Email marketing for a retail launch: what to tell your list when you land in stores

What should email marketing for a retail launch say first?

Tell them plainly and make it feel like something they helped build. A lot of your early customers have been buying from you since before anyone else knew who you were. A retail launch is a moment they'll want to hear about.

Here's what I'd put in the announcement:

• The retailer and where. Name the chain and the regions. Don't imply you're everywhere if you're in 40 stores in two states.
• What's on the shelf. Stores rarely carry your full range. Say which products they'll find.
• When. Rollouts are messy. If shelves fill over a few weeks, say so, so nobody drives to a store and comes up empty.
• A thank you. Short and real. No long founder essay.
• One button. Send it to your store locator.

Send the announcement to your whole list. Everything after that gets more targeted.

How do you build "find us in stores" emails?

Start with a store locator page on your site. Every retail email points there, so it needs to be accurate and easy to use on a phone.

Then segment by location. Klaviyo can pull location from Shopify shipping addresses and from signup forms that ask for a zip code. Here's how I'd use it:

1. Regional launch emails. When a new region goes live, email only the people who live there. "Now at [retailer] near you" lands better than a national blast to people with no store nearby.
2. Product-specific nudges. If the store carries two of your five products, tell local customers which two.
3. Ask them to look for you. Early customers like helping. Ask them to find you on the shelf, or ask the store to carry you if it doesn't yet.

Everyone outside a retail region keeps getting your normal campaigns. They don't need a weekly reminder that they can't buy you in a store.

How do you keep online customers buying direct?

Give them a reason the store can't. If your site and the shelf offer exactly the same thing, convenience wins, and the store is closer.

Ways to keep the direct relationship worth it:

• The full range. Flavors, sizes or bundles only available online.
• Subscriptions. Never running out, delivered, without a trip.
• Early access. New products hit your list before they hit shelves.
• Variety and bundles. Stores usually stock single items. Your site can sell the mixed pack.

Be careful with discounts. Deep online promos right as you launch can undercut the retailer you just signed with. Check what your retail agreement says about pricing before you plan a sale.

And keep your flows running. Your post-purchase and reorder flows don't stop because you're in stores. For the bigger picture on keeping second and third orders coming, read my repeat purchase email strategy.

How do you collect emails from in-store shoppers?

This is the part brands forget. Every person who grabs you off a shelf is a customer you don't know. Your retailer owns that sale. Getting their email is how you turn them into your customer too.

Ways I'd go about it:

• A QR code on the pack or an insert. Send it to a signup page with a real reason to join: recipes, how-to content, a product only sold online, or first look at new flavors.
• In-store demos. If you run sampling, bring a simple signup and get clear consent.
• Tag the source. Mark anyone who signs up from a QR code or demo as a retail signup.

That tag matters. Someone who found you in a store shouldn't get the same welcome flow as someone who came from an ad. They already have the product. Their welcome should say thanks for trying it, show them what else you make and give them a reason to buy something the store doesn't carry.

What should you measure when buyers move to retail?

Expect some of your online customers to start buying in stores. Your email-attributed revenue might dip in those regions. That doesn't mean email stopped working. It may mean customers found a more convenient way to buy you.

So widen what you look at:

• List growth from retail sources. How many people are joining from QR codes and demos each month.
• Direct repeat rate. Of your existing customers, how many still reorder online.
• Online sales in retail regions vs. outside them. This shows you how much of the shift is real.
• Clicks to the store locator from your retail emails.
• Revenue per subscriber, not just total email revenue, since your list may grow faster than online sales.
• Retail sales data, if your retailer shares it, lined up against your regional sends.

Your email share of revenue will move too, since more total revenue now comes from stores. I wrote about what a healthy share looks like in what percentage of revenue should come from email.

If you sell food, a lot of this overlaps with stock and flavor planning, which I cover in email marketing for food brands.

FAQ

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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