Latest / The Retention Marketing Podcast with Fexingo: Email, SMS, and Loyalty for Repeat Customers / How a Pet Brand Uses Email to Boost Repeat Sales by 50 Percent
Transcript
- Lucas: So there's this pet food brand called Bark & Whisker — they launched in 2020, DTC only, premium kibble and wet food. They got the first-time buyer pretty well. Their acquisition funnel was solid. But their repeat rate after 90 days was stuck around 22 percent. Luna: That's actually pretty average for pet food, I think. The category has a lot of churn because people switch brands when their dog gets bored or they see a deal. Lucas: Exactly. So they decided to overhaul their email program — not with more emails, but smarter ones. And within six months, their repeat rate went from 22 to 33 percent. That's a 50 percent improvement. Luna: I love that — a 50 percent lift in repeat sales just from changing how you communicate with existing customers. So what did they actually do? Lucas: They built a three-email lifecycle sequence that fires based on the first purchase. Not just a standard welcome series — this was tied to when the customer actually receives the product and when they're likely to run out. Luna: So it's triggered by behavior and time, not just a day-one, day-three, day-seven drip. Lucas: Right. Email one goes out three days after delivery. It's a care guide — how to transition your pet to new food, portion sizes based on weight, that kind of thing. They included a photo of the founder's own dog alongside a customer's dog who had been using the food for a month. User-generated content right there in the onboarding. Luna: That's smart — it builds trust and social proof at the exact moment the customer is most uncertain. 'Is my dog going to like this? Am I feeding the right amount?' Lucas: Email two comes at day 14. That's when the math says a 20-pound bag of kibble is about half gone for a medium-sized dog. The subject line was literally 'Time to restock?' and the email showed the customer's previous order with a one-click reorder button. No discounts. No urgency. Just convenience. Luna: And how did that perform? I'm guessing the click-through rate was pretty high because it's utility, not promotion. Lucas: Forty-two percent open rate and a 16 percent click-through. That's about three times the industry average for email. And the conversion rate on that email alone was 8 percent. So nearly one in ten people who opened that email reordered. Luna: That's huge. And email three? Lucas: Day 21 — cross-sell. They introduced their treat line and a dental chew product. But the twist was they personalized the product recommendation based on the pet's breed size and age from the initial profile. So a Golden Retriever puppy got different suggestions than a senior Chihuahua. Luna: Personalization at that level takes good data capture on the front end. Did they do anything special at signup to get that info? Lucas: They added a three-question quiz during checkout: pet's name, breed, and age. That's it. They used that data to populate the email content dynamically. And they saw a 12 percent conversion rate on that cross-sell email. The average order value for those who clicked was $54 — compared to $38 for the initial order. Luna: So the email sequence not only drove repeat purchases but also increased order value by 42 percent. That's a double win. Lucas: Yeah. And the best part — they didn't increase email frequency overall. They capped it at two emails per week maximum for any customer. They just made each email more relevant. Luna: You know, if this kind of concrete marketing strategy is useful to you, the way Bark & Whisker built this sequence — it's exactly the kind of thing we cover here. And the reason we can keep these episodes ad-free is listener support. If you've gotten value, you can buy me a coffee dot com slash fexingo. That's what keeps the show running without sponsors. Lucas: Absolutely. And we don't put that behind a paywall — it's just a way for people who find this genuinely helpful to chip in. So back to the email sequence — the brand also segmented their list by customer lifecycle. New customers got the three-email series. But for existing customers who hadn't purchased in 90 days, they had a different re-engagement flow. Luna: So they weren't treating all subscribers the same. What did the re-engagement look like? Lucas: A two-email series. First email: 'We miss you and your pup — here's a 10 percent off code.' Second email, seven days later if no purchase: 'Your dog's favorite recipe is still in stock' with a reminder of what they ordered before. That second email had a 9 percent conversion rate. And they recovered about 15 percent of lapsed customers within a month. Luna: What about frequency of the series itself? Did they worry about overwhelming people? Lucas: They actually tested sending the three-email series over 21 days versus 14 days. The 21-day version had a slightly higher open rate — 41 percent versus 38 percent — but the 14-day version had a higher conversion rate, 11 percent versus 9 percent. So they went with the faster cadence because it captured people while the product was still top of mind. Luna: That's a great example of testing a simple variable — timing — and letting data drive the decision. I also love that they used customer photos in the emails. Did they have to get permission for that? Lucas: They did. They asked customers to tag the brand on Instagram with their pet eating the food, and then they replied asking for permission to feature the photo in emails. About 30 percent of people said yes. That gave them a steady stream of authentic content. Luna: So the emails felt less like a marketing blast and more like a community of pet owners sharing tips. That emotional connection is huge for retention. Lucas: Exactly. And they measured something called 'repeat purchase intent' — they surveyed a sample of customers after the third email and asked how likely they were to buy again. People who received all three emails scored an 8.2 out of 10, compared to 5.7 for a control group that only got the standard welcome series. Luna: That's a 44 percent increase in purchase intent. And it's based on a real survey, not just clicks. That's robust. Lucas: Yeah. So the takeaway isn't that email is dead or that you need fancy AI. It's that a simple, well-timed, personalized sequence built around the customer's actual usage cycle can dramatically improve repeat sales. And it costs almost nothing to set up compared to paid acquisition. Luna: Right. And for a brand like Bark & Whisker, which is competing against massive incumbents like Purina and Hill's, this kind of retention strategy gives them a real edge. It's not about outspending — it's about out-caring. Lucas: That's the phrase. Out-caring. And I think that's a good place to leave it.