9 Best eCommerce Winback Email Strategies & Tactical Optimisations (2024)

💬 As many of us know when it comes to eComm, it's one thing to acquire a new customer, but the true ROI/LTV and opportunity for compound, scaling growth, is when customers keep coming back to buy and buy again.

Reality is, different customers/segments can become inactive for various reasons, but you have to find and constantly test new ways/angles to encourage them to come back - and email marketing can be a key lever in improving the amount % that you can win back.

Highlighting different eCommerce email experiments, angles and tests you can do for winning back inactive customer segments

💬 In some of the tactical checkpoints, I've included some great examples from amazing brands - I also encourage you to check out some of these brands and how they do their marketing (many are very good).

I always chat to clients/brands that offer plays a major factor when it comes to winning/re-engaging back customers. 

However, it only really works when you can tailor the offer specific to the segment you’re going after. 

For instance, you want to use attributes based on past AOV data, as well as the likes of LTV and number of past purchases they’ve made. 

And of course, the likes of past products they’ve purchased. 

Then, it’s all about tailoring the messaging which makes contextual sense for the segment you’re sending the emails too. 

The good thing is that setting this all up in Klaviyo is quite easy to do (and can be completely automated).

A ‘winback’ email campaign you can run as a test is focusing on reminding customers that you have payment plan options in place - for example, BNPL (Buy Now, Pay Later) options - AfterPay, Zip, Sezzle, Klarna, etc. 

I’ve seen this work effectively for campaign sends I’ve done before. 

Totally worth doing this experiment if you’re trying to push high-valued items.

I say this across numerous areas of marketing (which you probably may see in other checklists I’ve written) - try and have a ‘splash’ of social proof across your emails - even if it’s a small element that’s placed in the footer. 

To take it a step further, align reviews based on past product purchase data - i.e. if you’re pushing a product to a segment for them to purchase/repurchase, make sure to include reviews from that specific item. 

A good tactic to try are “last chance” emails combined with some sort of offer - discount, BOGO, etc. 

Incorporate elements of social proof (reviews, UGC vids, etc). 

To make this send really ‘pop’, check out what Buoy has done here with utilising a ‘countdown’ timer embed for their bundle offer.

I like this tactic a lot for cutting through the typical “well-polished” promotion marketing emails which all brands do. 

I’ve also seen this work first-hand quite effectively.

I’m not saying don’t do this of course (in fact, you need to), but it’s good to break up promo email fatigue (which is a real thing that we all kinda face, right?). 

As part of trying to get past customers back, send a note directly from the founder/senior team. 

Ask for the likes of feedback, or share an offer tailored for them. 

Lots of experiments/tests you can run here. 

Another angle and experiment to gain attention from inactive customers are “early access” type promotions. 

For example, you can run them for special seasonal promotions (such as the likes of Black Friday, Christmas, etc). 

Just like what Summer Solace did this with campaign email for Black Friday early access. 

Giving away “free” gifts is an awesome experiment angle that I’ve seen work well in past campaigns I’ve run. 

In fact, you see this a lot with first-time customer acquisition flows/campaigns, but they can also work just as well for inactive cohorts. 

You can of course align this campaign with other segments you’re trying to drive performance of, but as mentioned in the previous checklists points above, it just comes down to personalising messaging, copy, and CTAs to try get past customers to re-purchase again. 

As a staple automation flow you should have on to help with cross-selling and even the likes of upsell opportunities, are sharing new product items, as well as the likes of existing items. 

For example, I like this email layout, design and messaging from Gigantic. 

What I really like about it is the reminder of the USPs and the headline saying “Take another peek…” 

Another winback email test to consider are ‘gift card’ specials - it’s another offer type that I’ve seen work for top brands and brands/clients I’ve worked with. 

You don’t need to overthink the offer either. It can serve as a great reminder for inactive audiences to buy themselves to save, or even prompt them to buy a gift card/voucher for their friends/family. 

This is a great example from ‘Adun’ - simple and to the point. Plus, their branding is amazing (how could I not share, right? :).

Other Winback email examples I like

I've shared above some of my favourites, but here are a couple of other examples I quite like. :)

Example #1

• I like this design and layout from Surreal - simple messaging too which focuses on scarcity “seriously, these are moving fast” - and then the clear “Dive back in” CTA stands out. 
• Additionally, good social proof element of the review.

Example #2

• Who Gives a Crap is one of my favourite DTC brands - and with emails like this, you can probably see why. 
• Simply brilliant and love the creativity of the decision-flow. No doubt that this would have taken time to do, but great angle to get customers/subscribers thinking and re-engaged.