Email strategy teardown: BedInABox
The Art of the Email Cross-sell and Upsell
The Art of the Email Cross-sell and Upsell
Would you like fries with that? Would you like to supersize it? Cross-selling and upselling show up in lots of everyday touch-points, including email marketing strategies. If executed successfully, they can increase your average order value (AOV) and generate awareness about other products you sell. Long-term, they’re a great strategy to increase customer lifetime value (CLV) and reduce churn. That’s a lot of money being made and saved, and Klaviyo makes it easy to do with our built-in flows.
Our Subject: BedInABox
We wanted to see if a pioneering online mattress brand had a cross-sell and upsell strategy to match their reputation for product quality, so we took a close look at the email strategy of BedInABox. I signed up for emails with BedInABox, took a few actions, and then watched to see how the experience unfolded.
The backstory of BedInABox
Based in Johnson City, Tennessee, this family-run company started selling mattresses online in 2006, well before many competitors in the space. They also sell a vast portfolio of sleep essentials like pillows, sheets, and bed frames.
We signed up for their email newsletter and received a subscription confirmation email
We abandoned a cart and received two abandoned cart emails
We purchased after the abandoned cart and received order confirmation and shipping emails
We received a couple of product emails
Let’s look at their one week email strategy.
1. Sign up for their welcome series emails
2. Abandon a cart and see if there’s an abandoned cart email
3. Make a purchase and see if there are post-purchase emails
BedInABox sent us two messages, which is great. Ecommerce marketers should have two to three messages in a series as a general best practice for optimal performance. However, I received both messages on the same day, which is too closely spaced. We recommend waiting a little longer before following up, to avoid overwhelming your customer and driving them away.
They didn’t send me a welcome series email, which is a missed opportunity. In terms of profitability, welcome series messages are second only to abandoned cart messages. According to our data, welcome series emails receive 63% higher open rates, 86% higher click-through rates, and 83% higher revenue per recipient (RPR) than your average email campaign.
There’s a huge opportunity to connect sooner with your customer after they place an order. I didn’t receive a product email until 15 days after my purchase. According to our data, post-purchase emails see a 90% higher revenue per recipient than your average email campaign. Check out our earlier post for 5 ways to use post-purchase messages to get your customers to buy again.
What else do you sell? I received an email about sheets and then received the same exact email about sheets the following day. The sheets were a good offer, but suggesting pillowcases would have been better, and offering them twice in a row was just a mistake. Cross-sell your most relevant products so your customers will be happier and more likely to buy again.
These were OK, but they felt robotic and lacked branding. An injection of color and imagery would improve brand recognition and help keep BedInABox top-of-mind the next time I need bedding.
BedInABox is a pioneer in the online mattress industry. They had the vision to help create this market space, one that’s now about a $1.7+ billion dollar industry with many players. To keep up with new competitors, they should improve how they are perceived at all email touch-points. Adding a welcome series email, enhancing branding in their post-purchase emails, and making a more thoughtful choice of cross-sell and upsell offers would go a long way toward building long-term customer relationships and revenue.