Turning Small Carts into Big Wins: Growing LTV in Food & Beverage

In food and beverage, average order value (AOV) is often modest by design. A $40 olive oil bundle or $60 baby formula pack won’t match the AOV of beauty, tech, or luxury but that doesn’t mean your growth potential is capped. For high-potential food and CPG brands, the path to profitability isn’t increasing order size; it’s creating brand loyalty and ultimately increasing lifetime value (LTV).

While most LTV strategies apply to DTC environments, retail brands can layer these in through loyalty platforms, community engagement, and digital-reinforced in-store experiences.

Building loyalty is what leads to the multiplier of LTV. And in low-AOV categories, it’s not just important, it’s everything.

Here’s how to grow LTV in a category where small orders are standard, but loyalty is transformative.

Many food and beverage brands fall into the trap of optimizing for ROAS or first-purchase CAC. But that only tells part of the story. A lower ROAS on day one may be acceptable if you’re acquiring a customer with a high predicted LTV.

To grow LTV, start tracking:

Here’s a quick LTV checklist for CPG CMOs looking to prove marketing’s strategic value:

These metrics help you shift your mindset from transactional to relational marketing, and that shift is where scalable growth lives.

The second purchase is the tipping point. If you can get a one-time buyer to come back, your odds of retaining them long-term skyrocket. That’s why your marketing should be laser-focused on shortening the time to second order.

How to accelerate that:

Your goal isn’t just to drive another order, it’s to build habit and trust.

Whether you’re DTC-first or omnichannel, personalization is key to deepening engagement. If available, use data to:

If you’re retail-dominant, these same loyalty and personalization tactics can be implemented through shopper marketing partnerships or retailer-owned data platforms.

When customers feel understood, they stick around longer. And when that personalization is paired with a smart CX strategy, you reduce churn before it even starts.

Too many food brands fall back on deep discounts to acquire customers. But smart brands prioritize offers that align with high-LTV behavior.

Instead of:

Try:

With these types of offers, you’re training customers to value the relationship, not the discount.

One of the most powerful ways to boost LTV? Create experiences that go beyond the product. That means:

CPG brands are also winning with digital activations like:

These experiences turn casual buyers into brand advocates.

Subscription can be a goldmine for LTV, or a churn trap if not handled with care. In food and beverage, where taste, variety, and freshness drive behavior, rigid subscription models often underperform.

Winning brands focus on:

One of our partners tripled subscription LTV simply by reworking the UX of their skip/edit interface. The easier it is for a customer to manage their subscription, the longer they’ll stay.

Strong LTV is more than a metric, it’s a signal to investors that your brand drives habit, repeatability, and margin-efficient growth.

For many food brands, increasing LTV by just 15% can unlock an additional $1M+ in annual revenue (without increasing acquisition spend).

In low-AOV categories, success isn’t defined by how much a customer spends in one transaction, it’s about how often they come back, how long they stick around, and how connected they feel to your brand. With the right strategy, personalization engine, and digital innovation, those $60 orders can become $600 customer lifecycles.

It’s also crucial to understand that digital and retail sales aren’t competing forces—they’re interconnected growth levers. 

As Jenna Wookey, Sr. Account Director, CPG at Power Digital, puts it:

“Digital marketing is no longer just about DTC. It’s about driving velocity at shelf, deepening engagement across channels, and showing up wherever your customer makes their buying decision, online or in-store. That’s where the real LTV lives.”

A strong retail launch often shifts the buying journey, not the brand’s momentum. Instead of judging performance channel by channel, forward-thinking brands assess how total revenue and retail velocity are shaped by their digital efforts.

Ready to elevate your marketing efforts? Contact Power Digital today!