At Female Founder Collective's The 10th House, we know that building a profitable DTC brand in today's crowded market feels nearly impossible. In our latest interactive session, Sunny Jiang, CEO and President of Eyebuydirect, revealed how she turned a digital-first eyewear company into a $300M+ revenue powerhouse by obsessing over customer experience and wielding data like a competitive weapon.
Sunny's track record speaks for itself. Over her 8-year tenure leading Eyebuydirect, she's quadrupled top-line revenue, built a proprietary CRM system that's become the company's "biggest asset," and maintained an industry-defying 4-5% return rate (half the industry standard). Her approach? Blend innovation with consumer obsession, then scale sustainably while competitors burn cash chasing vanity metrics.
With the DTC landscape shifting from "blue ocean" to "red ocean" and acquisition costs skyrocketing, understanding how to build depth over speed has never been more critical for online brands trying to survive—and thrive.
The Infrastructure That Actually Drives $300M+ Revenue (Not Just Pretty Marketing)
Most DTC founders focus on the shiny stuff—influencer partnerships, viral campaigns, sleek creative. Sunny's philosophy is different: at the end of the day, infrastructure beats creativity. In a market where competitors are burning millions on acquisition while watching their unit economics crater, Eyebuydirect has quietly built systems that create sustainable competitive advantages.
The shift she's navigated is critical for every DTC founder to understand. What worked in 2018—move fast, spend aggressively, optimize later—doesn't work anymore. The market has matured. Customer acquisition costs have exploded. The brands winning now are the ones who built foundations properly: proprietary technology, obsessive product focus, plus retention engines that actually retain.
Here's what Sunny revealed about building DTC brands that last:
- Build proprietary tech infrastructure from day one—it's your real competitive moat. While most brands cobble together off-the-shelf solutions, Eyebuydirect built a proprietary CRM system with an internal IT team that captures prescription data, browsing behavior, and checkout patterns. During peak seasons like Black Friday, her team tracks performance hourly and reallocates budgets across channels based on daily results. This real-time agility requires infrastructure most brands don't build until it's too late.
- Treat retention as your primary acquisition channel, not an afterthought. Eyebuydirect's loyalty program generates 25-30% of total CRM revenue with customers purchasing 1.5-2x per year. Word-of-mouth from satisfied customers drives acquisition more effectively than any paid channel. Sunny's team uses progressive personalization—step-by-step engagement based on how customers respond—rather than bombarding people with excessive communications. The result? Higher engagement without making customers feel stalked.
- Product obsession creates the economics that fund growth. Eyebuydirect's 4-5% return rate (half the industry standard) came from scrutinizing every detail: frames, lenses, packaging, accessories. When your product creates genuine satisfaction, customers become your marketing team. The math transforms your business: lower returns = higher margins = more budget for growth = better unit economics.
- Use AI to solve real friction points, not to chase hype. Sunny's team developed a Prescription Scanner using AI that automatically uploads doctor's prescriptions with high accuracy, dramatically improving conversion. They also use AI for product recommendations and homepage personalization. But they didn't implement AI because it sounds impressive—they identified where customers struggled and built technology to fix it.
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Know when to shift from speed to depth as markets mature. From 2020-2023, Sunny doubled revenue during aggressive growth. But as competition intensified, she pivoted strategy entirely. Now the focus is on consistent brand story, exploring physical touchpoints, and building equity rather than just chasing growth at all costs. Knowing when to change gears—and having the discipline to actually do it—separates leaders who build enduring brands from those who flame out.
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