Milk Bar Increases Email & SMS Revenue by 27% Within 3 Months of Moving to Sendlane
Talking with Greg Dalby, SVP of Omnichannel
Executive Summary
Founded by Chef Christina Tosi (who you may know from Netflix's “Chef's Table” and “Bake Squad”), Milk Bar is a chain of dessert and bakery restaurants in the United States.
The bakery franchise started small in 2008—it was bootstrapped, the first location was a renovated laundromat, and Tosi created the logo herself. It now has 12 bakeries scattered across New York City, Los Angeles, Washington, D.C., Las Vegas, and Washington. Despite its brick-and-mortar presence, a significant amount of Milk Bar orders are generated through their online store.
"It's not just about the cost. It's the fact that Sendlane has a billing model that's more aligned with driving a successful eCommerce business and retention program. The bottom line is Sendlane's billing structure makes sense for our goals."
Problem
Milk Bar had one huge goal it wanted to hit in 2023—to make its online storefront profitable.
To achieve this, they relied on Klaviyo to power their email marketing and customer retention efforts. Except Klaviyo's contact-based pricing meant Milk Bar was billed based on the size of its email list, regardless of whether contacts were actively engaged. This structure meant the marketing team constantly purged its list of under-engaged contacts and junk email addresses to reduce costs.
Beyond cost, Milk Bar's marketing team wanted a user-friendly, supportive tool for faster, more efficient work. However, they were let down by Klaviyo's support and found the interface challenging.
Solution
Milk Bar sought to revamp its marketing approach for better customer connection and profitability. They sought an email marketing platform offering savings, simplicity, and support. Sendlane met all three.
The move led to significant cost savings due to Sendlane's usage-based pricing structure, which includes unlimited email contacts, a better fit for their marketing strategy.
Milk Bar’s business is also highly cyclical and seasonal. Some customers go anywhere between six to twelve months without purchasing anything from the bakery, so a functional retention program that drives them back is hugely important for Milk Bar's revenue generation.
Switching to Sendlane also means Milk Bar has its SMS and email infrastructure in one place. The team can now trigger an email based on SMS engagement, creating a truly unified strategy.
"If we send an abandoned cart email that doesn't get opened or interacted with, or maybe a customer opens it but doesn't convert, we can send an SMS to follow up in real-time. Having everything in one space is very valuable for us. We're a small team and working between platforms can be painful—even without data transfers—so I love Sendlane for that."
Milk Bar also found that Sendlane's user-friendly dashboard, coupled with the drag-and-drop feature, allowed deeper customer data analysis and enhanced campaign strategies.
The Results
Since switching and unifying from Klaviyo, Attentive and Yotpo to Sendlane, Milk Bar has hit its customer retention and revenue goals.
The Milk Bar team also had some other major wins:
- Within just 3 months of transitioning to Sendlane, revenue attributed to both email and SMS channels surged by an impressive 27%
- SMS is fueling sales, with Click Through Rates at 12.3%
- Email + SMS are now working in sync to power a highly effective retention marketing strategy
The team plans to build on its profitable year, expand its email and SMS customer retention program, and of course—make sure its customers have enough sugary goodness to keep them going in 2024! 🍩
