Example project Illustrative business and figures.
Bringing customers back to an online homeware store
How an opt-in SMS programme, timed around the customer’s order cycle, turned one-off buyers into regulars.
- Industry
- E-commerce, homeware
- Location
- Johor Bahru
- Services
- SMS Marketing, Analytics
- Timeline
- 4 months
- 3.1×repeat purchase rate vs. the previous six months
- RM 14revenue for every RM 1 spent on SMS
- 0.4%opt-out rate per campaign
The challenge
The store sold kitchenware and home accessories through its own website and two marketplaces. Over three years it had built up a list of around 9,000 past customers, but almost all marketing budget went on finding new ones. Fewer than one in ten customers ever placed a second order.
The owner had tried a bulk SMS blast once. It went to everyone, offered a generic discount and produced a wave of complaints. Since then, the list had been left alone.
What we found
- Only about a third of the list had a clear record of marketing consent.
- Most products had a natural repurchase cycle: cleaning supplies every six to eight weeks, bedding and towels once or twice a year.
- Marketplace orders could not be linked to website customers, so the real repeat rate was unknown.
What we did
- Month 1: Clean up and consent. We separated contacts with clear consent from the rest. The rest received one transactional-style message inviting them to opt in, with a small thank-you code. Anyone who did not respond was not contacted again.
- Month 1: Tracking. Every SMS link was tagged, and orders were matched back to the campaign that drove them.
- Months 2–3: Lifecycle messages. Instead of blasts, we set up messages triggered by what customers had bought: a refill reminder for consumables, a “complete the set” suggestion for kitchenware and a quiet anniversary message on their first order date.
- Month 4: Test and refine. We tested send times, message length and whether a discount was needed at all. For refill reminders, it usually was not.
Results
Over four months, customers who received lifecycle messages placed repeat orders at 3.1 times the rate of the previous six months. Each ringgit spent on SMS returned around RM 14 in tracked revenue. Because messages were relevant and infrequent, the opt-out rate stayed at about 0.4% per campaign.
The biggest lesson was that most customers did not need a discount. A well-timed reminder was enough, which protected the store’s margin.
What we would do next
Link marketplace orders to customer records so that the repurchase cycle covers every channel, and test WhatsApp for customers who prefer it.