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.
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.
- Who owns it
- The pitch
- Reporting
- The list
- The contract
- What to ask
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.
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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 itEmail marketing retainer vs project: how to buy the work you need
A project ships a thing. A retainer keeps a thing working. Most brands buy the wrong one first, and it costs them the build.
Read itSee everything in this shelf
- How to run a Klaviyo account audit before you hire anyone6 min
- The questions to ask an email marketing agency before you sign6 min
- When to hire an email marketing agency, and when not to yet6 min
- Red flags when hiring an email marketing agency, and what to ask instead6 min
- How much do email marketing agencies charge, and what the money buys6 min
- Email marketing agency vs in-house: what each one is better at6 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
How to stop Klaviyo flows overlapping when cart and browse fire together
Cart and browse abandonment keep double emailing the same shopping session, and each flow reports healthy on its own. One list filter referees them.
Read itSee everything in this shelf
- Your Klaviyo predicted next order date already knows when they'll buy again6 min
- Your Klaviyo VIP segment is a badge while your best customers get first-timer emails7 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 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
- The Klaviyo sunset flow: cleaning a list without losing revenue6 min
- The Klaviyo attribution window, and what it is actually counting6 min
- Klaviyo smart sending and quiet hours: the settings that mute your flows6 min
- Klaviyo flow filters vs trigger filters: which one decides who gets the email6 min
- Klaviyo segments vs lists: which to use, and what breaks when you pick wrong6 min
Platforms compared
What you give up either way, and what a migration actually changes.
Klaviyo vs Omnisend for ecommerce email: what you are choosing between
One is a customer database that sends email. The other is an email tool that got good at ecommerce. Choose on that.
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Email vs SMS marketing ecommerce: which channel to add next
Only one of these three charges you by the message. That one fact decides almost everything about how you use it.
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 warm up for Black Friday starts in September, not November
Inbox providers grade November on what you sent in September and October. A list that went quiet needs six weeks of staged re-warming first.
Read itSee everything in this shelf
- Your email list doesn't carry SMS marketing consent, and assuming it does will get you fined7 min
- Your email list after Black Friday is not the list you had in October7 min
- The WhatsApp 24 hour window is the real reason your broadcasts keep failing7 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
- Your email open rate dropped suddenly: what to check, and in what order6 min
- How to set up DMARC for Klaviyo, and what SPF and DKIM do first6 min
- Why are my emails going to spam, and what to check first7 min
- UK GDPR email marketing consent: what a lawful sign-up looks like6 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.
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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
- Reading a Klaviyo revenue report without fooling yourself6 min
- Ecommerce email marketing benchmarks UK brands quote, and what to use instead6 min
- Revenue per recipient is the number worth watching6 min
- Is email revenue incremental, or would those people have bought anyway6 min
- Flow revenue vs campaign revenue: which one to fix first6 min
Terms, defined properly
One term, answered in full, then linked into the glossary entry.
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.
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What is repeat purchase rate, and what actually moves it
One number, measured over a window you fix, that says whether the first order was the start of anything.
Read itProgramme and calendar
How often to send, what to send when, and what retention costs to run.
Christmas email marketing for ecommerce starts the day Black Friday ends
Christmas isn't Black Friday with tinsel on. Different buyer, a hard delivery deadline, and a quiet week after that most brands waste.
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Why is my blog traffic not converting? Because nobody asked it to
The popup fires the same offer at every reader, whatever they typed into Google. Match the capture to the query and the traffic starts paying.
Read itSee everything in this shelf
- A press mention isn't a sale, but email can turn press coverage into sales7 min
- Exit intent popups are annoying because they fire on the wrong page7 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
- Your ecommerce thank you page is the best segmentation moment you're ignoring6 min
- Why is my unsubscribe rate going up? Because you lost those subscribers three emails ago8 min
- Stop asking for birthday and phone number at signup, that's what progressive profiling is for7 min
- You can still get customer emails from Amazon buyers, you just can't ask Amazon for them7 min
- Loyalty programme emails do the retention work your points widget can't7 min
- Your Meta ads landing page shouldn't be the homepage7 min
- The email preview text length that survives an iPhone is shorter than you think7 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
- TikTok Shop customer emails are the cheapest ones you'll ever nearly lose7 min
- Shopify email capture is what turns a website into a list machine7 min
- Should you email your entire list? Half my job is saying not today7 min
- Does direct mail work for ecommerce? Only if you run the maths first6 min
- How to retain Black Friday customers without training them to wait for the next discount7 min
- An ecommerce email marketing calendar UK brands can actually run6 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
- 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 itIf your welcome flow still mentions Black Friday in March, your seasonal email flows need a toggle
The sale line goes in by hand in November and quietly rots until spring. One permanent flow with a swappable sale block fixes it.
Read itSee everything in this shelf
- Your replenishment email timing is a guess, and guesses cost reorders7 min
- Your second purchase rate is where most ecommerce brands actually die6 min
- Why are my abandoned cart emails not working? Check the product page they point back to7 min
- Your welcome flow audit is two years overdue6 min
- We only start adding SMS to Klaviyo flows after email has failed twice6 min
- Your Google ads already did the welcome flow segmentation for you6 min
- The welcome flow discount is costing you more margin than it earns7 min
- Email Automation Alchemy: Turning Clicks into Cash for Your Ecom Empire5 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 playbooks out of the accounts we run
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 the five areas the scorecard covers: list growth and welcome, abandonment recovery, post-purchase and retention, reactivation and list hygiene, and foundations and measurement. The total 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 growth consultation and we'll tell you what we'd fix first.
Half an hour with Theo, 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 🌊
