Klaviyo's text messaging service was surprisingly popular in a case study of 50 direct-to-consumer brands. The review also found that most brands use pop-ups to capture emails, but Welcome Series does not.
I recently looked into how DTC brands are deploying email marketing. We created a list of companies based on Jasper's AI chat and Google search. We then haphazardly selected sites from each source.
To this end, I signed up for each brand's emails using the form on the home page and AOL's free email address. We used BuiltWith to determine our branded email service provider.
Each DTC website was visited only once. However, BuiltWith found that many businesses had his A/B testing software installed and subsequent visits may have had a different sign-up process.
Although not scientific, examining these DTC websites reveals four patterns: widespread use of text messaging, ubiquitous pop-ups, widespread incentives, and lack of welcome sequence messages.
brand | URL | incentive | sentence | pop-up | Psychics |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
clothing cutting | https://www.cutsclothing.com/ | yes | yes | yes | Claviyo |
marc's magic love | https://marcsmagicrub.com/ | no | no | no | mail chimpanzee |
pulp pantry | https://palpantry.com/ | yes | yes | yes | Claviyo |
doo | https://www.eatdeux.com/ | no | yes | Yes, but text | Claviyo |
The Ridge | https://ridge.com/ | no | no | no | Claviyo |
Mad\WTR | https://mudwtr.com/ | no | yes | yes | Claviyo |
feast | https://feastables.com/ | no | yes | yes | Claviyo |
blue land | https://www.blueland.com/ | yes | yes | yes | Claviyo |
G fuel | https://gfuel.com/ | yes | yes | yes | Claviyo |
Comet | https://cometeer.com/ | no | yes | yes | Claviyo |
biossance | https://biossance.com/ | yes | yes | no | Claviyo |
ten little | https://tenlittle.com/ | no | no | no | Claviyo |
appointed | https://appointed.co/ | yes | yes | yes | Claviyo |
caraway | https://www.carawayhome.com/ | yes | yes | yes | Claviyo |
june shine | https://juneshine.com/ | no | yes | yes | Claviyo |
tips | https://www.drinkhint.com/ | no | yes | yes | Claviyo |
love berry | https://lovevery.com/ | no | no | yes | mail chimpanzee |
allbirds | https://www.allbirds.com/ | yes | no | yes | repeatable |
Saatva | https://www.saatva.com/ | no | yes | yes | mail chimpanzee |
peloton | https://www.onepeloton.com/ | no | no | no | custom |
joke | https://www.getquip.com/ | yes | yes | yes | mail chimpanzee |
outer | https://liveouter.com/ | yes | yes | yes | Claviyo |
Nutrafol | https://nutrafall.com/ | yes | yes | yes | other |
away | https://www.awaytravel.com/ | yes | no | no | other |
warby hoodie | https://www.warbyparker.com/ | no | no | no | other |
casper | https://casper.com/ | no | no | no | other |
beltology | https://www.beltology.com/ | yes | no | yes | Claviyo |
bombas | https://bombas.com/ | yes | yes | yes | other |
MVMT | https://www.mvmt.com/ | yes | yes | yes | other |
stance | https://www.stance.com/ | no | no | no | Claviyo |
WP Standard | https://wpstandard.com/ | yes | no | yes | Claviyo |
Roca | https://www.roka.com/ | yes | yes | yes | other |
Pura Vida | https://www.puravidabracelets.com/ | yes | yes | yes | Claviyo |
american giant | https://www.AmericanGiant.com/ | yes | yes | yes | Claviyo |
air | https://www.ayr.com/ | yes | yes | yes | Claviyo |
bonobo | https://bonobos.com/ | no | no | no | other |
buck mason | https://www.buckmason.com/ | no | no | yes | Claviyo |
fighter gentleman | https://combatgent.com/ | yes | no | yes | Claviyo |
cuyana | https://www.Cuyana.com/ | yes | yes | yes | net suite |
fame and partners | https://www.fameandpartners.com/ | no | no | yes | Claviyo |
frank and orc | https://www.flanquindork.com/ | yes | yes | yes | mail chimpanzee |
Indochina | https://www.indochino.com/ | yes | yes | yes | other |
Kuiu | https://www.kuiu.com/ | yes | no | yes | Claviyo |
woven | https://wohven.com/ | yes | yes | yes | Claviyo |
track smith | https://www.tracksmith.com/ | yes | no | yes | Claviyo |
Chubby | https://www.chubbiesshorts.com/ | yes | yes | yes | Claviyo |
HVMN | https://hvmn.com/ | yes | yes | yes | other |
Ora | https://www.ora.organic/ | no | no | no | Claviyo |
art lifting | https://www.artlifting.com/ | no | no | yes | mail chimpanzee |
hubble | https://www.hubblecontacts.com/ | no | no | no | Claviyo |
Klaviyo text messaging while driving
Of the 50 DTC e-commerce sites, 31 sites used Klaviyo for email marketing.
Shopify invested $100 million in Klaviyo in 2022, so it's no surprise that all Klaviyo sites were using Shopify. What was surprising was that a whopping 80% of Klayivo sites asked for my mobile number. Of the 19 brands not using Klaviyo, 4 asked for my cell phone number, bringing the total text searchers to 29 out of his 50.
This does not mean that every brand is collect A cell phone number, but they sure want that. One of his brands, Deux (cookie dough), asked for a mobile phone number in a pop-up, but not an email address. To subscribe via email, I had to find the form in the footer.
DTC brands use email-like text messages, including shipping and delivery notifications, promotional offers, abandoned cart reminders, and more. The difference is responsiveness. A shopper has multiple e-mail addresses and often receives many e-mails each day, but typically a shopper has only one mobile phone and the texts he receives are There are far fewer messages. Therefore, those same shoppers are typically more responsive to mobile communications, at least for now.
Even before reviewing these 50 sites, I was convinced that text messaging was the biggest opportunity for e-commerce companies. Now it may be essential.
popup rules
Despite reports that consumers dislike pop-ups, 38 out of 50 online stores displayed pop-ups.
Several pop-ups appeared the moment the browser loaded. Others were waiting for me to scroll. The pop-ups often loaded on multiple screens and required interaction with the pop-up up to four times, requesting email address, mobile number, and reason for visit.
Most offer incentives
The next trend was for most DTC brands to offer incentives to subscribe to email marketing. 29 out of 50 offered discounts, free shipping, or a chance to win something. Allbirds also offered a chance to win a holiday to New Zealand.
The best incentive experiences came from sites that offered coupon codes in the same subscription pop-up. His Kuiu, a hunting equipment seller, added my coupon code to the header of their website. Now available for immediate use at checkout. It was the best experience of any site I've visited.
Email welcome series
When I set out to review DTC sites, what interested me most was the email welcome series.
So I signed up for the email list and waited. Then I waited some more.
Only four brands had a welcome message. The moment Quip (Electric Toothbrush) clicked the subscribe button he emailed her message to his AOL inbox. Frank and Oak (sustainable apparel), Kuiu delivered their message within seconds. Roka (Performance Sunglasses) emailed me twice within the first 20 minutes of him.
The remaining 46 people took longer. Six hours later, only 25 people had sent her a welcome message, many of them promising a coupon code to use on their first order. A message from one of my 25 girlfriends arrived in my spam folder.
Take-out
There are three takeaways from my case study on the use of email marketing by DTC brands.
First, e-commerce companies should experiment with text messaging. While it's easy for a DTC brand using Klaviyo to add a mobile number capture form to his website, it's not always well executed. Therefore, implementing a text messaging plan can help you keep up with, or even outperform, your competitors by using text-specific tools to drive sales in addition to sending links. Masu.
Second, use pop-ups with clear incentives. If these DTC brands are thought-provoking, pop-ups are worth the trouble.
Third, you have the opportunity to engage with new subscribers through a welcome email series. Approximately half of the brands tested do not use this.