Brand Substacks are starting to show real results

Digital Marketing Redux // June 9, 2026 Brand Substacks are starting to show real results By Allison Smith Ivy Liu In early 2025, after seeing Substack writers regularly post about their latest purchases, vintage finds and shopping tips from The RealReal, the luxury resale marketplace decided it wanted a slice of the action.

The company launched its own Gossip Girl-style newsletter that February, penned by an anonymous “RealGirl.” The goal was to join conversations that were already happening on the platform and give people who already liked The RealReal more ways to spend time with the brand.

What the company didn’t expect was how many readers would actually buy products featured in the newsletter. The RealReal was not initially tracking purchases generated by links featured in its Substack, The RealGirl. After noticing products linked in the newsletter were repeatedly selling out, the company started monitoring performance more closely.

The RealReal found that its Substack has generated over $334,000 in sales. It’s one of the clearest signs yet that branded Substacks are evolving from marketing experiments into channels that can produce tangible business results.

“We started to notice that they were all selling out,” said Kristen Naiman, The RealReal’s chief creative officer, referring to product links featured in the company’s Substack. “It wasn’t meant to drive sales, but it is driving sales.”

A year ago, most fashion and beauty companies joining the platform described their newsletters as community-building tools rather than sales channels. The focus was on telling stories that didn’t fit on Instagram or TikTok. Now, some of those early adopters have numbers to show for it.

Brands of all sizes have flocked to Substack, with fashion and beauty companies leading the charge. Since 2022, the number of publications and subscriptions in the fashion and beauty category has more than doubled year over year, according to Substack. Some of the biggest brands with their own Substacks include American Eagle, Madewell and Nike.

Even Shopify, the e-commerce technology company, has a Substack now. American Eagle declined to participate in this story, while Nike and Madewell did not respond to requests for comment. Still, not every company has stuck with the experiment. Some branded newsletters have gone quiet for months at a time.

American Eagle’s Substack, Off the Cuff, for instance, last published a post in March. Before that, it hadn’t posted since October. Substack itself advises Substackers, including brands, to post at least once a week. “Your growth is tied to your output,” Substack wrote in a blog post.

“When you post, it gives existing readers a reason to share, and new readers are more likely to bump into your work.” For brands that have continued investing in the platform, the efforts can be worth it. The RealReal has seen its audience growth accelerate alongside sales.

Total views quadrupled from 58,400 a year ago to 236,000 today, the company told Modern Retail. Subscribers also grew from 3,470 to 8,281, up 138. 6% year over year. In addition, the publication added roughly 8,000 followers over the past year, a 150% increase.

(On Substack, subscribers receive newsletters directly in their inboxes, while followers only see posts and updates within the app.) The RealGirl focuses on fashion, culture and editorial-style storytelling. Posts often include links to The RealReal products connected to the broader topic at hand.

For instance, one recent post highlighted 25 items from the 2006 movie “The Devil Wears Prada” that readers could shop on The RealReal, timed to the theatrical release of “The Devil Wears Prada 2.” Naiman said the approach works because readers view the newsletter as useful rather than promotional. M. M. LaFleur’s Substack play The women’s workwear brand M.

M. LaFleur moved its editorial publication, The M Dash, from WordPress to Substack 16 months ago in part because of the platform’s built-in discovery tools. The M Dash has gained 6,000 new subscribers through Substack’s internal discovery channels, according to Maria Costa, M. M. LaFleur’s director of brand and integrated marketing.

The growth has helped validate the company’s decision to move its content operation onto the platform. In total, the M Dash has over 81,000 subscribers. But Costa said the biggest surprise was learning what readers actually wanted. Styling advice remains popular.

Yet some of the newsletter’s strongest-performing stories have been personal essays about careers, ambition and professional life. One of the publication’s most successful posts came from founder Sarah LaFleur reflecting on the departure of a co-founder. It became the newsletter’s most-viewed story and generated its highest engagement rates.

“I think people really enjoyed getting under the hood there,” Costa said. The resp