Ecommerce insights from the team running the accounts
We work it out on accounts we run, then write it down while it's still true. Free, whole, and no email address to hand over first.
Why are my emails going to spam, and what to check first
A diagnosis order that finds the fault: authentication, then the list, then the sending pattern, then the content.
- The short answer
- Authentication
- The list
- The sending pattern
- The content
- The order
Everything published, by shelf
Pick a topic, or start with the three below.
Start here
Email marketing agency vs in-house: what each one is better at
Both work. They fail in different ways, and the failure modes are the useful half of the comparison.
Read it
How to run a Klaviyo account audit before you hire anyone
The order we open an account in, the five screens that tell you most, and the list to write while you are in there.
Read it
Flow revenue vs campaign revenue: which one to fix first
One half is a machine that runs while nobody watches it. The other is a decision somebody makes every week. They fail differently.
Read itHiring an agency
What the money buys, what to ask before you sign, and what to walk away from.
What does an email marketing agency do, month by month
The first quarter is catch-up work. The order it happens in, and the month where you find out what you actually bought.
Read it
Red flags when hiring an email marketing agency, and what to ask instead
Five things that should stop a conversation, and the question that turns each one into a straight answer.
Read itSee everything in this shelf
- Email marketing agency vs in-house: what each one is better at6 min
- The questions to ask an email marketing agency before you sign6 min
- How to run a Klaviyo account audit before you hire anyone6 min
- How much do email marketing agencies charge, and what the money buys6 min
- Email marketing retainer vs project: how to buy the work you need6 min
- When to hire an email marketing agency, and when not to yet6 min
Klaviyo mechanics
The settings that quietly decide what your flows do, from someone who has rebuilt a flow stack.
Klaviyo Smart Send Time is guessing: here's how to find your list's real send window
The model behind Smart Send Time learned its habits from opens Apple fired for you. Clicks and revenue know when your list really reads.
Read it
Your Klaviyo VIP segment is a badge while your best customers get first-timer emails
The spend report knows who your best customers are. The flow logic treats them like strangers. Closing that gap is the whole job.
Read itSee everything in this shelf
- How to stop Klaviyo flows overlapping when cart and browse fire together6 min
- Your Klaviyo predicted next order date already knows when they'll buy again6 min
- Your Klaviyo AB test sample size was never big enough to crown that winner7 min
- First name tokens are not personalisation, Klaviyo custom events are7 min
- Klaviyo segments vs lists: which to use, and what breaks when you pick wrong6 min
- Klaviyo smart sending and quiet hours: the settings that mute your flows6 min
- The Klaviyo sunset flow: cleaning a list without losing revenue6 min
- Klaviyo pop up best practices: the settings that decide whether a form works6 min
- Building a Klaviyo back in stock flow that does not annoy people6 min
- Klaviyo flow filters vs trigger filters: which one decides who gets the email6 min
- The Klaviyo attribution window, and what it is actually counting6 min
Platforms compared
What you give up either way, and what a migration actually changes.
A Mailchimp to Klaviyo migration: what breaks, and what to check first
The data moves in an afternoon. Consent, reputation and every automation you had running are the parts that take a month.
Read it
Klaviyo vs Shopify Email: what you give up either way
Shopify Email is fine until the day you need flow logic. That day turns up earlier than most brands expect.
Read itDeliverability and UK consent
Getting into the inbox, and staying inside UK GDPR and PECR while you do it.
The Gmail and Yahoo bulk sender requirements are not why you are in spam
The rules only enforce what good senders already did. If spam placement arrived after February 2024, the fault was in the account long before.
Read it
Your email list doesn't carry SMS marketing consent, and assuming it does will get you fined
A phone number on file is not permission to text it. SMS needs its own recorded yes, and the smaller list is the point.
Read itSee everything in this shelf
- The WhatsApp 24 hour window is the real reason your broadcasts keep failing7 min
- Your email list warm up for Black Friday starts in September, not November7 min
- Your email list after Black Friday is not the list you had in October7 min
- UK GDPR email marketing consent: what a lawful sign-up looks like6 min
- Why are my emails going to spam, and what to check first7 min
- How to set up DMARC for Klaviyo, and what SPF and DKIM do first6 min
- Your email open rate dropped suddenly: what to check, and in what order6 min
- Email sending domain warm up: changing domains without wrecking the list6 min
- The soft opt in rules UK ecommerce brands have to follow6 min
Measurement and attribution
Which numbers are worth watching, and which ones flatter everybody who reports them.
Why is my open rate so high? Because Apple opened it for you
Apple's been opening your email for you since 2021. Here's what the biggest number on your report measures now, and what to trust instead.
Read it
A high product page exit rate usually marks a missing capture point, not a broken page
The exits worth studying are the warm ones. Deep scroll, long dwell, the same thing opened again and again before they leave.
Read itSee everything in this shelf
- We stopped reporting first order ROAS to clients, and it changed the budget conversation7 min
- What a failed A/B test told us about who actually buys7 min
- Revenue per recipient is the number worth watching6 min
- Reading a Klaviyo revenue report without fooling yourself6 min
- Is email revenue incremental, or would those people have bought anyway6 min
- Flow revenue vs campaign revenue: which one to fix first6 min
- Ecommerce email marketing benchmarks UK brands quote, and what to use instead6 min
Terms, defined properly
One term, answered in full, then linked into the glossary entry.
What is zero party data, and what to ask for in a sign-up form
The things a customer tells you on purpose, and why most sign-up forms ask for the wrong one.
Read it
What is RFM segmentation, and how to use it without a data team
Recency, frequency and monetary value, sorted into groups a marketer can actually write an email to.
Read itProgramme and calendar
How often to send, what to send when, and what retention costs to run.
Loyalty programme emails do the retention work your points widget can't
Sign-ups climb and the dashboard looks busy, but behaviour never changes. The emails around the programme do the work the widget cannot.
Read it
A press mention isn't a sale, but email can turn press coverage into sales
Borrowed trust from a journalist expires in days. A capture flow built before the piece runs is how you keep it.
Read itSee everything in this shelf
- TikTok Shop customer emails are the cheapest ones you'll ever nearly lose7 min
- Your subscription cancel flow is where the most recoverable revenue is leaking7 min
- The July sale nobody needed, and the alternatives to discounting that beat it7 min
- Shopify email capture is what turns a website into a list machine7 min
- How to retain Black Friday customers without training them to wait for the next discount7 min
- Stop asking for birthday and phone number at signup, that's what progressive profiling is for7 min
- Your Meta ads landing page shouldn't be the homepage7 min
- Why is my unsubscribe rate going up? Because you lost those subscribers three emails ago8 min
- How often should you send marketing texts? Let the first 30 days tell you7 min
- Most stores never capture emails from guest checkout, and they already paid for those clicks7 min
- You can still get customer emails from Amazon buyers, you just can't ask Amazon for them6 min
- Exit intent popups are annoying because they fire on the wrong page7 min
- The email preview text length that survives an iPhone is shorter than you think7 min
- Your ecommerce thank you page is the best segmentation moment you're ignoring6 min
- Does direct mail work for ecommerce? Only if you run the maths first6 min
- Why is my blog traffic not converting? Because nobody asked it to7 min
- Should you email your entire list? Half my job is saying not today7 min
- How to reduce subscription churn ecommerce brands accept as normal6 min
- How often should you send marketing emails, and how to find your own answer6 min
- An ecommerce email marketing calendar UK brands can actually run6 min
- A Black Friday email marketing plan for Shopify brands, week by week6 min
Flows and automation
The automated journeys that earn while nobody touches them.
A quiz funnel is a segmentation tool wearing a fun hat
Quizzes earn the signup, then most brands file the answers and send one welcome series to everyone. Every question should change which emails someone gets.
Read it
The welcome flow discount is costing you more margin than it earns
Most welcome discounts were copied from a template, not chosen. Compare welcome flow order value against sitewide before you keep paying the toll.
Read itSee everything in this shelf
- Your welcome flow audit is two years overdue6 min
- Your second purchase rate is where most ecommerce brands actually die6 min
- If your welcome flow still mentions Black Friday in March, your seasonal email flows need a toggle7 min
- Why are my abandoned cart emails not working? Check the product page they point back to7 min
- Your Google ads already did the welcome flow segmentation for you6 min
- We only start adding SMS to Klaviyo flows after email has failed twice6 min
- Your replenishment email timing is a guess, and guesses cost reorders7 min
- Email Automation Alchemy: Turning Clicks into Cash for Your Ecom Empire5 min
Campaigns that are not discounts
One campaign type per post: what it is for, who it is sent to, and how to build it without reaching for a code.
The we heard you email: what to send after you change something
Customers tell brands what is wrong constantly and almost never hear what happened next. Closing that loop is a campaign in itself.
Read itThe use cases email for a product people only use one way
Most customers find one use for a product and stop looking. Every additional one you show them is a reason to buy a second.
Read itSee everything in this shelf
- How to send an us vs them email without naming a competitor5 min
- The unboxing email: what to send between dispatch and the doorstep5 min
- The UGC email, and the permissions conversation nobody has first5 min
- How to build a testimonial email a sceptical reader believes6 min
- The style guide email for anything bought on how it looks5 min
- The staff picks email, when the shop floor knows the range best5 min
- The spot the difference email that gets people looking at the product5 min
- The sourcing email: where it comes from, and why that costs more5 min
- The seasonal tie in email that is not just a themed banner5 min
- The risk reversal email: sell the guarantee, not the product5 min
- The restock email, and why it is not the back in stock alert5 min
- The product tutorial email, sent when the box has just landed5 min
- The press roundup email: borrowed credibility, spent properly5 min
- The new product launch email, sequenced over a fortnight5 min
- The myth vs fact email, for categories where the internet is wrong5 min
- The meet the team email that makes the next support ticket easier5 min
- The loyalty perks email: remind people what they already have5 min
- How to write an ingredient spotlight email people finish reading5 min
- The founder q and a email, answered in the founder's own words5 min
- The founder note email, and when plain text beats the designed send5 min
- The FAQ email campaign: send the answers support keeps repeating5 min
- The employee spotlight email that is not internal comms in the wrong inbox5 min
- The day in the life email, and the two versions worth sending5 min
- The customer spotlight email, built from one real order5 min
- The crossword email, and whether a puzzle belongs in your programme5 min
- The comparison chart email for a range nobody can choose between5 min
- The community spotlight email, when your customers already talk to each other5 min
- The choose your own adventure email, and what it teaches your segments5 min
- The care instructions email that protects the second order5 min
- The bundle email that raises order value without cutting price5 min
- The brand story email that is not a founder's autobiography5 min
- The behind the scenes email that earns its place in a busy inbox5 min
- The behind the numbers email: publish your own figures carefully5 min
- The before and after email, for products whose proof is visual5 min
- The award announcement email that is about the reader, not the trophy5 min
We write about the accounts we run, and nothing else. A figure only goes up if it traces to a named account and a case study you can open.
Three working documents, given away whole
The documents behind our retention programmes, written to be used, not admired.
The BFCM Email Playbook
The complete Q4 email plan: every flow and campaign play from September list-building through VIP early access, Cyber Monday and the post-BFCM winback loop, plus how to put your evergreen flows in sale mode and revert them cleanly after.
The Email Flow Audit Scorecard
Score your Klaviyo account in 25 checks across five sections: strategy, flows, deliverability, design and measurement. A brutal, honest 20 minutes that shows you exactly where the revenue is leaking.
The eCommerce Email Automation Playbook
Flow-by-flow diagrams of the full evergreen automation stack: welcome, abandonment, post-purchase, winback and more, with the splits, delays and logic drawn out the way we actually build them.
Would you rather we just did it on your account?
The posts, the playbooks and the glossary are yours for nothing. If reading about email isn't the point, book a call and we'll tell you what we'd fix first.
Book a call with our founder.
We're all about relationships built on trust, mutual respect and a shared vision for success. If that sounds like your vibe, let's make some waves together 🌊
