Alex Hadding shares advice on e-commerce growth, paid advertising, and email and SMS retention marketing. Their posts also promote Bolstered Media’s services, including retention strategy and email/SMS platform migrations.
Alex Hadding is most useful for e-commerce retention and paid advertising advice, plus email and SMS migration support.
Best for
Shopify apparel brands needing email and SMS migration or retention strategy support.
Not for
Consumer entertainment apps seeking scripted comedy videos or guaranteed broad reach.
Key takeaways
They report actively managed accounts revenue up about 8% year over year in mid-2025.
They call Meta advertising essential for most brands but describe volatile results and manual targeting success.
They describe a reciprocal customer-list partnership between two apparel brands that still needs structure.
Check first: Confirm the scope and deliverables, since posts do not establish a sponsored-content format.
Main ideas
Keep Meta in the mix, but adapt when performance shifts · Make existing customers a bigger part of the growth plan · Treat partnerships as another way to reach customers
Alex Hadding is an e-commerce marketer whose LinkedIn posts focus on paid advertising, customer retention, and growth for direct-to-consumer brands.
Their work offers practical views on how acquisition and retention fit together: they argue that brands should keep Meta advertising in the mix while also building value from existing customers through email, SMS, personalization, and expanded customer flows.
The posts also explore brand partnerships as a possible way to reach new customers when acquisition costs rise.
Hadding connects broad e-commerce claims to decisions a brand can examine in its own business.
In a mid-2025 post, they report that revenue across actively managed accounts was up about 8% year over year, alongside higher returning-customer rates and more revenue from email and SMS.
The account-specific framing makes the post more concrete than a general trend claim.
Their advice also includes a counterpoint: while they call Meta advertising essential for most brands, the post describes volatile results and notes some success with manual targeting.
A post about strategic partnerships sketches a reciprocal customer-list collaboration between two apparel brands, while acknowledging that the arrangement still needs a workable structure.
Readers can follow them for tactical guidance and an operator perspective, and test predictions and emphatic channel recommendations against their own data.
Hadding’s posts connect three ideas about e-commerce growth: keep investing in Meta ads while adjusting to volatility, get more value from existing customers, and pursue partnerships as acquisition becomes harder.
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Their advice is practical and sometimes emphatic; midyear account figures show why they see retention as increasingly important.
Keep Meta in the mix, but adapt when performance shifts
Hadding argues that most brands seeking sustainable growth should not abandon Meta ads.
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But performance is volatile, they say, so brands should test and adjust rather than assume the channel will work consistently.
In one post, Hadding calls Meta ads non-negotiable for brands without private funding or celebrity reach, while urging them to adjust, optimize and test rather than move all their budget away. Their midyear review says ad spend was down about 4% across the accounts discussed, even though 97% of that spend remained on Facebook and Instagram.
Make existing customers a bigger part of the growth plan
Hadding’s posts frame email, SMS, segmentation and customer flows as ways to build revenue from people a brand has already acquired—not just as supporting channels for new-customer advertising.
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In their first-half 2025 review, Hadding reports that return-customer rates rose by 20% to 45% across the accounts discussed, while email and SMS revenue share increased by 12%. They connect those results to personalization, segmentation and expanded flows.
Treat partnerships as another way to reach customers
When acquisition costs rise, Hadding suggests that compatible brands could introduce each other to their customer lists.
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They present this as a potential growth approach, not a settled formula; brands would need to work out the structure.
Hadding imagines two outdoor apparel brands, one with a list of 300,000 customers and the other with 150,000, sharing access to reach new customers for each. The example makes the idea concrete, though brands would need to work out how to organize such an arrangement.
Plan around the customer journey, not just the next campaign
Hadding emphasizes reviewing what sells, which offers convert and how new and returning customers contribute.
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They pair that review with preparation for seasonal demand and changes to the tools that support email and SMS.
Hadding's midyear checklist asks brands to review product sales, offer performance and the new-versus-existing-customer mix, while starting Black Friday and Cyber Monday planning early. In a separate post about Yotpo ending its email and SMS products, they recommend rebuilding flows and segmentation during a platform migration.
The posts pair tactical campaign planning with longer-term retention infrastructure: reviewing promotions and seasonal plans, then maintaining customer journeys when a messaging platform changes.
This post explains the state of e-commerce in the first half of 2025 and details trends shaping growth strategy, including a shift from acquiring new customers to retaining existing ones.
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E-commerce revenue is generally stable, with brands focused on dramatically increasing repeat-customer rates through personalized segmentation and expanded flows. Ad spending is volatile, but maximizing value from existing customers is a major trend.
For brands planning a campaign
Shift budget and strategic planning from top-of-funnel acquisition to retention, customer-list optimization and sharper segmentation to boost return rates.
This post offers a candid assessment of how critical certain advertising channels are for modern e-commerce brands.
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A newcomer should start here to set realistic expectations regarding paid media necessities for growth.
Meta Ads are presented as a non-negotiable channel for sustainable, large-scale e-commerce growth, with two exceptions: massive private funding or celebrity-level brand awareness.
For brands planning a campaign
Treat Meta Ads as foundational to scaling digital brands. Reserve a complete budget shift away from the platform for businesses with unique, large-scale alternative reach.
This post introduces an emerging growth model for combating rising marketing costs and explores collaboration as an alternative to traditional advertising.
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As customer acquisition costs (CAC) and CPM rise, brands are increasingly benefiting from strategic partnerships. By joining forces with brands in similar niches, companies can pool resources and leverage shared customer lists to reduce individual acquisition expenses.
For brands planning a campaign
Explore partnerships with complementary brands to expand market reach and ease pressure from single-brand acquisition costs in competitive niches.
This offers timely tactical advice for e-commerce managers navigating market volatility and midyear changes.
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With instability and bidding costs expected to rise on major ad platforms, brands are advised to prioritize existing customer lists and promotional offers while closely reviewing first-half performance data.
For brands planning a campaign
Keep advertising strategies flexible. Use periods of platform volatility to review brand performance metrics and lean into high-intent existing-customer channels.
This informs readers about significant upcoming changes in the e-commerce marketing technology landscape.
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Yotpo's discontinuation of its Email and SMS products in late 2025 requires brands to migrate their retention infrastructure to platforms like Klaviyo or Omnisend to maintain core customer flows.
For brands planning a campaign
Audit dependencies in the marketing technology stack and map a migration to new platforms to ensure business continuity and avoid disruption during critical shopping seasons.
Leveraging Strategic Partnerships for List Growth1
Optimizing Customer Lifecycle and Retention Tech1
The Shift to Retention-First E-commerce Models
Alex Hadding argues that rising Customer Acquisition Costs (CAC) and CPMs make relying solely on new customer acquisition unsustainable.
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They advocate prioritizing existing customer lists through Email and SMS to drive revenue and increase repeat customer rates.
For brands planning a campaign
Brands should shift marketing spend toward deeper engagement with existing customers and retention channels, rather than focusing solely on new customer acquisition, especially when ad spend is volatile.
E-commerce brands should maintain a presence on Meta platforms despite their inconsistencies.
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Manual targeting campaigns often perform well, but large-scale growth for significant brands depends on Meta Ads, which require ongoing monitoring and adjustments to platform algorithms and budgets.
For brands planning a campaign
Brands should treat Meta Ads as a core part of their budgets while testing alternative platforms. They should continually review ad spend performance across channels.
To counter diminishing returns from cold acquisition, Alex Hadding promotes Strategic Partnerships: brands in similar niches combine their existing customer lists to increase conversion rates and reduce individual acquisition costs.
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For brands planning a campaign
Companies should seek co-marketing opportunities with non-competing brands in the same market segment to pool resources and reach new, qualified audiences.
The discussions cover retention marketing, including building and refining customer flows and segmentation.
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They also address industry shifts such as platform sunsets (e.g., Yotpo) and migrating key retention infrastructure to modern, scalable solutions.
For brands planning a campaign
Brands should audit their retention technology stack, including Email/SMS platforms, and optimize customer journey flows to ensure deliverability and maximize value from existing contacts.
Alex Hadding writes about e-commerce growth through retention: generating more revenue from existing customers, keeping Meta ads in the mix while testing through volatility, and using partnerships or platform migrations when acquisition gets harder.
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Start with the midyear 2025 review for retention and ad-spend observations, then read the Yotpo sunset post for platform migration and the partnership post for an acquisition alternative.
Lopez treats email and SMS as relationship-building channels and offers concrete flow examples, much like Alex Hadding, who focuses on retention and lifecycle marketing.
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Lopez focuses on channel orchestration and relationship messaging, while Hadding covers Meta advertising, acquisition economics, and brand partnerships.
Birtom breaks down Klaviyo releases and moves subscription flows into Klaviyo, aligning with Alex Hadding’s practical focus on email/SMS retention and platform operations.
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Birtom focuses on product details and migrations, while Hadding covers e-commerce growth strategy, ad spend, and partnerships.
Haynes teaches retention through high-impact CRM audits and concrete flow lists, much like Alex Hadding’s practical retention advice.
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Haynes uses video breakdowns and tactical benchmark lists, while Hadding offers LinkedIn commentary that connects retention with ad spend and partnerships.
Alex Hadding's content speaks to e-commerce professionals and industry stakeholders scaling DTC operations.
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They cover challenges such as navigating volatile paid advertising landscapes, optimizing retention marketing via email and SMS, and using strategic brand partnerships to mitigate rising customer acquisition costs. The material is tailored to decision-makers and practitioners focused on digital commerce growth and platform stack strategy.
Alex Hadding, generally through Bolstered Media, focuses on high-level e-commerce strategy, particularly retention marketing and customer list utilization.
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Partnership opportunities include strategic collaborations between DTC brands and expert consulting services to modernize e-commerce marketing stacks and flows.
Strategic DTC Brand Partnership
Buyer requirement
E-commerce brands in the same niche looking to combine customer bases, lower rising acquisition costs, and expand their market reach.
E-commerce Retention and Migration Consulting
Buyer requirement
E-commerce brands seeking help rebuilding, optimizing, and managing customer flows and segmentation, especially when switching marketing platforms such as Yotpo, Klaviyo, or Omnisend.
Potential fit for a strategy or consulting engagement through Bolstered Media, rather than a conventional sponsored-post campaign. Alex Hadding’s post about Yotpo’s planned email and SMS sunset describes migration support, flow rebuilding, segmentation, deliverability, and platform selection. Their other posts emphasize using customer lists and retention to support growth, making that work relevant to a migration-support engagement. Confirm the scope and deliverables directly; the posts don’t establish a specific sponsored-content format.
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Brief
A Shopify apparel brand needs to move its email and SMS program from Yotpo before a major sales period while preserving key customer flows.
Worked example
Campaign angle: “Migrate without losing the customer journey.” Start with an audit of the existing email/SMS platform, flows, segments, and deliverability risks. Agree on a target platform based on features and budget; map and rebuild priority journeys, then test them before the brand’s sales period. A practical campaign deliverable could be a migration roadmap and a before-launch checklist. This angle follows the services described in Alex Hadding’s Yotpo migration post and connects them to their advice about personalization, segmentation, and flow expansion. Confirm the platform, timeline, and implementation responsibilities for a Yotpo migration campaign.
When to choose a specialist
Poor fit for a consumer entertainment campaign. Alex Hadding’s posts address e-commerce operators and marketing decisions, not broad consumer entertainment. They provide no details about comedy video work, guaranteed audience reach, or a creator sponsorship format for this kind of campaign. A buyer considering a reach-based campaign should request audience demographics and engagement figures.
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Brief
A consumer entertainment app wants a creator-led viral awareness campaign aimed at a broad general audience, with scripted comedy videos and guaranteed reach.
A worked campaign example
For the migration brief, invite Alex Hadding or Bolstered Media to scope a paid retention-platform assessment: identify the current platform and deadline, inventory core flows and segments, select a destination platform, and deliver a prioritized migration plan with testing steps.
Judge fit on the proposed scope, relevant platform experience, timeline, and measurable continuity goals—not on assumed post reach.
The LinkedIn material describes migration and retention services but doesn’t specify rates, deliverables, or a standard sponsorship package; request those before committing.
For a Yotpo migration, Lindsey Lopez is the stronger choice when the main problem is rebuilding a coordinated email and SMS journey rather than extracting a brand from Yotpo.
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The posts describe email and SMS as relationship channels and give a concrete cross-channel sequence: an abandoned-cart email, an SMS follow-up only if the first message is not opened, then a product recommendation if the customer opens but does not buy. That is useful when the buyer needs to settle journey logic and timing rules before choosing a destination platform.
The posts do not discuss Yotpo’s sunset, migration mechanics, deliverability transfer or platform selection.
For a hard Yotpo deadline, ask about migration capability and implementation capacity.
For a Yotpo migration, Bogdan Birtom is the better fit when the destination is Klaviyo and the risky part is moving subscription and transactional flows.
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The posts analyze Klaviyo feature releases and describe moving Recharge flows into Klaviyo, covering consistent branding, a single customer view, segmentation, transactional deliverability, testing and consolidated reporting. That is more specific than Hadding’s migration offer when the buyer needs Klaviyo and subscription-flow implementation detail.
The posts focus on Klaviyo and subscriptions.
They do not cover Yotpo’s email and SMS sunset, compare destination platforms or show a complete migration project.
Ask whether Bogdan Birtom offers client services and can meet the sales-period deadline.
For a Yotpo migration, Noah Haynes is the stronger alternative when the brand needs a retention audit before migration, so the new platform does not reproduce old problems.
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The posts identify high-impact, neglected areas: list growth and welcome flows, email campaign volume and segmentation, campaign angle over design, a set of essential pre- and post-purchase flows, and cohort, returning-customer and retention KPIs. That diagnostic lens helps a buyer decide which flows and measures must survive the switch.
The posts do not describe Yotpo migration, email service provider selection, deliverability transfer or hands-on implementation.
They are advisory content from a creator who says they have made more than 170 retention breakdown videos.
This profile was compiled from five LinkedIn posts by Alex Hadding, primarily from mid-2025, covering e-commerce performance trends, Meta ad volatility, and strategies for increasing revenue from existing customer bases.
The review assessed how these posts address practical e-commerce challenges, such as seasonal planning, ad spend adjustments, and acquisition alternatives.
