Secret SKU math behind repeat sales

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🧮 Secret SKU math behind repeat sales

Most brands still build product lines like they’re filling shelves, one category at a time. But the smartest operators treat merchandising like a predictive system, not a catalog. 

They don’t guess what to launch next; they mine SKU-to-SKU transition behavior to guide the roadmap.

The Insight: Customers Don’t Buy in Categories, They Buy in Sequences

If 1 in 3 customers who buy Product A return within 28 days to buy Product B, that’s not a coincidence, that’s a behavioral bridge. And those bridges are your SKU roadmap. 

Instead of just chasing trends or filling pricing gaps, map your next launch to what your customers are already doing, just not fast enough.

These signals show up in:

• Add-to-cart co-occurrence
• Reorder intervals with consistent follow-ups
• SKU-specific review sentiment suggesting unmet needs

You’re not just launching products, you’re shortening the timeline to the next purchase.

Merch Strategy Becomes Predictive, Not Reactive

With a Zero-Surprise approach, you shift from “What else can we make?” to “What are they almost already buying?”

That means:

• Launching natural sequels instead of disconnected one-offs
• Bundling based on actual reorder pairs, not intuition
• Designing PDP flows that softly anticipate the next product
• Pre-building flows that reflect SKU adjacency and timing

It’s not guesswork, it’s SKU-path engineering.

Use Particl for SKU-level reorder and volatility data to uncover product pairings with the highest behavioral gravity, and design next-step products around them. You can start your 14-day free trial today and build the Zero-Surprise strategy that does three things:

1. De-risks new product dev with intent-led sequencing
2. Boosts LTV by slotting into reorder pathways, not category whims
3. Builds narrative continuity across PDPs, emails, and ads

You’re no longer inventing demand, you’re just removing the friction from what’s already underway.

Together with Insense

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• Quip saw an 85% influencer activation rate with product seeding
• Revolut partnered with 140+ creators for 350+ UGC assets
• Matys Health saw a 12x increase in reach through TikTok Spark Ads

Try Insense yourself. 

Book a discovery call by September 19th and get a $200 bonus for your first campaign.

🔎 The New Shape of Search Across Social and Video

Search advertising is no longer confined to Google. WARC and TikTok’s new research shows how social and video platforms are rewriting search habits, budgets, and trust, with TikTok emerging as a core discovery engine.

The Breakdown:

1. Search budgets shift - Search ads make up 22% of global media spend ($248.6B in 2025), with social and video searches growing faster than AI-led discovery. Platforms like TikTok now rival Google in how users begin their journeys.

2. Gen Z leads the change - Nearly 48% of Gen Z search more often on social/video compared to three years ago. Among weekly US searchers, 72% search daily, with TikTok (86% weekly) almost matching Google (90%) as a go-to source.

3. Discovery drives intent - On TikTok, 35% of users start searches after seeing content, while users are 1.2x more likely to trust creator claims than brands. Search behavior spans seven intents, from inspiration to purchase, making platforms full-funnel drivers.

4. TikTok Search Ads deliver lift - With searches up 40% YoY, TikTok’s Search Ads generate 2x higher purchase lift, rising to 2.2x for enterprise and 1.9x in retail. Dedicated search campaigns also show stronger incremental ROAS than non-search initiatives.

Search is fragmenting across Google, social, and video, and the funnel is reshaping with discovery at the center. Frameworks like MAP (Mix, Align, Prime) help marketers adapt strategies to multi-platform habits while tools like TikTok Search Ads unlock measurable demand. You can start today and get $500 worth of Ad credits for a spend of $500. 

🚀Quick Hits 

💡 This holiday season, publisher features aren’t just buzz; they’re predictable sales channels. Marketplace brands are converting at 5:1 compared to DTC, and Levanta is surfacing a small number of brands to publishers now. If you qualify, your products could own placements that drive direct growth. Check if your brand qualifies today!

📊 Reddit is replacing static member counts with new live activity indicators. Communities will now display weekly engagement averages and real-time active visitors, highlighting genuine participation instead of passive subscribers. 

🏃‍♂️ Despite ChatGPT’s growth, 95.3% of its users also use Google, while only 14.3% of Google users visit ChatGPT. Google logged 83.8B visits vs. ChatGPT’s 5.8B.

📌 Google Ads is piloting a Sales & Promotions Feature Bundle with Flighted Budgets, adding Campaign Total Budgets, Promotion Mode, and cross-campaign support, helping advertisers scale smarter during flash sales, holidays, and time-sensitive launches.

📱 Google Ads is rolling out new tools that unify web + app campaigns, expanding Web to App Connect beyond Performance Max. Advertisers gain cross-platform reporting, in-app conversion credit, and clearer funnel insights for higher ROI.

That’s a wrap for today! Tell us your thoughts about today's content as we line up more Shorts! And don’t hesitate to share this with someone who’d adore it. 🥰