You paid to get the customer. Now what?

There's an interesting imbalance in how ecommerce brands think about growth. Businesses will spend thousands of dollars testing advertising creative, refining audiences and finding ways to acquire customers more efficiently.

Then someone finally purchases. And the marketing strategy seems to lose interest.

They receive an order confirmation, perhaps a shipping update, and eventually another promotional email offering 20% off. It's a strange way to treat someone you've just spent money convincing to buy from you, particularly when you consider how much more you now know about that customer.

Acquisition gets the attention. Retention deserves a strategy.

Paid advertising is often the most visible part of ecommerce marketing. You can see the budget being spent, the campaigns running and the revenue attributed to each channel.

Retention is less dramatic. It happens through customer experience, useful communication, thoughtful product recommendations and the decisions that make someone want to purchase again. Those activities can have a substantial effect on the economics of a business.

If customers return and purchase again, the original acquisition cost is spread across more transactions. That doesn't mean every repeat purchase is automatically profitable. It means understanding customer lifetime value becomes increasingly important as acquisition costs rise.

Email marketing isn't a newsletter

When I talk about email marketing with ecommerce businesses, the conversation often turns immediately to how many campaigns they should send each week. That's part of the picture.

But for a business using a platform like Klaviyo, the more interesting opportunities usually sit in automated customer journeys. These are communications triggered by what someone does, what they've purchased or where they are in their relationship with the brand. Done well, they make marketing more relevant and reduce the manual work required.

Done badly, they create a relentless sequence of messages that seem completely unaware of the person receiving them.

Hannah Grant, Freshmade Creative

The five email journeys I'd review first

1. Welcome. Someone has expressed interest in your brand. A good welcome journey establishes the brand, explains the product and addresses likely questions. It shouldn't necessarily begin and end with a discount code.
2. Abandoned checkout. The objective is to help them return, not to assume a bigger discount is required. Clear reminders, relevant product information and reassurance around delivery or returns may be enough.
3. Post-purchase. One of the most underused opportunities. Customers may need information about using the product, what happens next or how to get the best experience from it. The timing should reflect the product, not simply the fact that an order occurred.
4. Replenishment and repeat purchase. If customers reorder after a predictable period, a well-timed reminder is genuinely helpful. Too early and it feels irrelevant. Too late and they have already bought elsewhere.
5. Win-back. Not every inactive customer is lost. A useful win-back strategy considers why they stopped, how long they have been inactive and whether the brand has something relevant to offer. Sending the same discount to everyone is not much of a strategy.

Personalisation isn't putting someone's first name in the subject line

The most valuable personalisation usually comes from understanding behaviour. What has someone purchased? How recently? How often? Are they a subscriber? Have they returned a product? Have they already received the offer you're about to send?

These details help a brand communicate more intelligently, but only if the underlying data is accurate. I've seen how quickly a sensible customer journey becomes frustrating when platforms aren't synchronising properly.

• A customer purchases, but the abandoned checkout flow doesn't stop
• Someone pauses a subscription, but keeps receiving replenishment reminders
• A discount intended for new customers reaches people who already paid full price

These aren't simply technical annoyances. They affect the customer experience.

Don't let email attribution tell the entire story

Email platforms can report substantial attributed revenue. That's useful, but it needs context. A customer who was already planning to purchase might open an email shortly before ordering, and depending on the attribution settings that purchase may be credited to email. It doesn't necessarily mean the email created the sale.

I'd look at repeat purchase rates, retention cohorts, customer lifetime value, revenue per recipient and the overall contribution of lifecycle marketing. For larger programs, holdout testing can help establish whether particular communications are genuinely increasing purchases.

Sometimes fewer emails are better marketing

This might sound odd coming from someone who builds email marketing programs. But I don't believe sending more emails should be the default answer.

If customers are receiving overlapping campaigns, irrelevant automations and repetitive offers, the business may be creating more noise than value. I'd rather send fewer, better-timed communications that reflect what the customer actually needs.

A good lifecycle strategy should make people feel understood, not pursued.

Hannah Grant, Freshmade Creative

Frequently asked questions

Getting someone to buy is important. Giving them a reason to come back is where a lot of the real work begins.

HG

Written by

Hannah Grant

Founder and director of Freshmade Creative, a Brisbane studio working across brand, marketing and digital.