The brief

Sunnamusk is a luxury fragrance brand with a devoted customer base, a growing Shopify store, and an email programme that wasn't pulling its weight. When they came to us, Klaviyo had the basics: a welcome series, an abandoned cart email. But email was generating under 10% of total Shopify revenue. For a brand with Sunnamusk's retention economics, that number should be closer to 30 to 40%.

The brief was straightforward: rebuild the email programme from the ground up and make it perform.

What we found

The welcome series had one email. The abandoned cart had one email. There was no browse abandonment flow. No post-purchase sequence beyond an order confirmation. No win-back flow. The list was large and largely unengmented. Deliverability was suffering because unengaged subscribers were being sent to regularly without suppression logic in place.

The campaigns were active and well-written. The flows were almost non-existent. This is the most common gap we see: brands invest in campaigns because the feedback loop is immediate, and they underinvest in flows because the payoff is less visible even though it's significantly larger.

What we built

Over the first 60 days, we rebuilt the entire flow architecture.

The welcome series went from one email to a five-email sequence over 14 days, segmented by acquisition source. Subscribers from paid social received a different message to those from organic search or the popup. Each segment got a sequence calibrated to what they already knew about the brand.

The abandoned checkout flow went to four emails over 72 hours. The first email, sent one hour after abandonment, focused on product detail and removed friction. The second, at 24 hours, addressed the most common objections for fragrance purchases: longevity, projection, and returns policy. The third, at 48 hours, introduced social proof specific to the abandoned product. The fourth, at 72 hours, introduced a modest incentive for subscribers who had not yet purchased.

Browse abandonment was built from scratch. For a fragrance brand where discovery is central to the purchase journey, this flow performs above average. Customers browse multiple products before committing. The browse abandonment flow captures that intent before it cools.

Post-purchase was extended from an order confirmation to a 60-day sequence. The sequence covers: delivery anticipation, how-to-wear guidance (relevant for layering fragrances), a feedback check-in at day 7, a cross-sell at day 14 based on purchase history, a review request at day 30, and a loyalty-focused email at day 60 for customers who had not yet made a second purchase.

Win-back was set up for subscribers at 60, 90, and 120 days of inactivity, with suppression after 120 days for non-responders.

What happened

Within 90 days of the new flows going live, email-attributed revenue as a percentage of total Shopify revenue moved from under 10% to 28%. Within six months, it had stabilised above 30%.

The improvement wasn't primarily in campaigns. Campaign revenue stayed broadly flat. The lift came entirely from flows, which by month six were generating more revenue than campaigns despite representing a fraction of the total sends.

Deliverability improved as the suppression logic cleaned the list. Open rates increased. The brand's sender reputation strengthened, which in turn improved inbox placement for campaigns.

What this tells you

The Sunnamusk result is not unusual. It's representative of what happens when you build the flow infrastructure that most brands haven't built. The revenue was always there in the list. It just needed the right architecture to capture it.

The answer is almost always in the flows. It's the right emails, to the right segments, at the right moments.

If you're looking to build out the flows that drove this result, The 5 Klaviyo Flows Every Fashion Brand Needs Before Running Ads covers the architecture. For the data on why flows consistently outperform campaigns, read Klaviyo Flows vs Campaigns: Why Flows Should Generate 40% of Your Email Revenue.

We run email as a growth channel for DTC brands across fashion, beauty, and lifestyle. If you want to understand what's holding yours back, start with a conversation.