Case study · Drinks devices & refills
A drinks device brand with refills
A device people buy once and refills they should buy again and again. Customers loved the kit, but nothing was walking a new owner to their first refill. We built that path. The brand's name is withheld; the numbers are verified client data.
- Klaviyo · Shopify
- UK · Home and trade customers
- Name withheld
01 · Where they started
A great device, then silence
This brand sells a drinks device and the refills that keep it going. Home users and businesses buy the kit, in the UK and abroad, and a regular user gets through refills every month.
Email was run in-house alongside every other channel, so the automations behind the campaigns had never had dedicated time. New leads, first-time home buyers and businesses buying for their teams largely heard the same thing.
The money in this model is in the second order. A device sale with no refill behind it is a one-off.
02 · What we found
The refill is the business
The diagnostic looked at what new customers actually bought next, and when the existing emails reached them.
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Second orders are refills
When customers came back, they mostly bought refills. Device owners who added refills to their first order were more likely to return. The second order was there to be won, if someone showed a new owner what to buy and how to use it.
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The replenishment email fired at the wrong time
The existing reminder went out long before most customers were ready to reorder, so it landed when people still had plenty left.
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The numbers were mixing two businesses
Wholesale and distributor orders sat inside the same reporting as direct customers, which hid how the direct customers really behaved. Separating them came first, so every decision after it rested on the right customers.
03 · What we built
From first order to first refill
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Foundations. Reviews connected to Klaviyo, a segment library built, flow filters fixed, and wholesale and distributor customers separated from the direct audience. A plain-text re-engagement email went to the existing list.
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A front door that asks who you are. A new popup asked visitors how they would use the device, and a new welcome flow split by audience and by region, with a path built for business buyers. SMS backed up the key campaigns.
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Teaching new owners to use the device. A post-purchase onboarding flow for new device owners: how to get the best from it, and which refills to pair with it.
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The path to the refill. Abandoned checkout rebuilt to treat device buyers and refill buyers differently, and customers differently from prospects. A new replenishment flow, timed to how long refills really last. Restock campaigns kept refills in front of owners between flows.
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More reasons to come back. A cross-sell flow for owners ready for a second device, and a winback flow for customers who had gone quiet.
04 · The numbers
What it added up to
- +39% first-time customers placing a second order within 60 days
- +45% new device owners coming back for refills within 60 days
- +7% returning customers’ share of revenue, against a baseline that included Black Friday and Christmas