Everyone loves announcing something new: new flavor, new drop, new SKU, big hero image, big “shop now” button.

But once the announcement is out of the way, there’s still the harder question: why should anyone buy it?

That’s what we’re breaking down this week with two hydration launch emails from DripDrop and HUMANTRA. Both are selling new single-flavor products, but the plays are totally different and we're going to unpack what's working and what could use an extra punch.

Also inside:

→ A different email for every subscriber sounds like a brand nightmare.
→ Some abandoned carts are too expensive to leave on read.
→ Patchology goes full serotonin at Ulta, Gap's cult '90s fragrances are back, and Method turned body wash into a gallery wall

A different email for every subscriber sounds like a brand nightmare.

It's the first thing every brand team worries about. If something is assembling a unique email for all fifty thousand+ people, how do you keep any of them on-brand?

Here's the thing: Allan only ever works with what you give it. 

You upload the blocks, your headlines, your images, your offers, your copy, all pre-approved, all yours. 

Allan just chooses which of your approved pieces to show each subscriber, so every version is assembled from parts your brand team already signed off on.

Paid media has worked this way for years. Meta doesn't write your ads, it serves the creative you gave it in the combination that performs. 

Every email stays on-brand. Every subscriber still gets their own.

→ Try for free at getallan.com

*Sponsored

“New” doesn’t cut it: What your product launch email actually has to prove

Product launch emails have one obvious advantage: novelty. There’s something new to announce, which gives the brand a reason to show up in the inbox.

But “new” usually isn’t enough on its own.

A good launch email has to explain why this product exists, why shoppers should care now, and where it fits into the way they already use the brand. Otherwise, the email can start to feel like a product update instead of a reason to buy.

DripDrop and HUMANTRA are both launching new single-flavor hydration products, but they frame the launch in very different ways. DripDrop makes the product feel like a response to customer demand, while HUMANTRA makes the product feel like a seasonal craving you can build into your routine.

DripDrop: Make the Launch Feel Customer-Requested

DripDrop’s email leads with a smart angle: “You asked, we listened.”

Which is doing more than announcing cherry single-flavor packs; it tells shoppers this format already had demand before it launched.

That distinction matters because DripDrop isn’t introducing cherry for the first time. It’s introducing a way to buy cherry on its own, outside of a variety pack. The message bubbles make that format extension feel pulled from real requests, so the product feels validated before the shopper even gets to the description.

The email also connects cherry to use cases like early alarms, salty skin, long summer days, and doing it all again tomorrow. Those lines move the product beyond flavor and into the moments when hydration matters.

The one thing DripDrop could push further is urgency. If people asked for this and it’s only available for a limited time, that’s a stronger reason to act than “shop cherry” on its own.

What brands can take from it:
If your launch came from customer demand, make that part of the story. Screenshots, reviews, waitlist language, survey results, or repeated customer requests can make a new product format feel wanted before the shopper gets to the CTA.

HUMANTRA: Make the Launch Feel Like a Seasonal Ritual

HUMANTRA takes a more sensory approach. Instead of proving customers asked for pineapple, the email makes the flavor feel timely: tropical, refreshing, summery, and easy to bring into a daily hydration routine.

That works for a flavor launch because the shopper doesn’t need a complicated explanation. They need to want the taste. HUMANTRA makes pineapple feel specific, then connects that feeling to repeat use through “pineapple on repeat” and the subscribe-and-save section.

The subscription push is useful because hydration is naturally replenishable. It moves the launch from “try the new flavor once” to “this could be part of your routine,” and the daily-routine proof point helps make that feel normal.

The opportunity would be to connect the flavor and subscription idea more tightly. The email makes pineapple feel summery, but it could do more to explain why this is the flavor shoppers will want stocked all season.

What brands can take from it:
If your launch is built around taste, scent, style, or another sensory reason to buy, show shoppers where the product fits into their routine instead of relying on novelty alone.

The Difference Is What Each Launch Has to Prove

DripDrop leans into demand: cherry single-serve packs positioned like a long-awaited drop, backed by activity-based use cases. HUMANTRA leans into sensory: pineapple made to feel craveable, backed by subscription messaging and daily-routine proof.

Before you write a product launch email, figure out what the new product actually needs to overcome. Does the shopper need social proof that other people wanted it? Do they need to see where it fits in their life? Do they need a reason to buy now? Or do they need to understand why this one is different from what you already sell?

"New" gets you the open. The rest of the email has to give them a reason to click.

Some abandoned carts are too expensive to leave on read.

The bigger the order, the bigger the hesitation behind it. A $40 impulse buy gets abandoned and forgotten. 

A $400 one gets abandoned because the shopper has an actual question: will it arrive in time, what's the return window, is this the right model, can I split the payment. 

Big purchases come with big questions, and no reminder email answers them in the moment.

That's where Outcraft AI comes in. It calls high-intent shoppers within minutes of checkout abandonment, answers whatever's holding them up in real time, and recovers the high-value orders your flows let slip.

Its best abandoned-checkout conversion rate so far? 29%.

Some carts are worth picking up the phone for.

→ See how Outcraft AI does it

*Sponsored

Meme drop:

We're going to hold your hand when we say this... 🫣

The drop zone:

Good Day by Patchology wants you to put sunshine on your face

Patchology launched Good Day, a six-product skincare collection built around something called Molecular Sunshine complex. The range runs $20 to $32, it's an Ulta exclusive, and the whole vibe is mood-boosting skincare that feels more emotional than clinical.

Gap is betting you still remember what Dream smells like

Five cult '90s fragrances are back: Dream, Grass, Heaven, Om, and Harmony, all reformulated for 2026. Social media is already deep in the nostalgia, which tells you the playbook is working before a single bottle ships.

Method turned its body wash bottles into art (literally)

Seven Latinx artists, seven cities, seven custom scents. Method's limited-edition body wash collection pairs each artist with a hometown fragrance, from San Juan pineapple-tangerine to Houston peach-honey. At $8.99 at Walmart, Target, and Ulta, this is how you make a commodity feel collectible.

Annnnd that’s a wrap for this edition! 

Thanks for hanging with us, it’s always a pleasure to have you here.

If you found this newsletter helpful (or even just a little fun), don’t keep it to yourself! Share ecomemailmarketer.com with your favorite DTC marketer. Let’s get them on board so they don’t miss next week’s drops.

Remember: Do shit you love.

🤘 Jimmy Kim & Chase Dimond

PS - Your next best customer might be reading this right now. Want in? Email Jimmy to sponsor this newsletter and more.

Love this newsletter but want to receive it less frequently? Let us know by clicking here!

Everybody's running a discount right now.

Open your promo tab and it's one "ends tonight" after another, all fighting for the same click.

But the emails that actually stopped us in July weren't the biggest deals. They were the ones building trust instead of piling on pressure.

Today we're breaking down the four moves brands used to win the click without another countdown, and the ones worth stealing this week.

Also inside:

→ Your Klaviyo bill goes up every time your list does. Whether those people open or not.
→ The quick take: Combating welcome flow mistakes
→ The only ecommerce event overlooking San Diego Bay.
→ NRF leaders got real about AI, Amazon made everything an impulse buy, nostalgia marketing hits a compliance wall, and Three Wishes went all-in on a rebrand

Your Klaviyo bill goes up every time your list does. Whether those people open or not.

That's the part more and more growing brands are running into. Since Klaviyo moved to charging by active profile, you're paying for the size of your list, not what it earns you.

For enterprise brands squeezing every drop out of Klaviyo's advanced tooling, that math still works. For a lean team running a handful of flows and weekly campaigns, you're paying enterprise prices for features you'll grow into in three years.

That's the whole reason Omnisend exists.

Email and SMS in one place, a clean interface you can actually move fast in, dedicated support that answers in minutes, and pricing built for where your store is right now. They'll even handle the migration for you.

→ See why brands are switching

*Sponsored

👌 The quick take: Combating welcome flow mistakes

The highest-performing welcome flows focus less on talking about the brand and more on helping the customer. These three comparisons show where a small shift in messaging can make a big difference.

The DTC inbox stopped selling urgency and started building trust

Last month we audited our June inbox and found brands leading with the season, the moment, and the drop instead of the product. 

Those plays are still running in July; but scroll through July on its own and a new pattern shows up on top of it.

The brands earning the click this month aren't just being relevant. They're working to be believed. Instead of manufacturing urgency with a bigger sale, they're building trust with a real gift, a real review, a genuinely useful email, and a real person behind the brand.

Here's what brands were actually sending in July.

The free gift quietly became the offer

The sharpest shift this month was brands wrapping the deal around a free product instead of a flat percentage.

A few from July:

* Act+Acre: "Your Free Dermastamp Is Waiting" (free with any order $85+)

* Ritual: "We got your skin a gift ($64 value)" (plus 30% off for good measure)

* Ritual: "Get $65 in free gifts to start + 30% off"

* Dippin Daisys: "FREE MYSTERY BIKINI" (on orders over $50)

The discount is still in there. It's just no longer the headline.

That's a smart trade because a free gift feels like getting something, while a percentage feels like the brand marking down what it planned to sell anyway. One reads as generosity, the other reads as a markdown.

The threshold is putting in a lot of work too. "Free with any order $85+" and "free bikini over $50" aren't really gifts, they're basket-size targets dressed up as gifts. The customer spends more to unlock the free item, and the brand protects its margin while looking generous.

Proof did more of the selling than copy did

The other move all over July was letting someone other than the brand make the pitch.

Look at who's talking in these:

* Act+Acre: "5 Stars, Zero Build-Up, One Happy Scalp"

* Act+Acre: "Two Award Winners, One Scalp Routine"

* Laird Superfood: "Is Protein Matcha actually worth it?" (we asked the people who drink it every day)

* DripDrop: "Clinically Studied. Proven to Hydrate."

* Dippin Daisys: "AS SEEN ON YOU"

Every one of these hands the microphone to a review, an award, a study, or a customer photo. 

This works because customers always trust real humans over brands. "Proven to Hydrate" carries more weight than "hydrating," and a real five-star review answers the one question a product description never can: does this actually work for someone like me.

Laird's "Is Protein Matcha actually worth it" is the strongest version. It says the doubt out loud, the exact thing the skeptical shopper is already thinking, then answers it with real customers instead of brand copy.

The most useful emails didn't sell anything

Some of the best-performing subject lines in July didn't pitch a product at all. They offered help.

Laird Superfood built most of its month around this:

• "Wellness Wednesday: Are you actually hydrated?" (water is only part of the equation)

• "Skip the $200 cold brew maker" (here's how to make actual good coffee)

• "Overnight oats just got easier" (can you guess the secret ingredient?)

• "Stop guessing. Build a real routine."

HUMANTRA did the same with a lower barrier: "You don't need a routine. Just start here" promised one habit that takes less than thirty seconds.

Each of these leads with something the customer can use whether or not they buy, so it earns the open and builds a little trust instead of only showing up when the brand wants money. 

t also solves a practical problem, giving you something to send on a day with no sale to announce. 

The founder stepped into the inbox

The last pattern worth flagging is how many brands put a real person's name and taste on the send.

From July:

* Dippin Daisys: "OUR CEO'S SUMMER PICKS"

* Dippin Daisys: "ELEANOR'S FAVORITE SUMMER BIKINIS"

* Act+Acre: "A Look Inside My Nightstand" (with a FOUNDERS20 code)

Instead of "shop our bestsellers," it's "here's what she actually reaches for." A curated pick from a named person does two things a generic grid can't. It narrows the choice down to a handful, which makes deciding easier, and it borrows the trust you'd give a friend's recommendation over an ad.

It also makes a brand feel run by people instead of by a checkout page. "A Look Inside My Nightstand" is a small window into a real routine, and it earns attention precisely because it isn't trying to sell the whole catalog at once.

What you should take away from this

In June, the lesson was relevance; give customers a reason to care before you get to the product.

This month the lesson sits right on top of it: relevance gets the open, but trust gets the sale.

Customers have seen every urgency trick. Another countdown, another "last chance," another percentage barely moves them because everyone is running the same play. 

July was all about building belief instead of pressure. A gift that feels like a gift. A review that answers the real question. An email that helps before it asks. A founder willing to put her name on it.

The discount still has a job (it can close). It just can't be the only thing a brand has to say, and this month the best ones clearly had more.

The only ecommerce event overlooking San Diego Bay.

Most conferences pack you into a windowless hotel ballroom.

Commerce Roundtable takes you on top of the water at Port Pavilion; overlooking San Diego Bay. Spend two days learning from top operators, networking with 750+ founders and marketers, and enjoying one of the most unique venues in ecommerce.

Use code EEMVIP to save 40% before prices increase.

→ Grab your ticket

🍦 DTC Scoop:

Retail leaders finally said the quiet part about AI out loud

At NRF Nexus, panelists admitted they don't know where AI is going, speed isn't everything, and most companies calling themselves "AI-first" are still stuck in the deck phase. The companies actually seeing results? They skipped the strategy deck and went straight to workflow.

30-minute delivery just killed the consideration phase

Amazon and Walmart are collapsing the gap between "I want that" and "it's at my door" with sub-hour delivery and AI-powered discovery. For everyone else, it means your brand either owns a very specific problem in the shopper's mind or you're the one they forgot about.

Your nostalgia play might have a legal problem

Popsicle-branded hard seltzer. Cereal-flavored RTDs. The nostalgia wave in CPG is getting bolder, but regulators are watching. The core tension: the emotional power of these brands comes from childhood memories, which is exactly what makes them risky in age-restricted categories.

Three Wishes didn't launch something new, they made every product feel new

Six years and 15,000 stores in, Three Wishes redesigned every SKU top to bottom. The signal for DTC brands: sometimes the move isn't a new product, it's making your existing lineup feel fresh. They broke the news on Instagram, straight to their community.

Annnnd that’s a wrap for this edition! 

Thanks for hanging with Chase and me. Always a pleasure to have you here.

If you found this newsletter helpful (or even just a little fun), don’t keep it to yourself! Share ecomemailmarketer.com with your favorite DTC marketer. Let’s get them on board so they don’t miss next week’s drops.

Remember: Do shit you love.

🤘 Jimmy Kim & Chase Dimond

PS - Your next best customer might be reading this right now. Want in? Email Jimmy to sponsor this newsletter and more.

Love this newsletter but want to receive it less frequently? Let us know by clicking here!

There’s a reason brands love leading with a best seller: it gives the product instant credibility.

But credibility still needs context. If the email says this is the one people keep choosing, the next job is to show why: what makes it comfortable, useful, well-made, or worth coming back to.

This morning, we’re breaking down a Beltology email with a strong best-seller hook and a product story that could use a little more support. A few simple changes would make the claim feel more earned, let's dig in.

Also inside:

→ The brands too nervous to put the phone back in their funnel are quickly losing the most to silence.
→ The conversational SMS flow that kept us texting back.
→ Your AI marketer just became your right hand (kinda literally)
→ 6 New retention marketing job ops

Alright, grab a coffee and let's kick off our Monday. 👇

The brands still hesitant to put the phone back in their funnel are quickly losing the most to silence.

It's a fair hesitation. For twenty years, "add the phone" meant hiring a call center, a six-figure line item only enterprise brands could justify. 

So everyone else skipped voice entirely and leaned on email and SMS.

Here's the part that stings: while they skip it, their highest-intent shoppers, the ones who literally started checking out and bailed, get a couple of emails, a text, then nothing. 

That's the gap Outcraft AI closes, without a single headset hired. 

An AI voice agent calls those abandoned checkouts within minutes, has a real conversation, and answers whatever was holding them up. Then it coordinates the SMS, email, and WhatsApp follow-up from the same brain, so every touch knows what was already said.

See what recovered revenue sounds like → outcraft.ai

*Sponsored

This Beltology email has the hook. Now it needs the proof.

A best-seller email starts with a real advantage: the product already has momentum. People are buying it, coming back to it, and choosing it often enough for the brand to make a claim.

But “best seller” isn’t the whole argument. It’s the opening.

That’s where this Beltology email has room to work harder. The product is clearly the hero, the message is simple, and the best-seller angle makes sense. But the original leans heavily on the claim itself without giving the reader enough proof in the first few seconds. If the email says this is the belt that outsells the rest, the next job is to show why.

The issue isn’t focus. It’s support.

Block 1: Hero

Before:

Header: Beltology

Product image: A cropped flat-lay of the belt.

Headline: best seller. for good reason.

Body copy: Some belts come and go. This one just keeps winning. Our all-time best seller is back, ready to elevate everything from crisp chinos to weekend shorts.

CTA: SHOP NOW

After:

Header: Beltology

Eyebrow: HANDCRAFTED IN THE USA 🇺🇸

Headline: Our best seller. For good reason.

Body copy: This belt just keeps winning. Our all-time best seller is back, ready to elevate everything from crisp chinos to weekend shorts.

CTA: SHOP BEST SELLER

Image: Use a larger, more dimensional product shot with benefit callouts around the belt.

Callouts:
Perfect Fit
No holes. Just right.

Stretch Comfort
Moves with you. All day.

Premium Details
Genuine leather. Built to last.

Made in the USA
Quality you can trust.

Why it works:
The original hero points to the right idea, but it doesn’t give the best-seller claim much evidence. The updated version makes the product feel more premium and easier to understand at a glance by pairing a stronger image with specific reasons to believe: fit, stretch, leather details, and domestic craftsmanship.

Those callouts matter because they explain the popularity instead of asking the reader to accept it on faith. The CTA also gets more specific, moving from a generic SHOP NOW to SHOP BEST SELLER, which keeps the action tied to the story the email is telling.

Block 2: Product Proof

Before: No dedicated proof section.

After: Add a review section after the hero.

Headline: A notch above the rest.

Review card 1:
★★★★★
The perfect everyday belt. Comfortable, stylish, and goes with everything. I wear it almost every day.
– James T.
Verified Buyer

Review card 2:
★★★★★
Worth every penny. The quality is outstanding. You can feel the difference immediately.
– Michael R.
Verified Buyer

Why it works:
A best-seller claim gets stronger when customers are allowed to back it up. The reviews give the email a different kind of proof than the product callouts: instead of explaining the features, they show how those features translate into everyday value.

One review makes the belt feel versatile and easy to wear often, while the other reinforces the quality story. Together, they make the best-seller claim feel less like a label and more like something the product has earned.

Block 3: Footer

Before:

Simple branded footer with Be.

After:

Add the required compliance details and a few lightweight trust/navigation elements.

Footer elements:
Handcrafted in the USA
Free exchanges
Secure checkout
Contact us
Instagram
TikTok
Unsubscribe
Manage Preferences
Mailing address

Why it works:
The original footer is visually clean, but it feels unfinished. Even a focused product email still needs the basics: compliance details, preference links, and a mailing address.

Adding a few lightweight trust signals, like free exchanges or secure checkout, also gives the reader reassurance without pulling attention away from the best-seller story. Social links can sit quietly at the bottom as secondary paths for people who aren’t ready to buy, while the main CTA stays focused on the product.

Best sellers still need reasons

That’s what makes this email worth studying: the original has a clean product story, but it asks “best seller” to carry too much of the persuasion on its own. The stronger version gives that claim more support by showing the product in a way that feels more premium, naming the benefits that make it useful, and letting customers reinforce the promise. A best seller is a great hook, but the email still has to make the status feel deserved.

Your AI marketer just became your right hand (kinda literally)

That's been the catch with AI and email marketing. You brainstorm the campaign, draft the copy, and map the automation in a chat window, then tab over to your ESP and rebuild all of it by hand, clicking through the same screens you always have.

Omnisend's MCP upgrade ends that second half. Your AI workspace can now build the thing instead of just describing it, standing up a full email or SMS campaign, an A/B test, or a complete automation without you ever opening the app.

The AI used to hand you a plan. Now it does the setup too.

👉 See how it works

*Sponsored

Read receipts:

Dr. Squatch skipped the standard welcome discount and started a conversation instead. One simple question led to personalized product recommendations and made the entire experience feel more relevant. Sometimes the best way to earn a sale is to learn a little first.

The Hiring Vault

• Lifecycle Marketing Manager, San Diego, CA: Cymbiotika

• CRM Marketing Manager, United States: Stitch Fix

• Lifecycle Marketing Manager, Dallas, TX: Thermomix® USA

• Sr. Manager, Lifecycle Acquisition, United States: Nutrafol

• Retention Marketing Manager, Boston, MA: BRUNT Workwear

• Loyalty & Retention Manager, Austin, TX: Mason's Meats - Proper Food

That's a wrap for today!

Appreciate you hanging with Chase and me. We hope you found something you can put to work ASAP.

If you did, don’t keep it to yourself! Send ecomemailmarketer.com to your favorite DTC marketer and get them in on the action.

Catch you next time!

🤘 Jimmy Kim

PS - Your next best customer might be reading this right now. Want in? Email Jimmy to sponsor this newsletter and more.

Love this newsletter but want to receive it less frequently? Let us know by clicking here!

Back-to-school is is an easy season to ignore if you don't sell school supplies.

And this morning we're covering why that would be a mistake.

We pulled apart four campaigns and found a few themes every retention marketer should have on their radar before August kicks into high gear.

Also inside:

→ Your customers canceled their summer trips (but they didn't cancel spending)
→ The biggest mistake in retention marketing happens after the first sale.
→ You're averaging your best email down to everyone else 👀
→ Reformation just filed for an IPO targeting a $1 billion valuation

Your customers canceled their summer trips (but they didn't cancel spending)

New Omnisend research across the US, UK, and Canada found about half of shoppers are downgrading or scrapping summer travel because it's gotten too expensive.

But they're not closing their wallets... Nearly 6 in 10 of the people staying home are still treating themselves to the small stuff: clothing, food delivery, a nice meal, a local experience.

So this summer belongs to the brand that shows up as the affordable, guilt-free treat, especially for the middle-income shoppers trading down from a vacation.

Omnisend broke down who's cutting back, where the money's going, and how to reach them.

→ Read the research

*Sponsored

Knowledge drop:

The biggest mistake in retention marketing happens after the first sale. Jimmy explains why repeat purchases are fueled by loss avoidance and how to adjust your messaging accordingly.

Twitter tweet

Back-to-school emails are landing. Here's what brands are getting right.

Back-to-school season is officially making its way into the inbox. While the holiday season tends to steal the spotlight, this is one of the biggest shopping moments of the year and one that extends far beyond backpacks and notebooks. 

Families are already shopping, and brands are finding creative ways to make their products part of the conversation. After reviewing some of the first back-to-school campaigns to hit our inboxes, a few clear themes are already emerging. 

Here's what retention marketers can learn from them.

Back-to-school spending is still strong, but shoppers are becoming more selective

Back-to-school remains one of retail's biggest seasonal moments. The National Retail Federation expects shoppers to spend nearly $39 billion on K-12 purchases this year, while Deloitte estimates families will spend more than $550 per student. The opportunity is still there, but shoppers are becoming more intentional about where they spend.

Back-to-school by the numbers

• ~$39B expected in K-12 spending

• $550+ average spend per student

• Nearly 2 in 3 shoppers have already started buying

• Electronics, apparel, shoes, and school supplies remain the biggest categories

The biggest shift isn't that people are spending less. They're asking tougher questions before they buy.

Instead of relying on bigger discounts, the strongest campaigns answer a different question: Why does this product matter right now?

That's exactly what these brands are doing.

1. Beekeeper's Naturals: Turn your product into a seasonal essential

Rather than promoting throat lozenges, Beekeeper's Naturals positions them as classroom essentials for teachers, parents, and students. The campaign immediately ties the product to a seasonal problem people can relate to, making it feel much more relevant than a generic promotion.

What we like

• Frames the product around a seasonal need instead of a discount.

• Expands the audience beyond students to include teachers and parents.

• Uses a bundle to naturally increase average order value.

• Gives shoppers multiple ways to purchase, including retail locations.

Steal this idea: Don't ask, "How can we make this a back-to-school sale?"

Ask, "How does our product become part of someone's routine once school starts?"

That shift in messaging is often all you need.

2. Pela: Sell the complete solution, not the hero product

Pela could have sent a campaign featuring phone cases and called it a day.

Instead, they introduce a Back-to-School Starter Pack, showcasing phone straps, wallets, totes, and accessories that work together. Rather than asking shoppers to buy one item, they make it easy to picture an entire setup.

What we like

• "Starter Pack" instantly communicates value.

• Cross-sells feel intentional rather than forced.

• Lifestyle imagery helps customers imagine using the products.

• Every section builds toward a larger purchase.

Steal this idea: Instead of highlighting your best-selling product, build a starter kit, daily essentials collection, or back-to-routine bundle around it. Remember, customers often buy the solution, not the individual SKU.

3. Hero Cosmetics: Build your campaign around the customer's routine

Hero isn't really selling acne patches.

They're selling confidence before the first day of class.

Every featured product is positioned around campus life, whether that's treating breakouts overnight, throwing products into a backpack, or keeping skin looking its best between classes. The seasonal messaging feels natural because it focuses on the customer's routine rather than forcing a school theme onto the product.

What we like

• Every product has a clear seasonal use case.

• "Campus essentials" feels more thoughtful than "Back-to-School Sale."

• Gift with purchase increases perceived value without leading with a discount.

• The creative reinforces the lifestyle the brand is selling.

Steal this idea: Think about where your customer uses your product during this season; not just what they're buying. That simple shift often leads to stronger campaign ideas.

4. Stance: Keep the concept simple

Stance proves you don't need an elaborate campaign to participate in the season.

The messaging revolves around fresh styles for a fresh semester, while the creative does most of the storytelling. It's clean, product-focused, and lets shoppers browse without overcomplicating the experience.

What we like

• Strong creative immediately communicates the theme.

• Product grid makes shopping frictionless.

• Bundle messaging introduces an easy AOV opportunity.

• Feels authentic to the Stance brand rather than overly seasonal.

Steal this idea: Not every seasonal campaign needs to reinvent your brand. Sometimes it's enough to give your existing products a seasonal context and let the merchandising do the rest.

What every ecommerce brand can borrow

None of these brands rely on classroom graphics or cheesy school references. Instead, they connect their products to the routines people are about to step back into. That's something almost every brand can do.

Coffee

• Fuel early mornings.

• Make the commute easier.

• Create workday or study bundles.

Beauty

• Five-minute morning routines.

• Campus-ready skincare.

• Gym bag essentials.

Supplements

• Immune support for classroom season.

• Focus and productivity.

• Daily wellness habits.

Fitness

• Back-to-routine challenges.

• Healthy habits after summer.

• Meal prep essentials.

Home

• Dorm organization.

• Home office refreshes.

• Weeknight meal prep.

Pet brands

• Back-to-routine treats.

• Separation anxiety support.

• Walking schedules after summer break.

The seasonal hook may change, but your product doesn't have to. The opportunity comes from reframing how your product fits into your customer's life during this time of year.

Don't market the season, market the routine.

One thing became clear after reviewing these early back-to-school campaigns: it’s all about helping customers understand why their products matter during this specific moment in the year, whether that's preparing for earlier mornings, building new routines, or feeling more confident heading into a new semester.

That's a strategy every brand can borrow, regardless of what it sells. Start by identifying the role your product plays in your customer's routine as summer comes to an end.

That shift in thinking is what turns a seasonal email into a campaign that customers actually connect with.

You're averaging your best email down to everyone else

It shows up as one flat number: revenue per email.

You polish the subject line, the design, the send time, but as long as fifty thousand people get the same identical send, your best result gets watered down by everyone it wasn't right for.

Paid media escaped this years ago. Meta optimizes per person, not per average, because every impression is its own creative matched to whoever's looking.

Allan brings that to email. Stock the shelf once with your headlines, images, offers, and copy, and Allan builds the highest-converting version for each subscriber, so the winners stop getting dragged down by the misses.

Give every subscriber their best email, and the average takes care of itself.

→ Try for free at getallan.com

*Sponsored

DTC wins: Reformation just filed for an IPO targeting a $1 billion valuation

Reformation did $507 million in revenue last year and is going public at $15 to $17 a share. The interesting part is that 30% of their new DTC customers come through physical stores, not the website. They run 70 locations, 75% of which use a proprietary retail model they built in-house called Retail X. Reformation didn't back into brick-and-mortar. They turned it into their best acquisition channel.

Annnnd that’s a wrap for this edition! 

Thanks for hanging with Chase and me, always a pleasure to have you here.

If you found this newsletter helpful (or even just a little fun), don’t keep it to yourself! Share ecomemailmarketer.com with your favorite DTC marketer. Let’s get them on board so they don’t miss next week’s drops.

Remember: Do shit you love.

🤘 Jimmy Kim & Chase Dimond

PS - Your next best customer might be reading this right now. Want in? Email Jimmy to sponsor this newsletter and more.

Love this newsletter but want to receive it less frequently? Let us know by clicking here!

When someone joins your list, the clock starts ticking fast.

During a Retention Roadshow session, we heard that 85% of first purchases happen the day someone opts in. By day one, that drops below 3%. And by day seven, it’s under 1%.

So yeah, your welcome discount has a job to do.

This morning, we’re looking at how COOLA and ciele use first-purchase offers in different ways and we're breaking down what's working and the small tweaks that could pack a punch.

Also inside:

→ Your competitor's entire retention team is about to be one person.
→ Anyone can call themselves an email expert (but few can back it up)
→ All that new-new from Beyond Yoga, ALOHA , SPYLT, and Tony's Chocolonely

Your competitor's entire retention team is about to be one person.

Not because they're cutting the team; because output is not constrained by labor.

More emails used to mean more people. Every campaign, every flow, every segment variation was another thing somebody had to manage.

Output was capped by headcount, so your program grew only as fast as you could hire.

With Allan, your team stocks the shelf once with headlines, images, offers, and copy, and the platform assembles the best version for every subscriber across every segment, testing and improving on its own.

Like paid media, it serves winning components more frequently. 

One marketer now ships what used to take five.

The brands that figure this out first won't just send better email. They'll do it with a fraction of the team.

→ Try for free at getallan.com

*Sponsored

What your welcome discount has to do besides convert

When Chase and I were traveling for the Retention Roadshow, we heard a session on why Day Zero matters so much: 85% of first purchases happen the day someone opts in, but by day one, that drops below 3%, and by day seven, it’s under 1%.

That puts a lot of pressure on the welcome email because a shopper has just joined your list, they’re interested but not bought in yet, and if they’re going to make a first purchase, odds are it’s happening now.

So the welcome discount can’t just be a code. It has to help someone understand what they should buy, why it’s worth trying, and why today is the right time to act.

COOLA and ciele both lead with a first-purchase discount, but the more useful question is what each brand asks that discount to do.

COOLA: Use the Discount to Lower the First-Shop Barrier

COOLA’s welcome email gives shoppers 15% off, but the offer isn’t expected to carry the whole first-purchase decision by itself. That matters because COOLA’s catalog has a lot of possible entry points: face sunscreen, body sunscreen, sprays, mists, lip balm, and more.

For a new shopper, the obstacle may not be whether they understand SPF or believe they need it. The obstacle may be that they don’t immediately know where to start. COOLA solves for that by pairing the welcome discount with a bestseller grid, which gives shoppers a starting point.

It’s a helpful move, but it’s also a pretty broad solution. A quiz, skin concern prompt, or “find your SPF” path could take the same idea further by pointing shoppers toward the product that fits their actual need. 

There’s also a trust-building layer underneath it. The ingredient and product claims near the bottom help answer the quiet questions a first-time buyer might have around formulation, testing, and values. 

The email could probably do less overall, especially with the SMS offer competing for attention, but the core job is clear: use the welcome discount to get a new shopper into the catalog without making them overthink the first purchase.

What brands can take from it:
If your catalog has several possible starting points, don’t make the discount the only direction. Pair the offer with a clear first-shop path, whether that’s bestsellers, starter products, or a small set of recommended categories.

ciele: Use the Discount to Explain Why the Product Is Different

ciele’s subject line, “Here’s 10% off,” is direct, but it doesn’t do much beyond announcing the offer. The email itself is more interesting because ciele is selling a product idea that needs a little framing: makeup that also offers skin protection.

That’s a different welcome email challenge. If a shopper doesn’t immediately understand what makes the product different, the discount may not be enough to move them toward a first purchase. So ciele uses the email to connect the offer to a clear product thesis: these are beauty products built to protect and perform.

The restraint helps. Instead of showing a large product grid or stacking multiple offers, ciele points shoppers toward three hero products: tint, blush, and filter. That keeps the decision contained while reinforcing the brand’s core idea. The code lowers the barrier to trying the product, but the positioning gives someone a reason to care in the first place.

What brands can take from it:
If your product needs education, use the welcome email to make the concept click fast. The offer can help someone take the first step, but the positioning has to explain why that first step is worth taking.

The Difference Is What Each Brand Needs the First Email to Solve

COOLA is solving for choice friction, while ciele is solving for concept friction. COOLA’s welcome email helps a new shopper navigate a broad catalog by pointing them toward the easiest places to start, while ciele’s welcome email makes the product idea easier to understand before asking someone to buy.

That’s the question to ask before writing a welcome discount email: what’s actually getting in the way of the first purchase? It might be too many product options, a product concept that needs explaining, a lack of trust, a higher price point, or uncertainty around what makes the brand different.

The code can help, but it shouldn’t be the only thing doing the work. When you’re writing a welcome discount email, it’s all about giving your shoppers a clear reason to take the first step while their intent is still fresh.

Anyone can call themselves an email expert (but few can back it up)

You've got the strategy down. But strategy doesn't help much when the automation stalls or your emails start hitting spam. That's the platform side, and it's where a lot of "experts" start guessing.

Omnisend's new Product Certification closes that gap. Free, genuinely technical, all about execution: deliverability, segmentation, automation, campaigns, reporting. Forty-five lessons, eight modules, under four hours, plus a certificate and badge at the end.

Anyone can say they're good at email. Now you can prove it.

👉 Get certified

*Sponsored

Meme drop:

Crash out commencing in 3...2...1...

The drop zone:

Beyond Yoga built its first real performance line and it still feels like Beyond Yoga

Glowzone is the brand's first collection for high-sweat workouts: proprietary moisture-wicking fabric, UPF 50+, seamless construction. Beyond Yoga grew 19% in H1 2026, and this is the line that takes them from soft leggings brand to full athletic contender.

ALOHA dropped a limited-edition strawberry bar for summer

Real dried strawberries, coconut flakes, and brown rice crisps in a 14g protein bar with only 4g of sugar. Organic, vegan, B-Corp certified with over a million customers and counting.

Tony's Chocolonely just dropped a Milk Popcorn Crunch bar

Crunchy caramelized corn pieces meet milk chocolate for a sweet-and-salty combo. Tony's built one of the most recognizable chocolate brands in the world by leading with its mission and backing it up with flavors that are genuinely hard to put down.

SPYLT went full nostalgia with a limited-edition Banana Milk protein drink

20g protein, zero sugar, 90 calories, 60mg caffeine, lactose-free. The brand won Best in Show and Fan Favorite at WAFC's NextOnShelf, and the whole identity is built around lunchbox nostalgia. Available on Amazon and TikTok Shop only.

Annnnd that’s a wrap for this edition! 

Thanks for hanging with us, it’s always a pleasure to have you here.

If you found this newsletter helpful (or even just a little fun), don’t keep it to yourself! Share ecomemailmarketer.com with your favorite DTC marketer. Let’s get them on board so they don’t miss next week’s drops.

Remember: Do shit you love.

🤘 Jimmy Kim & Chase Dimond

PS - Your next best customer might be reading this right now. Want in? Email Jimmy to sponsor this newsletter and more.

Love this newsletter but want to receive it less frequently? Let us know by clicking here!

SMS is one of those channels that looks simple until you start using it.

You’ve got a phone number, a short message, and a link. How hard can it be?

Pretty hard, apparently.

A lot of brands are still getting the basics wrong: collecting the wrong subscribers, sending too often, ignoring high-intent moments, and writing texts people don’t actually want to receive.

So we broke down 10 SMS mistakes brands are making right now, plus what to fix before your next send.

Also inside:

→ This brand couldn't see what its email was doing. A month later it was making $60 for every $1.
→ Raising AOV doesn't always have to mean raising prices
→ Are you skipping out on your best segments?
→ RCS is making branded texts actually look branded, most measurement dashboards are lying to you about margins, and NRF says stop planning and start prototyping.

This brand couldn't see what its email was doing. A month later it was making $60 for every $1.

Win Your Dream Bike had an email channel and basically no idea what it was up to: no attribution, no visibility, no way to tell what was working or why.

So The Email Ace moved them off SendGrid and onto Omnisend in under a day, then went to work with A/B testing, popups, and list-growth plays to reach an audience they'd never been capturing.

The first month:

• $60 back for every $1 spent, well past the $40 industry average
• 100% submission rate on the new popup
• A fresh audience segment that didn't exist before

👉 Read the full story

*Sponsored

👌 The Quick Take: Raising AOV doesn't always mean raising prices.

The fastest way to grow average order value isn't charging more. It's giving shoppers better reasons to add more to their cart.

These three tactics consistently increase basket size without touching your pricing strategy:

10 SMS marketing mistakes brands are still making

SMS can be one of the highest-performing channels in your retention strategy, but only when it’s used with intention.

Right now, a lot of brands are making the same avoidable mistakes: chasing low-quality opt-ins, sending too many messages, underusing high-intent moments, and writing texts that don’t match how people actually engage on mobile.

The result? More opt-outs, weaker engagement, and missed revenue from a channel that should be driving action.

Here are 10 SMS marketing mistakes brands are still making, and what to do instead.

1. Growing your list with the wrong incentives

A big SMS list doesn’t mean much if most people joined for a one-time discount and never wanted to hear from you again.

Discount-led popups can grow your list quickly, but they often attract subscribers who are only there for the savings. That can lead to weaker engagement, higher opt-out rates, and a channel that looks healthy on paper but underperforms in practice.

Instead, give people a better reason to subscribe.

Offer early access, back-in-stock alerts, product drop notifications, VIP perks, post-purchase updates, or genuinely useful reminders. The goal isn’t just to collect phone numbers. It’s to build a list of people who actually want the kind of messages SMS is best at delivering.

2. Saving MMS for “special occasions” only

MMS costs more than a plain text message, so it’s easy to treat it like an occasional upgrade.

But when you’re promoting a product, launch, limited-time offer, or anything visual, the extra cost can be worth it.

A strong image, GIF, or branded visual can make the message feel more legitimate and more compelling. It gives customers instant context, especially when the product itself is the hook.

Use MMS when the visual helps someone understand the offer faster or makes the decision easier. Don’t add creative just to fill the message. Add it when it helps sell.

3. Sending too many texts

SMS is not the place to test how much attention you can squeeze out of your audience.

It’s intimate. It shows up next to messages from friends, family, delivery drivers, and appointment reminders. That means the bar is higher than almost any other owned channel.

For many brands, four to eight well-timed texts per month is a healthier starting point than trying to send every campaign through SMS. The best cadence depends on your audience, buying cycle, and offer strategy, but the principle stays the same: every text should earn its place.

If the message doesn’t feel timely, useful, or worth the interruption, it probably doesn’t belong in SMS.

4. Trying to make every SMS conversational

Conversational commerce sounds great in theory. A customer texts, the brand responds, and the sale happens naturally.

But for a lot of brands, broad two-way SMS is hard to manage at scale. It can create operational drag fast, especially if the team doesn’t have the support systems or automation needed to keep up.

That doesn’t mean two-way SMS isn’t valuable... it just needs a clear use case.

Use it for high-intent moments like reorders, product recommendations, support follow-ups, transactional confirmations, or VIP conversations. When the customer’s intent is obvious, two-way SMS can remove friction. When the use case is vague, it just becomes another channel your team has to babysit.

5. Treating transactional texts as purely functional

Transactional texts get attention because customers are already looking for them.

Order confirmations, shipping updates, delivery notices, and post-purchase reminders are some of the most opened messages a brand can send. That makes them valuable real estate.

The mistake comes in when treating them as purely operational.

Yes, the core update needs to be clear. But once that job is done, there’s usually room for a relevant upsell, cross-sell, product education moment, loyalty prompt, or replenishment reminder.

The word “relevant” matters here. A random promo inside a shipping update can feel tacked on. A thoughtful next step can feel helpful.

6. Segmenting based on old signals

Email segmentation often leans heavily on past behavior: purchase history, customer type, lifetime value, or engagement over time.

Those signals still matter when it comes to SMS, but immediacy matters more.

SMS segmentation should account for what someone is doing right now, or what they’re likely to act on soon. Think:

- Recent site behavior
- Recent product interest
- Time-sensitive intent
- Local timing
- Back-in-stock requests
- Cart activity
- Purchase signals from the past few days

SMS works best when it feels timely. If the segment is too stale, the message can feel random.

7. Ignoring SMS keywords

SMS keywords are one of the most underused tools in the channel.

They let customers raise their hand directly:
- Text RESTOCK for an alert
- Text VIP to join a list
- Text DROP for launch updates
- Text SIZE for product help.

That kind of customer-initiated action is powerful because the intent is already there. You’re not guessing whether someone cares; they’ve just told you.

Keywords can be especially useful for product launches, replenishment, waitlists, in-store experiences, events, creator campaigns, and VIP programs. They also give customers a simple way to self-select into the messages they actually want.

8. Focusing on the wrong compliance risks

A lot of brands think about SMS compliance in terms of basic footer language, opt-out instructions, and quiet hours.

Those things matter. But the bigger risks usually come from more fundamental issues: texting people who didn’t explicitly consent, using purchased lists, burying SMS consent inside broader marketing terms, or failing to make opt-in language clear.

SMS is permission-based. That’s not just a legal requirement. It’s also what keeps the channel healthy.

If someone doesn’t understand what they signed up for, they’re much more likely to opt out, complain, or lose trust in the brand. Clear consent protects the business and creates a better subscriber experience.

9. Launching SMS before email is working

SMS shouldn’t be used to patch a weak retention strategy.

If your email program isn’t performing, SMS probably won’t magically solve the problem. In fact, it may expose the same issues faster: weak offers, unclear segmentation, poor timing, or messages that don’t give customers a real reason to act.

Before adding SMS, make sure your email foundation is solid. Your welcome flow, post-purchase flow, abandoned cart flow, campaign strategy, segmentation, and content calendar should already be doing their job.

SMS works best as an extension of a strong retention system, not a replacement for one.

10. Writing texts that try to do too much

SMS doesn’t have room for the long setup.

It’s not the place for dense storytelling, detailed product education, or multi-paragraph brand messaging. That content belongs in email, landing pages, blog posts, or product pages.

SMS should be short, clear, and action-oriented.

Use it for alerts, reminders, drops, limited-time offers, back-in-stock messages, replenishment prompts, and moments where quick action matters. Give the customer the key information, make the next step obvious, and get out of the way.

The takeaway: SMS works when it earns the interruption

SMS can drive serious revenue, but only if you're willing to respect how customers actually experience the channel.

Because it shows up in such a personal space, every part of the strategy has to work harder: the reason someone opts in, the timing of each send, the segment it goes to, the consent behind it, the message itself, and the action you’re asking them to take.

The goal isn’t to send more texts. It’s to make every message feel timely, relevant, and worth acting on.

Are you skipping out on your best segments?

You know the ones: the engaged shoppers who never bought, the 60-day lapsed, the post-purchase crowd ready for a cross-sell. 

Each deserves its own campaign, and you know what it should say. 

You just don't have the hours to build them all, so they get the generic send, or nothing.

Paid media never makes that trade.

Allan brings that same energy to email. 

Stock the shelf once with your headlines, images, offers, and copy, and it runs set-and-forget campaigns to every segment, building each email per subscriber.

You know those segments were never low value. They were just too much work… until now.

→ Start your 30-day free trial

*Sponsored

🍦 DTC Scoop:

RCS is about to make your text messages look like emails (in a good way)

SMS was never built for branding. Messages show up from random numbers with no logo, no visual identity, and no way to tell if it's legit. RCS fixes that with verified sender info, brand visuals, and rich media baked into the message. Early campaigns are seeing 58% higher click-through rates, and since Apple adopted RCS in late 2024, coverage is nearly universal.

The way most brands measure what's working is costing them money

ROAS, CAC, and conversion rate all live in their own silos. A retail media campaign might look wildly efficient until you layer in trade spend, slotting fees, and operational costs. And most tools still treat online and offline as separate worlds. The founders who've scaled past the early stage all learned the same thing: the dashboard that got you to $5M won't get you to $50M.

NRF wants retailers to stop overthinking and start prototyping

CONTROLTEK ran its 39th design thinking workshop at NRF PROTECT 2026. The premise: retail teams spend too much time analyzing and not enough time building scrappy solutions. One group tackled store manager retention and came out with a flexible scheduling model in under an hour. "You have to show the bad work, or else you never get the solution."

Annnnd that’s a wrap for this edition! 

Thanks for hanging with Chase and me. Always a pleasure to have you here.

If you found this newsletter helpful (or even just a little fun), don’t keep it to yourself! Share ecomemailmarketer.com with your favorite DTC marketer. Let’s get them on board so they don’t miss next week’s drops.

Remember: Do shit you love.

🤘 Jimmy Kim & Chase Dimond

PS - Your next best customer might be reading this right now. Want in? Email Jimmy to sponsor this newsletter and more.

Love this newsletter but want to receive it less frequently? Let us know by clicking here!

Back-to-school isn't just for backpacks and notebooks anymore. Brands across every category are finding ways to tap into the season, and Ruggable does it with a clever twist: Ruggable U.

The collection is inspired by dorm rooms, first apartments, and the aesthetics that tend to define college life. But instead of overwhelming shoppers with dozens of rugs, Ruggable organizes everything into three distinct styles that make the collection feel easy to explore.

This morning we're breaking down why that approach works.

Also inside:

→ You could open six dashboards, or you could just ask
→ Some abandoned carts are too expensive to leave on read
→ The upgrade making Dolce Vita's SMS feel more premium
→ 7 New retention marketing job ops

Alright, grab a coffee and let's kick off our Monday. 👇

You could open six dashboards, or you could just ask 🤔

Be honest, how often do you actually dig into your email data? Getting one answer means five reports, a CSV export, and twenty minutes you didn't have, so you put it off and run half your program on gut.

Omnisend's new MCP integration takes that whole chore away. It plugs your account into the AI you already use, like ChatGPT or Claude, and you just ask. Which sends made the most money, where deliverability's slipping, which segment to hit next.

You get the answer in seconds, so you actually act on it instead of adding it to the someday pile.

The sharpest insight in your account is worthless if pulling it is a chore.

👉 See the 10 things you can ask it

*Sponsored

How Ruggable turned back-to-school into a merchandising strategy

Launching a collection is about more than showing new products. The best launches create a world customers want to be part of before they ever click "Add to Cart."

Ruggable does exactly that here. Instead of leading with product specs or an overwhelming catalog, they introduce a distinct aesthetic, break it into digestible style collections, and then make shopping feel effortless.

The result is an email that feels more like flipping through a design magazine than browsing a product catalog.

Let's break down what's working and where there are opportunities to make it even stronger.

Header

The email immediately establishes that this is something new. The collage-inspired hero, soft color palette, and scrapbook aesthetic all reinforce the personality of the collection before you even start reading.

What We Love

• The visual identity is established instantly. Every element, from the layered photography to the typography, creates a nostalgic college-inspired mood that feels intentional.

• "Introducing Ruggable U" makes the purpose immediately clear. There's no guessing whether this is a sale, seasonal campaign, or product announcement.

• The CTA appears early. Shoppers already interested in decorating a dorm don't have to scroll before they can shop.

• The hero doesn't rely on heavy copy. The imagery does most of the selling, allowing the design to carry the emotional weight.

What We'd Do Differently

The headline creates intrigue, but it doesn't immediately communicate why someone should care.

A slightly stronger supporting headline could introduce the benefit sooner.

Instead of:

Decorate your aesthetic like you're decorating your movement with our new collection...

Something more direct could be:

Washable rugs designed to make every dorm room feel like home.

That gives shoppers both the emotional hook and the practical reason to keep reading.

Body

Rather than throwing every rug into one long product grid, Ruggable organizes the collection into three distinct style edits: Regency Charm, Varsity Prep, and Stagecoach Edit.

This turns browsing into a guided experience instead of asking shoppers to sort through dozens of products themselves.

What We Love

• Each collection has its own personality. Instead of simply naming patterns, each section feels like a lifestyle someone can identify with.

• Lifestyle photography takes center stage. Seeing the rugs inside actual dorm rooms helps customers imagine them in their own space.

• The pacing feels natural. Large imagery followed by a short description and CTA keeps the email moving.

• The copy stays concise. Every section gives just enough context before getting shoppers to the next click.

• Consistent CTAs make scanning easy. Once shoppers understand the format, every section becomes effortless to browse.

What We'd Do Differently

The three collections look visually similar, which makes the middle of the email feel slightly repetitive.

Small additions could create more differentiation between each section, such as:

• Calling out what makes each style unique

• Highlighting who it's designed for

• Featuring one standout rug from each collection

• Adding social proof like "Customer Favorite" or "Best Seller"

Those subtle changes would help each edit feel more memorable instead of blending together.

Footer

The email finishes with a traditional product grid before reinforcing one of Ruggable's biggest differentiators: washable rugs.

What We Love

• Ending with the full collection makes sense. After introducing each aesthetic, shoppers can browse individual products.

• The washable rug message reinforces the brand promise. It's a simple reminder of what separates Ruggable from traditional rugs.

• The footer stays clean and organized. Navigation links and social icons are easy to find without distracting from the main campaign.

What We'd Do Differently

This is a great opportunity to reinforce dorm-specific buying motivations one last time.

Instead of ending primarily with functionality, Ruggable could remind shoppers why washable rugs matter in this setting.

A simple callout like:

• Perfect for dorm spills

• Parent-approved cleanup

• Easy to move, wash, and reuse after graduation

...would connect the product benefit directly to the customer's situation and create a stronger final impression.

Final Thoughts

It's a thoughtfully designed launch email built around the idea that people don't shop for rugs. They shop for the feeling they want their space to create. 

By organizing the collection into distinct style edits, using aspirational photography, and keeping the copy light, Ruggable makes browsing feel enjoyable instead of overwhelming.

The biggest opportunity here isn't changing the design. It's making each collection feel even more distinct and reinforcing why washable rugs are especially valuable for dorm living.

Overall, it's a polished launch that balances inspiration with shoppability, making it easy for customers to picture themselves living in the world Ruggable has created.

Some abandoned carts are too expensive to leave on read.

The bigger the order, the harder it is to justify letting it disappear into another email sequence.

At some point, the better move isn't another reminder.

It's a real conversation.

That's where Outcraft comes in.

It calls high-intent shoppers while they're still considering the purchase, answers questions in real time, and helps recover the orders your flows leave behind.

Because some carts are worth more than another email.

See how Outcraft changes the math → outcraft.ai

*Sponsored

Read receipts:

We've been waiting for more brands to do this. Instead of relying on a long, clunky tracking link, Dolce Vita uses RCS buttons that feel more like a shopping app than a text message.

If you're experimenting with RCS, give people something to tap. It's a simple upgrade that makes the experience feel cleaner, more intuitive, and a lot more premium.

The Hiring Vault

• Senior Manager, Lifecycle Marketing & CRM Strategy, Los Angeles, CA: Golden Pet Brands

• Lifecycle Marketing Manager, Seattle, WA: Filson

• CRM Manager, Overland Park, KS: Hill's Pet Nutrition

• Email Marketing & Ecommerce Coordinator, New York City Metropolitan Area: CUUP

• Retention Marketing/Ad Creative, Costa Mesa, CA: WOLFpak

• Director, Lifecycle Marketing, New York City Metropolitan Area:
  Paperless Post

• Sr. Manager, Lifecycle (Nurture, Retention & Loyalty), Los Angeles, CA: Little Sleepies

That's a wrap for today!

Appreciate you hanging with Chase and me. We hope you found something you can put to work ASAP.

If you did, don’t keep it to yourself! Send ecomemailmarketer.com to your favorite DTC marketer and get them in on the action.

Catch you next time!

🤘 Jimmy Kim

PS - Your next best customer might be reading this right now. Want in? Email Jimmy to sponsor this newsletter and more.

Love this newsletter but want to receive it less frequently? Let us know by clicking here!

Every week, a few emails make us stop scrolling and go, wait, that was good.

Last week, it was three very different sends doing the same thing well: making the product feel obvious.

These brands didn’t try to over-explain anything and they didn’t need a giant promo. They just dropped the product into the exact moment someone would want it.

Let's get into what worked.

Also inide:

→ The same retention team, two different Mondays.
→ Every piece of email advice your AI has ever given you was a guess.
→ Stop guessing when to send replenishment emails
→ MANSPOT racked up 17,000 five-star Amazon reviews then went DTC

The same retention team, two different Mondays.

The first Monday is a production meeting. Eight campaigns due this week, three still need heroes, the win-back email got bumped again, and someone is on their fourth rewrite of a subject line. Strategy comes up for five minutes at the end, if there's time.

The second Monday is a library review: which headlines earned their spot last week, which offers are cooling off, what goes on the shelf next. Nobody builds an email anymore; Allan assembles one per subscriber at send time, learning from every send, with your ESP underneath exactly as it was.

Same team. Same list. The only thing that changed is what "working on email" means.

Paid media had its second Monday years ago; retention teams are having theirs now. Dynamic creative email is the new standard in 2026, and the only question is which Monday you're on.

→ Start free at getallan.com

*Sponsored

3 Sends we couldn’t stop thinking about last week

Some emails are easy to admire and easy to forget.

These three weren’t.

Each one found a simple way into the customer’s day: a craving, a credibility moment, a very specific afternoon problem. None of them tried to do too much. They just made the product feel useful, timely, and easy to want.

Here’s what worked, and what’s worth stealing.

1. Brightland: Make the Product Feel Like a Ritual

Subject line: Who doesn’t love bread?

We loved this email because the idea is almost too obvious: bread and olive oil.

That’s it, that's the whole hook (and it's enough).

Instead of building the send around product details, Brightland builds it around the way people actually use the product. Tear bread. Dip it. Toast it. Rescue the piece that’s been sitting on the counter a day too long.

The send makes olive oil feel less like something sitting in your pantry and more like something you suddenly want on the table.

It also keeps the creative focused. Every section ladders back to the same simple behavior, which makes the email feel cohesive without needing a complicated story.

What to steal: If your product already belongs to a ritual, don’t bury that under extra messaging. Lead with the behavior people recognize, then show how your product makes it better.

2. Wizard Wellness: Don’t Just Mention Press. Build Around It.

Subject line: “I spoke to 3 doctors to find the best allergy products that deliver real relief”

A press mention can be easy to waste.

Wizard Wellness had a strong one: a CNN feature naming its product a best allergy product of 2026. Instead of treating that like a badge at the top of the email, the send turns it into the whole reason to pay attention.

The CNN angle gets the click. Then the rest of the email does the harder work: making the product feel credible, understandable, and worth trying.

That’s where the benefit stack matters. Non-drowsy. Drug-free. Clears instantly. Supports breathing. Builds a nasal barrier. The email keeps translating the authority into reasons someone with allergies would actually care.

The “build your ritual” section is a smart second move. Once trust is established, the email expands into related products without feeling like a random upsell.

What to steal: If you have a strong proof point, make it the spine of the send. Use it to earn attention, then use the rest of the email to make the value obvious.

3. Chomps: Own a Specific Moment in the Day

Subject line: The 3 PM Slump is calling

This Chomps email got us because it doesn’t sell “snacks.”

It sells the moment you realize lunch didn’t do enough.

The 3 PM slump is specific, familiar, and just annoying enough to create a real reason to buy. Chomps uses that moment to give the product a job: fuel your afternoon, beat hunger, stay steady until the next meal.

That’s stronger than a generic product push because it gives the customer context. You’re not just being told to buy a protein stick. You’re being reminded of the exact moment you’ll wish you had one.

The tips section helps, too. It gives the email a little utility before moving into the broader product lineup, which keeps the send from feeling like one long shop block.

What to steal: Occasion-based emails work when the occasion is specific. Don’t sell the category, sell the moment your product solves.

What These Sends Got Right

The best thing about these three sends is how direct they are.

One makes a pantry staple feel craveable. One turns authority into a reason to try. One ties the product to a moment customers already recognize.

If you walk away with one thing: strong emails don’t always need a wild concept or a complicated offer. Sometimes they just need to make the product feel obvious at the exact right time.

Every piece of email advice your AI has ever given you was a guess.

You paste in a screenshot, describe your open rates from memory, and the AI does its best with the crumbs. Then it hands you a to-do list, and you leave the chat to rebuild everything by hand in your dashboard.

You have a smart assistant, completely locked outside the building.

Omnisend just handed it a key. Connect ChatGPT or Claude to Omnisend through MCP and your AI can see the real account: live campaigns, segments, automations, revenue.

Ask "why did revenue dip last month?" and it pulls the actual numbers. Then say "now fix it" and it builds the campaign or creates the segment right there, without you ever leaving the conversation.

The advice was never the hard part. Acting on it was.

→ See it working

*Sponsored

Knowledge drop:

The best replenishment timing is already sitting in your data. Chase shares a simple framework for using purchase behavior to trigger reorder emails at the right moment instead of relying on generic best practices.

Twitter tweet

MANSPOT racked up 17,000 five-star Amazon reviews then went DTC

MANSPOT spent four years as Amazon's top-reviewed body trimmer, quietly stacking 17,000 five-star reviews on a $50 product. Now the company is rebranding as Spotmate, launching its own DTC store, and expanding into women's grooming with a new line called LADYSPOT.

Annnnd that’s a wrap for this edition! 

Thanks for hanging with Chase and me, always a pleasure to have you here.

If you found this newsletter helpful (or even just a little fun), don’t keep it to yourself! Share ecomemailmarketer.com with your favorite DTC marketer. Let’s get them on board so they don’t miss next week’s drops.

Remember: Do shit you love.

🤘 Jimmy Kim & Chase Dimond

PS - Your next best customer might be reading this right now. Want in? Email Jimmy to sponsor this newsletter and more.

Love this newsletter but want to receive it less frequently? Let us know by clicking here!

Back-in-stock emails can get boring fast.

The product was gone. Now it’s back. Shop now. (yawn)

If that’s the whole message, you’re missing the better opportunity: giving shoppers a reason to want the product again.

This morning it's a battle of the brands to look at how Sierra Madre and SABO handle restock emails in two very different ways.

Also inside:

→ MUSS ran email on a hope and a prayer. One change later: +13% revenue per recipient.
→ Taima Titanium made nearly $42K calling customers who had already paid.
→ A meme that is sure to keep you up at night...
→ Drop zone: the Cann

MUSS ran email on a hope and a prayer. One change later: +13% revenue per recipient.

What to send, how often, why open rates stayed low: nobody on the team really knew.

After switching from Klaviyo to Omnisend, that changed. The migration took one day, Omnisend's team fixed deliverability issues MUSS didn't know existed, and email and SMS finally lived in one platform.

The results, same two months a year apart:

• Open rates up 41% year-over-year
• Revenue per recipient up 13%
• SMS now runs as a follow-up, sent only to people who didn't open the email

The biggest win wasn't a metric, though. It was finally making decisions with real answers behind them.

→ Read the full story

*Sponsored

Back in Stock isn’t the same hook it used to be (here's what is)

Back-in-stock emails seem like they should be easy.

The product was gone. Now it’s back. Tell people. Add a button. Done.

But the inventory update isn't the hook; the hook is what made the product worth waiting for. The best back-in-stock emails bring that story back to the surface instead of assuming availability alone will drive the click.

To see how different brands approach that, let’s look at two fashion restock emails: one from Sierra Madre, a women’s golf apparel brand, and one from SABO, an Australian women’s apparel brand.

Sierra Madre: Make the Restock Feel Like a Second Chance

Sierra Madre’s email is built around one clear idea: this dress sold out fast, and now you have another shot at it.

The subject line does a lot of the heavy lifting:

The Dress That Sold Out in 24 Hours

That’s stronger than a standard “Back in Stock” subject line because it gives the restock context. It’s not just available again, it was wanted enough to disappear.

The email keeps that focus all the way through. The hero section opens with a huge “Restocked.” headline over a lifestyle image of the Ready Zip Dress, followed by a direct CTA to shop the product. Below that, the email shows the two color options and reinforces the urgency with another line:

Sold out in 24 hours. Back for now.

That phrasing works because it creates pressure without needing a discount, countdown timer, or overworked scarcity language. The product’s past demand becomes the reason to act.

The whole email is tight: one product, one message, one main CTA.

That’s the strength of this approach. Sierra Madre doesn’t ask the reader to browse a whole collection or interpret what matters. It picks the hero product and gives shoppers a clear reason to act before it sells out again.

What brands can take from it: If one product drove the demand, don’t bury that story; lead with the proof. “Back in stock” is the update, but “sold out in 24 hours” is the reason people keep reading.

SABO: Turn the Restock Into a Mini Drop

SABO takes a broader approach.

Instead of focusing on one hero item, the email presents the restock like a small collection drop. The subject line is simple:

Back in Stock Soon

Inside the email, the message is time-based:

Restocking 3PM Wednesday PDT.

This creates anticipation. It isn't framed as “go buy this one thing now.” It feels more like, “Set your alarm. The pieces you wanted are coming back.”

The visual direction supports that. SABO opens with a collage-style hero image featuring multiple pieces, then moves into individual product sections with styled lifestyle photography, product names, star ratings, short descriptions, and “shop” links.

It’s less direct than Sierra Madre’s email, but more expansive. SABO is selling the mood of the restock, not just the inventory update.

That has a tradeoff.

The email gives shoppers more to explore, which is useful when several products are returning at once. But because the attention is split across multiple items, the urgency isn’t as concentrated. The reader has to decide which piece matters most to them.

Still, the structure makes sense for the brand. SABO’s email feels editorial and aspirational. It gives the restock a styled world, then lets the shopper move through it.

What brands can take from it: If you’re restocking multiple products, the email needs more than a polished grid. Give the drop a point of view, whether that’s a clear theme, a specific restock time, or a visual story that makes the whole thing feel intentional.

The Real Difference: Hero Product vs. Curated Drop

The real difference is how each brand creates urgency.

Sierra Madre makes urgency feel narrow and immediate: this specific dress sold out fast, and if you wanted it, this is your second chance.

SABO makes urgency feel scheduled and collective: several favorites are coming back at a set time, so the email feels less like a reminder and more like a small drop.

Neither approach is automatically better. They’re built for different jobs.

Use the Sierra Madre approach when:

• One product is clearly the star

• The item has already proven demand

• The shopper needs a fast, specific CTA

• Scarcity is part of the product story

Use the SABO approach when:

• Multiple pieces are coming back

• The brand’s styling or mood helps sell the products

• The shopper may want to browse

• The restock feels closer to a mini launch or drop

Remember: It’s all about giving your shoppers a reason to care all over again.

Taima Titanium made nearly $42K calling customers who had already paid.

Every retention dollar points at the cart that didn't close.

Taima Titanium, a Wyoming titanium cookware brand, pointed theirs at the customers who did.

Here's the play: a customer checks out, and while the order is still exciting, Outcraft's voice agent calls. A quick thank-you, answers to any questions they have, and a coupon for their next order before hanging up.

The timing is key. Someone who just spent three figures on cookware is already sold on you, they just need a reason to come back before the feeling fades.

For Taima, those calls brought in nearly $42K in extra revenue, with over a third of buyers engaging with the outreach. (The same setup also recovered over $180K from abandoned checkouts, by the way.)

A coupon in an email is a discount. A coupon at the end of a friendly call is a thank-you.

Hear it for yourself → outcraft.ai

*Sponsored

Meme drop:

Sleep tight... don't let your deliverability BITE.

The drop zone:

Cocoon is giving justice to blanket branding

Three founders out of Montana launched Cocoon around a simple idea: blankets shouldn’t feel like an afterthought. The DTC-only brand debuts with 18 colorways across neutrals, seasonal tones, and stripes, priced from $180 to $270.

With the blanket market projected to nearly double to $45.9 billion by 2034, Cocoon is betting shoppers will pay more when the “cozy essential” actually looks good in their space.

For the non-Cann(abis) crowd

Cann built its name on low-dose cannabis drinks, but its new 0mg line skips the THC and goes all in on functional ingredients like electrolytes, L-theanine, magnesium, and passion flower. The first two flavors, Blood Orange Cardamom and Lemon Lavender, are sweetened with agave and ship to all 50 states.

It’s Cann’s clearest play yet for people who want the ritual, flavor, and brand without the high.

Annnnd that’s a wrap for this edition! 

Thanks for hanging with us, it’s always a pleasure to have you here.

If you found this newsletter helpful (or even just a little fun), don’t keep it to yourself! Share ecomemailmarketer.com with your favorite DTC marketer. Let’s get them on board so they don’t miss next week’s drops.

Remember: Do shit you love.

🤘 Jimmy Kim & Chase Dimond

PS - Your next best customer might be reading this right now. Want in? Email Jimmy to sponsor this newsletter and more.

Love this newsletter but want to receive it less frequently? Let us know by clicking here!

Retention is becoming a much bigger job.

It’s not just welcome flows, abandoned carts, and “send another campaign.” Brands are treating retention as a revenue system: one that shapes acquisition, improves repeat purchase, supports forecasting, and gives customers a real reason to stay engaged.

That’s what we covered at Commerce Roundtable’s Retention Roadshow.

We pulled together nine sessions from operators across email, SMS, lifecycle, AI, forecasting, and community-led growth, including Max Sturtevant, Fil Pejic, Devyn Pukteris, Rytis Lauris, Melanie Balke, Anwar Abdul Jawad, Daniel Guerra, Chris Lang, and yours truly Jimmy.

This morning, we're covering a quick guide to each session, plus links to watch the full talks.

Also inside:

→ Your winning email has a shelf life. Nobody told you when it expired.
→ Your first impression is too valuable to waste. Avoid these three mistakes in your welcome flow
→ The best part of Commerce Roundtable San Diego isn't on the agenda
→ Shoppers are ditching brand chatbots for ChatGPT, most companies using AI aren't seeing results, + back-to-school dollars are shifting fast

Your winning email has a shelf life. Nobody told you when it expired.

That layout crushed in April, so it became the template. And every send since, the numbers have slipped a little more. 

Spoiler: Your list isn't tired of email. They're tired of THAT email.

Paid media treats creative fatigue as a law of physics. 

The algorithm watches every combination, retires what's cooling off, and rotates in the next one, per person, automatically. Nobody schedules a meeting about it.

In email, a fading winner has to be noticed, rebuilt, and retested by hand. By the time anyone acts, it's been underperforming for months.

Allan gives email that reflex. 

Your team stocks the shelf with headlines, images, offers, and copy, and Allan builds the right version for every subscriber, getting sharper with every send.

Winners fade. The difference is whether something is ready to take their place.

→ Start your 30-day free trial 

*Sponsored

Commerce Roundtable’s Retention Roadshow: 9 Sessions to Help eCommerce Brands Build Smarter Email & SMS Programs

Retention isn’t just about sending more emails anymore. It’s about building a system that helps customers buy faster, come back sooner, spend more over time, and actually get value from the product they purchased.

We took the Retention Roadshow across the country to New York City, Austin, Miami, and Los Angeles to hear directly from the operators shaping the future of retention marketing.

Those conversations became the foundation of the Roadshow. Across nine sessions, operators shared the frameworks they're using today, from foundational email flows and AI-powered decision making to post-purchase experiences, retention forecasting, and community-led growth.

Below, you’ll find a quick guide to each session, plus links to watch the full talks.

The 2026 Email Flow Playbook: Pop-Ups, Welcome Series, Abandonment & Retention Flows

With Max Sturtevant, Founder of Well Copy

Max Sturtevant gets tactical on the email and SMS systems most brands should have dialed in before chasing advanced segmentation or overly complex journeys.

Rather than chasing increasingly complex automations, Max makes the case for getting the fundamentals right first. Strong pop-ups, high-converting welcome series, faster abandonment flows, and thoughtful post-purchase experiences generate far more impact than layering on dozens of low-volume niche automations.

Max also breaks down why pre-purchase flows need speed, why abandoned cart and checkout emails should put the product front and center, and why post-purchase should focus less on immediate upsells and more on helping customers actually use the product.

Retention Marketing Playbook: AI Testing, Pop-Ups, Offers & Creative to Win BFCM

With Fil Pejic, Founder of Bedford

Fil Pejic’s session is a reminder that the best retention teams don’t just copy what worked for another brand. They test for lift, profit, and actual business impact.

Fil walks through how brands should approach BFCM months before the rush, using AI to analyze tests, compare holdouts, and understand which pop-ups, offers, creative formats, and send strategies actually move the business forward. The point isn’t to test everything. It's to identify the handful of variables that can meaningfully change revenue, margins, and long-term customer value.

This session is especially useful for teams that know they should be testing more, but need a clearer way to prioritize what’s worth testing before peak season.

5 Hidden Patterns That Broke The Standard Industry Playbook on Retention Revenue

With Devyn Pukteris, Head of Lifecycle Marketing at Sweat Pants Agency

Devyn Pukteris challenges some of the standard rules marketers tend to follow around subject lines, creative, CTAs, and campaign structure.

One of the most interesting ideas from this session is that improving one metric can actually hurt another. A subject line that drives fewer opens might attract more qualified clicks. A simpler email might outperform a beautifully designed one. And a campaign focused on one clear action often beats one trying to accomplish five things at once.

Devyn makes the case for questioning assumptions and optimizing for revenue, not vanity metrics.

Connected AI for Email & Retention Marketing: Using MCP to Turn Data Into Actions Faster

With Rytis Lauris, Co-Founder & CEO of Omnisend

Rytis Lauris takes on one of the biggest problems in modern retention marketing: teams have more data than ever, but not enough time to turn that data into decisions.

In this session, Rytis explains the difference between generic AI and connected AI. Generic AI can help write copy, brainstorm win-back ideas, or summarize strategy. Connected AI, using tools like MCP, can access real marketing data, pull context from your systems, identify changes, suggest segments, and help marketers move from question to action faster.

It’s a practical look at how AI becomes more valuable when it’s connected to the systems marketers already use, instead of sitting outside the workflow.

The Anatomy of The Golden Goose: Stop Discount-Led Churn

With Melanie Balke, Founder of The Email Marketers

Melanie Balke’s session reframes retention around one of the most overlooked moments in the customer journey: what happens after someone buys.

Her argument is simple but important. A first purchase doesn’t mean the customer is retained. It means they gave you a chance. If brands acquire customers through aggressive discounts, fail to communicate the real value proposition, or don’t help customers reach the product’s “magic moment,” churn becomes much harder to fix later.

Melanie walks through how acquisition, post-purchase onboarding, first use, second purchase, subscription experience, win-back, and loyalty all connect. This session makes a compelling case that post-purchase is where retention is won or lost. Before asking customers to buy again, brands need to answer a simpler question: Have we helped them succeed with the first purchase yet?

From Retention Calendar to Revenue Plan: Forecasting, Pivots, and Hitting the Number in E-Commerce

With Anwar Abdul Jawad, Prophit Engineer at Common Thread Collective

Anwar Abdul Jawad brings a finance and operating lens to retention marketing, showing why a calendar of sends isn’t the same thing as a revenue plan.

The session breaks down how retention teams can forecast campaign and flow revenue, diagnose gaps, and pivot when performance misses the plan. Anwar explains why forecasting isn’t about perfectly guessing what will happen next month. It’s about setting a target, understanding how you expect to get there, and creating a clear reason to act when the numbers move off track.

For marketers who want retention to have a stronger seat at the revenue table, this session is a quick fire guide for tying email and SMS directly to margin, forecasting, cash flow, and business goals.

An AI System for Accurate Email & SMS Revenue Projections

With Daniel Guerra, Head of Data at New Standard Co

Daniel Guerra goes deep on one of the most underused disciplines in retention: projecting email and SMS revenue before the month starts.

Instead of pulling last month’s revenue, adding a growth target, and hoping the number lands, Daniel shows how teams can build a projection system around real inputs. That includes revenue per recipient, deliverability, segment health, SMS overlap, list growth, inventory, acquisition, seasonality, campaign plans, promo news, and recent flow changes.

His core point: The system works best when AI helps with the math and structure, while the operator decides what’s realistic, what changed, and what needs to happen next.

Retention Redefined: The 8 Steps to Profitable Email & SMS in 2026

With Jimmy Kim of Commerce Roundtable and eCom Email Marketer

Jimmy Kim lays out a broader framework for what profitable retention should look like in 2026.

This session moves beyond the idea that retention is just campaigns and flows. Jimmy breaks down the shift from “send more” to “send smarter,” showing how email and SMS should support the full customer journey: awareness, interest, first purchase, onboarding, second purchase, habit, emotional buy-in, and advocacy.

He also digs into segmentation, zero-party data, SMS strategy, and why personalization only works when you understand where the customer is in their journey.

How Fresh Chile Grew 1M Email Subscribers by Building a Community, Not Discounts

With Chris Lang from Fresh Chile Co and MOVE

Chris Lang closes the series with a different kind of retention lesson: the strongest email lists aren’t built on discounts alone. They’re built on access, trust, story, and community.

Chris shares how Fresh Chile grew to over 1 million email subscribers by giving people a reason to care and a reason to act now. Instead of asking people to “subscribe for updates,” Fresh Chile sells access: first pick of the harvest, limited seasonal drops, recipes, giveaways, education, and a real connection to the Hatch chile community.

Watch the Full Retention Roadshow Series

Each session brings a different angle, but together they point to the same bigger shift: retention marketing is becoming more operational, more measurable, and more central to profitable growth.

Explore the full Retention Roadshow sessions above and start building the retention program your next stage of growth actually needs.

👌 The quick take:

Your first impression is too valuable to waste… avoid these three mistakes in your welcome flow:

The best part of Commerce Roundtable San Diego isn't on the agenda.

Sure, the speakers always hit. But ask anyone who's been before and they'll tell you the same thing: it's the conversations between sessions, the ideas over lunch (and yes, the lunch itself), and the introductions that turn into partnerships.

Commerce Roundtable returns to San Diego September 21-22, bringing together 750+ founders, operators, marketers, and agencies for two days of tactical content and networking all on top of the San Diego bay.

Use code EEMVIP to save 40% on your ticket.

→ Grab your ticket

🍦 DTC Scoop:

Shoppers would rather ask ChatGPT than your chatbot

Customers are three times more likely to use third-party AI tools like ChatGPT or Claude than a brand's own chatbot when they need help shopping. And that gap is growing fast: third-party AI usage doubled in the past year while brand chatbot adoption has been flat since 2022. The big reason? Brand bots can answer questions but can't actually help you buy anything.

90% of companies say they're using AI (about 5% are seeing results)

There's a growing gap between AI adoption and AI actually doing something useful. A new report found that while nearly every company claims to be using AI, only 5 to 6 percent report any significant improvement from it. The takeaway isn't that AI doesn't work but that most companies rushed to adopt it without rethinking the operations around it.

Back-to-school spending is flat, but where the money goes is shifting

Deloitte says families will spend about $557 per student this year, which looks steady until you factor in inflation (it's actually down 6%). The real shift is actually behavioral; kids are filling their own carts now (61% of them), almost a quarter of families are shopping through social and influencer recs, and clothing is winning while tech spending cratered 16%.

Meta built an AI tool that puts your products in shoppers' living rooms

Meta's new Muse Image feature lets shoppers upload a photo of their actual room and see how a brand's products would look in it. It pulls directly from a brand's existing ad catalog, so there's no extra setup required.

Annnnd that’s a wrap for this edition! 

Thanks for hanging with Chase and me. Always a pleasure to have you here.

If you found this newsletter helpful (or even just a little fun), don’t keep it to yourself! Share ecomemailmarketer.com with your favorite DTC marketer. Let’s get them on board so they don’t miss next week’s drops.

Remember: Do shit you love.

🤘 Jimmy Kim & Chase Dimond

PS - Your next best customer might be reading this right now. Want in? Email Jimmy to sponsor this newsletter and more.

Love this newsletter but want to receive it less frequently? Let us know by clicking here!

Educational emails are some of the hardest to get right.

You need enough information to build trust, but not so much that people check out halfway through. The brands that do it well don’t just explain more, they make the lesson easier to follow.

This morning, we’re breaking down an Act+Acre email with a smart strategy, a strong founder note, and a product system that makes sense. But with a few small changes, it could make the education easier to absorb and the next step easier to take.

So let’s take it block by block: what’s working, what’s getting in the way, and how each piece could work a little harder.

Also inside:
→ There's a more profitable version of your email program (here's how to unlock it)
→ Meta did this years ago. Your ESP never got the memo.
→ Laneige's secret weapon that makes every SMS impossible to ignore
→ 5 New retention marketing job ops

Alright, grab a coffee and let's kick off our Monday. 👇

There's a more profitable version of your email program (here's how to unlock it)

And it usually isn't your copy holding it back. It's personalization (the real kind) not a first name and a birthday coupon once a year. The emails pulling big numbers are the ones triggered by what a customer just did, making every shopper feel like the only one, every time.

On July 23, Omnisend’s running a free session on exactly that. You'll learn how real personalization lifts lifetime value, and how to scale it without burying your team in manual work.

→ Register free

*Sponsored

This Act+Acre email has a smart idea buried in too much copy

Educational emails only work if people can actually learn from them.

Act+Acre has a smart idea here: your scalp has a type, and once you know what it is, you can build a routine that actually fits your needs. It's a strong hook, and it naturally leads into the product lineup.

The problem is the email makes you work a little too hard to connect the dots.

The subject line gets your attention. The hero image looks great. Helen's note adds credibility. But the most valuable part of the email, understanding which product is right for which scalp type, gets buried in a wall of copy instead of being easy to scan.

The lesson isn't about adding more information. It's about making the information you already have easier to absorb.

Subject Line

Before:

Your Scalp Has a Type. Here's How to Find It.

After:

Your scalp type decides what goes on first

Why it works:
The original subject line is clear, but it sounds a little like a quiz intro. The stronger version adds a reason to care: your scalp type doesn’t just describe your concern, it changes the order of your routine. That makes the email feel more useful before it’s even opened.

Block 1: Hero

Before:

Headline:
Your scalp has a type. Here's how to find it.

Supporting details:
Helen Reavey
July 2026

CTA:
Shop All

Image:
Four scalp serums shown beneath the hero.

After:

Headline:
Your scalp has a type. Here's how to find it.

Image:
Keep the four-serum image directly under the headline, but remove the owner name, date, and standalone Shop All button from the top.

Image CTA:
Add Shop All inside the image area, or as a small overlay/button tied directly to the product shot.

Why it works:
The headline is already strong, so it doesn’t need to be rewritten. The bigger issue is that the top of the email spends precious space on details that don’t help the reader understand or act faster. Removing the owner name, date, and standalone button lets the headline and product image connect more quickly. If Shop All stays, it works harder inside the image because it’s attached to the products instead of floating beside the intro like a generic navigation button.

Block 2: Founder Note

Before:

After:

Keep this section as-is.

Why it works:
This is one of the strongest parts of the email. The founder voice gives the message credibility, and the progression is clear: start with the customer’s question, explain the scalp-type idea, introduce the Discovery Set, then move into the routine guidance. It doesn’t need a rewrite.

It just needs the section after it to become easier to scan, so the reader doesn’t lose momentum once the product recommendations begin.

Block 3: Scalp Type Breakdown

Before:

After:

Turn this section into visual product blocks instead of a text-only list.

Headline:
Build your routine by concern

Each block should show the product image, use the product’s color as an accent, and include a small benefit tag.

Stem Cell Scalp Serum
Tag: For thinning-looking hair
Use as the first step for thinning concerns.

Daily Hydro™ Scalp Serum
Tag: For dry, tight scalps
Layer when hydration is the priority.

Cooling Scalp Serum
Tag: For sensitivity + relief
Layer second when the scalp needs calming.

Oily Scalp Serum
Tag: For oil control
Start here when excess oil is the main concern.

Then show the common pairings underneath:

Thinning + Dryness
Stem Cell → Daily Hydro

Thinning + Sensitivity
Stem Cell → Cooling

Oily + Sensitivity
Oily Scalp → Cooling

Dryness + Sensitivity
Daily Hydro → Cooling

Why it works:
The original breakdown is useful, but it’s hard to scan because every recommendation has the same visual weight. Product images and benefit tags would let the reader understand the system faster: what each serum is for, where it fits, and which one comes first.

Using each product’s color inside its block would also create a clearer visual map, so the recommendations feel easier to follow and less like a wall of instructions. This matters because the email is selling a personalized routine. The design should make that personalization feel simple.

Block 4: Sale Message

Before:

After:

Keep this section as-is.

Why it works:
The offer is already straightforward and connected to the Discovery Set, so rewriting it would create work where there isn’t much of a problem. The bigger issue is what happens right before it: the routine recommendations are useful, but they need a more visual structure so the reader can understand the products faster. Once that section is easier to scan, the sale message can stay simple and do what it already does well.

Education only works when it’s easy to scan

The thinking behind this email is strong. It has personalization, education, and product discovery all working together. The problem is that educational emails only work if people can take in the information quickly.

When it’s easier to understand the recommendation, it’s easier to trust it. And when it’s easier to trust, it’s easier to click.

Sometimes the biggest upgrade isn’t adding more content. It’s making the content you already have easier to learn from.

Meta did this years ago. Your ESP never got the memo.

We dare you to try this…

Open a campaign in your ESP, what do you find? One layout, one headline, one hero, scheduled and shipped to every person in that segment

Now open Meta Ads Manager. 

There's not just one ad sitting in there. There's a library  of parts: formats, angles, CTAs, offers. 

The algorithm chooses which format, angle, and copy is best suited for each person it shows an ad to.

Same brand. Same budget. Two completely different operating systems.

Meta marketers stock libraries while email marketers build campaigns from the ground up.

Allan brings the library model to email. You stock the shelf with headlines, heroes, copy, offers. Allan assembles, per send, per subscriber.

10 × 5 × 4 × 3 = 600 possible emails. And you only created 22 assets.

→ Start free at getallan.com

*Sponsored

Read receipts:

Getting a text from Laneige feels like getting a mini campaign in your inbox. Every send is packed with eye candy. The graphics are vibrant, the product is impossible to miss, and the creative makes you want to click through before you even read the copy.

The Hiring Vault

• CRM Manager, Los Angeles Metropolitan Area: FabFitFun

• CRM Program Lead, Home Gardens, CA: iHerb

• Lifecycle Marketing Manager, Santa Monica, CA: Hawke Media

• Lifecycle Marketing Manager, los angeles, CA: Cotton Citizen

• Retention Manager, Remote: pearl west

That's a wrap for today!

Appreciate you hanging with Chase and me. We hope you found something you can put to work ASAP.

If you did, don’t keep it to yourself! Send ecomemailmarketer.com to your favorite DTC marketer and get them in on the action.

Catch you next time!

🤘 Jimmy Kim

PS - Your next best customer might be reading this right now. Want in? Email Jimmy to sponsor this newsletter and more.

Love this newsletter but want to receive it less frequently? Let us know by clicking here!

Everyone loves to say “just run a sale” like it’s the easiest thing in the world.

And sure, you can always slap 20% off on the site and call it a day. But a good sale should do more than create a temporary spike. It should help customers make a decision, move the right products, protect your margins, and give the whole thing a little more shape than “please buy this before Sunday.”

So this morning, we’re breaking down six sale structures from real brand emails and the strategies you can steal for your next run.

Also inside:
→ Most brands turn on Outcraft for abandoned carts (spoiler: that’s just scratching the surface)
→ There’s a cost hiding in your email program that shouldn’t exist.
→ What if you cut 80% of the words from your next email?
→ Java Factory is dropping 52 new coffee flavors in 52 consecutive weeks

Most brands turn on Outcraft for abandoned carts (spoiler: that’s just scratching the surface)

Nobody likes a cold call. Good thing this isn't one.

This shopper was on your site two minutes ago. Cart full, card practically out.

But something stopped them… a shipping, sizing, a coupon that wouldn't apply.

A call right then isn't an interruption. It's the clerk walking over: "Can I help with anything?"

Outcraft's voice agent knows what's in the cart, answers the actual question, and closes the sale on the spot. No "reply Y." No link to click later.

Email nudges, SMS reminds, but voice converses.

🎧 Hear the difference → outcraft.ai

*Sponsored

The Anatomy of a Sale: 6 Offer ideas you should steal

A good sale isn’t just slapping a 20% off on and keeping your fingers crossed.

The best offers have a purpose. They help customers make a decision, give them a reason to buy now, and still make sense for the business behind the scenes.

Below are six different types of offers, using real email examples, and how to think about each one before you build your own.

1. The Straight Percentage-Off Sale

Bonobos keeps this one simple: 30% off summer essentials. The fixed rate remains old faithful because the customer understands the offer immediately. There’s no complicated threshold, no bundle math, no extra explanation needed. Just a timely category, a clear discount, and a reason to shop.

This kind of sale is especially useful when you want to move seasonal product or spotlight a specific group of items. Plus, the “summer essentials” angle gives the discount a point of view, which makes it feel more curated than a blanket sale.

Before you run it:

• Make sure the discount works with your margins.

• Be clear about what’s included and excluded.

• Don’t train customers to only buy when you’re on sale.

How to pull it off:

• Discount one category instead of the whole site.

• Tie the offer to a seasonal moment or customer need.

• Use product grids to show exactly what’s included.

2. The Tiered Discount

Native uses a tiered structure: 20% off $35+, 25% off $50+, and 30% off $60+. This is a smart way to encourage customers to spend a little more without making the offer feel pushy. The more they add to cart, the better the deal gets.

This works particularly well for products people naturally buy in multiples. Body wash, deodorant, skincare, candles, pantry items, and accessories are all good fits because adding one more item feels easy.

Before you run it:

• Set thresholds around your actual product prices.

• Make the next tier feel reachable.

• Know your average order value before choosing the numbers.

How to pull it off:

• Set the first tier near your current average order value.

• Add cart messaging like, “You’re $10 away from 25% off.”

• Create bundles or product rows that help people reach the next tier.

3. The Gift-With-Purchase Offer

Ciele’s friends and family sale uses gifts at different spend levels: $75+, $100+, and $125+. This is a great example of adding value without relying only on a discount. The customer still gets a deal, but the brand protects the perception of its pricing.

Gift-with-purchase offers work because they feel a little more special. They can also be a great way to introduce customers to smaller products, accessories, samples, or items with high perceived value.

Before you run it:

• The gift still has a real cost.

• Inventory needs to be watched closely.

• The rules should be obvious: spend level, gift type, and whether it’s while supplies last.

How to pull it off:

• Offer one gift at a minimum spend.

• Create better gifts for higher thresholds.

• Choose gifts that naturally complement the purchase.

4. The Archive Sale

Malbon’s archive sale is a good reminder that positioning matters. “Archive sale” sounds much more intentional than “old stuff we need to clear out.” It gives past-season product a little story and makes the shopping experience feel like a discovery moment.

This type of sale is especially useful for apparel, accessories, home goods, or any brand with strong visual identity. Adding “new styles added” also gives the brand a reason to email again without simply repeating the same sale message.

Before you run it:

• Limited sizing or inventory should be expected and communicated.

• Navigation matters because shoppers may need to browse.

• The sale page should feel curated, not chaotic.

How to pull it off:

• Build a dedicated archive or last-chance collection.

• Sort by category, size, or customer favorite.

• Send follow-up emails when new items are added or inventory’s almost gone.

5. The Bundle Offer

Cocokind promotes its “biggest bundle ever” with 32% off. Bundles work because they give the customer a complete solution, not just a cheaper product. Instead of asking someone to pick one item, you’re helping them buy the whole routine.

This kind of offer is especially strong for skincare, wellness, food, home, and gifting because the products make more sense together. It can also help increase order value while still feeling genuinely useful to the customer.

Before you run it:

• The bundle should feel intentional, not random.

• Make the savings easy to understand.

• Make sure the hero products are strong enough to carry the set.

How to pull it off:

• Build bundles around routines, outcomes, or occasions.

• Show the original price next to the bundle price.

• Use copy that explains why the products belong together.

6. The BOGO or Free-Gift Choice Reducer

Pela’s offer combines BOGO with a free gift and points customers toward best sellers. That last part is important. When a customer has too many options, the sale can actually make the decision harder. Pela solves that by saying, essentially, “Start here.”

BOGO-style offers work well for products people may want more than one of, like phone cases, socks, accessories, gifts, or consumables. Pairing the offer with best sellers makes the path to purchase feel easier and less overwhelming.

Before you run it:

• BOGO can get expensive quickly.

• Be clear about which item’s free or discounted.

• Too many choices can slow people down, even during a sale.

How to pull it off:

• Create a best-sellers collection for the offer.

• Use BOGO for products with healthy margins or repeat-purchase behavior.

• Add simple guidance like “Not sure where to start? Shop customer favorites.”

The Sale Is the Strategy

A sale should have a job.

Sometimes the job’s to clear inventory. Sometimes it’s to increase average order value. Sometimes it’s to introduce people to a routine, reward loyal customers, or make a crowded product catalog easier to shop.

Before choosing your offer, ask:

• What are we trying to move?

• What behavior do we want to encourage?

• Can we afford this offer?

• Does the customer understand it quickly?

• Does the offer make shopping easier?

The best sale isn’t always the biggest discount. It’s the one that makes sense for your customer, your products, and your margins.

There’s a cost hiding in your email program that shouldn’t exist.

Thirty campaigns a month, each one briefed, built, and QA'd from scratch. But if you look closely, we’d bet they're all built from the same handful of ingredients.

Turns out you’re not paying for thirty ideas. You're paying to rebuild one email thirty times over.

Paid media teams stopped working this way years ago. They build creative libraries once and let the system assemble the right combination for every audience.

Allan brings that to email. 

Your team stocks the shelf with headlines, images, offers, and copy, and Allan builds the right version for every subscriber, getting sharper with every send.

Same team, same hours, a lot more than thirty emails.

→ Start free at getallan.com

*Sponsored

Knowledge drop:

What if you cut 80% of the words from your next email? Jimmy shares the AI prompt he uses to uncover the core message hiding beneath all the filler.

Twitter tweet

DTC wins: Java Factory is dropping 52 new coffee flavors in 52 consecutive weeks

Any typical brand would launch a flavor and call it a day. Java Factory said they'll do you 52 better.

They're going for an actual Guinness World Record and built the whole thing as a DTC subscription you can buy by the season or the full year. The flavors are ridiculous in the best way (Grandma's Candy, Jelly Donut, Saturday Morning Cartoons). A gutsy retention play dressed up like a product launch.

Annnnd that’s a wrap for this edition! 

Thanks for hanging with Chase and me, always a pleasure to have you here.

If you found this newsletter helpful (or even just a little fun), don’t keep it to yourself! Share ecomemailmarketer.com with your favorite DTC marketer. Let’s get them on board so they don’t miss next week’s drops.

Remember: Do shit you love.

🤘 Jimmy Kim & Chase Dimond

PS - Your next best customer might be reading this right now. Want in? Email Jimmy to sponsor this newsletter and more.

Love this newsletter but want to receive it less frequently? Let us know by clicking here!

Nobody's paying closer attention to your brand than the person who just bought from it.

They just trusted you with their money, the product's on the way, and they're actually watching their inbox to see what comes next. What you send in that window does more for repeat sales than almost anything else you'll mail all month.

Today we're getting into what CAKES gets right about welcoming a new buyer, where the flow leaves money on the table, and what happens when your post-purchase automation and your campaign calendar aren't really talking to each other.

Let's break it down.

Also inside:
→ How 351,000 fewer emails became Daily Spoon's smartest marketing move
→ This is what it sounds like when a $500 abandoned cart picks up the phone. 👇
→ Three new product drops just in time for summer

How 351,000 fewer emails became Daily Spoon's smartest marketing move

Most brands assume the answer to flat revenue is sending more campaigns.

But Demo Agency did an Uno reverse when it came to Daily Spoon.

They built the automation first, tightened up segmentation, and focused on sending the right message instead of more messages.

The payoff:

• 351,000 fewer emails sent
• 51.5% average open rate
• A stronger retention engine built to drive repeat purchases

Turns out better targeting beats a bigger send button every time.

→ Read the full comeback story

*Sponsored

CAKES body: The hidden risk of mixing post-purchase and promotional emails

CAKES body makes the stuff that solves under-the-outfit problems: nipple covers, body tape, sticky bras, all wrapped in a cheeky, confident voice that's all their own. Here's everything that hit one new customer's inbox after they bought a single CAKES Tape kit, from the order confirmation through the next two-and-a-half weeks, and where we'd tighten it.

1. Order #5014139 confirmed

Focus: Order confirmation, the first impression after checkout.

Why This Works:

• It opens like the brand, not a receipt. "Time to celebrate, your CAKES are on the way" sets a fun tone before you've even scrolled to the order details.

• The 60-minute edit window is a lovely touch. Giving people an hour to catch a wrong address saves them a panic and saves CAKES a support email.

• Everything you'd want to check is right there, what you bought, the discount, the total, plus a "you saved $4.80" line that feels good on the way out.

• One clear button, "View your order," with a soft "or visit our store" underneath. Nothing's fighting for the tap.

Opportunities for Improvement:

• It's a product you'll use up, and there's no hint of what comes next. A quick "tomorrow we'll show you how to wear it" would get people watching for the next email.

• Nobody points you toward what goes with Tape. This is one of the most-opened emails you'll ever send, so a gentle "you might also love the Cleavage Bra" wouldn't hurt.

• "...you make them iconic" is a great line, and it's stuck near the bottom. Let it do more up top.

2. Your CAKES Tape is on the way

Focus: Shipping notice that doubles as a how-to-use guide.

Why This Works:

• This is the smartest email in the whole flow. Instead of a bare tracking link, it walks you through how to actually apply the tape, prep, apply, secure, layer, so it works the first time you try it.

• That matters for a product like this. Most tape disappointment is just user error, and CAKES heads it off before the package even lands.

• Then it shows you five ways to style it. A plain utility product suddenly turns into an outfit idea, and you start picturing all the tops you could wear it under.

• It makes you want more without asking. Once you've seen five looks, one kit doesn't feel like enough.

Opportunities for Improvement:

• It goes out as the shipping email, so you're reading how to use something that isn't in your hands yet. The same email timed to delivery day would land when you can actually try it.

• All those styling ideas, and nothing to shop off them. A soft "loved the megalift look? the Cleavage Bra nails it" would turn browsing into a second order.

• The best-sellers list at the bottom is the same one everybody gets. After a Tape order, it could point straight at what goes with Tape.

3. What we wore to the Hot Pink Party

Focus: Cause-marketing brand story, the first campaign a new buyer gets.

Why This Works:

• It leads with a story instead of a product. A night out for breast cancer research, the whole team in CAKES, real money raised, that builds a kind of loyalty no discount can buy.

• The numbers make you believe it: over $1.5M donated, a $400,000 fund, a commitment running into 2027. Specifics are what keep cause emails from feeling like a feel-good photo op.

• "If you've ever worn CAKES, you've already been part of that" is a lovely line. It makes you part of the good thing instead of a spectator.

• It still gives you somewhere to go, a soft "shop best sellers" and a "learn more," without turning the cause into a pitch.

Opportunities for Improvement:

• For someone who literally just bought, there's no "hey, you're part of this now." Tying it back to the purchase would make it hit even harder.

• The "see what the team wore" link sends you to Instagram, but there's not a single photo in the email, so the fun part happens somewhere else.

• It's only day three. Great email, but worth asking whether a new buyer needs a cause story this fast, or whether a little more help with the thing they just bought would serve them better.

4. BIG NEWS. ITTY BITTY TRIANGLES.

Focus: Product launch for smaller cup sizes.

Why This Works:

• You know instantly if it's for you. "For cup sizes A-C" right up top means the right people lean in and nobody wonders about fit.

• It names a real annoyance, tiny swim tops that come with giant foam pads, and says "we fixed that." That makes it feel like an answer, not just another product.

• It tells you exactly which one to grab: Grippy for tiny swim tops, Sticky for minimal tops. No guessing.

• It doesn't forget the other end of the range. "Got a little more up top?" with a "find your size" link keeps the DDD+ crowd in it too.

Opportunities for Improvement:

• This person just bought Tape, and nothing connects the two. "Since you grabbed Tape, here's the swim version" would make a broadcast feel like it was meant for them.

• It leans on the photos to do the selling, with no quick "here's why these beat your usual covers" for someone still new to the lineup.

• It's a launch with no reason to hurry. Even a soft "new, and the first run won't last" would give a nudge to act now.

5. UP TO 30% OFF BUNDLES STARTS NOW

Focus: Summer Kickoff bundle sale.

Why This Works:

• The bundles come with a reason to buy, a Summer Starter Kit for your whole rotation, a Gym & Swim Bundle for sweat and water. The discount has a purpose attached.

• The savings are real and specific: "5 pairs, save $79," "30% off." That beats a vague "sale's on" every time.

• "No codes. No catch. Just a little something to kick off your summer" is exactly the brand's easy, no-games voice. You believe it.

• Signed by Taylor and Casey, so even a sale email still feels like it's coming from the people who built the thing.

Opportunities for Improvement:

• It lands ten days after this person paid near full price for a single kit, with no wink at the fact they're already a customer. That's the kind of thing that makes a fresh buyer wish they'd waited.

• A bundle built around what they already have would land better than a generic one. They've got Tape, so the natural pitch is "here's what completes your set."

• "Up to 30% off" buries the actual deal. Lead with the single best number and it hits harder.

6. Please review your latest purchase from CAKES body

Focus: Post-purchase review request.

Why This Works:

• The timing's right. About two weeks out is long enough to have actually worn the thing before anyone asks what you thought.

• You can leave a rating without leaving the email, the stars are right there, so it's a single tap instead of a trip to a form.

• The copy is warm and easy. "Whether it's one sentence or a little story" makes it feel like no big deal, so more people actually do it.

• It frames the ask around helping someone else, not "rate us," which is a much nicer reason to reply.

Opportunities for Improvement:

• There's nothing in it for you, and no follow-up. A little thank-you or a "share a photo" nudge would get more reviews and more real content to use.

• A five-star and a one-star go to the exact same place. Happy people could be pointed toward telling a friend, unhappy ones toward support, and right now neither happens.

• It's the warmest a customer will feel all flow, and it ends at the review. That goodwill could carry a gentle "here's what pairs with your Tape" or a thank-you treat.

7. WELCOME TO MIAMI

Focus: Swim Week brand moment with use-case product routing.

Why This Works:

• It sells the whole lineup through one event. Each product gets matched to an outfit problem, tiny 'kinis, deep plunges, open backs, so the catalog feels picked-for-you instead of dumped on you.

• The voice carries it. "Nothing sticks where it shouldn't" and "you don't need a Swim Week invite to dress like you're ready for the runway" are confident, funny, and unmistakably CAKES.

• It's content and commerce at once. The behind-the-scenes Swim Week angle gives you a reason to open, the product matching gives you a reason to shop.

• It puts the new launches in a real context, Itty Bitty Triangles and the Cleavage Bra tied to actual Miami outfits instead of just announced again.

Opportunities for Improvement:

• It's a wall of text. The outfit-by-outfit breakdown is great, but it needs a photo of each piece in the look to deliver on the styling promise.

• For someone who just bought Tape, there's no "you've already got the first piece" hook to make the rest feel like the next step.

• One button for the entire lineup. Letting people jump straight to the product for their problem would save a click.

What CAKES body gets right

• The transactional emails still sound human. A receipt and a shipping notice are the easiest emails to phone in, and CAKES makes both feel like the brand.

• The shipping email teaches before it sells. Showing people how to use and style what they bought is the best move in the flow, and it pays off in fewer returns and more wear.

• The review ask is timed and easy. Two weeks out, stars in the email, a friendly reason to reply. That's how you actually get reviews instead of crickets.

• It always sounds like CAKES. Receipt or Swim Week invite, the voice never slips, and that consistency is worth a lot.

Where execution could sharpen

• It forgets it's selling something you use up. Tape runs out, and there's no plan to be there when it does. Setting up that next-order moment is the biggest long-term miss.

• Nothing knows what you bought. The launch, the sale, Swim Week, all of it treats a brand-new Tape buyer like a cold subscriber. A few "since you got Tape" threads would lift every one of them.

• The flow and the calendar don't talk. A big sale lands ten days after this person paid full price, and nobody connects the dots. A little coordination would spare them that "should've waited" feeling.

• The warmest moments get left on the table. The confirmation, the styling email, the review request, these are the moments people are most into you, and each one stops at the basics.

CAKES body pairs a strong post-purchase flow with a crowded campaign calendar

The foundation here is strong. The post-purchase flow does a great job educating customers and building trust, but overlapping campaign emails create some unnecessary friction. With stronger segmentation and better alignment between automations and campaigns, every email would feel like a more natural next step toward the customer's next purchase.

Key takeaways for brands

• Make your shipping email do double duty. A how-to-use guide cuts returns and gets people wearing the product right the first time.

• If you sell something people use up, plan for the next order before they run out. It's the easiest repeat sale there is, and the one most flows skip.

• Tie your campaigns back to what someone bought. "Since you just got X" beats a generic blast every time.

• Line up your automated flow with your campaign calendar so a fresh buyer doesn't get full-price-then-discount whiplash.

• Ask for the review after people have actually used the product, and put the stars in the email so it's one tap.

• Use your warmest moments, the confirmation, the shipping email, the review, for a soft, relevant nudge, not just the basics.

This is what it sounds like when a $500 abandoned cart picks up the phone. 👇

You’ve read a thousand takes on abandoned cart recovery. This one you get to hear.

It’s a recording of an AI voice agent calling a shopper who just abandoned checkout.

It asks what stopped them, answers the delivery question a 10% code never could, and takes the sale, right there on the phone.

We were skeptical of a machine on the phone too. Then we listened. It sounds like a real conversation happening at the EXACT moment the shopper almost bought.

The agent is built by Outcraft, a voice layer for ecommerce brands. It picks up where your email and SMS flows leave off… and when carts run four figures, one save pays for it.

🎧 Listen to the call, then decide → outcraft.ai

*Sponsored

Meme drop:

Don't mess with us on attribution. ✋

The drop zone:

A collab made in girly-pop heaven

Sol de Janeiro just crossed into fitness. The Brazilian body care brand teamed up with Bala on a limited-edition set of weighted bangles in their signature colorway. It's a fun brand crossover that makes a lot of sense when you think about it. $55, part of a bigger campaign dropping July 14.

Juni dropped a summer lemonade trio

Jay Shetty's sparkling adaptogen brand keeps expanding. The new summer lemonades (Strawberry, Watermelon, and a Lemonade Iced Tea) lean into the "functional but actually refreshing" lane the brand has been building since launch. They've now hit 10 straight quarters of triple-digit growth and landed in 8,000+ stores. Hard to ignore that trajectory.

Kreatures of Habit put creatine in a protein bar

That's it, that's the the whole pitch (and it works). The DTC fitness brand spent two years developing a bar that stacks performance ingredients into something you'd actually want to eat, and it just landed at Sprouts.

Annnnd that’s a wrap for this edition! 

Thanks for hanging with us, it’s always a pleasure to have you here.

If you found this newsletter helpful (or even just a little fun), don’t keep it to yourself! Share ecomemailmarketer.com with your favorite DTC marketer. Let’s get them on board so they don’t miss next week’s drops.

Remember: Do shit you love.

🤘 Jimmy Kim & Chase Dimond

PS - Your next best customer might be reading this right now. Want in? Email Jimmy to sponsor this newsletter and more.

Love this newsletter but want to receive it less frequently? Let us know by clicking here!

We all know someone who's disappointed with AI.

"It just gives generic advice."

"It sounds like every other marketing article."

"It doesn't really understand our business."

And they could totally be right, but not because the model's bad. Without context it doesn't know your campaigns, your segments, or what's actually happening inside your email program.

This morning, we're breaking down the missing link between your AI and better email marketing.

Also inside:
→ Hey [First Name] was never personalization.
→ What you recommend after checkout matters just as much as what got added to the cart.
→ You and me both know why you haven't switched yet...
→ Convenience is making or breaking conversions, legacy brands are chasing the women's market, and NRF wants Congress to tackle swipe fees.

Hey [First Name] was never personalization.

For twenty years we've called it that. A first name in the subject line. A "we picked these for you" block that's the same six products for everyone. 

But none of that actually changed the email.

Meanwhile Meta ads have been matching a different creative to every person who scrolls past, quietly learning who responds to what. 

That's where Allan comes in. 

Upload your headlines, creative, offers, and copy. Allan assembles the combination most likely to convert for each subscriber. 

Real personalization was never about knowing their name. It was about knowing what makes them buy.

Start a 30-day free trial, creative included → getallan.com

*Sponsored

The quick take: What you recommend after checkout matters just as much as what got added to the cart.

The missing link between your AI and better email marketing

Everyone's using AI for email now. It spins up subject line variations, digs through competitor research, and hands you the skeleton of a welcome series so you're not staring at a blank page. That part's solved.

But ask your AI "what should I do with my email program this week" and you get the same top-10 list everyone else gets. The one that fits a $2M skincare brand and a $50M supplement brand exactly the same, because it fits nobody.

That's not AI being bad at its job. It's AI with no context. It doesn't know your campaigns, your segments, or your revenue, so it gives you advice built for a business that doesn't exist.

There's a fix for that context gap, and it comes down to one connection most marketers haven't set up yet. Here's how it works.

The real split: toy vs tool

Used one way, AI is a toy. You type a prompt, get a generic block of copy, and paste it in. That works for warming up a blank page, but it's useless when you need to decide what to actually do next.

Used the other way, it's a tool. Same AI, completely different job. Instead of "write me a welcome email," you're asking "look at my last seven days and tell me what to fix." The first is guessing. The second is reading what your data is telling you.

The difference isn't the model, it's whether the model can see your data.

Where AI actually saves you time right now

Reporting, by a mile. Pulling numbers, comparing weeks, summarizing what happened. That used to be a two-hour Monday ritual. With the right setup it's two minutes, and your team stops dreading the spreadsheet grind and gets to be creative again.

The bigger unlock is the follow-up question. Pulling the report is easy. Knowing what to ask next is the hard part, and this is where a connected AI earns its spot. "Open rate dropped 4% last week. Want me to check which segment drove that?" Now you've got a junior analyst that never gets tired.

A few other places it's legit today:

• Briefs. Voice-note what you want, get back a structured brief for your designer in 60 seconds.

• Audits. It won't do the audit for you, but it'll clunk through screenshots and flows and surface patterns you'd have to sit and stare at.

• Subject lines. Write three you like, then ask for 15 more in a few different voices. Most will be trash, but one or two will beat what you started with.

The ceiling every AI conversation hits

Reporting, briefs, audits, subject lines: every one of those wins runs into the same wall. The AI doesn't know your numbers.

It doesn't know what your campaigns did last week, which segments are converting, or what your customers have bought before. So you copy, paste, screenshot, and describe what you're looking at, hoping for something useful, and what you get back is usually generic.

That's the whole problem, and it's exactly what MCP solves.

What MCP actually is

Skip the acronym. MCP is a secure bridge between your AI tool and your email platform. That's it.

Without it, you're the bridge. You're exporting reports, filtering by date, downloading a table, pasting it into ChatGPT, going back for more. Each trip is three or five minutes. It adds up until analyzing your own data becomes the thing you keep putting off.

With it, your AI goes straight to the source. "Pull my last 90 days of campaign performance and tell me my best and worst sends" runs in under a minute against real, live data, with no screenshots and no hallucinated numbers.

Setup is not the technical nightmare the name suggests. In ChatGPT, find Omnisend in the app directory and click connect. In Claude, add a custom connector with one URL. No API keys, no config.

One real tip: use a thinking or reasoning model, not the free instant one. The fast models will connect to your data and then skim right past half of it, then hand you a confident wrong answer. The reasoning models actually read what comes back.

Three prompts to start with

Once your data's connected, start here.

The weekly snapshot. "Show me the last seven days: revenue, orders, email and SMS performance, top campaigns. Then give me the five things I need to know." This is also your trust test. Check the numbers against your dashboard so you know the connection is solid.

The upsell finder. "Analyze my recent buyers and engagement data, then recommend three upsell segments I should create. Tell me why each one, and give me the best campaign angle for it." This is the one that finds revenue you already earned and forgot about.

The repeat-winner play. "Look at my top campaigns from the last 90 days. What subject lines, offers, and segments should I run again next month?" Stop guessing what worked from memory. 

Let it find the pattern.

For any of these, ask for five when you only need two. Then you pick. That's the whole game.

Where humans stay in the loop

Here's the simple rule: if it's reversible, let AI take a swing, and if it's irreversible, humans only.

Drafting a campaign is reversible, and so is pulling a report. Sending to your whole list is not, and neither is suppressing 20% of your file. Once those go out, getting them back is hard or impossible.

Add one layer to that: high-stakes reversible is still a human call. A flagship launch, anything touching pricing, anything legal or compliance. Technically you can undo it. The cost of getting it wrong is too high to hand off.

And brand voice stays yours, always. AI has a default register that's slightly cheerful, pretty safe, and forgettable, and your customers can smell it from a mile away. If you're running 5 or 50 brands, it doesn't natively know that brand A and brand B sound nothing alike. You have to teach it, and you still review everything it writes, because it drifts.

If you're handing every send to an autonomous agent with no human at the gate, you're playing with fire. One bad send can torch your deliverability and your revenue in an afternoon.

The missing link between AI and better email marketing

The point was never to have AI write your emails. The real value is that it helps you think faster about what's happening inside your program, and those are two very different jobs.

In this setup you're the one in charge, not the AI. It preps the work, finds the patterns, and hands you the options, and you're still the one who approves, manages, and decides. Give it your context and it makes a good marketer faster and a great one dangerous.

Three quick wins to steal:

• Connect your AI to your real data before asking it anything strategic

• Run the weekly snapshot prompt every Monday instead of building the report by hand

• Keep a human on every send, suppression, and launch, no exceptions

You and me both know why you haven't switched yet...

There's a reason you're still logging into a platform you've complained about for a year, and it has nothing to do with price or features. It's the years of flows, segments, and forms you'd have to rebuild from scratch to leave, so you stay, quietly resentful, clicking renew.

But Omnisend just took that off your plate.

Their team rebuilds all of it for you, moving your flows, segments, and forms across so switching stops being a project and becomes a handoff. And right now, making the move comes with 35% off.

👉 Make your move

*Sponsored

🍦 DTC Scoop:

Shoppers are punishing brands that get convenience wrong

Two new surveys put numbers on something DTC brands already feel: 70% of online shoppers have abandoned a cart over shipping costs, and 67% say return fees make them less likely to buy at all. 56% say retailers aren't upfront enough about fulfillment. The kicker: marketplaces like Amazon and Walmart are now the top discovery channel for new brands at 44%. Convenience isn't a perk anymore and the brands that are inconsistent or unclear about it are losing.

Levi's, The North Face, and Columbia are all betting big on women

Legacy apparel brands that have historically skewed male are pouring resources into women's. The US women's apparel market is roughly $159 billion vs. $89 billion for men's. VF Corp's CEO thinks The North Face alone could double from $4B to $8B by expanding with women, and Columbia says its womenswear is growing faster than men's. Interesting signal for DTC brands too: if you're skewing heavily toward one gender, you might be leaving real money on the table.

NRF laid out retail's 6 biggest policy priorities for 2026

The one that matters most for DTC brands: credit card swipe fees hit a record $198.25 billion last year, up 80% since the pandemic. NRF is pushing Congress to create more competition among payment networks to bring those costs down, and 75% of voters are behind it. The other big one is data privacy. Right now every state has its own rules, and NRF wants a single federal standard so brands aren't juggling a dozen different compliance frameworks.

Annnnd that’s a wrap for this edition! 

Thanks for hanging with Chase and me. Always a pleasure to have you here.

If you found this newsletter helpful (or even just a little fun), don’t keep it to yourself! Share ecomemailmarketer.com with your favorite DTC marketer. Let’s get them on board so they don’t miss next week’s drops.

Remember: Do shit you love.

🤘 Jimmy Kim & Chase Dimond

PS - Your next best customer might be reading this right now. Want in? Email Jimmy to sponsor this newsletter and more.

Love this newsletter but want to receive it less frequently? Let us know by clicking here!

We love a polished email as much as anyone, but sometimes the most interesting ones aren’t the great ones. They’re the almost good ones.

This Rothy’s 4th of July sale email has plenty going for it: clean design, nice product photography, a real discount, and a clear deadline. But it still made us want to rewrite half of it, because the email has everything it needs except a sharper reason to click.

So let’s take it block by block: what’s working, what’s getting in the way, and how each piece could work a little harder.

Also inside:

→ You've got a folder full of cart recovery reports. Yet none of them tells you why they left.
→ Are your emails passing this invisible test?
→ The SMS copywriting trick that made Buffy stand out over a holiday weekend.
→ Hiring vault: 6 new retention marketing job ops

Alright, grab a coffee and let's kick off our Monday. 👇

You've got a folder full of cart recovery reports. Yet none of them tells you why they left. 👀

You can see the cart they abandoned, the email that chased it, and whether the sale ever came back.

What you can't see is the reason. 

Was it shipping? A sizing question? A discount they were holding out for? Did they just get pulled into a meeting? Your dashboard has never been able to answer that, because nobody ever asked the customer.

That immediately changes when you just pick up the phone.

Outcraft's AI agent calls your abandoned checkouts within minutes, has the actual conversation, and answers whatever was holding them up. 

Then it coordinates the SMS, email, and WhatsApp follow-up from the same brand trained brain.

You stop guessing why carts die and start hearing it, in their own words.

See what recovered revenue sounds like → outcraft.ai

*Sponsored

This Rothy’s Sale Email Had Everything Except a Reason to Click

Most sale emails have the same problem: they announce that a sale exists, then make the customer do all the work.

This Rothy's email isn't bad. It's polished, clean, and on brand. But for a sale that's ending soon it feels strangely low-stakes. The subject line says "One last sandal hurrah." The hero says "SALE ON SALE." Then the rest becomes a product grid.

The issue isn't design quality. It's persuasion.

So today we're doing something a little different. We're going through this email block by block… subject line, hero, body, product grid, CTA and leveling each one up. For every block, I'll show you what Rothy's shipped, what's holding it back, and the rewrite that gives the customer an actual reason to click.

Think of it as a live edit: same email, same brand, same offer, just working harder.

Subject Line

Before:
One last sandal hurrah.

After:
Last call: extra 20% off summer sandals

Why it works:
The original has personality, but it hides the offer. “Last call” adds urgency, “extra 20% off” gives people a concrete reason to open, and “summer pairs” makes the category clear without.

Preview Text

Before:
The prices dropped. The style didn’t.

After:
There’s always room for one more pair. 

Why it works:
The original is crisp and very on-brand. It has contrast, confidence, and a nice little rhythm. The only issue is that it doesn’t add much new information after the subject line. These updates keep the structure but ties it more directly to the hero idea, so the inbox line and the email body feel like one connected thought.

Block 1: Hero

Before:
SALE ON SALE
Extra 20% off*
Online & in stores
Shop the sale

Ticker:
SALE ON SALE: EXTRA 20% OFF
Already reduced sandals, marked down again. This is the lowest they’ll go.

Hero:
Your carry-on called. It’s missing sandals and July 7 is the deadline.

CTA:
Shop Your Size

Why it works:
“SALE ON SALE” announces the promotion, but it doesn’t give the shopper a reason to care. The new hero turns the offer into a use case: summer travel, long weekends, and the pair someone meant to pack. The subhead keeps the details clear, and the CTA points shoppers toward the most useful next step.

Block 2: Product Grid

Before:
Product names and markdowns, including sandals, clogs, and flats.

After:
Headline:
The pairs worth checking first

Product labels:
The beach-to-dinner sandal
The walk-all-day fisherman
The clog for cooler nights
The packable flat
The color that won’t last

Why it works:
The original grid shows products, but the copy doesn’t help someone choose. The updated version adds decision shortcuts. Instead of asking the shopper to compare nine similar sale items, it gives each pair a reason to exist.

Block 3: Shop By Size

Before:
Shop the sale on sale by size
Select women’s size

After:
Find what’s left in your size

Why it works:
This is one of the smartest ideas in the email, but it shows up too late and the headline is clunky. Late-stage sale shoppers aren’t just browsing. They’re asking, “Is there anything good left for me?” Leading with size makes the email feel more useful and more urgent.

Block 4: New Wedge Module

Before:
NEW!
A literal pedestal for your summer tan.
Shop the Wedge

After:
Adding a yellow highlight on “NEW!” 

Why it works:
The original copy is already doing enough: it’s playful, visual, and specific to the wedge. The issue is that the module arrives after a long sale section, so NEW! needs to work harder as a visual reset. Highlighting it gives the reader a clear signal that this is a different moment in the email, not just another sale tile tacked onto the bottom.

A good markdown still needs a reason to move.

That’s what makes this email so useful to study: it already has the ingredients of a strong sale message, from the product assortment and extra discount to the deadline and size-based shopping tool, but the hierarchy doesn’t turn those pieces into enough momentum. The updates gives each element a clearer job: open now, picture the use case, check your size, and move before the good pairs are gone. For a sale email, that’s the whole game.

Are your emails passing this invisible test?

Every campaign you send comes with an invisible score.

Your subject line might be great. Your offer might be solid. But if Gmail doesn't trust you, none of it matters.

The frustrating part? Most marketers don't know they're losing that trust until revenue starts slipping.

That's exactly what Omnisend is unpacking in this live session.

You'll learn what actually builds sender reputation, the common mistakes that quietly send emails toward spam, and the practical changes that help keep your campaigns landing where they're supposed to: the inbox.

→ Register free

*Sponsored

Read receipts:

Chemical-free sheets aren't exactly the flashiest headline... until Buffy gets ahold of it. Instead of blending into a sea of Fourth of July promotions, they led with a conversation most bedding brands avoid: chemicals.

That unexpected angle stops the scroll, earns attention, and makes the offer feel like the cherry on top instead of the entire message.

The Hiring Vault

• Lifecycle Marketing Manager, Marina del Rey, CA: Dr. Squatch

• Lifecycle Marketing Manager, Los Angeles, CA: Munchkin

• Loyalty & CRM Manager, Tri-Branded, New York, NY: Orveon Global

• Sr. Manager, Retention, United States: Lineage Provisions

• Senior Retention Manager, United States: Arrae

• Senior Manager of Retention Marketing, New York, NY: Andie

That's a wrap for today!

Appreciate you hanging with Chase and me. We hope you found something you can put to work ASAP.

If you did, don’t keep it to yourself! Send ecomemailmarketer.com to your favorite DTC marketer and get them in on the action.

Catch you next time!

🤘 Jimmy Kim

PS - Your next best customer might be reading this right now. Want in? Email Jimmy to sponsor this newsletter and more.

Love this newsletter but want to receive it less frequently? Let us know by clicking here!

Your team probably has five different ways of using AI right now.

And that's becoming a bigger problem than whether you're using AI at all.

Someone's writing emails, another’s building reports, meanwhile someone else is sitting on the best prompt in the company... and nobody else knows it exists.

This morning, we're breaking down why every retention team needs an AI operating manual, and how a simple playbook can turn AI from a collection of individual habits into a system your whole team can build on.

Also inside:
→ When did calling your customers become a finance question instead of a marketing one?
→ Knowledge drop: You're putting too much effort into your campaigns
→ The best brands already cracked retention. Now you get a look inside.
→ Glossier just locked in $45M in non-dilutive financing

When did calling your customers become a finance question instead of a marketing one?

Somewhere around 2005, ecommerce quietly fired its phone. Outbound calling required a call center (that costs $100K+ a year) and only enterprise brands had a CFO willing to sign off. 

Everyone else clicked "send" on another email and convinced themselves it was the same thing.

It wasn't.

Twenty years later, the phone is back, and it doesn't come with a department attached. That's Outcraft. 

The voice channel that used to require a building full of headsets now runs for less than the cost of one SDR, in 40+ languages, sitting alongside the email and SMS you already send.

Voice used to scale with headcount, but now it scales with the system.

See what recovered revenue sounds like → outcraft.ai

*Sponsored

Knowledge drop: You're putting too much effort into your campaigns

Those campaigns you sweat over every week? Turns out that's not where most of your revenue comes from. Your flows are the secret workhorse, pulling in 40% of revenue from just 5% of your sends.

In this post, Chase breaks down the three flows behind 87% of automated orders, the timing for each, and the 2026 benchmarks to beat.

Twitter tweet

Why every retention team needs an AI operating manual

The first month of using AI is kind of a mess.

Everyone figures out their own way of doing things. One person has a prompt they swear by. Someone else has a completely different workflow. Before long, the output is all over the place.

Your brand voice starts drifting, quality depends on who's behind the keyboard, and AI feels a lot less helpful than it did on day one.

Let's dig into how an AI operating manual fixes that.

1. Decide where AI belongs and where it doesn't

One of the fastest ways to create inconsistency is letting every team member decide for themselves what AI should be doing.

Some marketers ask it to write entire campaigns, others only use it for brainstorming, and the rest won't touch it at all.

That usually leads to inconsistent outputs and unpredictable quality.

Instead, define which parts of your workflow AI should own and which parts should always stay human.

Think of AI as another member of your team, since every good team performs better when everyone knows their role.

2. Build prompt libraries instead of starting from scratch

One of the biggest mistakes we see is marketers treating every conversation with AI like it's the first one.

That means rewriting prompts, reinventing workflows, and solving the same problems over and over again.

Instead, build a prompt library that everyone on your team can reuse. Some of the highest-value prompts to standardize include:

• Campaign brief generation

• Subject line creation

• Email and SMS copy reviews

• Landing page critiques

• Flow audits

• Weekly reporting summaries

• Customer journey analysis

• Brainstorming seasonal campaigns

Instead of hunting through Slack or Notion every time someone remembers a great prompt, create one source of truth.

Over time, your prompts become assets instead of one-off conversations.

3. Teach AI how your brand actually sounds

Teams often spend hours teaching new employees how to write for the brand. Then they open ChatGPT and expect it to magically understand the same thing.

It doesn't work that way.

If you want consistently useful outputs, your brand voice needs to be documented just as clearly for AI as it would be for a new hire.

Your operating manual should answer questions like:

• Which words do we use repeatedly?

• Which words do we avoid?

• What does a good subject line sound like?

• How long are our typical paragraphs?

• What's our reading level?

• How do we structure CTAs?

• Which previous campaigns best represent our voice?

The better your instructions, the closer every output starts to feeling finished.

4. Build review systems before you build more prompts

The more your team relies on AI, the more important quality control becomes. Before anything gets scheduled, every campaign should pass through the same review process.

The goal is to make sure faster production doesn't turn into more expensive mistakes.

5. Capture what works so the whole team gets smarter

Great ideas and breakthroughs happen all the time. But without a system to capture and share those wins, they rarely spread beyond the person who found them. The knowledge stays siloed and a month later, someone else ends up solving the exact same problem from scratch.

Every time your team finds something that works, it should be captured and made accessible so the entire team can benefit.

Your operating manual should continue growing with things like:

• Winning prompts

• New workflows

• Automation ideas

• Prompt improvements

• Lessons from successful campaigns

• AI use cases that didn't work and why

Build your own AI operating manual

If you're starting from scratch, don't overcomplicate it.

A simple document that answers the questions below is enough to create far more consistency than most teams have today.

You don't need a hundred-page handbook, you just need everyone working from the same playbook.

Make good execution repeatable

AI is becoming something every team has access to. That access alone won't set you apart, since your competitors are typing into the same tools you are.

What actually creates an advantage is how intentionally your team uses it day to day: clear workflows, documented wins, and systems that make strong execution repeatable instead of accidental.

That's what an operating manual gives you. It keeps the prompt someone stumbled onto last Tuesday, or the workflow that halved campaign setup, from vanishing in to a Slack thread. It turns one person's good day into something the whole team can run on.

Build that, and AI stops being a tool a few people use well and becomes the way your team works.

The best brands already cracked retention. Now you get a look inside. 👀

Be honest. You've signed up for a brand's list with a burner email just to see what their welcome flow does.

We all have. It's how retention marketers actually learn: screenshotting campaigns, forwarding emails to ourselves, saving that one popup that made us go "oh, that's clever."

The eCom Retention Vault is that instinct, organized. It's a real look inside the emails, campaigns, and full customer journeys from 20+ high-performing eCom brands, with the prompts and frameworks to turn what you find into something of your own.

- 75+ real brand emails to pull apart and swipe
- 50 campaigns, each with an AI prompt to spin up your own version
- 130+ pages of opt-ins plus welcome emails & SMS
- 10 copywriting frameworks
- A private community of 350+ retention marketers

→ Access the vault

DTC wins:

Glossier isn't chasing another big equity round.

Instead, the brand just secured a $45M revolving credit facility from Tiger Finance, its first major funding since 2021. Combined with its push into retail and Sephora, it signals a different chapter: building a healthier business instead of chasing the next sky-high valuation.

Annnnd that’s a wrap for this edition! 

Thanks for hanging with Chase and me, always a pleasure to have you here.

If you found this newsletter helpful (or even just a little fun), don’t keep it to yourself! Share ecomemailmarketer.com with your favorite DTC marketer. Let’s get them on board so they don’t miss next week’s drops.

Remember: Do shit you love.

🤘 Jimmy Kim & Chase Dimond

PS - Your next best customer might be reading this right now. Want in? Email Jimmy to sponsor this newsletter and more.

Love this newsletter but want to receive it less frequently? Let us know by clicking here!

Asking someone to spend $149 on a box they can't even see yet sounds like a bad idea.

That didn’t stop Poppy & Peonies. Their first-ever Summer Box launched with three plain-text emails from the founder and zero product photos until the fourth send.

Spoiler: it worked better than it had any right to. This morning we're getting into why holding the photos built real demand, where it quietly cost them sales, and what's worth stealing for your next drop.

Also inside:
→ Batch-and-blast isn't just lazy anymore, it's expensive (& costing you more than you think)
→ Retention is a lonely job... but it doesn't have to be.
→ Three buzzy brand drops that caught our eye this week

Batch-and-blast isn't just lazy anymore, it's expensive (& costing you more than you think)

We get it, building segments takes work and sending to your whole list takes one click.

The problem? Every irrelevant email teaches inbox providers that your messages aren't worth opening. Before long, even your best customers stop seeing them.

On July 14, Omnisend’s running a free session on how to climb out of it. You'll get the real cost of batch-and-blast, how to dig the high-value segments out of the list you already have, and how to make your emails feel relevant again (the kind people actually open).

Your list was never one audience, so stop emailing it like it was.

→ Register free

*Sponsored

Poppy & Peonies' Summer Box: How a plain-text-first launch built demand before showing the product

Poppy & Peonies makes design-forward bags and travel goods, and their audience knows the founder's voice well. For their first Summer Box, they bundled four of their own pieces, the Mini Voyager tote in Chestnut, the striped Hook Me Up toiletry bag, and two compression packing cubes, into a limited set worth over $235 and priced at $149.

Here's how the five-email flow played out, and what we'd tweak.

1. last chance to join the waitlist (it drops tomorrow)

Focus: Pre-launch waitlist grab, written like a personal note.

Why This Works:

• It doesn't read like marketing. A plain-text note signed "Nat" feels like a friend giving you a heads-up, which helps it land in the primary inbox instead of promotions.

• The subject line pulls double duty: "last chance" plus "it drops tomorrow" gives you urgency and a real deadline without shouting.

• The value's right there too, over $235 worth for $149. Anchoring the deal this early is smart.

• The scarcity feels real. "We produced a limited quantity. Once they're gone, they're gone" is a true constraint of a first run, not a fake timer.

Opportunities for Improvement:

• There's no photo at all, and bags are a see-it-feel-it purchase. Asking someone to picture a $149 box from a paragraph is a big ask.

• She talks up "rich chestnut brown and classic stripe" but never shows it. One small inline shot would let the people most likely to buy actually see what she's hyping.

• "Early access" sounds good but never says what you get out of it, a head start, a better price, a guaranteed unit? Spell it out and more people raise their hand.

• It's the first-ever box, so there's a built-in story here, why she made it, that goes untold. A line about the why would reward her most engaged readers.

2. selling fast

Focus: Day-after social proof, same personal voice.

Why This Works:

• "selling fast" is two words and it does the job, exactly the nudge a fence-sitter needs the morning after launch.

• It opens with a thank-you, "Wow! Thank you for all the love today," which is really social proof in disguise. Clearly other people are buying.

• "selling out faster than we ever imagined" lands because it reads like genuine surprise, not a countdown clock.

• She heads off the obvious objection to a seasonal box, "fresh for summer but timeless enough to carry year-round," so you're not paying for something you'll use for six weeks.

• Keeping it plain-text means the social proof feels like an honest update from Nat, not a banner ad.

Opportunities for Improvement:

• Still no photo, and we're on day two. If anything, "selling fast" makes you want to see it more, and you still can't.

• "faster than we ever imagined" is good, but a real number, like "over half gone in 24 hours," would hit harder.

• Everyone gets the same "hurry before they're gone," including the people who already bought. A quick split would fix that.

• The year-round line is the strongest thing in the email, and it's buried mid-paragraph. Give it room.

3. don't say I didn't warn you 🌞

Focus: The last FOMO push before the designed emails take over.

Why This Works:

• "don't say I didn't warn you" is the best subject line in the whole flow, playful, personal, and loaded with future regret. That's the exact button to press on a fence-sitter.

• "Something tells me you're going to regret not grabbing this one" says the FOMO out loud without feeling pushy.

• She leans into designer pride, "I designed this box to feel like a little treat, something you can't get anywhere else," which turns scarcity into something special instead of pressure.

• "Once it sells out it's gone for good" keeps the no-restock promise consistent across the flow.

• Signed "xo, Nat," the warmest sign-off yet, which fits a final personal nudge.

Opportunities for Improvement:

• Three text emails in, the missing photo is impossible not to notice. You're being warned not to miss something you've still never seen.

• "you're going to see these pieces out in the world this summer" is a great line, but you can't picture what you'd be spotting.

• The scarcity stays vague. "Almost gone" or "final units left" would push harder than "once it sells out."

• This was probably the moment to finally show the box. Three emails of buildup, then the reveal, could've been the highest-converting send in the flow.

4. Summer starts now 🌞

Focus: The first designed email, and the first time you see anything.

Why This Works:

• After three text-only emails, a fully designed one is a jolt in a good way. It signals the real thing has arrived.

• The styling sells a whole summer-travel mood, the Chestnut tote sitting next to sunscreen, sunglasses, a film camera, a bottle of rosé. You're buying a vibe, not just a bag.

• "The easiest summer packing decision" is a clean headline that ties the box to a real pain point: packing.

• The $235-for-$149 math sits right next to "won't be restocked once it sells out," so the deal and the deadline land together.

• One CTA, "Shop the Summer Box," with nothing competing for the click.

Opportunities for Improvement:

• This is the first time anyone sees the product, on email four. Three earlier emails asked for the sale with nothing to look at.

• The shot is gorgeous, but the actual box pieces, the striped toiletry bag and the two cubes, are hard to pick out next to the props.

• None of those props, the sunscreen, the wine, the camera, actually come in the box. It's easy to be unsure what your $149 buys.

• There's no "here's what's inside" callout. After all that buildup, a simple labeled lineup would close the gap the text emails left open.

5. The Summer Box Everyone is Obsessing Over

Focus: The lifestyle hero and the closing push.

Why This Works:

• This is where you finally see the pieces in use, on location. After four emails of waiting, that payoff matters.

• The subject line keeps the "everyone's buying" thread alive, momentum as the headline.

• "Limited Edition" stays front and center, right at the moment people are deciding.

• The tote and the striped cubes finally show up together, delivering on the "Chestnut and Stripe" the earlier emails kept naming.

• "Organized, cute, and completely exclusive, made for sun-soaked escapes and real life" hits the dream and the practical use in one line.

• The value and the no-restock scarcity sit right above a single "Shop Summer Box" button.

Opportunities for Improvement:

• Even here, the four pieces aren't broken out one by one. You see the box in context, but you still can't tick off exactly what you get.

• There's no value breakdown, each piece's price adding up past $235, which would make $149 feel like an obvious yes instead of a number they're just telling you.

• "Everyone is obsessing" leans on social proof again, but a real figure or a customer quote would make it stick.

• No gifting angle, even though a curated box is an easy gift, and still no separate path for people who already bought.

What Poppy & Peonies Gets Right

• Using format as the story. Quiet text notes to build the relationship and the urgency, then designed emails to close. The switch itself tells you things just got real.

• The founder voice carries it. Three notes from Nat make the whole thing feel like a friend's recommendation, and that's hard to fake with polished HTML.

• Scarcity is honest. "Limited quantity," "once they're gone, they're gone," "gone for good," all true of a first run, none of it a fake clock.

• They never let you forget the deal. Every email repeats $235 of value for $149, so it lands no matter which one you open.

Where Execution Could Sharpen

• They waited too long to show the box. Three emails asked for a $149 decision with nothing to look at. One photo in email two or three gives all that urgency something to land on.

• The "four pieces" never fully show up. They name them over and over, but no email lines all four up with labels, so what you actually get stays a little fuzzy.

• Styling upstages the product. Those summer props set a great mood, but none of them are in the box, and the real pieces get lost in the shot. A clean "what's inside" next to the mood photo fixes it.

• Everyone gets the same emails. People who bought on day one still get "selling fast" and "don't miss it." A simple "you're in" split would make buyers feel seen and stop the nagging.

Final Takeaway: A gutsy bet that just needed one photo sooner

Plenty of launches lead with the prettiest product shot they've got. Poppy & Peonies went the other way, founder voice and scarcity first, photos last, and built real demand on personality alone. That part's genuinely worth copying.

The miss is timing. Three rounds of "you'll regret missing this" hit a lot harder when people can actually see what they'd be missing. The instinct to lead with voice is right. It just needed one photo, a few emails sooner, to give all that hype something to hold onto.

A first-ever, limited box is one of the best moments a brand gets, and they nailed the feeling. Add an earlier look at the box and a clear "here's what's inside," and this flow doesn't just build buzz, it closes a lot more of it.

Key Takeaways for Brands

• Use format as a signal: plain-text founder notes to build the relationship and the urgency, designed emails to reveal and close.

• Don't sit on the product photo. For anything visual, show it by the second or third email so the hype has something to land on.

• Show the whole bundle, every piece, labeled. "Four exclusive pieces" only sells when people can see all four.

• Don't let the styling upstage the product. Pair the mood shot with a plain "here's what's included for $X."

• Repeat the deal in every email so it lands no matter where someone jumps in.

• Split buyers from non-buyers once you're live, so the people who already bought stop getting "last chance."

• Make scarcity specific where you can. A unit count or a real number beats "selling fast" every time.

Retention is a lonely job... but it doesn't have to be.

You're the one defending why discounting isn't the answer, explaining why that flow needs another email, and wondering if anyone else is seeing the same deliverability issue you are.

And that's why we started the eCom Email Certified Community; because figuring this stuff out on your own shouldn't be the default.

Join 350+ retention marketers swapping ideas, reviewing campaigns, sharing wins, and helping each other solve the problems that don't have a quick Google answer.

→ Join community

Meme drop:

Who's cutting the onions?🥹

The drop zone:

Huel Daily Greens RTD gets two new flavors and a glow-up

Huel is expanding its Daily Greens cans with Strawberry Lemon and Pink Grapefruit, plus a refreshed look and improved recipe. Each can packs 42 vitamins, minerals, superfoods, and adaptogens with 4g fiber, no artificial anything. No scoops, no shaker, no powder. Available now across the US.

Laird Superfood launches Protein Matcha

Three flavors (Original, Strawberry, Lavender), 10g protein, lion's mane mushroom, coconut water electrolytes, and 70-90mg caffeine per serving. $18, available on LairdSuperfood.com with Amazon coming later. The brand keeps stacking functional ingredients into formats people actually want to drink.

Dr. Squatch x Toy Story 5 is the collab drop of the week

Dr. Squatch and sister brand Jukebox launched their first joint collaboration: a limited-edition Toy Story 5 collection with three bar soaps and two deodorants inspired by Woody, Buzz, and Jessie. Bundles run $21.50-$48.45. Part of a bigger wave of DTC brands (Away, Simple Modern, SmartyPants) tapping the film's multi-generational audience for collab drops.

Annnnd that’s a wrap for this edition! 

Thanks for hanging with us, it’s always a pleasure to have you here.

If you found this newsletter helpful (or even just a little fun), don’t keep it to yourself! Share ecomemailmarketer.com with your favorite DTC marketer. Let’s get them on board so they don’t miss next week’s drops.

Remember: Do shit you love.

🤘 Jimmy Kim & Chase Dimond

PS - Your next best customer might be reading this right now. Want in? Email Jimmy to sponsor this newsletter and more.

Love this newsletter but want to receive it less frequently? Let us know by clicking here!

Remember when retention was a whole department? Email person, SMS person, designer, QA, automations specialist...

That org chart is disappearing. More and more brands want one person running the whole show.

Today we're breaking down why and what it means for the future of retention marketing.

Also inside:
→ A year ago, the question was - "Can AI make me an email?"
→ Is your SMS strategy missing these top three sends?
→ There's a phone call that recovered $180K for a titanium cookware brand.
→ DTC Scoop: Reformation's IPO filing, inside Amazon's Chat GPT ads + back-to-school shopping started earlier than ever

AI just took the boring half of your job. (Say thank you)

A year ago, the big question was "Can AI write me an email?"

Now it's "Can AI just do the stuff I hate?"

Turns out: yes. That's why Omnisend's MCP launch stuck with us. It plugs your AI assistant straight into your Omnisend account (not to write another subject line) but to handle the clicking around work you've been doing by hand:

→ Pull the report
→ Build the segment
→ Answer "how did that campaign do?" without opening a single tab

The work you'd happily never do again is starting to disappear.

And the marketers who lean into it get their afternoons back.

→ See what Omnisend's MCP can do

*Sponsored

👌 The quick take: Is your SMS strategy missing these top three sends?

The rise of the one-person retention team

The retention role is changing, that’s a fact.

AI now handles a huge share of the production work that used to fill an operator's week, while tighter margins have pushed brands to build leaner teams. Together, those shifts have changed what companies expect from retention marketers.

Success isn't measured by how many emails you can personally build anymore. It's measured by how well you can run the entire retention program.

Here's what that looks like in 2026.

1. Understand what's actually changing

It's easy to look at smaller teams and assume this is just another round of cost-cutting.

That’s definitely part of it.

But the bigger shift is that the work itself has changed.

Not long ago, building a campaign meant hours of copywriting, designing, resizing assets, setting up segments, QA'ing every link, and formatting everything inside your ESP.

Now AI can help draft subject lines, generate first-pass copy, resize creative, summarize reports, and even assist with segmentation. Many ESPs have these capabilities built directly into the platform.

That changes where your time is most valuable.

Instead of spending most of your week producing campaigns, you're spending more of it deciding which campaigns are worth producing in the first place.

2. Let AI handle production, while you handle direction

One mistake we see a lot is marketers expecting AI to replace their thinking. And that's usually where disappointment starts.

AI is great at repetitive production work. But it's much less reliable at understanding your customer, your brand, or the context behind a campaign.

Think about it like hiring a junior team member. You wouldn't say, "Go write our next campaign," and hope for the best. You'd provide context, explain the objective, and review the work before it ships.

AI works the same way; use it to accelerate the work that slows you down.

Great use cases include:

• Drafting subject line variations

• Writing first-pass email and SMS copy

• Creating campaign briefs

• Summarizing performance reports

• Building segmentation logic

• Brainstorming campaign ideas

3. Spend more time thinking than producing

As AI takes over more production work, your role naturally shifts toward strategy, and that's where the biggest opportunity exists for retention marketers today.

Instead of measuring your success by how many campaigns you build, start measuring it by the quality of the decisions behind those campaigns.

Focus your energy on work like:

• Planning your marketing calendar 60 to 90 days ahead.

• Identifying seasonal moments, launches, and customer opportunities before they arrive.

• Reviewing campaign performance to understand why something worked.

• Improving customer journeys instead of individual emails.

• Protecting the brand voice across every touchpoint.

Ironically, the less time you spend building emails, the more valuable you often become; because strategy scales much better than production.

4. Build systems that make one person feel like five

Running retention alone doesn't mean doing everything manually. Without systems, everything stops; that’s why documentation matters just as much as execution.

• Keep workflows organized so you’re not rebuilding the same process every week.

• Maintain a prompt library with your best-performing AI inputs so you can quickly generate consistent, on-brand outputs.

• Document automations clearly, including triggers, logic, and goals, so you can troubleshoot or optimize without starting from scratch.

• Create QA checklists for every send to reduce errors and make sure nothing slips through, especially when you're moving quickly.

Every system you build removes another decision from your week. Eventually, your processes start carrying the workload instead of your memory.

That's one of the biggest differences between operators who constantly feel behind and those who always seem ahead of schedule.

5. Protect the parts AI can't replace

As more marketers adopt the same AI tools, there's a growing risk that everyone's emails start sounding...the same.

That's why your competitive advantage is your judgment.

Customers still respond to:

• Great storytelling

• Original campaign ideas

• Strong positioning

• Creative merchandising

• Deep customer understanding

• Brand personality

Those things don't come from a prompt. They come from knowing your audience well enough to recognize when something feels authentic and when it doesn't.

Why this shift is actually good news

It's easy to look at the rise of one-person retention teams and assume marketers are losing ground.

We don't think that's what's happening. What we're actually seeing is that the repetitive work is disappearing first, while the strategic work is becoming more valuable.

Brands still need people who understand customers. They still need people who know how to build journeys, develop ideas, merchandise products, and make good decisions.

Those skills are becoming more important, not less.

The retention marketers who thrive over the next few years will be the ones who know how to combine AI, smart systems, and strong strategic thinking into a retention program that consistently performs.

The job isn't getting smaller, it’s becoming more strategic. And for the marketers willing to adapt, that's a much bigger opportunity than simply being the person who presses send.

One phone call recovered $180K for a titanium cookware brand.

A Wyoming cookware brand let an AI make a sales call. It recovered $180K.

You're about to hear a robot close a deal better than your last email campaign ever did.

No script, no human on the line. Just Outcraft's voice agent calling a shopper who walked away from their cart and talking them all the way back to checkout.

Then picture it running on your store: every abandoned cart getting a real phone call, your best customers getting a follow-up that actually converts, and the revenue you're writing off today landing back in your account.

🎧 Press play and hear the call that recovered $180K

*Sponsored

🍦 DTC Scoop:

Reformation just filed for an IPO and the numbers are wild

Reformation filed its S-1 on June 25, planning to list on the NYSE under ticker "REF." The sustainable fashion brand pulled $507M in 2025 net revenue (up 15.7%), with 90% coming from DTC and 20 straight quarters of double-digit growth. Full-price sales make up ~80% of DTC revenue. In a landscape where "profitable DTC" still sounds like a myth, Reformation just showed receipts.

Amazon is buying ads inside ChatGPT now

Amazon purchased sponsored placements inside OpenAI's ChatGPT to promote Prime Day. A search for product deals surfaced Prime Day ads directing shoppers straight to Amazon. It's a signal that even the biggest player in ecommerce sees conversational AI as a real traffic channel. If Amazon is spending there, the rest of us should probably be paying attention to how our brands show up in AI answers.

Back-to-school shopping started earlier than ever this year

About a third of back-to-school shoppers had already started buying by early June, the highest since NRF started tracking in 2018. 44% had received school supply lists by early June (up from 38% last year), and Gen Z and Millennial parents are driving the shift. If you're planning back-to-school campaigns for July, you're already late. The window moved.

Annnnd that’s a wrap for this edition! 

Thanks for hanging with Chase and me. Always a pleasure to have you here.

If you found this newsletter helpful (or even just a little fun), don’t keep it to yourself! Share ecomemailmarketer.com with your favorite DTC marketer. Let’s get them on board so they don’t miss next week’s drops.

Remember: Do shit you love.

🤘 Jimmy Kim & Chase Dimond

PS - Your next best customer might be reading this right now. Want in? Email Jimmy to sponsor this newsletter and more.

Love this newsletter but want to receive it less frequently? Let us know by clicking here!

We've seen our fair share of product launches (we're sure you have too).
A lot of them try to tell you everything.

The ingredients, origin story, sourcing, founder's inspiration... Somewhere around scroll number five, you've forgotten what actually launched.

When UNREAL recently launched their new peanut butter drops they leaned hard on the K-I-S method.

They introduce the product, give you a few compelling reasons to care, and make buying ridiculously easy; no information overload, no overthinking.

This morning, we're breaking down why that approach works, where the email could convert even harder, and what every product launch can learn from it.

Also inside:
→ Plot twist: Your cart abandoners didn’t ghost you… you just didn’t pick up the phone.
→ Auto-reply on? Your second chance to save $500
→ Two SMS messages from CAKES that prove personality still wins
→ Hiring vault: 7 New retention marketing job ops

Alright, grab a coffee and let's kick off our Monday. 👇

Plot twist: Your cart abandoners didn’t ghost you… you just didn’t pick up the phone.

Everyone's cart recovery strategy has been wrong for ten years. Including yours.
We've been writing cart recovery flows on the same assumption for a decade. 

They hesitated. They wandered off. They need a discount to come back. 

But what if the cart sitting there isn't a buying signal at all? What if they just had a question, and your sequence couldn't answer it?

That's Outcraft. 

An AI voice agent actually calls abandoned checkouts (in minutes, not days), then coordinates the SMS, email, and WhatsApp follow-up from the same brand trained brain.

Email's been getting better at reminding for ten years.
This gets better at finishing the conversation.

See what recovered revenue sounds like → outcraft.ai

*Sponsored

Unreal's Peanut Butter Drops launch: Big personality, low friction, high excitement

Every new product launch has one job: make people care fast. That's harder than it sounds. Too many brands spend the first half of the email explaining the product instead of giving people a reason to want it.

Unreal skips all of that. They introduce Peanut Butter Drops with a big personality, a handful of meaningful reasons to care, and then lets the shopper decide if it’s worth the click. 

Let's break down what's working and where a few small tweaks could make the launch even stronger.

The Header

Let's start at the top, where Unreal wastes no time introducing what's new. The excitement lands immediately, and the product stays front and center from the very first scroll.

What We Love:

• "MIC. DROP." is a fun, confident launch headline. It creates excitement without needing a paragraph of explanation.

• The packaging gets hero treatment. There's no confusion about what's new or where your attention should go.

• The bright color palette feels unmistakably Unreal. It grabs attention while reinforcing the playful brand personality.

• The first CTA appears quickly, giving high-intent shoppers an easy path to purchase.

What We'd Do Differently:

• A launch like this deserves a little more urgency. A simple "Limited release" or "Available while supplies last" callout near the hero would give shoppers another reason to buy now instead of later.

• The hero focuses heavily on the bag. Showing a handful of Peanut Butter Drops outside the package would make the product feel more tangible before asking for the click.

The Body

Once the excitement is established, the email shifts into answering the next question shoppers have: why should I buy these instead of every other peanut butter snack?

What We Love:

• The benefit stack is short, focused, and easy to scan. Less sugar, organic peanut butter, and no artificial dyes are exactly the kinds of product truths shoppers compare.

• The copy stays playful while still communicating value. It never falls into ingredient jargon or wellness clichés.

• Giving shoppers the option to buy from Unreal.com or Whole Foods is a nice touch. The brand meets customers where they already shop instead of forcing one path.

• The multiple CTAs throughout the email keep momentum moving without feeling repetitive.

What We'd Do Differently:

• This is a missed opportunity to show where Peanut Butter Drops fit into someone's day. A simple moment like "your afternoon snack," "desk drawer," or "post-workout treat" would make the launch feel more relatable than nutritional.

• The product stays inside the bag for the entire email. Showing the Drops in someone's hand or broken open would help shoppers visualize exactly what they're buying.

The Footer

Rather than introducing something new, Unreal uses the bottom of the email to reinforce the launch and give shoppers one last chance to buy.

What We Love:

• The playful "Let's Hang Out." sign-off feels authentic to the brand instead of reading like another generic social CTA.

• The footer stays clean and uncluttered. Once the launch message has landed, nothing distracts from the product.

• Social icons are easy to find without competing with the primary goal of the email.

What We'd Do Differently:

• One final launch reminder like "Now Available" or "Freshly Dropped" would reinforce that this is still a new release and carry the excitement through the final scroll.

• The footer could carry a trust signal. A "free shipping over $X" or a satisfaction line would give a first-time buyer the last nudge they need before they commit to a candy they've never tasted.

• There's no path to the rest of the catalog. UNREAL sells cups, gems, and more, and a reader who isn't sold on peanut butter drops has nowhere to go but out. A simple "Shop all UNREAL" link recovers that traffic.

Where This Email Works

New Product Launches: This email builds excitement first, then gives shoppers just enough information to feel confident clicking through. It understands that a launch isn't the place to explain everything.

Impulse Purchases: Bright creative, fast pacing, and multiple CTAs make this easy to buy before shoppers have time to overthink the decision.

Retail + DTC Strategy: Pointing shoppers toward Unreal.com, Whole Foods, and Amazon removes friction and lets them buy wherever they're already comfortable shopping.

Final Takeaway

This email is a good reminder that launch emails don't need to answer every question. Their job is to create enough excitement to earn the next click.

Unreal keeps the focus exactly where it belongs. The product gets introduced quickly, the benefits are easy to understand, and the buying journey never feels complicated.

The biggest opportunity is helping shoppers picture the product beyond the packaging. A little more merchandising and a little more urgency would make an already strong launch even stronger.

3 Things Worth Stealing

✓ Build excitement before you explain everything

✓ Help shoppers picture where your product fits into their daily routine

✓ Make buying feel easy while excitement is still high

Auto-reply on? Your second chance to save $500

We know a lot of you actually unplugged for the holiday.

If your out-of-office reply was doing its job this weekend, there's a good chance this sale got buried under a weekend's worth of emails.

So we're giving you one more shot.

Use code MERICA to save $500 on eCom Email Certified, our complete playbook for ecommerce retention marketers. More than 175 lessons covering flows, campaigns, segmentation, deliverability, AI, copywriting, and more.

Grab your certification before the sale ends (for good) tomorrow!

→ Save $500

Read receipts:

Okay, these made us LOL. 😂 CAKES has been putting out some of our favorite SMS lately because they actually sound like they were written by a person.

They're funny, a little unhinged, and somehow still manage to sell the product without feeling like an ad. That's not easy to pull off, but they nailed it.

The Hiring Vault

• Retention Marketing Manager, New York, NY: Fleur du Mal

• Retention Marketing Manager, Charlotte, NC: Feetures

• Senior Manager, CRM & Retention Marketing, New York, NY: ANINE BING

• Email Marketing & CRM Manager, Los Angeles, CA: GENTLE MONSTER

• Retention Marketing Lead, New York, NY: Lyra Collective

• Email/SMS Lifecycle Marketing Associate, United States: Nutrafol

• Senior Manager, Retention & Lifecycle Marketing, Nampa, ID Gymreapers

That's a wrap for today!

Appreciate you hanging with Chase and me. We hope you found something you can put to work ASAP.

If you did, don’t keep it to yourself! Send ecomemailmarketer.com to your favorite DTC marketer and get them in on the action.

Catch you next time!

🤘 Jimmy Kim

PS - Your next best customer might be reading this right now. Want in? Email Jimmy to sponsor this newsletter and more.

Love this newsletter but want to receive it less frequently? Let us know by clicking here!

July is where a lot of brands get lazy.

The big summer sale is over. Prime Day took charge last month. Half your customers are on vacation... so the default response is usually the same: send fewer emails and wait for the next big promotion.

But after digging through hundreds of campaigns from June, that's not what the best brands are doing.

They're finding better reasons to show up.

This morning, we're breaking down eight ideas brands are using right now to stay relevant without relying on another discount.

Also inside:

→ Sometimes the problem isn't your emails. It's everything underneath them.
→ Knowledge drop: The retention metric most brands never measure
→ 🇺🇸 This week we're America-maxxing (offer inside)
→ DTC wins: A K-beauty lip oil just crossed 200 million TikTok views

Sometimes the problem isn't your emails. It's everything underneath them.

MUSS knew their open rates were low. What they didn't know was why.

After switching from Klaviyo to Omnisend, the team uncovered deliverability issues they didn't even know existed, brought email and SMS into one platform, and stopped making marketing decisions based on guesswork.

The results:

• Open rates increased 41% year-over-year

• Revenue per recipient grew 13%

• The entire migration took one day

The biggest win wasn't a metric, though. It was finally having clear answers about what was working, what wasn't, and what to do next.

→ Read the full story

*Sponsored

Knowledge drop

Repeat purchase rate gets all the attention, but Jimmy argues there's a more important metric hiding underneath it. In this post, he breaks down why shortening "time to value" can have a bigger impact on retention than any email flow or promotion.

Twitter tweet

8 Email Ideas Worth Stealing for July

July can be a weird month for marketers.

Prime Day dominated June. Summer vacations are in full swing. Open rates can get unpredictable. And for a lot of brands, the temptation is to either lean entirely on discounts or simply send less.

But after spending the last month digging through the DTC inbox, one thing became clear: the brands getting attention aren't necessarily sending more emails. They're finding better reasons to send them.

Some turned restocks into full-blown campaigns. Others built emails around seasonal moments, founder stories, cultural events, or customer milestones. In many cases, the product wasn't even the most interesting part of the email.

If you're planning your July calendar right now, here are eight ideas worth borrowing.

1. Turn a Restock Into a Campaign

One of the easiest opportunities to overlook is sitting in your inventory report.

Throughout June, we saw brands like Barebells, HUMANTRA, and Dippin Daisys dedicate entire campaigns to products coming back in stock. What was once an operational update is now treated like a launch.

It makes sense when you think about it. A customer who joins a waitlist or checks back repeatedly for a sold-out item is telling you exactly what they want. That's some of the strongest purchase intent you'll find anywhere in your database.

Instead of sending a single "it's back" notification, consider building a sequence around the return.

Ideas to test in July:

• Tease the return before inventory arrives.

• Give waitlist subscribers early access.

• Highlight customer reviews and social proof once it's live.

• Send a final reminder if inventory starts running low.

A restock already has built-in demand. Your job is simply to make the moment feel worthy of attention.

2. Build Around Summer Moments

One thing we saw repeatedly throughout June was brands tying products to what customers were already doing.

Traveling. Heading to the beach. Packing for long weekends. Spending more time outside. Looking for ways to stay cool.

The product often wasn't the lead story. The occasion was.

And that's what made the campaigns feel relevant.

Customers don't wake up thinking about your SKU, they wake up thinking about their plans. When your email connects naturally to those plans, the product becomes easier to sell because it feels like part of the solution rather than the center of the conversation.

Ideas to test in July:

• What's in my beach bag

• Summer travel essentials

• Mid-summer reset

• Products our team is taking on vacation

You don't need a major promotion to make these campaigns work. Often the seasonal context is enough to earn attention on its own.

3. Let the Calendar Do Some of the Work

The best brands aren't waiting around for Black Friday-sized moments anymore.

They're turning smaller occasions into reasons to show up consistently.

In June, we saw brands move seamlessly from Father's Day into Fourth of July planning, summer travel content, and seasonal product collections. There was always another relevant conversation waiting around the corner.

The takeaway isn't that you need more holiday emails. It's that your marketing calendar should extend beyond major sales events.

Look for opportunities like:

• National holidays

• Seasonal milestones

• Sporting events

• Cultural moments

• Community celebrations

• Brand anniversaries

The more reasons you create to show up, the less pressure each individual campaign has to carry.

4. Borrow Attention From Culture

Creating demand from scratch is difficult; but connecting your brand to something people are already paying attention to is often much easier.

We saw brands like Malbon tie campaigns to the U.S. Open and artist collaborations, while Wild partnered with Disney. Neither company fundamentally changed its product offering. They simply found ways to make their products part of larger conversations.

Questions to ask yourself:

• What is my audience paying attention to right now?

• Which creators, events, or communities overlap with our customer base?

• Is there a conversation happening that our product naturally fits into?

The goal to find the trends that already align with your customers' interests.

5. Send an Email From a Real Person

One pattern we continue to see across high-performing brands is the shift away from purely brand-led messaging.

Throughout June, brands like Ghia and HUMANTRA regularly sent emails that felt more personal. Sometimes it was a founder sharing a story. Sometimes it was a team member talking about a routine, a product they loved, or a lesson they'd learned.

The common thread was simple: it felt like a person was talking to you.

Cause let's face it, customers trust people more than logos. And that's especially true when inboxes are crowded and promotional messages start blending together.

A founder email won't outperform every campaign. But it can create a different type of engagement that product-focused emails often struggle to generate.

Ideas to test in July:

• A founder's summer routine

• Products your team is currently obsessed with

• Lessons learned halfway through the year

• Behind-the-scenes product development updates

• Customer stories told from a human perspective

These emails are particularly useful during slower promotional periods because they strengthen the relationship without relying on an offer.

6. Use Product Launches to Reach New Customers

The smartest launches we saw in June weren't really about introducing a new product.

They were about expanding the audience.

Dippin Daisys used a Mommy & Me collection to speak to a different type of customer. Touchland used multiple campaigns around body sprays to create an entry point into a broader category.

The product mattered, but the bigger opportunity was who the product allowed them to reach.

That's a useful way to think about launches heading into July.

Instead of asking, "How do we sell this new product?" consider asking, "Who does this product help us reach?"

Ideas to explore:

• Bundles designed for a new customer segment

• Limited-edition collections tied to a different audience

• Starter kits for first-time buyers

• New product categories that complement existing customers

The best launches create new demand. They don't just create new inventory.

7. Make Discounts Earn Their Keep

Discounts are still everywhere.

The difference is that the best brands are asking more from them.

Native used tiered discounts to increase basket size. Tropicfeel rewarded customers for buying multiple items. EADEM turned its offer into a customizable bundle.

In each case, the discount served a larger purpose than simply generating conversions.

That's an important distinction because margin gets harder to protect when discounts become the default answer to every marketing problem.

Before adding another promotion to your calendar, ask what behavior you're actually trying to encourage.

Ideas to test in July:

• Tiered thresholds that increase AOV

• Build-your-own bundles

• Buy more, save more offers

• Category-specific promotions

• Loyalty member exclusives

The strongest discounts don't just drive purchases. They shape how customers purchase.

8. Give Customers Something Bigger Than a Promotion

Some of the most memorable emails we saw in June had nothing to do with a sale.

Ghia celebrated its sixth birthday. cocokind highlighted a charitable initiative. Other brands shared company milestones, community achievements, and mission-driven updates.

What made these campaigns effective wasn't the announcement itself.

It was the reminder that there's a real brand behind the product.

Customers often subscribe because of what you sell. They stay because of what you stand for.

That doesn't mean every email needs to tell your origin story. But occasionally giving customers a reason to care beyond the transaction can make future promotional emails much more effective.

Ideas to test in July:

• A company milestone

• A customer success story

• Community highlights

• Charitable partnerships

• Mid-year reflections and goals

Not every campaign needs to generate immediate revenue. Some campaigns generate the trust that makes future revenue possible.

Why These Ideas Matter: Relevance Wins Attention

At first glance, these ideas seem unrelated.

But they're all solving the same problem.

Customers have more choices, more distractions, and more marketing messages competing for their attention than ever before.

The brands that stood out in June were the ones that created genuine relevance; giving customers a compelling reason to pay attention, engage, and care.

As you build your July calendar, that's probably the question worth asking before every send: Why should someone care about this email today?

The brands that answer that question well tend to earn the click.

🇺🇸 This week we're America-maxxing.

Hot dogs.

Fireworks.

Questionable amounts of domestic beer.

And investing in assets that appreciate... like eCom Email Certified. 😉

Inside are 175+ lessons covering the skills every retention marketer eventually needs to learn: flows, campaigns, segmentation, deliverability, AI, copywriting, and more.

And our $500 off offer expires tomorrow.

So enjoy the long weekend.

Then when the fireworks are over, the leftovers are gone, and it's Monday morning again, you'll have something more useful than a mild sunburn and a cooler full of empty cans.

You'll have a playbook you can hit the ground running with.

Last chance → Save $500 with code MERICA

DTC wins:

Nooni's Applecherry Lip Oil has racked up 200M+ TikTok views, and the brand is capitalizing with a Prime Day deal at $9.60 (36% off). It's already on shelves at Ulta and Target across the US, Canada, and the UK. Truly a dream trajectory; they hit a viral moment that turned into real distribution. If you've got a SKU catching fire on social, the move is to build the email funnel around it now, not after the hype cools off.

Annnnd that’s a wrap for this edition! 

Thanks for hanging with Chase and me, always a pleasure to have you here.

If you found this newsletter helpful (or even just a little fun), don’t keep it to yourself! Share ecomemailmarketer.com with your favorite DTC marketer. Let’s get them on board so they don’t miss next week’s drops.

Remember: Do shit you love.

🤘 Jimmy Kim & Chase Dimond

PS - Your next best customer might be reading this right now. Want in? Email Jimmy to sponsor this newsletter and more.

Love this newsletter but want to receive it less frequently? Let us know by clicking here!