Latest / The Retention Marketing Podcast with Fexingo: Email, SMS, and Loyalty for Repeat Customers / How Bombas Uses Post-Purchase Emails to Drive 30 Percent Repeat Rate
Transcript
- Lucas: So Bombas — the sock company that now also sells underwear and t-shirts — has a repeat purchase rate around 30 percent. That's not subscription revenue, that's just people coming back to buy more socks. Luna: Thirty percent? For a product category where most people buy once and forget the brand exists. That's impressive. Lucas: Exactly. And the interesting part is how much of that repeat rate gets driven by something most brands treat as an afterthought: post-purchase email. The messages you get after your order arrives. Luna: Transactional emails. Most companies just send a shipping confirmation and then radio silence until the next promotional blast. Lucas: Right. Bombas does the opposite. They send a deliberate sequence of three emails after delivery. And each one has a specific job. The first is what they call the 'happy arrival' email — sent 24 hours after the package shows up. It's not asking for a review yet. It just says 'hope you love them, here's a tip: did you know the heel tab prevents slipping?' Luna: So it's useful. It reduces buyer's remorse. Lucas: Exactly. And it opens a channel for replies. If someone writes back saying the fit is off, Bombas' customer service team is already in the inbox. The second email comes about a week later. That one is care instructions — how to wash the socks so they last, why you shouldn't use fabric softener on merino wool. It's still not a sales pitch. Luna: It's building trust and extending the life of the product. Which, in their case, is also part of their sustainability message. Lucas: Right. The third email is the repurchase nudge, and this is where the timing gets clever. Bombas knows that most people wear their socks on a rotation. If you bought a six-pack, you're probably wearing each pair once every week or two. So they don't send a 'buy more' email for 60 to 90 days. Luna: They wait until you're starting to think 'hmm, these are getting a little thin' or 'I wish I had another pair of the black ones.' Lucas: Exactly. And the email is personalised based on what you bought. 'Your charcoal crew socks are approaching retirement. Here are the same ones, plus we have a new color.' They make it about replenishment, not about a sale. And because the product itself is relatively low cost and high utility, the conversion rate on that email is significantly above industry average for post-purchase flows. Luna: Do you know the actual numbers on that conversion rate? Lucas: Bombas hasn't published exact figures, but according to retention marketing benchmarks I've seen, the average click-through rate for a replenishment email in apparel is around 4 to 6 percent. Bombas is reportedly north of 10 percent on that third email. And the repeat purchase rate of 30 percent I mentioned earlier — that's for customers who bought at least twice within a 12-month window. For context, the average direct to consumer apparel brand sees around 15 to 20 percent. Luna: So they're roughly doubling the industry norm. And a big part of that is just not sending too many emails too fast. Lucas: That's the counterintuitive lesson. Most brands want to hit you with a 'we miss you' email after two weeks. Bombas waits two to three months. They're trusting the product to do the retention work and using email to amplify it at the right moment. Luna: It also helps that the product is genuinely good. I've worn Bombas socks, they hold up. But the email sequence is still a craft. Other brands could copy the structure and still fail if their product isn't worth re-ordering. Lucas: Absolutely. And there's another layer to this that Bombas does differently. Their one-for-one model — buy a pair, donate a pair — gets woven into the post-purchase emails in a subtle way. The care instructions email includes a line like 'your purchase helped provide socks to someone experiencing homelessness.' It's not the main message, but it's there. Luna: That reinforces the emotional connection without feeling like a guilt trip. And it probably increases the likelihood that someone will share the email or the brand with a friend. Lucas: Right. And for Bombas, customer acquisition cost is high — they advertise heavily on Facebook and podcasts. So getting that 30 percent repeat rate is critical to making the unit economics work. Each repeat customer effectively lowers the average acquisition cost over time. Luna: It's a classic retention play. And their email sequence is a great example of how to think about the customer's timeline, not your own sales calendar. Lucas: Exactly. Most brands send emails based on when they need revenue. Bombas sends emails based on when the customer actually needs new socks. That's a completely different logic, and it pays off. Luna: Which brings up a broader point: how many brands actually map out the lifespan of their product to time their emails? I'd guess almost none. Lucas: Very few. Most set up a generic 'abandoned cart' and 'post-purchase' flow in Klaviyo and never touch it again. Bombas treats it as an ongoing optimisation project. They test subject lines, timing, imagery. And they've been doing this for years, so they have a lot of data now. Luna: It's also worth noting that Bombas expanded from socks into underwear and t-shirts. Those categories have different replacement cycles. Do they adjust the email timing for each? Lucas: They do. Underwear is typically replaced every 6 to 12 months, so the repurchase nudge comes later. T-shirts maybe every 12 to 18 months. But the same three-email structure applies: happy arrival, care, then replenishment. The content changes, but the logic stays the same. Luna: That's smart. It means they have a repeatable framework, not just a one-off sequence for socks. Lucas: Right. And if you look at their overall retention strategy, the email sequence is just one piece. They also have a loyalty program called Bombas Give Back, where you earn points that convert into donations. But the post-purchase emails are the entry point for most customers. It's where the relationship deepens or dies. Luna: And for a brand that donates an item with every purchase, the post-purchase moment is actually the perfect time to remind people of the impact. Because that feeling of 'I just did something good' is freshest right after the package arrives. Lucas: Exactly. And that emotional boost makes people more receptive to the care instructions and the future repurchase email. It's all connected. Luna: So if you're a brand listening to this and you want to improve your post-purchase emails, what's the one thing you should take from Bombas? Lucas: Slow down. Give the customer time to actually use the product before you ask them to buy again. And make every email useful, not promotional. The happy arrival email, the care tips — those build a relationship. The sales email comes naturally after that foundation is laid. Luna: Yeah, and that's something we talk about a lot on this show. If these marketing conversations have sparked something you've actually used in your own work, or even just a better way of thinking about your customer's timeline, that's exactly what keeps us doing this. Lucas: A couple of dollars a month is genuinely what keeps these going — buy me a coffee dot com slash fexingo, if you've gotten something out of them. Luna: So back to Bombas. I think another interesting angle is how they measure the success of that sequence. What metrics do they actually care about? Lucas: They look at repeat purchase rate by cohort, obviously. But also click to conversion latency — how long between clicking the email and actually buying. And they track whether someone who clicked the care instructions email is more likely to buy later. The data suggests yes. Luna: So the care email isn't just a nice gesture. It's a leading indicator of future purchase. Lucas: Exactly. And that's the kind of measurement that validates the approach. Most brands would cut the care email because it doesn't directly generate revenue. Bombas keeps it because it moves the needle on lifetime value. Luna: Alright, so final thought: what's a specific takeaway that a smaller brand could implement this week? Lucas: Look at your post-purchase email timing. If you're sending a 'buy again' email sooner than 30 days after delivery for a product that lasts months, you're probably annoying customers. Map out the realistic usage cycle of your product and align your email sequence to that. Even just pushing the first repurchase email back by two weeks can improve open rates and conversion. Luna: And if you don't know the usage cycle, ask some customers. Or just guess conservatively. Longer is usually safer than shorter. Lucas: Right. Bombas didn't get to 30 percent repeat rate overnight. They tested and refined. But the principle is clear: treat post-purchase email as a retention tool, not a transaction receipt. Luna: And that's a wrap on this episode. Next time we'll look at a very different retention model — the kind where the product itself is a service, not a physical good. Lucas: Looking forward to it. Thanks for listening.