The Client
A premium gift basket e-commerce brand serving both B2C and corporate (B2B) customers with an average order value of $454. Their business is occasion-driven — holidays, corporate gifting, and special events — meaning customers typically purchase only once or twice per year, making traditional subscription or loyalty models ineffective.
The Challenge
The brand's email marketing was underperforming relative to its potential. Email revenue sat at $346K, representing only 10.8% of total revenue with a 28.1% open rate. Their flow architecture was campaign-heavy (60% campaigns, 40% flows), segmentation was basic, and there was no system for identifying high-value customers versus one-time buyers. With 75–80% of Q4 revenue generated within a 36-day holiday shipping window, they needed a smarter system to maximize every customer touchpoint.
The Solution
Starting in May 2025, we built a comprehensive AI-powered email marketing system using Claude as a daily strategic partner. This wasn't about using AI for simple tasks — it was about creating a custom intelligence system that transformed the entire retention marketing approach.
- Built proprietary RFM + CLV segmentation system adapted for gift-based businesses — each segment received dedicated flows AND campaigns, making RFM the foundation everything else was built on
- Enhanced existing flows for Q4 — First Purchase with holiday messaging and gift wrapping reminders, Welcome Pop-Up optimized for holiday traffic, WinBack targeting last year's holiday customers, Browse Abandonment with reduced trigger delays and urgency messaging, Abandoned Cart with shipping deadlines and increased incentives
- Built new sequences including Corporate Gifting Nurture for B2B revenue
- Integrated Reviews.io and optimized all review metrics with automated review request flows, review-triggered cross-sell sequences, and review-based customer segmentation
- Created segment-specific pop-up strategy with Spin-to-Win pop-ups for Black Friday and Christmas campaigns, plus dedicated pop-ups tailored to each RFM segment
- Connected Claude to Klaviyo, GA4, Asana, and Slack through MCP integrations, building a full business intelligence system across departments
- Pioneered company-wide AI adoption by setting up Claude for Teams across the entire agency — each department (SEO, Google Ads, Meta Ads) used Claude for analytics, projections, and establishing KPIs, creating a unified AI-powered approach to cross-department goal setting and performance tracking
- Built comprehensive Q4 projections using verified multi-source data — conservative, moderate, and aggressive scenarios that gave the client confidence to prepare for growth
The Results
- 273% email revenue growth — from $346K to $1.29M in 12 months
- Email attribution doubled — from 10.8% to ~30% of total revenue
- 69% of email revenue from automated flows — up from 40% in 2024
- Q4 exceeded aggressive projection by 11% — actual Q4 revenue hit $2.4M vs $2.27M projected
- Client had to pause email marketing for 6 days during peak holiday season because fulfillment couldn't keep up with order volume — and we still beat the aggressive target
Key Takeaway
The real power of AI in retention marketing isn't using it for one-off tasks — it's building a comprehensive intelligence system through sustained strategic partnership. Seven months of daily work with Claude created proprietary RFM segments, projection models, MCP-connected business intelligence, and a flow architecture that generates revenue automatically. When we had to stop sending emails during peak season, the automated systems kept working — December flows generated 81% of email revenue. The foundation matters more than tactics, and the methodology that created 4x growth is the true competitive advantage.
