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KONG
Built in KlaviyoKlaviyo Master Platinum partner
Case study · Lifecycle & retention

From email program to retention engine.

Flows grew from 4.2% to 27.1% of KONG's revenue while the whole business doubled.

In six months, ATTN rebuilt KONG's lifecycle program into a personalized flow system. With that foundation in place, total store revenue doubled (+103%), and flows now drive more than a quarter of it.

ClientKONG CategoryPet toys PlatformsBigCommerce, Klaviyo TimeframeSeven months
A sustained step changeStore revenue & flow share
Flow share of revenue4.2% → 27.1%
Total store revenue+103%
KONG store revenue and flow share of revenue by monthStore revenue indexed to the November to February average of 100 roughly doubled from June onward, while flows grew from about 4% of store revenue before ATTN to 29% in June, 27% in July and 26% in August.Before ATTNPhase 1Phases 2 and 3100NovDecJanFebMarAprMayJunJulAug11%29%27%26%
Source: KONG Klaviyo Placed Order data.
Total store revenue
+103%

The whole business doubled once the right foundation was in place.

Flow share of total store revenue
6.4x

From 4.2% to 27.1% of total store revenue.

Total store orders
+184%

Orders nearly tripled as flows caught shoppers at every stage.

Results at a glanceBefore ATTNAfter ATTNChange
Flow share of total store revenue4.2%27.1%6.4x
Flow revenueBaseline—+1,196%
Orders driven by flowsBaseline—+2,033%
Total store revenueBaseline—+103%
Total store ordersBaseline—+184%
Welcome email conversion, pet-specific vs. general path—6.9% vs. 3.7%+86%

Before = monthly average for the four months before ATTN. After = monthly average for the three most recent full months.

Two disciplines01

A great campaign calendar and a lifecycle system are two different jobs.

KONG's in-house team ran a strong email program: 8 to 9 campaigns a month, a clean list and a well-protected sender reputation. That's the hard-won groundwork plenty of brands never get right.

A lifecycle system is a different discipline built on top of it. When ATTN took over KONG's retention program, it was running on the core automations most programs start with. The gap wasn't effort or creative. It was the infrastructure underneath: automations that catch shoppers at the moments that matter, and messages that adapt to who the shopper is and what they're shopping for.

Where we started02

One message for every subscriber.

At takeover, flows drove 4.2% of KONG's revenue, and every subscriber got the same message regardless of who they were.

Live flows
  • Order & shipping confirmations
  • Single-path welcome series
  • Standard abandoned checkout
  • Back in stock
  • Five replenishment reminders
  • Sunset
Not yet built
  • Cart abandonment
  • Product abandonment
  • Session abandonment
  • Post-purchase
  • Winback
  • Loyalty
  • SMS

Just as important was what the existing flows didn't do yet. A cat owner who abandoned a cat toy got the same email, with the same imagery, as a dog owner who abandoned a dog chew. A first-time browser and a loyal repeat buyer got identical reminders.

One question03

It started with one question on the pop-up.

Personalization only works if you know who you're talking to. We rebuilt the pop-up around a one-tap mini quiz: who are you shopping for? Dog, cat, or both. That single answer is the data every downstream flow reads: which Welcome path a subscriber enters, which products appear in abandonment reminders, and which imagery they see in every email and text after that.

KONG desktop pop-up: unravel your mystery discount. Who's in your pack? Buttons for dogs, cats, or both
The same KONG pop-up on mobile
Previous pop-upATTN pop-up
Offer$5 off first orderWelcome offer
What we learnedEmail addressPet type (dog, cat or both), email, SMS opt-in
What it unlockedOne welcome for everyoneEvery flow branches by pet from the first email

The new pop-up also grew the list: monthly new email subscribers rose about 1,700% (18x) from the pre-ATTN baseline, feeding a far larger Welcome Series audience from the end of May. See the list growth case study.

Every path matched the pet

Route a shopper.

Every flow branched on two questions: who is this shopper, and what animal are they shopping for? Abandonment flows then pulled in the exact product or category left behind.

Shopping for
Lifecycle stage
100+distinct email and SMS variants across the program, each built for a specific shopper at a specific moment
Their path Dog · Prospect
What they see
Dog products, dog imagery, dog copy
What the message does
Value and trust-building to earn the first order
If they abandon
The exact product or category they left behind

Lifecycle branching showed the same pattern. In Cart Abandonment, repeat purchasers on a tailored path generated 5.8x more revenue per recipient than prospects on the first reminder.

The Welcome Series

Same moment, two different welcomes.

The answer on the pop-up decides the path. Dog owners and cat owners start with different heroes, different products and different reasons to buy, from the very first email.

Dog path
KONG dog welcome email: Welcome to KONG, $5 off with code FETCH5, shop dog toys, treats, puppy essentials and accessories, with a review
Welcome email 1
KONG dog welcome email: The gold standard of dog toys, meet the KONG Classic, and stuff-the-fun treats
Welcome email 2
Cat path
KONG cat welcome email: Welcome to KONG, $5 off with code FETCH5, shop cat toys, treats and accessories, with a review
Welcome email 1
KONG cat welcome email: The gold standard of cat play, meet the Kitty KONG, and stuff-the-fun treats
Welcome email 2

Scroll inside any phone to read the full email.

Part 1

Same flows, new strategy.

Two flows were already running: a Welcome Series and an Abandoned Checkout. We kept the triggers and rebuilt everything else: the pop-up feeding them, pet-type paths, lifecycle branching, SMS, and the sequence itself.

Welcome Series

Change vs. before

  • +2,213%Monthly revenue
  • 1.9% → 22%Share of total store revenue
  • +1,806%First email conversion rate0.34% → 6.5%
  • +336%Whole-flow conversion rate
  • +156%Whole-flow revenue per recipient
  • +1,040%First email revenue per recipient
  • +96%First email click rate3.6% → 7.0%

Abandoned Checkout

Change vs. before

  • +384%Shoppers reached per month
  • +55%Monthly revenue

The first welcome email now converts at 6.5%, and the Welcome Series went from under 2% of the business to more than a fifth of it. Abandoned Checkout reaches nearly 5x more shoppers each month, and became the anchor of the full abandonment funnel built around it.

Part 2

Building the full ecosystem.

We added 11 new flows in four phases, starting where revenue was leaking and then building lifetime value. With each phase, flows took a bigger share of the business, and store revenue grew alongside them.

  1. BaselinePre-ATTN program4.2%—
  2. 1. FoundationQuiz pop-up; rebuilt Welcome Series7.6%Mar to May+27%
  3. 2. Capture intentRebuilt Abandoned Checkout; new Product, Cart and Session Abandonment29.1%June+105%
  4. 3. Build lifetime valueWinback; four-flow loyalty suite; Post-Purchase26%Jul to Aug+102%
  5. 4. New audiencesDedicated welcome series for IACP and AAHA conference leads25%Sep to dateLaunched

Phase 1 proved the model. Phase 2 was the step change: once shoppers who left at any stage of the funnel were caught, flows jumped to 29% of store revenue in June.

Catching shoppers at every stage of the funnel.

Before, only shoppers who reached checkout got a follow-up. Phase 2 added a flow for every earlier stage of intent, each with the message and offer that fits how close the shopper got.

  • Browsed the siteSession Abandonment New0.14%
  • Viewed a productProduct Abandonment New0.14%
  • Added to cartCart Abandonment New0.65%
  • Started checkoutAbandoned Checkout Rebuilt1.23%
+274%Abandonment revenue
~40xMore shoppers reached each month

Conversion climbs with intent, which is why each stage gets its own flow instead of one checkout email doing all the work.

Why flows first04

Build the foundation, then scale on top of it.

By summer, flows drove 77% of KONG's email and SMS revenue, up from about 49% before ATTN, and more than a quarter of the entire business.

A campaignPlanned, built and sent every time

Its impact ends when the send does.

A flowBuilt once, compounding

Catches every new subscriber, every abandoned cart and every lapsing customer, around the clock.

That's why flows come first in our roadmaps. They're the foundation that makes every campaign on top of them more effective. For KONG, building that foundation took flows from about 4% of revenue to more than a quarter, while total store revenue doubled.

  • Email
  • SMS
  • Klaviyo
  • BigCommerce

Retention as the engine.

"The difference between email as a channel and retention as the engine is a system that knows what to say, to whom and when, without anyone pressing send. That's what makes every other channel pay off. Our roadmap always starts where revenue is leaking, then moves to where lifetime value is built: catch intent first, then earn loyalty. And it has to be personal from the very first touchpoint. Personalization isn't a first-name merge tag. It's a dog owner and a cat owner getting two completely different experiences, and a first-time buyer and a loyal fan hearing two different messages. For KONG, that meant more than 100 variants, each built for a specific shopper at a specific moment."

Miranda MattsonDirector of Lifecycle & Retention Marketing, ATTN Agency
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