Michael McBride
Founder & CEO, Atelier Commerce
Michael McBride
Founder & CEO, Atelier Commerce
KeraFactor had the hardest thing to manufacture and the easiest thing to build on: a product that actually works, and customers who come back because of it. Our job was to build the system, from zero, that captures that result as public proof and rewards the people who keep returning. A reviews engine that turns a regrowth story into the thing the next person reads before they start, a rewards program that recognizes the customers who replenish, and an owned email and SMS layer that reaches them at the right moment. In a medical-grade category, efficacy is the moat. We made it legible and made it compound.
KeraFactor had the hardest thing to manufacture and the easiest thing to build on: a product that actually works, and customers who come back because of it. Our job was to build the system, from zero, that captures that result as public proof and rewards the people who keep returning. A reviews engine that turns a regrowth story into the thing the next person reads before they start, a rewards program that recognizes the customers who replenish, and an owned email and SMS layer that reaches them at the right moment. In a medical-grade category, efficacy is the moat. We made it legible and made it compound.
The Challenge
KeraFactor has the rarest thing in its category: a product that visibly works, and customers who say so in regrowth terms. The challenge was never whether the regimen delivered. It was that the efficacy had no structured way to become proof, and the repeat behavior it produced had no system to recognize or reward it.
There was no system to capture efficacy as proof. In a medical-grade category, the single most powerful conversion asset is another real person describing a result. Plenty of customers had remarkable outcomes. Almost none were being prompted, at the right moment, to leave the verified review that reassures the next high-intent, often skeptical shopper. Loyalty had no architecture. Repeat purchase behavior already existed, driven by the regimen working, and the best customers were quietly very valuable. But there was no rewards program to recognize them, no reason for a strong replenishment habit to be acknowledged, and no built-from-zero loyalty layer to lean into the frequency that drives the category. Replenishment was manual. A regimen people stay on for months and years is a textbook subscription candidate, yet reordering depended on the customer remembering. The recurring-revenue mechanism that suits this product was not yet in place at scale. Nothing was connected. Reviews, rewards, and the customer's inbox were separate surfaces rather than one system that captures a result, recognizes the repeat buyer, and reaches them at the right moment, all in the brand's own owned channels. The brief: build a reviews and rewards program from zero, fit for a medical-grade brand, wire it into an owned email and SMS layer, add a subscription option for replenishment, and prove that capturing efficacy and rewarding repeat behavior produces real lifetime value.
The Challenge
KeraFactor has the rarest thing in its category: a product that visibly works, and customers who say so in regrowth terms. The challenge was never whether the regimen delivered. It was that the efficacy had no structured way to become proof, and the repeat behavior it produced had no system to recognize or reward it.
There was no system to capture efficacy as proof. In a medical-grade category, the single most powerful conversion asset is another real person describing a result. Plenty of customers had remarkable outcomes. Almost none were being prompted, at the right moment, to leave the verified review that reassures the next high-intent, often skeptical shopper. Loyalty had no architecture. Repeat purchase behavior already existed, driven by the regimen working, and the best customers were quietly very valuable. But there was no rewards program to recognize them, no reason for a strong replenishment habit to be acknowledged, and no built-from-zero loyalty layer to lean into the frequency that drives the category. Replenishment was manual. A regimen people stay on for months and years is a textbook subscription candidate, yet reordering depended on the customer remembering. The recurring-revenue mechanism that suits this product was not yet in place at scale. Nothing was connected. Reviews, rewards, and the customer's inbox were separate surfaces rather than one system that captures a result, recognizes the repeat buyer, and reaches them at the right moment, all in the brand's own owned channels. The brief: build a reviews and rewards program from zero, fit for a medical-grade brand, wire it into an owned email and SMS layer, add a subscription option for replenishment, and prove that capturing efficacy and rewarding repeat behavior produces real lifetime value.
The System
We treated reviews, rewards, and lifecycle as one connected program, built from zero, designed for a medical-grade brand where the proof is the result.
A review engine built for efficacy proof. A review here is worth more than at impulse price points, because the buyer is often skeptical and researching before committing to a regimen. We made verified reviews and NPS an explicit, instrumented part of the program, so the brand's most successful customers leave the regrowth proof that converts the next person. The result is a fast-growing, verified catalog at a flawless 5.0 of 5 average, all verified buyer and current. Modest in count because the program is new, but flawless in rating and compounding fast. A rewards program built from zero to recognize repeat behavior. The category rewards frequency, so we built the loyalty layer to lean into it. The rewards program recognizes the customers who replenish and gives the repeat-purchase habit a reason to keep going. It is a genuine from-zero build, designed specifically for a regimen people stay on. An owned lifecycle layer on email and SMS. The lifecycle layer runs on the brand's own owned email and SMS, the welcome, the replenishment reminders, the review and NPS prompts, and the rewards nudges. It is the layer that surfaces the reviews and rewards work at the right moment, and it is scaling fast. A subscription option for replenishment. Because the product is a regimen people stay on, we added a subscription option so replenishment becomes automatic. It adds a clean, predictable layer of repeat revenue on top of the reviews and rewards work. Connected, not bolted on. Reviews, rewards, and the customer's inbox are wired together so a result, a repeat purchase, or a replenishment can trigger the right message automatically. The program is one system, built from zero, and it is already showing up in the data.
The System
We treated reviews, rewards, and lifecycle as one connected program, built from zero, designed for a medical-grade brand where the proof is the result.
A review engine built for efficacy proof. A review here is worth more than at impulse price points, because the buyer is often skeptical and researching before committing to a regimen. We made verified reviews and NPS an explicit, instrumented part of the program, so the brand's most successful customers leave the regrowth proof that converts the next person. The result is a fast-growing, verified catalog at a flawless 5.0 of 5 average, all verified buyer and current. Modest in count because the program is new, but flawless in rating and compounding fast. A rewards program built from zero to recognize repeat behavior. The category rewards frequency, so we built the loyalty layer to lean into it. The rewards program recognizes the customers who replenish and gives the repeat-purchase habit a reason to keep going. It is a genuine from-zero build, designed specifically for a regimen people stay on. An owned lifecycle layer on email and SMS. The lifecycle layer runs on the brand's own owned email and SMS, the welcome, the replenishment reminders, the review and NPS prompts, and the rewards nudges. It is the layer that surfaces the reviews and rewards work at the right moment, and it is scaling fast. A subscription option for replenishment. Because the product is a regimen people stay on, we added a subscription option so replenishment becomes automatic. It adds a clean, predictable layer of repeat revenue on top of the reviews and rewards work. Connected, not bolted on. Reviews, rewards, and the customer's inbox are wired together so a result, a repeat purchase, or a replenishment can trigger the right message automatically. The program is one system, built from zero, and it is already showing up in the data.
Latest projects
Social Media Marketing
Alicia Adams Alpaca: Where nine in ten organic social visitors are meeting the brand for the very first time
Alicia Adams Alpaca runs organic social as top-of-funnel discovery, not bottom-funnel conversion. Nearly 90% of visitors it sends are first-timers, the brand's highest new-visitor rate of any channel, arriving curious after seeing a styled throw or editorial content, ready to look closer.
Social Media Marketing
Alicia Adams Alpaca: Where nine in ten organic social visitors are meeting the brand for the very first time
Alicia Adams Alpaca runs organic social as top-of-funnel discovery, not bottom-funnel conversion. Nearly 90% of visitors it sends are first-timers, the brand's highest new-visitor rate of any channel, arriving curious after seeing a styled throw or editorial content, ready to look closer.
Moonglow Jewelry: SEO & AEO, One Data Layer, Three Surfaces
We cleaned up a sprawling Shopify Plus catalog and enriched the product data behind it, structured for search engines and answer engines alike. The result: the blue link, the star-rating rich result, a seat in the AI Overview. Same data. Built to be found. Built to be cited.
Moonglow Jewelry: SEO & AEO, One Data Layer, Three Surfaces
We cleaned up a sprawling Shopify Plus catalog and enriched the product data behind it, structured for search engines and answer engines alike. The result: the blue link, the star-rating rich result, a seat in the AI Overview. Same data. Built to be found. Built to be cited.
Latest projects
Social Media Marketing
Alicia Adams Alpaca: Where nine in ten organic social visitors are meeting the brand for the very first time
Alicia Adams Alpaca runs organic social as top-of-funnel discovery, not bottom-funnel conversion. Nearly 90% of visitors it sends are first-timers, the brand's highest new-visitor rate of any channel, arriving curious after seeing a styled throw or editorial content, ready to look closer.
Moonglow Jewelry: SEO & AEO, One Data Layer, Three Surfaces
We cleaned up a sprawling Shopify Plus catalog and enriched the product data behind it, structured for search engines and answer engines alike. The result: the blue link, the star-rating rich result, a seat in the AI Overview. Same data. Built to be found. Built to be cited.
