- Food buyers move fast and buy on taste and variety, so your email plan should run on flavors, bundles and stock levels, not only on reorder timing.
- When something sells out, the restock email is your biggest send of the month.
- At one snack brand, back-in-stock emails earned about 1.7x the brand's average revenue per person, and six different restock emails each made more than $16,000.
- The second flavor is the second order: post-purchase emails should steer first-time buyers toward a new flavor or a variety pack.
How is a food buyer different from other repeat buyers?
A supplement buyer runs out on a schedule. A snack buyer runs out when the household eats it, which could be three days or three weeks. Kids, guests and late nights all mess with the math.
Food buyers also get bored. The same flavor four orders in a row is how a customer drifts back to the grocery aisle. Variety keeps them around.
So a reorder reminder still helps, but it can't carry the program alone. You need reasons to email that feel like news: it's back, it's new, it's bundled.
Why is the restock email your biggest send?
Because a sellout builds demand you didn't have to pay for. Everyone who tried to buy and couldn't is waiting.
That snack brand's "We're back baby!" email earned about $1.60 per person by my math. The brand's average send earns about $0.15 per person. And it wasn't a one-off: six different restock emails each made more than $16,000, and the brand's back-in-stock emails average about 1.7x its usual revenue per person ($0.26 vs $0.15).
Here's how I'd run a restock:
- Collect back-in-stock signups on the product page while it's sold out, so you have a waitlist.
- Email the waitlist the moment it's live, then the full list soon after.
- Keep the subject line short and plain. "It's back" is news, and news beats clever.
- One product, one button, one destination.
- Click every link before you hit send.
That last one matters more than it sounds. A fitness gear brand I've seen had a restock email get double its usual click rate and make $0. Clicks with no sales means something broke. I cover the full setup, including the automated flow side, in my guide to Klaviyo back in stock emails.
How should you launch a new flavor by email?
A new flavor is news, and in a pooled look at 7 brands' subject lines, news beat brand voice. Vague questions were the worst-performing pattern. So don't write "Guess what's coming?" Write what it is.
Here's the launch shape I'd start with:
- Tease to buyers first. Tell past customers it's coming and when. They're the ones most likely to try it.
- Launch day. Name the flavor, show it, one button. If it's a limited run, say so plainly and only if it's true.
- Follow up with clickers. People who clicked but didn't buy get a second email a day or two later, ideally with a bundle that pairs the new flavor with their old favorite.
- Fold it into flows. Once the launch is over, add the new flavor to your post-purchase recommendations so new customers see it too.
Do bundles and variety packs help food brands?
Usually, yes. Food often has thin margins and real shipping costs, so a bigger cart helps the order make sense for both sides.
Variety packs also lower the risk for a first-time buyer. They don't have to guess which flavor they'll like. And the order itself tells you something useful: once they've tried a few, you can ask which one won.
Ways I'd use bundles in email:
- Lead the welcome flow with a variety pack or starter bundle, not a single flavor.
- Offer "build your own" bundles to repeat buyers who know their favorites.
- Pair a new flavor with a bestseller at launch so trying it feels low-stakes.
How do you get a customer to try a second flavor?
This is the part most food brands skip, and it's where I'd spend real time. The first order proves they like the product. The second flavor proves they like the brand.
Here's how I'd set up the post-purchase flow:
- Split by what they bought. Someone who bought the chocolate one needs a different follow-up than someone who bought the variety pack.
- Ask, then recommend. A week or so after delivery, ask which flavor they liked best, then follow with "If you liked that, try this."
- Make the second flavor easy to say yes to. A small add-on, a mixed bundle or free shipping on a second flavor beats a sitewide discount.
- Time the reorder nudge loosely. Use your own order data to find when most second orders happen, and send around then.
For the bigger picture on second and third orders, read my repeat purchase email strategy.
What if you're also going into stores?
Food brands often land in retail at some point, and that changes what your list needs to hear. Some of your buyers will start picking you up at the store, which is fine, but email has a new job. I wrote a separate guide on email marketing for a retail launch.
What should a food brand measure?
Judge by clicks and revenue, not opens. Apple Mail inflates opens.
- Revenue per person on restock and launch emails, compared to your average send.
- Waitlist size before each restock, so you can plan stock and the send.
- Second-order rate for first-time buyers, and how long it takes.
- The share of second orders that include a flavor the customer hadn't bought before.
Where these numbers come from
The restock numbers are from one snack brand doing about $650K a month. The subject line finding comes from a pooled look at 7 brands and 2,821 campaigns. That's a small sample, so treat it as directional and test on your own list.
FAQ
What's the best email for a food brand?
If something sells out, the restock email. At one snack brand, the restock email was its best campaign ever, and six different restock emails each made more than $16,000. Outside of restocks, your welcome flow and a post-purchase flow that pushes a second flavor are where I'd start.
How often should a snack brand email its list?
More often than most founders think, as long as each send has a reason: a restock, a new flavor, a bundle. Watch unsubscribes and revenue per person as you add sends, and pull back if they move the wrong way.
Should food brands discount to get a second order?
Not by default. A bundle, free shipping on a second flavor or early access to a new one usually does the job without training people to wait for a code.
Do I need a reorder reminder flow for snacks?
Yes, but set it from your own data, since snack consumption varies so much by household. Look at when most second orders actually happen and time it around that.
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.