Sunday Citizen: Scaling Comfort Into a Category Leader

I’ve known Mike and Michelle for years, and we’ve partnered on multiple projects across the DTC landscape. When they founded Sunday Citizen, they had a bold mission: elevate home comfort with unparalleled softness, craftsmanship, and textile expertise — in a category led by household giants.

You can explore the brand at sundaycitizen.co.

But despite the competition, their deep product knowledge and relentless attention to detail made Sunday Citizen stand out. They approached me early with a clear goal: build their acquisition engine from scratch.

At the time, they were investing only a few thousand dollars per month in paid media. Through disciplined testing, foundational systems, and structured scaling, that number grew more than 100× — while maintaining profitability and operational discipline.

Building the Acquisition Engine

We began by establishing a true growth foundation — a scalable, repeatable system that wasn’t dependent on isolated wins, but on a framework that could grow with spend.

Paid Channels

We expanded from Meta and Google into a multi-channel ecosystem that included:

• TikTok for discovery and community-driven creative
• Pinterest for inspiration-based shopping behavior
• Criteo for retargeting at scale
• Emerging channels tested monthly to stay ahead of trends

Funnel Design

• Custom landing pages tailored to buyer intent
• Product quizzes to guide customer selection
• Advertorials and content-driven paths for higher AOV
• Audience-specific retargeting logic for maximum efficiency

Optimization

• Continuous creative iteration across ad formats
• A/B testing of messaging, visual styles, and offers
• Landing page experimentation to improve CVR
• Testing budget allocation across channels by LTV:CAC, not ROAS alone

This created a fully diversified acquisition engine designed to scale aggressively while protecting margins and cash flow.

Merchandising for Margin & Lifetime Value

Merchandising wasn’t an afterthought — it was the lever that allowed us to scale profitably and differentiate Sunday Citizen from competitors.

• Identified hero SKUs that anchored acquisition and built repeat behavior
• Used Rebuy, Nosto, and Disco to personalize cross-sells and upsells
• Developed bundles and sequencing strategies to raise AOV
• Built merchandising calendars aligned with seasonality and product launches

This high-margin merchandising framework supported both profitability and strong LTV — two essential engines for sustainable scale.

Retention & LTV Optimization

Once acquisition momentum was stable, we reinforced the back end of the funnel to increase retention and shorten repurchase windows.

• Retention Flows: A layered system built across Klaviyo, Attentive, and Retention.com
• Repurchase Acceleration: Personalized content and post-purchase offers
• Winback & Recovery: Automated flows that recovered abandoned carts and reactivated high-value lapsed customers
• Segmentation: Cohort-level analysis to tailor content, timing, and offers

The result: a continuous loop where every customer interaction fed the next stage of growth — and lifetime value increased meaningfully.

The Outcome

In just a short period, Sunday Citizen scaled from a modest paid budget to a sophisticated, multi-channel growth engine operating at national scale.

• Paid spend scaled more than 100× while maintaining profitable efficiency
• Acquisition expanded across Meta, Google, TikTok, Pinterest & more
• AOV increased through bundling, upsells & merchandising innovation
• Repurchase velocity accelerated through lifecycle automation
• LTV improved materially across multiple customer cohorts
• Data visibility created a predictable roadmap for growth
• Brand evolved into a recognized leader in modern home comfort

Sunday Citizen isn’t just a brand that sells comfort — it has scaled comfort. Its products have become synonymous with modern home luxury, and its growth trajectory reflects what happens when visionary founders pair with structured execution.

I’m incredibly proud of the work we did together and sincerely grateful to Mike and Michelle for trusting me across every chapter — from the early $1K budgets to national retail expansion and multi-channel scale.