With customer acquisition costs skyrocketing, attention spans shrinking, and cookies disappearing, e-commerce brands are facing an increasingly complex equation.
For a long time, growth was based on two well-identified pillars: pushing a good product or sending out an army of salespeople to sell it.
But by 2025, that won't be enough. Consumers expect more than just a transaction: they want to be listened to, connected, and feel like they have a real place in the brand's story.
But in 2025, that's no longer enough. Consumers expect more than just a transaction: they want to be listened to, they want a connection, and they want a real place in the brand's story.
That's where customer-led growth comes in.
It's a more horizontal, more sustainable model that puts the customer back at the center of the game.
Not as a target to be converted, but as an actor to be activated.
And this isn't just a new marketing label: it's a concrete response to a rapidly changing market... that isn't waiting for anyone.
Before talking about customer-led growth, we need to face up to what is no longer working.
For years, brands have built their growth on acquisition at any cost.
But in 2025, this model has become unsustainable, both economically and in terms of attention.
Acquisition costs are reaching unsustainable levels.
On Meta, Google, TikTok, and elsewhere, the price of generating a sale or a sign-up is skyrocketing.
Worse still, it is becoming increasingly difficult to target effectively, especially since the end of third-party cookies and the tightening of tracking rules.
At the same time, consumers are being bombarded with messages.
They scroll, they barely click, and they forget as quickly as they see.
Click-through rates are plummeting, email open rates are stagnating, and campaign performance is becoming increasingly unpredictable.
As a result, brands are fighting for a few seconds of attention, with no guarantee of conversion or loyalty.
The economic equation is becoming more complicated, dependence on platforms is growing, and margins are shrinking.
This is a real breaking point for the traditional model.
Sales-led, product-led... these approaches have shaped the growth of tech and e-commerce companies for years.
But today, they no longer meet current challenges: profitability, loyalty, channel saturation, and the expectations of a much more volatile generation.
They have become insufficient if not complemented by a real customer engagement strategy.
Product-led growth (PLG) is based on a simple principle: the product is the main driver of growth.
We introduce, test, and adopt... and word of mouth or the perceived value of the product does the rest.
It's a powerful strategy, especially in SaaS, freemium, or models where the user self-onboards.
But in e-commerce, it quickly shows its limitations.
The result: little effect on loyalty, little post-purchase activation logic, and a loss of potential value on the existing base.
This type of growth remains very vertical and fragile.
In contrast, sales-led growth relies on sales teams to drive growth.
Here, the relationship is more direct and more human, but also more costly and more rigid.
In a context where margins are tightening, marketing teams are looking to automate without dehumanizing, and customers want control, sales-led seems like a thing of the past.
It's a term we hear more and more, but few really know what it means.
Customer-led growth, or CLG for those in the know, is not just another buzzword.
It's a strategic approach that takes a step away from product-centric or raw conversion models.
Here, growth starts somewhere else.
It starts with the customer.
Customer-led growth is a growth model based on activating existing users.
Not just so they buy again, but so they actively participate in the brand's momentum.
The idea is simple: your customers are not just buyers.
They are people capable of generating value in different forms:
CLG is therefore based on commitment, involvement, and co-construction.
We're not talking about a closed community or a VIP club, but a model where every customer, depending on their level of desire or interest, can play a role.
This growth isn't imposed.
It's orchestrated.
Customer-led growth does not replace other models, but picks up where they leave off.
In short, CLG is more horizontal, more agile, and above all, better suited to e-commerce, where everything moves fast... and every customer counts.
Customer-led growth is not just an appealing idea.
It is a direct response to the concrete challenges facing e-commerce brands today.
Faced with rising costs, volatile behavior, and pressure on margins, it is becoming urgent to move away from a purely transactional approach.
Today's consumers are no longer satisfied with a good product and fast delivery.
They want to understand what they are buying, who they are buying from, and why it makes sense for them.
The customer becomes a full-fledged player in the growth strategy.
They are no longer “end users”; they are potential sources of visibility, content, and legitimacy.
In this context, user experience becomes a lever for differentiation.
Not just on the website, but throughout the entire post-purchase relationship.
And only customer-centric models such as CLG can activate this in a structured way.
Acquiring new customers is becoming increasingly expensive.
That's a fact.
At the same time, many brands are only exploiting a tiny fraction of the potential of their existing base.
However, focusing on active customers automatically increases LTV without increasing the media budget.
It also reduces your dependence on external acquisition.
A customer who returns, talks about the brand, creates content, or gives feedback costs less and brings in more than a cold prospect found on Meta or Google.
Let's be honest: traditional loyalty programs are no longer exciting.
A stamp per purchase, 5% off after 10 orders...
This kind of mechanism is no longer enough to create engagement.
Today, what is needed are real opportunities for post-purchase interaction: offering a mission, soliciting feedback, valuing shared content, rewarding referrals, etc.
The goal is not to reward the 1% of your most loyal customers.
It's to intelligently activate your entire customer base, each at their own level, with a tailored journey.
👉 To learn more, discover our ultimate guide to creating a loyalty program.
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Adapt your loyalty program to fit your new customer-led growth strategy. Check out our platform!
Customer-led growth is not just a stance. It's a method.
And like any growth strategy, it relies on concrete actions to be implemented.
Here are the four key steps to activate a customer-centric model in a structured, measurable, and scalable way.
It all starts with reading the weak signals.
You can't engage your base if you don't know who's doing what and why.
This detailed analysis allows you to understand where each user is in their cycle and therefore propose relevant actions.
Once the signals have been identified, it's time to take action, but not just any action.
The goal is not to do too much.
The goal is for each customer to understand what is expected of them and why it matters to them.
Automation is key to scaling up.
But it should never look like a generic sequence.
CLG isn't about “shooting at everything that moves.”
It's about intelligently orchestrating customer activation in a fluid and targeted way.
Engaging is good.
Measuring is better.
A good CLG program is one that links user action to business performance.
Customer-led growth is a vision.
Loyoly is the tool.
Our platform is designed to help e-commerce brands leverage their post-purchase experience at scale, with real business impact.
Here's what we change, in concrete terms.
No need to build a community or wait months to launch an initiative.
With Loyoly, everything is ready from the first purchase.
In short: you create opportunities for engagement right after the purchase... and you make them visible and actionable.
At Loyoly, we don't sell likes or “engagement for engagement's sake.”
We measure everything that really matters.
You're not just making your users happy.
You're turning their involvement into performance.
Customer-led growth shouldn't be reserved for a handful of super fans.
With Loyoly, you can activate your entire base, not just the most motivated 1%.
The result: you activate on a large scale, without losing relevance or personalization.
Loyoly is a loyalty and referral platform combined with UGCs, which helps to engage customers in 40+ ways to increase LTV and social proof, while reducing CAC.
