By Mara Voss, Lifecycle & SMS Strategy Lead · Published 8 April 2026
The problem: a megaphone, not a program
The brand sent the same promotional text to its whole list a few times a month. Click rates looked fine on paper, but two numbers told the real story. The opt-out rate sat at 1.6%, past Klaviyo's 1.4% "good" ceiling and creeping toward "critical", and there was no welcome or cart flow at all, so the highest-intent moments went unworked. New subscribers heard nothing until the next blast.
The approach: consent, then flows, then calendar
- Re-set consent capture at the popup and checkout, recording how and when each opt-in was given, per GDPR Article 7.
- Built a two-message welcome flow that confirms the opt-in and offers a first-order incentive while intent is highest.
- Added an abandoned-cart flow timed to fire inside the decision window, with a single clear action and a branded link.
- Segmented the calendar so VIPs, recent buyers, and never-purchased subscribers stopped getting identical texts.
Mara's team kept frequency deliberately modest in the first month and watched the opt-out rate per send, because the fastest way to wreck a skincare list is to over-message it before the flows have done their work.
The result: the flows carried it
| Metric | Before | After 90 days | Benchmark |
|---|---|---|---|
| Welcome flow click rate | n/a | 22% | 20.34% (automation) |
| Abandoned-cart conversion (per send) | n/a | 5.2% | 3.97–7.84% |
| Opt-out rate | 1.6% | 0.6% | "good" 0.6–1.4% |
| SMS-attributed revenue (90 days) | low | €148,000 | n/a |
The abandoned-cart flow landed at 5.2% per-send conversion, inside Postscript's 3.97%–7.84% benchmark range, and the welcome flow's 22% click rate beat Omnisend's 20.34% automation benchmark. Most telling: the opt-out rate fell from 1.6% to 0.6% even as revenue rose, because the messages finally matched the moment.
The takeaway
Flows beat blasts. Before adding a single extra campaign, this brand's biggest win was building the welcome and cart flows it never had. If you sell skincare or any replenishable product, that is almost always the first move. See how we build SMS automation flows, or read the regional retail win-back for the other side of the lifecycle.