The Situation
A Swiss online retailer had an email list of 4,200 subscribers built up over three years, and was doing almost nothing with it. The only thing going out was a monthly newsletter with a discount code, sent by hand, no segmentation. Open rate 14%, click-through 1.8%.
There were no automated sequences at all. Someone signed up and heard nothing until the next newsletter. Someone abandoned a cart and heard nothing. A repeat customer got treated exactly like a stranger who had never bought a thing.
Revenue from email: roughly 4% of total store revenue. A well-run e-commerce email programme usually sits at 25-35%.
What I Did
Audit and platform assessment. I started with a full audit of the existing list: subscriber age, engagement history, purchase behaviour, bounce rates. 31% of the list hadn’t opened a single email in 18 months. I ran a re-engagement campaign at that segment before building anything new, then cut the contacts who stayed silent. A clean list of 2,900 engaged subscribers is worth more than a bloated 4,200 mixed ones.
Welcome sequence. I built a five-email welcome sequence that fires the moment someone subscribes. It introduces the brand over eight days, not with discounts but with the story behind the products, what makes them different, and proof from existing customers. The fifth email carries a first-purchase incentive. Conversion from subscribe to first purchase: 11%.
Abandoned cart recovery. A three-email sequence triggered one hour, 24 hours, and 72 hours after a cart is abandoned. The first email is a plain reminder, no discount. The second handles the common objections (shipping time, return policy). The third offers a small incentive. Recovery rate: 18% of abandoned carts turned into a completed purchase.
Post-purchase flow. A four-email sequence starting the moment someone buys: order confirmation, shipping update, delivery confirmation with care instructions, and a review request 14 days after delivery. That review email runs a 34% open rate and now generates most of the store’s product reviews.
Win-back sequence. Customers who hadn’t bought in 90 days entered a three-email reactivation sequence. It acknowledges the gap, highlights new products, and offers a loyalty discount on the final email. Reactivation rate: 9% of lapsed customers bought again within 30 days.
Segmentation. I split the list into five segments by purchase history and engagement level. Newsletter content now goes out tailored per segment: new subscribers see different content than repeat buyers, and high-value customers get early access to new products.
Results After 90 Days
- Email revenue share: 4% → 28% of total store revenue
- List open rate: 14% → 31%
- Click-through rate: 1.8% → 6.4%
- Abandoned cart recovery rate: 0% → 18%
- Welcome sequence purchase conversion: 11% of new subscribers
- Monthly revenue from email (90-day average): +340%
- Unsubscribe rate: below 0.2% across all sequences
Email became the store’s highest-ROI channel: higher than paid social, higher than Google Shopping, and with zero cost per send beyond the platform subscription.
What Made the Difference
The biggest shift was moving from broadcast to behaviour-triggered email. A monthly newsletter goes to everyone, regardless of where they are in their relationship with the store. Automated sequences respond to what a customer actually did: signed up, abandoned a cart, bought something, went quiet.
Behaviour-triggered emails consistently beat broadcasts because they land at the right moment with relevant content. An abandoned-cart email an hour after abandonment catches the customer while the intent is still warm. A welcome email the moment someone subscribes catches them at peak interest.
The list cleaning mattered just as much. Sending to dead contacts damages your sender reputation with the email providers, and then even your best emails land in spam. A smaller, engaged list beats a large, stale one on every metric that counts.