Hey it's Idris from Retentiononly.
In April, Unilever bought a gummy brand called Grüns for $1.2 billion.
32 months from first product to signed deal. One of the fastest billion-dollar D2C exits ever.
And the worst part for everyone else?
It wasn't ads. It wasn't influencers. It wasn't viral TikToks.
It was a product 80% of customers eat every single day and an email system built to turn first-time buyers into long-term subscribers.
I spent days inside their popup, their welcome flow, their on-site flow and their campaigns.
Here are the 5 plays that did it and exactly how to copy them.
Prefer to watch instead of read? Full breakdown here: https://youtu.be/C7qM0kvj-QM
Play #1: Pop-up with a big offer, plus one question
Most brands open with "10% off" or a mystery discount.
Grüns opens with 52% off.
But the real move isn't the number. Before you get the code, the popup asks: “what problem are you trying to solve?” Four options.
Pick "gut health" and you drop into a gut health flow. Pick "easy nutrition" and you get a completely different one.
One popup. One question. Every subscriber sorted into a conversation that's actually about them.
What to do?
Lead with a real offer.
Add one segmenting question to your popup, and let the answer change the emails they get.
Play #2: Repeat the offer, then translate it
The 52% shows up in the subject line. The headline. The banner. The CTA. Every email in the flow.
Nobody can miss it.
Then Grüns adds one line: "Take half off."
Numbers are abstract. "Half off" isn't. Everyone instantly gets it.
What to do?
Put your offer in every subject line, banner and CTA. Then say it again in plain words.
Play #3: Answer the objection before it's asked
Grüns knows exactly what a non-buyer is thinking, so the flow says it out loud.
"With a million supplements out there, why this one?" → an email built on that question.
"Isn't AG1 better?" → a side-by-side comparison email. Then another versus generic multivitamins.
They even run the math: buy the equivalent vitamins separately and it's $220 and five bottles to reorder. Or one pack for $60.
What to do?
List every reason someone doesn't buy. Build one email per objection. Name the alternatives by name.
Play #4: Sell the loss, not the gain
People work harder to avoid losing something than to gain something.
So Grüns doesn't say "get more nutrients."
They say "you're probably missing these 8 key nutrients."
Now there's a gap. And Grüns is what fills it.
What to do?
Write one email around what your customer is losing right now by not having your product.
Play #5: Engineer every email for the click
Nobody buys inside an email. They buy on your site. The email has one job: get the click.
Grüns maximizes it the same way every time. CTA above the fold. A CTA after every convincing section, not just the bottom.
CTA copy that sells the action — "Get 52% off," never "Shop Now." Social proof and authority in every footer.
Average e-commerce converts at 3–4%. Email traffic converts at 6–10%. Every extra click is real money.
What to do?
CTA above the fold. CTA after every section. Sell the action, not the verb.
Here's what happens when you fix all of this
Email stops being a discount channel you fire off when you remember.
It becomes a system that sorts, educates and converts on autopilot.
Grüns didn't win on one clever subject line.
They won on a flow that turned cold subscribers into daily customers, over and over, until a $1.2 billion buyer came knocking.
That's a system any brand can build. Most just never do.
Want to see exactly where your flows are leaking revenue, and how we'd fix it?
If your brand is doing at least $100k/mo, book your free audit here: [BOOK A CALL]
Or watch the full breakdown here: https://youtu.be/C7qM0kvj-QM
Speak soon,
Idris