Email marketing for durable goods: what to send when nobody reorders

Why is email marketing for durable goods different?

Because the customer may never need to buy the same thing again. A coffee brand gets a second order when the bag runs out. A brand selling a squat rack or a sofa doesn't.

That changes where the revenue comes from. Replenishment flows and reorder reminders, the backbone of a lot of consumable brands, mostly don't apply. So the job splits in two:

1. Get the first order. This is where most of your flow effort should go.
2. Earn the second order another way. Accessories, upgrades, gifts for someone else, referrals, and new models.

Durable purchases also take longer. In a Provoke Insights survey of 1,500 U.S. consumers with Furniture Today, 60% of people who recently bought furniture said the process stretched over several days or weeks, and 19% said it took months. Only 7% decided in minutes. Your emails have to stay useful through that whole stretch.

Which flows matter most when there's no reorder?

The ones that run before the first purchase. Here's the order I'd build them in.

Welcome series

This is the first conversation with someone who's interested but not sold. Klaviyo's welcome series guide calls it "new subscribers' first interaction with your brand" and suggests about three emails over a week: one right away, one after 3 days, one about a week after sign-up.

Email #1 is the one to get right. Across 4 brands, welcome email #1 earned $4.50 per person, while emails #2 through #5 earned about $0.10 each. One sleep wellness brand's welcome email #1 made $2,160 from 50 deliveries in a single month. People are most ready the moment they sign up.

For durable goods, I'd use the later welcome emails to handle the reasons people wait:

• How it's made and how long it lasts. Materials, warranty, what makes it worth the price.
• Which one is right for me? A short guide to your range, if you sell more than one model.
• Proof. Reviews and photos from owners.
• Shipping and returns. Baymard's cart abandonment research lists a slow delivery (20%) and an unsatisfactory returns policy (13%) among the reasons people bail at checkout. Answer those before they get there.

More on structure in my welcome email series guide.

Browse abandonment

Long research cycles mean lots of product views without a cart. Klaviyo's browse abandonment flow triggers on Viewed Product, and the shopper "doesn't have to add an item to their cart to trigger this flow." Klaviyo recommends at least a one-hour delay and calls browse emails a "lighter touchpoint" than abandoned cart, since a product view shows less intent.

For a considered purchase, I'd make that lighter touch helpful: the product they looked at, the top questions people ask about it, and a couple of reviews. Not a countdown timer. My browse abandonment email post covers the setup.

Abandoned checkout and cart

Baymard puts the average documented cart abandonment rate at 70.22%, and 42% of U.S. shoppers who abandoned said they were "just browsing / not ready to buy." For a big-ticket item, that's normal. I'd give these flows room to answer questions, not just repeat "you left something behind." See abandoned checkout email for the build.

What should a durable goods post-purchase flow include?

Klaviyo's post-purchase guide lists four kinds of email: transactional, thank you, review request and cross-sell. It also suggests, for products that need explanation, "an instructional email right before the item arrives." For durable goods, that instructional email earns its place. Setup, assembly, first use, care. A customer who gets the product working is the customer who leaves a good review and tells a friend.

Klaviyo also suggests splitting first-time buyers from repeat buyers, because "the wants of a first-time buyer or a repeat purchaser are different." For durable goods, most of your buyers will sit in the first-time branch, so put your effort there.

I'd add a short survey early in the flow. Ask why they chose you and how they found you. For a long purchase cycle, "how did you find us" tells you where people start their research, which shapes your welcome series and ads. More in my post-purchase survey email guide.

Full flow structure is in post-purchase email flow.

How do you sell more to someone who already owns the product?

Think about what makes sense next in their lifecycle, and put that in front of them. For a durable product, that's usually an accessory, a replacement part, a care kit, or a second unit for someone else.

How I'd build the cross-sell email flow:

• Per-product versions. I build a specific version of the cross-sell flow for each main product, duplicating the layout per item, instead of using one dynamic product block. A rower owner and a bench owner need different accessories.
• Accessories later. Don't pitch the add-on in the order confirmation. Recommend accessories later, after they've used the product, so you're not hounding them. Klaviyo's default review and cross-sell flow goes out 14 days after an order is fulfilled, which is a reasonable starting point to test from.
• Pair by use. Klaviyo's cross-sell guide says you can "constrain product feeds to a specific category or collection" so recommendations match what the customer bought.

This is how a one-purchase customer becomes worth more over time. I go deeper in how to increase customer lifetime value.

When should you ask durable goods customers for a review?

After they've had a chance to use it. Not when the box ships.

Klaviyo's third-party review flow guide says to "set a time delay longer than your average delivery time (e.g., 14 days)," because "fulfillment does not confirm delivery." If you use Klaviyo Reviews on Shopify, you can time requests from delivery instead of fulfillment, with a delay of up to 60 days. For something people need to assemble or use for a few weeks, I'd lean toward the longer end.

Reviews carry more weight on bigger purchases. Northwestern's Spiegel Research Center found that star ratings "had a stronger influence on expensive items compared to the cheaper items within the same category," and notes that "up to 80 percent of reviews originate from post-purchase emails." So the review email isn't a nice-to-have. It feeds the proof your welcome and abandonment emails rely on. Timing and copy are in my review request email post.

Do referrals work for products people only buy once?

Yes, and they matter more when the customer won't reorder. A happy owner is one of the few ways to reach the next buyer.

I put referral asks in post-purchase flows, timed by order count. For customers with one or two orders, I wait longer before asking. For third and fourth-plus orders, I ask sooner. Most durable goods buyers have one order, so give them time to fall in love with the product first. My loyalty and referral emails post covers rewards and setup.

How should durable goods brands use campaigns?

Three things to get right.

Launches and new models go to email first. A new model is the closest thing you have to a reorder. A haircare brand's launch email made $31,059 from 395 orders, and email went from 23% to 47% of revenue that month. Different category, same lesson: give your list the first look. More in product launch email.

Send to people who care. A sports training tech brand's engaged send to 7,145 people earned $0.19 per person, while a 49,475-person blast earned $0.04. With a long buying cycle, it's tempting to email everyone constantly. A tighter, engaged audience usually earns more per send. See email segmentation for ecommerce.

Education needs a reason to buy. Durable goods brands love content: guides, training tips, care. That same sports training tech brand sent 12 educational campaigns, some with 6% to 10% click rates, and they made $547 total. People clicked, read, and left. Every content email should point to a product, a bundle, or a reason to act now. I break this down in content emails vs promotional emails.

One more: check your tracking. A strength training gear brand's restock email hit a 0.40% click rate, double its other sends, and made $0. The tracking was broken. When purchases are rare and expensive, a broken link or tracking setup can hide real results. If that sounds familiar, read email clicks but no sales.

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WRITTEN BY Jack White

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.

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