The Profitable-at-Scale Playbook: How True Classic Wins In Apparel
First-order profitability. Every brand wants it, few actually pull it off.
That’s especially true in apparel, where margins are razor-thin and competition is brutal.
But True Classic cracked the code. In just 4 years, they scaled from $0 to $250M+ — all while staying profitable.
In this post, we’ll unpack the lessons behind their playbook and show you why these moves aren’t reserved for giant brands. Even small eCom businesses can pull them off.
Lesson #1. Post-Purchase Upsells: Pure Profit Machine
Upsells after checkout are as close as you get to free profit in eCom.
The customer is already yours. The CAC is covered. And every extra dollar they spend is extra margin in your pocket.
The flow is simple: the order is done, the card is authorized, and then the customer sees one more offer (e.g. “Want this add-on for 50% off?”). One click, and it’s added.
According to True Classic’s CEO Ryan Bartlett, post-purchase upsells can easily drive 5–15% of your net profit.
For True Classic, that meant moving from a few hundred thousand a year to multi-millions in pure profit—simply by using the right tool (AfterSell) and smart data analysis to optimize offer combos.
Lesson #2. Value Creation Over Discounting
Discounting is part of every eCom playbook. But lean on it too much and profitability takes a hit.
True Classic understood this early.
Instead of racing to the bottom with endless discounts, they built value into the buying experience:
- Packs, not singles: Most items are sold in multi-packs instead of singles. Shoppers love the “bulk discount” feeling, and the brand quietly boosts AOV.
- Gift-with-purchase thresholds: Shoppers unlock extras when they spend more. The gifts feel like a win for customers, but the higher cart size keeps margins healthy.
- Gamification: Little rewards and milestones that make the buying experience feel fun.
Lesson #3. Retention Is Your Profit Backstop
Everyone’s obsessed with customer acquisition—and fair enough, you need a steady stream of new buyers.
But here’s the undeniable truth: Your most profitable customers are the ones who keep coming back. Without them, scaling is tough.
One of the ways True Classic nails retention is by focusing on the welcome email flow. And the magic lies in the offer itself.
They tested multiple options (10%, 20%, 30% off) to see what drove the best results. The sweet spot? 20%.
In Ryan’s words: ““When we went from 10% to 20% on the welcome flow, it was astronomical. Looking back, we couldn't even believe how much we left on the table by not starting with 20%.”
The lesson for other brands is simple: Offer is one of the most powerful levers in retention. Test it, refine it, optimize it before everything else, because that can be where the biggest gains come from.
Lesson #4. Profitability Requires Real-Time Visibility
To be honest, everything we’ve talked about so far means nothing if you don’t care about profitability.
True Classic does. In fact, they’ve built their entire operation around it.
“You need to know your P&L like the back of your hand,” says another True Classic CEO, Ben Francis.
They run hourly P&Ls to see:
- Cost to Fulfill an order (including pick/pack, labor, shipping)
- Cost to Process a return (and restock or dispose)
- Cost to Resolve a support ticket (by time and channel)
- Cost to Run each individual ad (and what it actually returns)
All of this points to their North Star: contribution profit per customer (aka net profit per customer).
And everything True Classic does to maximize profit per customer, you can replicate them with TrueProfit:
What True Classic does | How you do it with TrueProfit |
Live Dashboards: Updated hourly to surface changes in net revenue, returns, or margin. | Live Dashboards: Updated in real time to surface changes in net profit, net revenue, returns, or margin, or any other key performance indicators. |
Order-level P&Ls: Calculates profit down to the SKU & bundle. | Product Analytics: Breaks down profit at the product level and uncovers bundling insights. |
Cohort benchmarking: Reveals which customer patterns consistently lead to higher lifetime value. | Customer Lifetime Value: Includes cohort analysis to help you do the same thing. |
The Bottom Line
The key takeaway from True Classic?
The formula to scaling profitably isn’t complicated: Understand your numbers, act on them, and let profit lead.
What looks like steady, sustainable growth from the outside usually comes down to sharp decision-making on the inside. And the brands that treat profit as a compass — not an afterthought — are the ones that move forward with clarity.
Content Marketer at TrueProfit & eCommerce Operator
I’m part of the TrueProfit content team, but before that, I’m an eCom nerd with 3 years of hands-on experience. I’ve done a bit of everything, but running high-performing ads and making sense of the numbers? That’s my thing. If it’s written here, it’s because I’ve lived it.
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