Stockouts are raising your CAC

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In this newsletter, you’ll find:

🧠 How Stockouts Rewire Customer Behavior and Quietly Raise Your CAC

📌 Pinterest Is Quietly Replacing Google for Gen Z Search

🏆 Ad of the Day

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🧠 How Stockouts Rewire Customer Behavior and Quietly Raise Your CAC

You think a stockout costs you a sale. In reality, it costs you behavioral momentum.

When customers love your product, they build patterns around it: reordering every 30 days, recommending it in group chats, and watching for new drops.

But every “Sold Out” moment doesn’t just pause that behavior, it trains them out of it.

This is the part no one tells you: Stockouts create negative reinforcement loops.

They interrupt loyalty, degrade trust, and teach customers that coming back is a risk.

The Psychology of Lost Momentum

Here’s what happens behaviorally:

• A customer returns after loving their first purchase, but their size is out of stock. Trust fractured. They hesitate next time.
• A friend asks them to recommend your brand. They hesitate again. “They’re cool, but stuff’s often sold out.”
• Their purchase rhythm breaks. One month turns into three. They don’t unsubscribe, but they don’t buy either.

Eventually, you pay Meta again to re-acquire the same customer.

That’s not just churn. That’s CAC inflation.

Stockouts Don’t Just Hurt CX. They Decay Referral Economics.

Every stockout steals two things at once:

1. The customer’s pattern.
2. The social proof they would’ve given you.

When stockouts happen often, it doesn’t just hurt conversion, it erodes your organic CAC buffer. You become more dependent on paid channels. Your blended CAC rises quietly. Nobody catches it until growth gets expensive.

Stop Losing Momentum Before It Starts

The fix isn’t just inventory ops. It’s strategic forecasting tied to behavior.

That’s where Drivepoint comes in, used by True Classic, Curology, and Oats Overnight to forecast not just demand, but customer impact.

With Drivepoint’s templates, you can:

• Predict SKU risk across high-LTV cohorts
• Forecast the retention and referral drag of key stockouts
• Time promos around behavioral velocity, not just supply

📈 Download Drivepoint’s free forecasting templates to stop paying for trust you already earned. Get them here!

Stockouts don’t just break the funnel. They rewire your customers to stay away.

And that’s the most expensive marketing problem you’ll never see in the data until it’s too late.

📌 Pinterest Is Quietly Replacing Google for Gen Z Search

Pinterest is no longer just a place for mood boards, it’s becoming a true search engine. A new Adobe survey reveals Pinterest is capturing consumer intent and business attention at the expense of Google. 

The Breakdown:

1. Pinterest Is the Starting Point for Search - 36% of consumers, and 39% of Gen Z, say they start their searches on Pinterest, not Google. In total, 39% of users now treat Pinterest as a primary search engine.
2. Visual and Personalized Results Drive Loyalty - 73% of users say Pinterest’s visual results are better than traditional search. 61% feel Pinterest results are more personalized, rising to 71% among Gen Z.
3. Pinterest Beats Other Platforms on Engagement - 80% of businesses say Pinterest drives more engagement than any other platform. It outperforms Facebook (49%), Instagram (35%), and even Google Search (29%) in driving user actions.
4. Brands Are Responding, but Face Challenges - 24% of businesses use Pinterest today, and a quarter of those plan to boost ad spend. 76% focus on web traffic and 57% on brand awareness, mostly through image Pins. 

Pinterest’s rise as a visual search engine shows consumers are craving curated, aesthetic, and human-first results, not just links. For brands, it’s a wake-up call to rethink content strategy, SEO, and ad spend in a platform where attention actually converts.

🎥 Ad of the Day

What Works:

Send someone the gift of Self Care" flips the narrative from personal pampering to caring for others, activating altruism and social bonding instincts. 

The plush raccoon acts as an emotional focal point. Soft toys trigger nurturing impulses, especially in adults during stress or isolation.

The call to "Do More of What Makes You Happy" adds internal permission, framing self-care as deserved, not indulgent. 

Every object is evenly spaced and photographed top-down, giving a clinical but cozy feel. The composition makes it easy to mentally “unwrap” the bundle.

Broader Insights:

This ad succeeds because it bypasses rational thinking and goes straight to emotional reward. It lets the viewer imagine giving care, not just buying a bundle. With color psychology, cozy textures, and a teddy-bear-level heart tug, it’s built to convert on impulse,, especially during seasonal or stressful moments.

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