Customer story - Baked by Melissa

Optimizing the post-purchase experience was the icing on the cake

Baked by Melissa increased shipment tracking revenue by 70% by optimizing their post-purchase customer experience with AfterShip.

Founded in 2008 by Melissa Ben-Ishay, Baked by Melissa started as a side-hustle. Since then, the purveyor of irresistible mini cupcakes has grown her business to 14 locations in the New York City area—and nationwide through the company’s e-commerce website. And while their cupcakes may be mini, their numbers certainly aren’t—as of June 2021, Baked by Melissa has sold over 150 million cupcakes nationwide.

70%: increase in triggered email revenue

30-35%: click-through rate (CTR)

56-60%: email open rate

The missing piece of the customer experience

The business was strong—particularly online. They had built a website that made it easy for customers to select and purchase the products they wanted and had hundreds of orders going through it daily. But there was a gap — the team quickly realized they had no control of the customer experience after the customer had made a purchase.

1,000,000+

Monthly shipments

New York City

Headquarters

Baking

Industry

We were laser-focused on optimizing the customer's purchase journey, but we didn't spend enough time on the post-purchase experience. Once their order shipped, it was left up to the customer to look up and track their orders themselves.

Rafael De La Rosa

Senior E-Commerce Product Manager at Baked by Melissa

Taking control of the post-purchase experience

Creating an outstanding customer experience was the team’s top priority, so they decided to explore how they could improve the experience after a purchase was made. They decided to combine their email marketing platform with AfterShip’s post-purchase tracking platform to bolster their overall marketing efforts. By combining detailed order tracking with tailored email flows, the team was able to create more personalized experiences for their online customers.

Because Baked by Melissa sells consumable goods and wanted to optimize their overall Customer Lifetime Value (CLV), “they have a strong incentive to optimize their post-purchase flow”, says Jon Palmer, Product Marketing Manager of Klaviyo (Baked by Melissa’s email marketing platform).

This new initiative allowed the team to add a new custom-triggered email campaign for every orders’ shipping journey. Now, Baked by Melissa sends customers an email update when their order has left the bakery, when it's in their region when it's out for delivery, and if there are any delays.

From the time the order leaves the retailer to the time it arrives at their door, customers will know where their package is. The entire system is designed to keep customers completely in the loop so they never have to wonder where their orders are.

Andrew Chan

CPO and Co-Founder of AfterShip

How it paid off

After implementing AfterShip and combining triggered email notifications, the numbers speak for themselves. Within months, the revamped strategy has shown:

70% increase in total triggered email revenue year over year.
56-60% open rate outperforming its other triggered emails open rate at 40%.
30-35% click-through rate (CTR) outperforming its previous CTR at 29% CTR.
In total, Baked By Melissa has sent over 700K triggered emails in less than a year.
23% of Baked by Melissa’s total revenue is generated from shipment notification emails (15% of which is made up by email flows).

Not only did this new strategy significantly increase sales, but it perfectly aligned with the company’s branding and reflected its image of joyful, vibrant product designs. By building a centralized hub and a single platform for all their customer journey touchpoints, Baked by Melissa could now better leverage their detailed customer data and deliver their messages in a way that wasn’t possible with their previous system. This centralization was critical for turning a scattered post-purchase experience into streamlined customer-focused touchpoints.

After very little post-purchase contact in the past, there's no more guessing when our orders will arrive. This keeps customers in the loop from the order stage until their treats hit the doorstep.