Treat your customer like your mom! with John Merris of Solo Brands

The rule that built a $500M DTC brand: “Treat your customer like your mom”

“Treat your customer like your mom.”
— John Merris, CEO of Solo Brands

Some ecommerce advice sticks. For John Merris, that simple question—what would you do if your customer was your mom?—isn’t just a nice idea. It’s how he scaled Solo Stove into Solo Brands, a public DTC powerhouse with brands like Chubbies, ISLE, and Oru Kayak.

In this episode of The Ecommerce Toolbox: Expert Perspectives, Merris unpacks what it really takes to build not just a business, but a brand that earns loyalty, profits, and love.

“Treat your customer like your mom”: The rule that scales

From shipping delays to return requests, Merris asks his team to take everything personally—in a good way.

Solo Brands doesn’t just apply this philosophy in theory. It’s at the heart of their operations, product design, and brand decisions. The focus? Create five-star moments before the product is even used.

“We had glowing reviews for the product, but one-stars for shipping. That had to change.”
— John Merris, CEO of Solo Brands

So they brought fulfillment in-house. The result? Orders now ship same-day if placed by 5 p.m., and many customers receive their products within 12 hours.

From pain points to profit centers: Fix fulfillment first

What started as a customer service problem became an operational unlock.

“If I could get five-star reviews before customers even used the product, I knew we’d flipped the game.”
— John Merris, CEO of Solo Brands

Insourcing fulfillment gave them control, reduced damage and error rates, and ironically, saved money. Today, the same fulfillment principles are applied across Chubbies and the rest of the Solo portfolio—with robots managing high-SKU volume at scale.

Metrics that matter: Referral and repeat

How does Merris measure customer happiness at scale? Not just NPS.

“Referral rate and repeat purchase rate tell you everything. If 40% of your new business comes from referrals, you’re doing something right.”
— John Merris, CEO of Solo Brands

Their benchmark:

• Referral Rate: >40%
• Repeat Purchase Rate: 45–50%

These KPIs cut through noise and focus on what matters—creating experiences worth sharing.

Why Solo Brands doesn't build its own tech

Solo Brands is an ecommerce company—but Merris is quick to draw a line:

“We’re not a technology company. We don’t try to outbuild Shopify or BigCommerce.”
— John Merris, CEO of Solo Brands

Instead of building in-house tools, the team leans on best-in-class platforms (like Shopify, BigCommerce, and Noibu) and focuses internal efforts on creative, brand, and fulfillment.

Their rule of thumb?

“Outsource what others do better. Insource what makes you great.”
— John Merris, CEO of Solo Brands

Profitability isn't a side quest

Solo Brands didn’t scale with fundraising hype. They scaled with unit economics.

“Every dollar you save is like earning $3–4 in revenue, depending on your margins.”
— John Merris, CEO of Solo Brands

From 2018 to IPO, the company grew from $16M to $360M while maintaining profitability—a move Merris believes every DTC brand should take seriously:

“Stop growing at all costs. Full stop. Grow healthy. Be profitable. Fix your model.”
— John Merris, CEO of Solo Brands

Centralize what's scalable, protect what's unique

While finance, fulfillment, and digital product are centralized at Solo Brands, brand identity, customer service, and creative remain decentralized.

“We don’t buy fixer-uppers. These brands are great already. Our job is to support them, not homogenize them.”
— John Merris, CEO of Solo Brands

This hybrid model enables consistency in experience without killing each brand’s voice.

Executive takeaways

If you’re a VP, CTO, or Head of Ecommerce evaluating growth in today’s environment, Merris offers some guiding questions:

• Are we making it easy for customers to love us?
• Are we obsessing over metrics that reflect loyalty, not just acquisition?
• Are we clear on what to build vs. what to outsource?
• Are we profitable enough to weather volatility?

Listen to the full conversation

Listen to this episode of The Ecommerce Toolbox: Expert Perspectives to hear John Merris unpack the systems, philosophies, and trade-offs behind building a modern ecommerce empire—from fulfillment tools to treating customers like family.

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