The future of growth is what happens after the first purchase

Sponsored by GetResponse

Maciej Ossowski, Chief Operating Officer at GetResponse, on why brands chasing the next sale are solving the wrong problem

As the buying journey fragments across AI, social platforms and marketplaces, the challenge is no longer just how to win attention, but how to turn it into lasting customer relationships.

Before a customer reaches a brand’s website, they may have already asked an AI tool for a recommendation, watched a creator review on TikTok, browsed product inspiration on Instagram or checked a marketplace price.

As a result, competitive advantage is shifting. Many brands are still optimising for a sale they have less and less control over – and ignoring the part of the journey they still own.

Acquisition is getting harder to control

AI tools have changed how customers decide what to buy, and the shift is very much still happening. According to Salesforce’s report, 39 per cent of consumers have used AI for product discovery and inspiration, with Gen Z shoppers ten times more likely than baby boomers to do so frequently.

A Capgemini survey of 12,000 consumers found that 58 per cent have replaced search engines with AI tools entirely, up from 25 per cent in 2023.

When AI compresses the path to purchase

The shift is even clearer when looking at how e-commerce journeys are changing. For years, brands built their growth strategies around a familiar path: search, browse, compare, purchase. SEO, paid ads, landing pages, retargeting, conversion optimisation and abandoned cart recovery were all designed around that sequence.

But now, agentic commerce can now seriously compress this process. If an AI agent helps a shopper find, compare and buy a product, the journey may look less like a browsing session and more like a direct line from intent to recommendation to transaction. And in that scenario, some of the touchpoints brands have long relied on may never happen: there may be no search query to win, no ad click to pay for, no website session to personalise.

Social commerce is putting similar pressure on the purchase stage. With TikTok Shop’s US sales projected to reach $23.4 billion in 2026, the platform has become a commerce channel built on creator recommendations and algorithms rather than brand-owned touchpoints.

Turning attention into a relationship

That is why the next step after winning attention, and that first sale, should be clear and crucial: inviting customers into channels where you can build structured lifecycle relationships.

Customers arriving from AI recommendations, social commerce or marketplaces may already be closer to a decision. But if that contact ends as a single transaction, the brand gains little beyond the sale itself – the real opportunity is to turn that moment into permission to continue the relationship.

Most brands already have a welcome email, a cart-recovery flow and a win-back campaign. The problem is rarely that these don’t exist; it’s that they run independently, with no shared view of the customer between them.

First-party data is what makes this possible. It helps brands understand who the customer is, what they bought, what they browsed, what they respond to and when it may be worth reaching out again. Without that context, automation remains a set of disconnected campaigns. With it, brands can start automation strategies and building lifecycle journeys that move customers from first purchase to repeat purchase, and from repeat purchase to loyalty.

Build the opt-in before you build the journey

The foundation is a contact base built with clear marketing permissions. Without it, even the best automation strategy has little to work with.

Brands can invite customers into owned channels through:

Newsletter sign-up pop-ups
Opt-in forms on product pages, blog posts, footers or “about us” pages
Dedicated landing pages
Facebook lead ads
Links in Instagram or TikTok bios
Social posts that explain why joining the brand’s own channel, like email, is worth it

The value exchange should be clear: early access, loyalty rewards, better recommendations, useful product education or more relevant offers.

Social media, marketplaces and AI tools may shape discovery, but email gives brands a more direct way to continue the relationship. This creates a clear role for email marketing automation: helping brands respond to customer signals with timely, relevant messages that support repeat purchases and loyalty.

GetResponse’s 2026 Customer Loyalty Report found that email is the top channel consumers choose for hearing from their favorite brands, accounting for 22 per cent of channel mentions. Among monthly repurchasers, the preference is even stronger: 54 per cent choose email newsletters or personalised emails.

The loyalty gap brands can still win

The same research shows that around 91 per cent of consumers are willing to share preferences, such as skin type or health goals, if it leads to more relevant offers or rewards.

That willingness matters because many customers still feel under-recognised. According to the Customer Loyalty Report, 67 per cent of consumers believe brands value new customers more than existing ones.

It is an opportunity: customers are open to sharing data, open to receiving useful communication and ready to feel more valued. The brands that act on those signals can turn owned channels into a stronger engine for retention.

From first purchase to the next

Many e-commerce brands spend most of their energy on winning the first transaction. The bigger opportunity is often what happens next: getting the customer to buy again, build a habit and stay close to the brand.

This is where lifecycle marketing automation becomes non-negotiable. It helps brands use the data they already have – signups, purchases, browsing behaviour, abandoned carts, product interest or inactivity – to build journeys around real customer moments.

A few journeys are worth prioritizing:

Automated welcome journeys: introduce the brand, explain what makes it different and ask new subscribers what they are interested in. A good welcome flow should set the tone for the relationship, not only push a first discount.

Regular, useful communication: stay present between purchases with product education, styling ideas, routines, recipes, guides or inspiration. The goal is to make communication useful even when the customer is not ready to buy immediately.

Behaviour-based re-engagement: respond to signals such as an abandoned cart, a price drops on a viewed product, a back-in-stock item or a period of inactivity. These messages work best when they feel contextual, not generic.

Replenishment and repeat-purchase reminders: if a product is bought on a natural cycle, use that rhythm. A reminder before the expected run-out date can be more helpful than another broad promotion.

Personalised recommendations: use browsing, purchase and category data to suggest relevant products, new arrivals from a favourite brand or offers in a preferred category.

Retention as the new growth discipline

As discovery and purchase journeys become more fragmented, loyalty will depend less on one-off campaigns and more on consistent, data-driven relationships – less on disconnected activity and more on a co-ordinated system that recognises the customer at every stage.

Brands that can turn fragmented interactions into co-ordinated lifecycle journeys will be better positioned to create repeat purchases, stronger customer relationships and more predictable revenue.

As discovery becomes increasingly fragmented across AI, social platforms and marketplaces, sustainable growth will depend less on individual campaigns and more on what happens after the first purchase.

Explore how lifecycle marketing automation can help turn first-time buyers into lasting customer relationships