Thomas Lalas

Thomas Lalas has analysed real-time data from more than 2,000 ecommerce brands, and the number he keeps coming back to is this: 90 to 95% of one-time buyers never come back. He is the Director of Retention at The Art of eComm and works as a fractional Director of Retention for fast-growing Shopify and ecommerce brands, mostly in health and wellness, mostly subscription-first. He describes himself as the world's number one Retention Economist, which sounds like a stretch until you watch him take apart a P&L.

Over almost two decades as an operator and DTC marketer he has worked with category-defining eight and nine-figure CPG brands, including Everyday Dose, Physician's Choice (the number one probiotic brand in the US), Dose Daily, RYZE Superfoods, Livingood Daily, Obvi and Heights. He is the author of Retention Economics: How Repeat Customers Are the Key to Escaping Survival Mode and Unlocking Compound Growth, published in September 2025.

His argument is that most brands are running the wrong math. Acquisition gets the attention and the budget while the first ninety days after purchase, where most brands lose up to 80% of their customers, gets almost none. Even the best brands still lose half. He coined the term "the accidental renewal" for the customer who cancels the moment they get charged, because they never really understood they had subscribed in the first place.

Before ecommerce he spent seven years as a NATO Military Policeman and three years teaching at three different universities. He founded an AI education startup before ChatGPT existed, toured for six months as a musician filming a documentary on a new style of music, and is a new father with a second on the way.