How this US-based toy company grew its Email Revenue +192% within the first 3 months of launching our Advanced Retention Strategy


EZ Play Toys
Industry: Toys and Hobbies Platform: Shopify
About the Brand
EZPlay Toys is a shop dedicated to creating indoor playgrounds that combine safety, fun, convenience, and affordability.
Their handcrafted construction methods and unwavering attention to detail make sure that every EZPlay indoor playground is built to last.
The main USPs of the store include:
Premium Quality - Handmade from selected ash wood
Environmentally-friendly - no use of plastic
Made in Europe and Ships from the US
Foldable for easy storage
The Challenge
When eCom Maniacs was brought in to work on their retention marketing strategy in July 2021, we found that the client's existing email strategy only generated $9.5K or accounted for only around 17% revenue share.
What was holding them back:
- A subscriber list that is lean and unsegmented
- General lack of retention marketing strategy
- Inconsistent and intermittent email campaigns
- Flows are not set up for pre-, post-, and re-engagement
Timeline
July 2021 - Start of our client engagement and the beginning of preliminary adjustments and setting up of flows and campaigns
August 2021 - Advanced Email Retention Marketing Strategy goes live
BEFORE eCom
Email Revenue was at $9.5K which represented only 16.93% of revenue share.

Email Campaigns generated $2.1K, while Flows generated $7.4K in revenue.

Total List Size was just 207 subscribers.

AFTER eCom:
The First Quarter (Q3 2021)
This refers to the period covering the first 3 months of working with eCom Maniacs' Advanced Retention Strategy.
Email Revenue saw an increase of 198% from the previous quarter (Q2 2021), which represents $43.6K in revenue.

Email Flows Revenue (light green in the graph below) increased from $7.4K to $18.6K within 3 months from launch. Email Campaigns were far and in between, at the client's conservative preference, and generated only a total of $2.8K for this quarter.

Total List Size increased by 623% from 207 subscribers to 1,498 subscribers.

After 9 months (Q1 2022)
Total Revenue amounted to $1M in the period covering July 2021 to March 2022. Email Marketing generated an aggregate total of $253.7K from July 2021 to March 2022.

Email Campaigns generated $37.9K in revenue (even with a conservative campaign calendar). Email Flows, on the other hand, generated $215.7K.

The client's Total List size also grew by 3,358% within the 9 months, from beginning with just 207 subscribers to a total of 7,160 subscribers in March 2022.

Our retention strategy has helped increase revenue by 198% for the brand in just 3 months. It likewise generated an aggregate of $253.7K additional revenue from email marketing in 9 months.
General Strategy Breakdown:
The path to success can be broken down into five major parts.
1. List Growth
Grow and enrich the customer list by designing Popups that capture more first-party profiling data (email, phone number, birthdate).
2. Heavy A/B Testing on Email Flows and Campaigns
Heavy A/B testing played a significant role in the client's success. By testing different design templates, copy, and timelines within our retention channels, we ensured that subscribers were getting relevant content they wanted to engage with.
3. In-Depth Segmentation and Personalization at Scale
We implemented in-depth segmentation to improve Open and Engagement Rates. This meant ensuring each segment received emails curated to feature content with which they had historically engaged more.
4. Branding and Email Design Upgrade
We refreshed email templates with improved design and polished copy that ensured branding consistency throughout Flows and Campaigns.
5. Leveraging High-Traffic Sale Events (such as BFCM 2021)
We integrated a robust BFCM 2021 strategy into their existing Flows and Campaigns, designed to take advantage of the sale season and convert as many Email List subscribers as possible into paying customers during the sale.
ADVANCED SEGMENTATION (RETENTION)
We wanted to dive deeper and leverage the power of enriched customers’ profile data in Klaviyo by leveraging the custom fields which synced in both email and website engagement metrics.
We established several segments:
- “Engagers” - The people who opened or clicked the email and viewed products during a period of 60 days.
- “VIPs” - Those with the highest LTV and/or loyal customers of the brand. This segment also had the opportunity to receive the early-bird BFCM Campaigns with exclusive discounts.
- “Fading Away” - The segment of subscribers that seemed to have lost interest in the brand. In order to win back this group's attention, we first had to incentivize them.
- “Inactive” - A segment that is periodically suppressed after the subscribers choose not to interact with the final "Break-Up" email (our last attempt to re-engage them). We set this up as a to-be-excluded segment and, in doing so, actively protected the brand's domain reputation regarding deliverability.
OPTIMIZING POPUPS FOR LIST BUILDING
The Popup we created now captures more than just the standard information (email/name). Additional fields were added to the Popup, including birthdate and phone number.
We utilized the following strategies when creating Popups:
- Ensure design is responsive to mobile and desktop.
- Keep Popup designs consistent with website branding.
- Include a clear and compelling Call to Action.
- A/B test time delays.
THE RESULTS
EZ Play grew its Email List by 3,358% within 9 months, from just 207 subscribers to a total of 7,160 subscribers by March 2022.

Email Campaigns generated $37.9K in revenue (even with a conservative campaign calendar). Email Flows generated $215.7K.

The American toy company's Total Revenue grew to $1.0M after 9 months.
Email Marketing contributed a total of $253.7K. Our best-performing month, November, included $68.9K in revenue generated by eCom Maniacs' BFCM strategy.

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