

Meta → Reactivate DPA "New Arrivals sticker" (4.69x ROAS when paused — immediate money left on the table). Investigate why Coastal-Tide Product Focus was paused (2.42x ROAS, $2,957 revenue). Watch Retargeting frequency on Midnight Orchid — if CTR drops below 1%, it's fatiguing. The Linen POV ad at $2,454 spend and 1.39x ROAS is the account's biggest budget line below benchmark — either refresh the creative or reallocate to Evergreen Bathroom Spa.

Google → No changes. Protect Branded Search (5.64x). Let the PMAX campaigns optimize — Scents PMAX is improving (2.16x), Seasonal slipped slightly but is above threshold.

Email → Investigate Cart Flow OLD vs NEW performance gap (4.3% vs 2.7% CVR). Optimize Post Purchase 1st Order flow — it's below $0.15 RPR across every message variant. Consider a Woodland Sage feature campaign — it's the #1 product by units with no dedicated email send.

CX → Close 7 stale tickets. 3.6% return rate is fine but trending up slightly — monitor for scent-specific patterns in return reasons. Consider adding candle scent-throw guidance to the post-purchase flow for candle buyers.

Wholesale → Only growing channel in May (+20% YoY at $9,431). Explore low-hanging fruit to accelerate — new accounts, reorder timing, expanded assortment for existing partners.

🎯 This Week's #1 Priority

Reactivate the DPA "New Arrivals sticker" ad. It's the highest-ROAS ad in the Meta account at 4.69x and it's sitting paused. That's the lowest-effort, highest-impact move available this week. After that, the focus should shift to creative refresh — the Linen POV ad ($2,454/week at 1.39x ROAS) is getting the most budget in CM Master but running below benchmark. Either replace it with Evergreen Bathroom Spa (1.82x) as the primary, or produce new creative to test against it.

Team Meeting Summary

📝 Weekly Update — Week of May 26, 2026

Last 7 days (May 26 – June 1)

  • Shopify: $38,483 revenue, 691 orders, $55.69 AOV (all down ~15% WoW)
  • Daily pace: ~$5,497/day, projecting ~$165K for June
  • Total ad spend: $19,655 (Meta ~$13,463 + Google ~$4,194)
  • Blended MER: 1.96x (down from 2.03x)

Top 5 products (units, 7 days)

  • Woodland Sage Spray — 164 units
  • Coastal Tide Spray — 137 units
  • Linen Spray — 136 units
  • Blondewood Car Freshener — 124 units
  • Cabana Spray — 107 units

Paid media

  • Meta: ~$13,463 spend. Retargeting anchor (Midnight Orchid) still at 4.19x ROAS. Prospecting efficiency is mixed. DPA best-performer is paused — reactivate.
  • Google: $4,709 spend, 3.71x ROAS. Branded Search strong at 5.64x. PMAX stable. No changes needed.

Email

  • 3 campaigns sent: $11,818 total revenue, strong open rates (72–77%)
  • Welcome Flow remains the top revenue driver ($109K, $6.36 RPR)
  • Post Purchase 1st Order flow underperforming across all variants

Customer service

  • 165 tickets, 722 orders (22.9% ticket ratio). AI close rate: 51.2%.
  • 26 return/exchange tickets (3.6% return rate). 0 chargebacks. 7 stale tickets.

Focus this week

  • Reactivate paused DPA "New Arrivals sticker" ad (4.69x ROAS)
  • Investigate Linen POV ad efficiency ($2,454 spend at 1.39x) — refresh or reallocate
  • Optimize Post Purchase 1st Order flow
  • Close 7 stale CX tickets
📊 View the interactive dashboard →