Case studies/Skincare and beauty email retention

Case study · Skincare and beauty

How a 1-month trial became a retention engine for a skincare brand

My favourite case study to share. We started with a simple one-month trial for a growing skincare and beauty brand, and turned email retention marketing into a core revenue channel.

Industry: DTC skincare and beauty
Scope: Email, flows, subscriptions
Stack: Klaviyo, Recharge, Triple Whale
Started as: 1-month trial

Smiling woman with glowing skin in warm sunlight

Serum being applied to a cheek with a dropper

Klaviyo dashboard: $123,456.78 total revenue, $90,123.45 attributed revenue, 70% of total — Dashboard preview, sample figures

The starting point

It began with “let’s test this for one month.”

The goal was never to just send more emails. It was to build an email retention marketing system that turns existing customers into repeat buyers, recovers lost revenue and makes email a predictable revenue channel for the brand.

Very quickly we saw a bigger opportunity. This brand was not only selling skincare products. It had the foundation for a repeat-purchase and subscription-based customer lifecycle.

So instead of treating email as one more promotional channel, we built a system around retention, subscriptions, lifecycle automation and revenue attribution.

The result is a retention engine designed to keep generating revenue long after the first purchase.

The challenge

What happens after someone buys?

Like many DTC skincare and beauty brands, this one was investing heavily in acquiring customers. But acquisition only gets you the first purchase.

A first-time customer can become a repeat customer, a subscriber, a bundle buyer or a long-term VIP. Without the right systems, those opportunities are easy to lose.

For a skincare brand, timing matters enormously. Someone who buys a serum today needs a replenishment reminder weeks later. Someone who buys a cleanser is a natural fit for a moisturizer. A subscriber should never get the same promotions as a one-time buyer.

First-time customers were not being fully nurtured
Abandoned carts needed stronger recovery
Post-purchase emails could do far more than order updates
Customers were not being taught what to use next
Replenishment windows were being missed
Subscribers had no lifecycle of their own
One-time buyers and subscribers got identical messaging
Campaigns and automated flows were not working together
Revenue attribution stopped at vanity metrics

The retention stack

Four tools, one connected customer journey

We used the brand’s existing technology to connect what customers do with what we send them, and what that earns.

Customer behavior→Segmentation→Messaging→Retention→Revenue

Klaviyo

Email and lifecycle marketing

The center of the retention strategy. We focused on building a customer journey, not just more campaigns.

Campaigns and automated flows
Segmentation and behavioral targeting
Abandoned cart and post-purchase
Subscription communication
Engagement and performance reporting

Recharge

Subscriptions and recurring revenue

Subscribers need a different conversation. The question became how do we keep them subscribed?

Subscription started
Upcoming order and order processed
Skipped and paused
Cancelled
Reactivated

Triple Whale

Revenue analytics and attribution

Not “this email got a 40% open rate” but what is email contributing to the business?

Revenue across marketing channels
Email-attributed revenue
Acquisition versus retention
Repeat purchasing behavior

Shopify

Store, orders and customer data

The data underneath every decision, so we could segment on real behavior.

What did they purchase?
When did they purchase?
Have they bought before?
Are they subscribed?
Are they likely to buy again?

Also in the toolkit

FigmaEmail design, templates and brand-consistent layouts
Klaviyo FormsPop-ups and sign-up forms to grow the list
Google Analytics 4On-site behavior and conversion paths
Google SheetsCampaign calendar and weekly reporting

The strategy

We rebuilt the journey from subscriber to VIP

Nine moves, each one tied to a stage of the customer lifecycle. This is what ecommerce email marketing for beauty brands looks like when it is built around the customer.

1Subscriber
2First purchase
3Post-purchase education
4Product usage
5Replenishment
6Second purchase
7Subscription
8VIP customer

Customer journey

We mapped everything that happens from the moment someone joins the list, through the first purchase and beyond. Every flow and campaign after this was built to move customers naturally to the next stage.

Welcome series

More than “here’s 10% off.” The welcome journey introduces the brand, builds trust, explains product benefits and shows what makes the formulas different, so a new subscriber becomes a first-time customer who knows what to expect.

Abandoned cart recovery

Structured around what actually stops a skincare purchase, so recovery never feels like a wall of “buy now.”

Product benefits
Objections
Trust
Social proof
Urgency
Brand positioning
Previous behavior

Post-purchase retention

One of the most important areas. The journey should not end at the order confirmation, so we treated post-purchase email as a retention opportunity, not an order-update channel.

Usage instructions
Product education
What results to expect
Application tips
Complementary products
Replenishment reminders

Replenishment

Skincare is made for replenishment marketing. Instead of waiting for a customer to think “I’m running out,” we used purchase behavior and product timing to reach them before that point.

Subscription retention

A subscription is not automatically a retained customer. Each stage in Recharge got its own communication path, which turned the subscription program from a billing mechanism into part of the retention strategy.

Active subscribersProduct value, education and continued engagement.
Approaching next orderTimely reminders and relevant product messages.
SkippedA skip does not mean the customer is lost.
PausedRe-engagement based on what the customer needs.
CancelledWin-back emails instead of writing them off.
Former subscribersTargeted reactivation campaigns.

Segmentation

No more one message for everyone. Audiences were built around behavior and lifecycle stage, which made personalized email marketing for skincare customers possible.

New subscribers
First-time purchasers
Repeat customers
High-value customers
Active subscribers
At-risk customers
Lapsed customers
Highly engaged
Bought specific products

Campaign strategy

Campaigns were built around more than discounts, balancing revenue, education, retention and brand building.

Skincare routines
Ingredient education
Product benefits
Customer questions
Seasonal campaigns
New launches
Cross-sells
Bundles
Social proof
Customer stories
Subscription offers

Flows versus campaigns

We tracked how much revenue came from automated flows against one-time campaigns. Flows won, which proves the principle: your email revenue should not depend on how many campaigns you send this week.

The results

And then came the numbers

Automated flows did most of the work in the background, with campaigns adding to it.

Sample figures

Close-up of cream being smoothed onto glowing skin

Klaviyo revenue dashboard showing $123,456.78 total revenue, $90,123.45 attributed revenue, flows $57,541.57 and campaigns $32,581.88

Flows 63.9%Campaigns 36.1%

Dashboard shown with sample figures. Brand name withheld for confidentiality.

The real win

It was never just the revenue

The biggest change was how the brand thinks about its customers. That is a completely different way of looking at email marketing for beauty and skincare brands.

Before

Subscriber→Promotion→Purchase

After

Subscriber→Customer→Product education→Repeat purchase→Subscription→Retention→Higher lifetime value

What we learned

Acquisition gets the customer in the door. Retention decides what happens next.

For skincare and beauty brands, the real opportunity does not stop when someone clicks “Buy now.” It starts there. A customer who buys a cleanser today can become a customer for the whole routine.

That is why email retention marketing should be a core growth system for a DTC skincare brand, not an afterthought, and why the goal was never to make the brand dependent on constant discounts.

More repeat purchases
Stronger subscription retention
Higher customer lifetime value
More revenue from existing customers
Better lifecycle marketing
A healthier email revenue channel

1Cleanser
2Moisturizer
3Serum
4Treatment
5Replenishment and bundles
6VIP customer

Want this for your skincare or beauty brand?

Turn the customers you have already paid to acquire into long-term customers. Let’s start with a call and look at where your retention revenue is hiding.

Book a strategy call