Win-back and replenishment emails for online stores

Replenishment and win-back are two different flows. Replenishment emails go to active customers just before a product runs out, based on the consumption cycle. Win-back goes to people who stopped buying: it fires when a customer goes two to three times your store's normal time between orders without coming back, has two or three emails, and ends with a clear decision: anyone who doesn't respond leaves your regular campaigns. Skip that last step and win-back becomes one more ignored email that drags down your reputation.

Why returning customers deserve attention

Acquiring a new customer costs ads, subsidized shipping and first-order discounts. Someone who already bought knows the store, trusts delivery and has an address on file. A well-timed email is usually the cheapest way to drive the second, third and tenth order.

The problem: without rules, old customers get the same campaigns as everyone else, stop engaging, and the store keeps mailing them for years.

Replenishment: arrive before it runs out

Estimate the cycle

1. From the product: pack size divided by recommended use. A supplement with 60 capsules at two a day lasts about 30 days.
2. From your data: the median time between orders of the same product or category among your customers. More reliable once you have history.

Send the reminder a few days before the estimated end, to allow for shipping time.

What to write

Subject: Running low on {{product}}?

Hi {{first_name}}, you last ordered {{product}} on {{date}}.
If you're near the end, restocking takes one click:

[Buy again]  (link to a prefilled cart)

Order by 2pm and it ships today.

Good practice:

• Link to a ready-made cart with the same product and variant.
• Show the last order date: it makes the reminder feel useful, not random.
• Offer a subscription if you have one: monthly buyers may prefer automatic delivery.
• Stop if they already bought through another channel, when you know it.

Win-back: bring back the ones who left

Define "inactive" with your own numbers

There's no universal threshold. Use your store's time between orders:

These rows are illustrations; what counts is the gap you calculate from your own orders.

The sequence

Email 1: what changed. New arrivals in the category they used to buy, the return of a product they bought, or real improvements (faster shipping, easier returns).

Subject: New in {{category}} since your last visit

Email 2: the incentive. If you use one, this is where. Free shipping often outweighs a small percentage.

Subject: Free shipping on us, through Sunday

Email 3: the question. Be honest: say you'll stop if they're no longer interested.

Subject: Still want our emails?

You haven't opened our emails in a while, and we don't want to
crowd your inbox. Click below to keep hearing from us.
If you don't, we'll stop sending updates.

[Keep me subscribed]

After win-back: clean the list

Anyone who didn't engage with any of the three emails should leave regular campaigns (or get only a big campaign once a quarter):

• Reputation: mailbox providers like Gmail watch engagement; mailing lots of inactive contacts pushes every email toward spam. See how to keep store campaigns out of spam.
• Spam traps: long-abandoned addresses can be recycled into traps.
• Cost: many tools bill per stored contact, not per email sent. See what ecommerce email marketing costs.

Transactional emails keep going: if the person comes back and orders, they get confirmation and shipping emails as usual.

How to measure it

• Repurchase rate for people who got the reminder vs a small holdout group that didn't.
• Reactivated customers: inactive customers who ordered again within 30 days.
• Unsubscribes and complaints per email in the sequence.
• Margin, not just revenue: a win-back with a deep discount may bring back a customer who only returns for discounts.

Opens aren't a good signal of "active" since Apple Mail Privacy Protection; prefer purchases and clicks. More in ecommerce email metrics.

How to do it today with Pidgely

On the Scale plan, the Win-back automation of a connected store does the win-back part for you: it starts when a customer's last paid order is 90 days old (adjustable), sends an email and a second one a week later, and stops when they order again, with the recovered revenue on the automation page. Replenishment reminders can run as a Contact date automation on a date property you keep updated, such as replenish_at. See the automations guide.

On every plan you can also drive the timing from your own system:

• Keep contact properties like last_order_at, favorite_category and order_count, updated from your backend (contacts guide).
• Build segments like "inactive for 180+ days" and send broadcasts with personalization and one-click unsubscribe.
• Schedule individual replenishment reminders through the API with scheduled_at.

If your store runs on Shopify, WooCommerce, Nuvemshop or VTEX, connect it and your customers become Pidgely contacts automatically. Create a free account to start.

Checklist

• Replenishment based on product cycle or real time between orders
• Reminder early enough to cover shipping time
• "Inactive" defined by your store's numbers
• Three-email win-back: news, incentive, question
• Non-responders leave regular campaigns
• Transactional emails continue as usual
• Measured with a holdout group and with margin in mind