- A drink brand's buying cycle is set by servings per bag or case, divided by how many people in the house are drinking it.
- Reorder reminders for coffee and drinks should land a few days before the customer runs out, because once they're out, the grocery store or the café is right there.
- Subscribers need a heads-up before each shipment and an easy way to swap, while one-time buyers need a reorder reminder and a reason to subscribe.
- In a pooled look at 4 consumable brands, the third winback email earned about 2x the first, so beverage winback flows should be long, not one-and-done.
What makes a beverage buyer different?
Drinks are a daily habit, often for more than one person in the house. That makes consumption fast and fairly steady, which is great for email timing.
But the competition is everywhere. If your customer runs out of your coffee on a Tuesday, they're not waiting for a delivery. They're buying a bag at the store or stopping at a café. Each time that happens, the habit loosens.
There's also taste risk on the first order. A new customer doesn't know if they'll like the roast or the flavor, and drinks often ship as bags or cases, so the first order feels like a bigger bet than a single snack.
How should you time replenishment emails by bag or case size?
Start with servings, then adjust for the household. Here's a rough starting point, assuming one person and one serving a day:
| Format | Rough servings | Lasts about | First reminder |
|---|---|---|---|
| 12 oz coffee bag | 17 to 22 cups | 2.5 to 3 weeks | Day 12 to 15 |
| 2 lb coffee bag | 45 to 60 cups | 6 to 8 weeks | Day 35 to 40 |
| 12-pack of cans | 12 | About 12 days | Day 7 to 9 |
| 24-pack of cans | 24 | About 3.5 weeks | Day 16 to 18 |
| 30-serving tub or pouch | 30 | About a month | Day 20 to 23 |
The coffee cup counts assume 15 to 20 grams of beans per cup. Two people drinking it cuts the timeline in half, and shipping time pushes the reminder even earlier.
Those are guesses until you have real orders. Once you do, pull the median days between first and second order for each product and size, and move the first reminder a few days ahead of it. I walk through that math in replenishment email timing, and the build itself in my Klaviyo replenishment flow guide.
Should beverage brands push subscriptions or one-time reorders?
Both, but to different people, and never in the same flow.
Subscribers get a reminder a few days before each shipment. Give them three easy buttons: skip, swap, add. Swap matters a lot for drinks, because people get tired of the same roast or flavor. Letting them try something new keeps the subscription alive.
One-time buyers get the reorder reminder timed to their bag or case. Somewhere in that sequence, make the subscribe ask clear: never run out, a lower price per bag, free shipping, whatever's true for you.
I'd hold the hard subscribe push until someone has reordered on their own at least once. A second order tells you they like it. Asking a first-time buyer to commit before they've finished the first bag is a harder sell.
Keep subscribers out of the one-time reorder flow. A "time to restock!" email to someone whose box ships automatically creates confusion and double orders.
Why does the first welcome email matter so much for drinks?
Because it's where you handle the taste risk. In the 4-brand pool, welcome email #1 earned about $4.50 per person. Emails #2 through #5 earned about $0.10 each. That's about 30x.
So spend most of your effort on email #1. For a drink brand, here's what I'd put in it:
- A sampler, variety pack or starter size, so they don't have to guess.
- One plain line on what it tastes like and how to make or serve it.
- One button to one place.
Keep the rest of the welcome short. Its job is to get the first order, and the post-purchase and reorder flows take it from there.
How long should a beverage winback flow be?
Longer than you think. When a drink customer goes quiet, they've usually switched to something easier to grab, not decided they hate you. That takes more than one email to undo.
In the 4-brand pool, winback email #3 earned about 2x email #1 ($0.23 vs $0.11 per person). The later emails do more of the work. Here's a shape I'd start with:
- Check in. "Haven't seen you in a while. Still brewing?"
- Show what's new. A new roast, a new flavor, a new size.
- Give them a reason. A sampler, a bundle or an offer to come back.
- Ask once more. Short and plain, with an easy way to tell you they're done.
Time the first winback email off the customer's own reorder window, not a generic 90 days. Someone who buys a 12 oz bag and hasn't been back in six weeks is already overdue. More on structure in how long should a winback flow be.
What should a beverage brand measure?
Judge emails by clicks and revenue, not opens. Apple Mail auto-opens make open rates unreliable.
- Revenue per recipient on the reorder flow, compared to campaigns.
- Median days between orders by product and size.
- Subscription skips versus cancellations after the pre-ship reminder.
- Share of one-time buyers who place a second order, and how many of those later subscribe.
- Winback revenue by email position, so you can see if the later emails are pulling their weight.
For how this fits into the full repeat-buying system, see my repeat purchase email strategy.
Where these numbers come from
The welcome, winback and replenishment numbers come from a pooled look at 4 consumable brands, 2,897 campaigns and $17.7M in email revenue. Only 2 of the 4 had a replenishment flow. It's a small sample, so treat it as directional. None of it is from a single coffee or beverage brand.
FAQ
When should a coffee brand send its first reorder email?
For a 12 oz bag and one daily drinker, around day 12 to 15. For bigger bags or multi-drinker homes, adjust from there, and switch to your own median reorder time once you have a few months of orders.
Should I offer a discount to get beverage customers to subscribe?
Lead with convenience first, then add a price or shipping benefit if your margins allow it. The subscribe ask lands best after a customer has reordered on their own once.
How do I stop subscribers from cancelling?
Send a reminder before each shipment with skip and swap buttons. A customer who can skip a month or try a new flavor has less reason to cancel outright.
Do drink brands need a different email setup than food brands?
The flows are similar, but the timing is different. Drinks are finished at a steadier pace than snacks, so reorder timing does more of the work, while snacks lean harder on restocks and new flavors.
Founder of Bardown Digital, a Chicago-based Klaviyo email and retention agency for Shopify brands. He's worked with brands doing $500K to $100M a year, with $100M+ in email-attributed revenue across them.