When we started working with this e-shop back in 2020, email was generating roughly 3 million CZK (≈ €120K) a year. For an e-shop turning over more than 200 million CZK (≈ €8M), that was well below its potential — email should ideally account for 20–30% of total revenue, yet here it was barely 1.5%. Campaigns went out sporadically, with no segmentation whatsoever, and the only automation in place was the post-purchase confirmation email. We knew the email database was sitting on a huge amount of untapped potential.
Our goal was to turn email from a marginal channel into one of the store's core revenue pillars. Five years of systematic work didn't just get us there — the results outstripped even our own projections. Email revenue climbed to 54 million CZK (≈ €2.2M) a year — an 18× increase. Here's the complete breakdown of the strategy behind it.
Where we started
The starting point was typical of many e-shops. Once a week, a mass newsletter went out to the entire database — the same content for everyone, regardless of whether they'd bought yesterday or two years ago. The templates looked dated, weren't responsive on mobile, and crammed in too many products with no clear CTA. Open rate hovered around 12%, click rate stayed under 1%, and the unsubscribe rate sat at an alarming 0.8% per campaign.
The database held roughly 80,000 contacts, but a large share of them were inactive — they hadn't opened an email in over a year. There was no segmentation, no automation flows beyond transactional emails, no A/B testing. The e-shop was essentially just "sending emails" with no strategy behind it. Every send was a one-off manual task, disconnected from any previous communication.
The strategy, step by step
1. Auditing the infrastructure and database
The first step was a thorough audit. We checked deliverability (SPF, DKIM and DMARC records), scrubbed invalid addresses from the database and set up a healthy domain reputation. Of the 80,000 contacts, 52,000 active addresses remained after cleaning — but these contacts showed far stronger engagement. We migrated to a professional email platform that supported advanced segmentation and automation.
2. Segmenting the database
Segmentation was the key turning point. We split the database along several criteria: purchase behaviour (frequency, average order value, product categories), email engagement (active readers vs. passive recipients), customer lifecycle stage (new contact, first purchase, repeat customer, VIP, dormant customer) and preferences (based on clicks and purchase history). Segmentation let us send relevant content to the right people at the right time. The result? Open rate jumped from 12% to 22% within the first two months.
3. Automation flows
Automation changed the entire economics of email. We built 12 automation flows that run 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. A welcome series for new subscribers — 5 emails over 14 days that build the relationship and introduce the brand. Abandoned cart — 3 emails with personalised content that recover up to 15% of abandoned orders. A post-purchase series — a review request, complementary product recommendations, a reminder to reorder. Win-back campaigns for dormant customers. Birthday emails with a special offer. A VIP series with exclusive content for the best customers.
4. Redesigning the templates
We created a completely new design system for the email templates. A mobile-first approach (over 65% of recipients read email on their phones), a clean visual style consistent with the store's brand, a single clear and prominent CTA button (one primary CTA per email, not five), and a tidy layout with plenty of white space. The new templates didn't just look better — they markedly improved the conversion rate, with click rate rising from 0.9% to 3.2%.
5. A culture of A/B testing
Every campaign became an opportunity to learn. We tested systematically: subject lines (question vs. statement, emoji vs. none, personalised vs. generic), send times (the optimal time differed for every segment), content formats (single product vs. multiple products, short vs. long copy), and CTA types (wording, colour, placement). Over 5 years we ran more than 500 A/B tests, and each one moved us closer to email that truly performs.
6. Advanced personalisation
In the third year of the partnership we introduced AI-driven personalisation. Product recommendations based on purchase history and browsing behaviour; dynamic content — every recipient sees a different email, even when it's the "same" campaign; predictive send-time — each email goes out at the moment a given recipient is most likely to open it; and personalised offers based on each customer's price sensitivity.
The key numbers
The results showed up across every measurable metric. Open rate rose from 12% to a stable 32% — almost 3× the e-commerce average. Click rate climbed from 0.9% to 4.1%. Revenue per email (RPE) grew from 0.04 CZK to 0.38 CZK — nearly a tenfold increase. Abandoned-cart flows recover 15.2% of orders, which on its own generates over 8 million CZK (≈ €320K) a year. The unsubscribe rate fell from 0.8% to 0.12% — because relevant emails don't annoy people.
The database grew organically from the cleaned 52,000 to 185,000 quality contacts, thanks to optimised sign-up forms, value-led pop-ups and lead magnets.
The results after 5 years
After five years of systematic work, email generates 54 million CZK (≈ €2.2M) a year — 18× more than at the start of the partnership. Email has become the store's most effective marketing channel, with the highest ROAS (return on ad spend) of them all. Every 1 CZK invested in email returns an average of 42 CZK — try matching that in PPC.
Automation flows account for 38% of total email revenue, even though they need minimal ongoing maintenance. Once set up, they run non-stop and bring in revenue on weekends, holidays and during the quiet season. The campaign side of email (manually sent newsletters) makes up the remaining 62% and, thanks to sophisticated segmentation and personalisation, delivers consistently above-average results.
Automated emails that work for you 24/7 — that's the power of email done right.
It's worth stressing that these results didn't happen overnight. It was a gradual, systematic process in which each year built on the foundations of the one before. In year one we cleaned the database and set up basic segmentation. In year two we launched the key automations. In year three we added personalisation. In years four and five we optimised and scaled. Email is a discipline where consistency and a data-driven approach beat any shortcut.
If your e-shop makes less than 15% of its total revenue from email, chances are you're leaving potential on the table. We'd be glad to look at your numbers and design a strategy tailored to your business.