Caitlyn Minimalist grows email and SMS revenue 144% YoY with Klaviyo B2C CRM

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Caitlyn Minimalist started with a single piece of jewelry: a necklace with an initial pendant, which founder Kate Kim made based on her grandfather’s handwriting. She got so many compliments she decided to build a brand focused on dainty, timeless jewelry with a personalized twist.

Since then, Caitlyn Minimalist has grown into a top Etsy seller, a standalone ecommerce brand, and a brick-and-mortar retailer. They power smarter digital relationships with customers across all retail channels using Klaviyo B2C CRM.

Learn how owning and centralizing customer data with Klaviyo supports Caitlyn Minimalist’s growth and CX

Challenge

Caitlyn Minimalist began as an Etsy store, and the marketplace initially handled all their email messaging. The lack of granular control over email became a blocker for the brand.

“As we were scaling with a lean team, we had some challenges communicating through the fulfillment and order management process,” recalls Anthony Ponce, head of growth at Caitlyn Minimalist.

As we were scaling with a lean team, we had some challenges communicating through the fulfillment and order management process.

That was especially true for personalized orders, which take Caitlyn Minimalist up to two weeks to fabricate. During that time, customers would often reach out to the customer service team for status updates.

Caitlyn Minimalist wanted to be able to manage order status conversations more proactively—and build direct, long-term relationships with their customers.

To do that, they needed an owned ecommerce funnel—including their own CRM.

Solution

Caitlyn Minimalist decided to launch an owned ecommerce experience with Shopify and Klaviyo.

They were attracted by the powerful pre-built integration between the two, the robust ecosystem of integrations around both platforms, and Klaviyo’s immediate ease of use.

“With Klaviyo, everything worked right out of the box,” Ponce recalls of Klaviyo set-up.

Caitlyn Minimalist can now use Klaviyo’s Shopify and ShipStation integrations to send automated transactional emails with clear production timelines to customers who buy on Etsy and Shopify alike.

With Klaviyo, everything worked right out of the box.

Since implementation, Ponce has noticed a drop in customer service outreach about orders in progress.

In the years since the migration, Caitlyn Minimalist has expanded Klaviyo usage beyond email, too. They added Klaviyo SMS and Klaviyo Customer Hub, a personalized, signed-in account experience that lets customers access order tracking, rewards, support, and more without leaving their Shopify site.

Since launching Customer Hub, they’ve seen a 90% year-over-year drop in traffic to their static Shopify Accounts page. That means fewer customers are leaving the shopping journey to check their order status — they’re managing everything in the Hub

Strategy

Today, Caitlyn Minimalist uses Klaviyo B2C CRM to create a cohesive funnel across retail and marketing channels. For instance, they use Klaviyo to:

• Underline email messaging with SMS: In campaigns and automations, like their abandonment and back-in-stock flows, Caitlyn Minimalist uses SMS to underline key email messaging. During BFCM, for example, they only sent two SMS campaigns, but strategic timing and language helped drive more than 9x YoY growth in SMS revenue during the holiday—and buoy overall holiday ecommerce revenue, which jumped 138% YoY. “That really showed us how powerful a single well-timed text can be,” says Caitlyn Minimalist brand designer Sarah Chou.
• Drive list growth with Klaviyo forms: Caitlyn Minimalist captures email and SMS sign-ups with Klaviyo pop-ups and embeds, incentivizing submissions with dynamic spin-to-win wheels and targeted offers. In the past year, their email list has grown 83% and their SMS list has grown 145%.
• Personalize messaging by purchasing channel: In fall, Caitlyn Minimalist launched two retail stores, and they use Klaviyo’s pre-built integration with Shopify’s POS to create personalized order confirmation experiences for online and brick-and-mortar shoppers. In 2025, they plan to differentiate their messaging even more by retail channel. “We’re hoping to create that seamless omnichannel experience,” says Ponce.

Overall, centralizing customer data from multiple messaging and sales channels helps Caitlyn Minimalist talk to their customers like they really know them—in their marketing and 1:1 on service calls.

“We have all customer touchpoints consolidated in Klaviyo, and we use it as our B2C CRM,” Ponce says. “We recently started giving our customer experience team access to Klaviyo as well, so that they can see all the messages a customer has received, the offers they’ve claimed, their loyalty tier, all in one place. That’s had a big impact.”

We have all customer touchpoints consolidated in Klaviyo, and we use it as our B2C CRM.