Q1 2026 vs 2025: What Changed in Ecommerce (The Data)

Steve Rekuc, Director of Data at Common Thread Collective, joins Richard to break down the Q1 2026 vs Q1 2025 year-over-year data from the DTC Index.

The headline: Meta spend is up 25% year over year while ROAS only degraded 3%. Google ROAS actually increased 12% despite higher spend. The platforms are getting more elastic.

In this episode:

• Total revenue up 13.6% YoY with more coming from returning customers

• Meta spend up 25.28% with only 3% ROAS degradation 

• Google ROAS up 12% with 3.65% more spend

• Why AI-driven ad delivery is making both platforms better

• CPMs are up but click-through rates are improving

• The DTC Index data set: 200-300 stores, proprietary consumer confidence metrics

• Consumer confidence: future purchase sentiment and hope for the economy

• How the DTCCI (DTC Consumer Confidence Index) predicts spending elasticity

Show Notes:

• Go to https://www.chargeflow.io/ and use CF30 to recover chargebacks free for 30 days.

• Explore the Prophit Engine: https://commonthreadco.com/pages/prophit-engine

• The Ecommerce Playbook mailbag is open — email us at podcast@commonthreadco.com to ask us any questions you might have