From abandoned carts to successful conversions: transforming Kai Collective's email strategy

Before working with Fuel Made, Kai Collective—a women-led fashion brand—was only sending one automated email; an abandoned cart recovery. They had a significant gap in their email marketing strategy.

To truly make an impact on customers, it's important to integrate email marketing throughout the entire customer journey. That's exactly what we built for our client Kai Collective. 

Before Fuel Made

Below you can see the one automated email that Kai Collective was sending out before working with our team. This email went out to all cart abandoners a few hours after they left the store. The opening line, "Did you forget something?" is very generic. The content simply shows their cart without sharing any helpful information and the design doesn't match this brand's elevated luxury feel. Moreover, the last section detracts customers from moving forward in their customer journey toward placing an order

With the new flow strategy, we aimed to create more specific, targeted messaging, sent at strategically calculated times. 

So if you’re ready to explore the importance of timing and thoughtful messaging to maximize email marketing success, keep reading.

Here’s the original email:

After Fuel Made

New and improved abandoned cart flow

Kai’s new abandoned cart email flow is split between first-time orders and repeat orders and features a series of four touchpoints. The results have been impressive, with a conversion rate of 33.8% in the first three months alone!

And here's why: we took a personalized and helpful approach with all of the emails in the flow. Unlike the original generic email, which simply reminded customers of their forgotten items, our new approach is a sequence of four emails that add value by highlighting the unique benefits of purchasing from Kai Collective.

The first email in the flow is particularly effective. Coming from Kai’s customer support team, the email starts immediately with a friendly tone, using the subject line “That’s one of my favorites.” We also made sure to keep the email specific to the shopper's interests by mentioning the exact item they were looking at. We highlighted the free shipping threshold, dropped two links to their cart, and even shared some of Kai's core values to show why they're worth supporting.

Pro tips:

• Plain text emails have higher deliverability rates, as they are less likely to be marked as spam. Their simple text-based content also makes them seem more personal, allowing you to connect with your customers on a human level and offer assistance. 
• Timing is also an important factor to consider. Sending an email within 30 minutes of a customer abandoning their cart is just enough time to know that they have likely moved on to another window, but short enough that they are probably still on their computer and will remember that they liked your product.

The following emails in the flow share information about Kai’s free shipping threshold, customer reviews, and the fact that the business is woman-led. 

Additionally, they show off the KAI elevated aesthetics and make the shopper want to engage with this luxurious London-based brand. This approach helps establish a connection with the customer and encourages them to take action.

New pop-up and welcome flow

Kai was missing out on a major opportunity to grow their email and SMS subscribers because they didn't have a pop-up or welcome flow in place. 

First, we created a pop-up that offers 10% off to those who share their email. The second part of the pop-up offers an option for shoppers to subscribe to SMS as well. Once someone shares their email in the pop-up, we kick off a welcome flow that includes multiple emails. 

To make these emails stand out, we included a bunch of gorgeous lifestyle photos that showcase Kai's brand and products in action. We also made sure to prominently feature that 10% discount because we know it's what people are after. 

To add some extra credibility, we threw in some press highlights that show off just how awesome Kai is. And of course, we made it easy for shoppers to browse and shop Kai's best sellers. 

Together, these elements create a welcoming and attractive experience for new subscribers, leading to an 11.3% conversion rate on Kai’s entire welcome flow.