Case study

Unique Party Shop

How the owner of an Australian party retailer turned a dormant Klaviyo account into a channel that grew email revenue roughly tenfold in under six months.

Party retailer, Australia 2023 to 2024

Hitesh Parmar wanted the shoppers who had already found Unique Party Shop to come back and buy again, without him planning, writing or sending a single email himself.

Unique Party Shop sells party supplies, costumes, balloons, sparklers and seasonal ranges to Australian households and event planners, online and in store. Its Klaviyo account collected subscribers and never spoke to them, and Hitesh, running two brands, did not have the hours to brief a designer, write copy, check dates, and send, every week, forever.

The problem: Email was a rounding error, and every visitor was a stranger who stayed one.
The plan: Automation before campaigns, calendar before creative, measurement before optimisation.
The result: Email revenue roughly ten times higher within six months, around one in every seven dollars of store revenue in the peak trading month.

The abandoned cart rebuild, month by month

Abandoned Cart Reminder flow, November 2023 to March 2024. The rewritten copy, design and timing went live in March.

Open rate, %

Conversion rate, %

Source: Excelohunt flow report, April 2024

1
Step 1 · 2023

Audit

When Excelohunt first opened the account, nothing about it was surprising. A Klaviyo account that collects subscribers and never speaks to them is the default state of most ecommerce stores under a certain size.
- No welcome sequence
- No abandoned cart follow up
- No post purchase email
- No review request
- Irregular campaigns
- Email a rounding error
2
Step 2 · 2023 to 2024, in three phases

Strategy

The accounts that work all follow the same order of operations: automation before campaigns, calendar before creative, measurement before optimisation.
1. Build the automated foundation
2. Run an occasion led calendar built for Australia
3. Measure, then optimise what the data points at
Step 3 · November 2023 to April 2024

Results after six months

10×

Growth in monthly email attributed revenue

From a few hundred dollars a month to roughly tenfold in under six months

14%

Of total store revenue from email in the peak trading month

From Negligible before, 13% average over the following half year

7%

Abandoned cart conversion rate after the flow rebuild, March 2024

From 2% in January and February 2024, against a 3.3% industry average

66%

Of email revenue from flows, November 2023

From No flows at the start, Welcome flow about 80% of flow revenue

Every visitor was a stranger, and stayed one.

Unique Party Shop carries more than 14,000 products across its physical stores and a busy website. Australians find it when they need it: a costume for Book Week, balloons for a fortieth, sparklers for a wedding. Then the party happens and the customer disappears until the next one, if they remember the shop at all.

External problem: the Klaviyo account existed but did almost nothing. There was no welcome sequence for new subscribers, no abandoned cart follow up, no post purchase email, and no review request. Campaigns went out irregularly and were not built around the occasions that drive party retail. Email was contributing a few hundred dollars a month, a rounding error against a store whose revenue came almost entirely from paid ads and organic search.

Internal problem: Hitesh could not see what email was doing, so he could not trust it. He was running two brands and did not have the hours to brief a designer, write copy, check dates, and send, every week, forever. The anxiety was specific: he could see ad costs rising and had no second channel to lean on if they kept rising.

Philosophical problem: a retailer with 14,000 products and years of customer relationships should not have to buy the same customer twice. The people who had already bought sparklers in October were the cheapest people on earth to sell Christmas decorations to in December. Letting that relationship lapse was not a marketing gap, it was value the business had already earned and was leaving on the table.

The villain

Rented traffic.

Every sale depended on paying a platform to reintroduce the brand to people who already knew it. Rented traffic gets more expensive every year, it can be switched off by an algorithm change or a bad ads manager, and it teaches the business nothing about who its customers are. It is the condition this whole story is about, and it is never fully defeated, only outgrown.

What the account was missing

No welcome sequence
No abandoned cart follow up
No post purchase email
No review request
Irregular campaigns
Email a rounding error

We had seen this exact account before. Many times.

When Excelohunt first opened the account, nothing about it was surprising. A Klaviyo account that collects subscribers and never speaks to them is the default state of most ecommerce stores under a certain size. The owner is not neglecting it; the owner is running the business. Our first job was to say that out loud, so that the conversation could move from blame to plan.

What we brought was not enthusiasm. It was a sequence. Excelohunt manages Klaviyo accounts for ecommerce brands in Australia, the UK and the US, and the accounts that work all follow the same order of operations: automation before campaigns, calendar before creative, measurement before optimisation. We gave Hitesh that order as a plan with dates attached, a monthly report he would receive whether the news was good or not, and one point of contact who would ask him for approvals in a way that took minutes, not afternoons.

A sequence

Automation before campaigns, calendar before creative, measurement before optimisation. Given as a plan with dates attached.

A monthly report

One he would receive whether the news was good or not.

One point of contact

Someone who would ask him for approvals in a way that took minutes, not afternoons.

Three phases, in an order that matters.

The plan we gave Hitesh, with the reason each phase sits where it does.

Phase 1

Build the automated foundation

Design, write and launch the flows that run without anyone touching them: a six email Welcome and Nurture series, a three step Abandoned Cart series with an escalating incentive, a Post Purchase flow and a Review Request flow. Alongside them, a written brand design guideline for every email, so the shop's identity survives whoever is designing that week.

Why first

Flows convert several times better per send than campaigns, and they reach people at the moment they are most likely to buy. If you skip ahead to campaigns, every campaign pours new subscribers into an account that never greets them and never chases their cart. You are filling a bucket with a hole in it.

Phase 2

Run an occasion led calendar built for Australia

A monthly content calendar around the moments that actually move party supplies in Australia: Halloween, Christmas and Black Friday, Easter, Mother's Day and Father's Day on their Australian dates, Holi, Eid, Diwali and sparklers, Star Wars Day, hens and bucks nights, kids' birthdays, storewide weekend sales. Every email passes a written QA checklist for copy, design and deployment before it is sent, and subject lines are tested in pairs.

Why second

Campaigns only earn their keep once the foundation is catching the demand they create. Building the calendar before the flows produces a spike of attention with nothing underneath it. Building it after means every campaign now feeds a welcome series, an abandoned cart chase and a review request, and its value compounds.

Phase 3

Measure, then optimise what the data points at

A month end report every month. After thirty days of campaign data, a revised send strategy: Monday primary sends, non opener resends later in the week, Klaviyo Smart Send on Fridays, and a new segment of subscribers active in the last 120 days to concentrate volume where engagement is. When the abandoned cart flow underperformed its benchmark, a full rebuild of copy, design and timing. Monthly account health checks to catch anything that breaks quietly.

Why last

You cannot optimise what you have not measured, and you cannot measure what does not exist yet. Send time analysis on an account with four campaigns is noise. By the third phase there was enough history to see that Mondays and mornings outperformed, that Sunday resends worked, and that the abandoned cart flow was the weak link. Optimisation earlier would have been guessing.

What Hitesh had to do

Not nothing. But not much, and never the hard part.

Give access. Full Klaviyo access, the product catalogue, the brand assets, and a line to his web developer for the DNS work that email authentication needed.
Steer the calendar. He told us which products sell every Easter, which ranges to push at Christmas, and, memorably, that Thanksgiving is not a thing in Australia. He supplied the promo codes and their validity windows. That knowledge lives in his head, not in Klaviyo, and it made the campaigns his rather than ours.
Approve quickly. Designs and copy went to him by email with a specific deadline in Brisbane time. His replies were usually four words long: "All good, please proceed." That cadence, dozens of times over, is what let the calendar ship on schedule.
Hold his nerve. In February 2024, during a migration to new hosting, the DNS records that authenticate email sending were at risk. We recommended pausing every flow and campaign until they were fixed rather than risk the domain's reputation. That meant days of zero email revenue on our advice. He agreed, chased his developers, and we resumed the moment authentication was confirmed.

What this avoided, and what it became.

The failure this avoided

A store whose every sale is bought from an ad platform, with no owned channel to fall back on when ad performance dips. That dip did arrive in 2024, and email was the channel still standing.
Thousands of subscribers who signed up, heard nothing, and quietly forgot the brand.
Carts abandoned at checkout with no follow up, on a flow that was converting at a fraction of the industry average.
Campaigns sent on US holiday dates to an Australian audience, eroding trust one irrelevant email at a time.
A sending domain damaged by unauthenticated mail during a hosting migration, with inbox placement taking months to rebuild.

The success it became

Email revenue roughly ten times higher within six months, contributing around one in every seven dollars of store revenue in the peak trading month.
A Welcome flow that became the single largest source of email revenue in the account, running without anyone touching it.
An abandoned cart flow converting at more than double the industry average after the rebuild.
A calendar the owner steers in minutes a week, built on Australian dates and his own product knowledge.
A domain protected through the migration, and enough trust that the owner brought his second brand, The Wig Outlet, to the same team.

Hitesh can now say what email is worth to his business, and prove it.

The change that matters is not the number, it is what the number lets him do. He can open a monthly report and see email revenue split by flow and by campaign. He can tell his ads manager that the store has a second channel. He can pick a product that sells every Easter and know it will be in front of past customers ten days before Easter. And when a campaign underperforms, he can see it, ask why, and get an answer with a plan attached.

Two honest caveats

Two honest caveats belong in this story. Campaign open rates settled at a consistent 25%, which is solid but below the current all industry average, and campaign click rates held just above 1%, also below average. The account's strength was its flows, not its broadcasts, and the numbers below say so plainly. A case study with no weak lines is a case study nobody checked.

Before, achieved, and the benchmark

Every metric here is compared with a published industry figure. Benchmarks are from Klaviyo's 2026 benchmark report, Klaviyo's abandoned cart benchmark study (2023 data), and Flypost's 2026 analysis of 50+ DTC Klaviyo accounts. "Before" is the earliest measured point in the engagement, not a pre engagement estimate.

Metric	Before	Achieved	Benchmark	Verdict
Email share of total store revenue	Negligible	14% peak, 13% avg	12 to 20% average band; 20 to 30% strong	At benchmark
Flows' share of email revenue	No flows	66% (Nov 2023)	41% (Klaviyo); 35 to 50% (Flypost)	Above
Abandoned cart open rate	28% (Jan to Feb 2024)	46% (Mar 2024)	50.5% average	Below
Abandoned cart click rate	0 to 2%	8% (Mar 2024)	6.25% average	Above
Abandoned cart conversion rate	2% (Jan to Feb 2024)	7% (Mar 2024)	3.33% average; 7.69% top 10%	Above
Campaign open rate	Not measured	25% consistent; 30% best send	31% average	Below
Campaign click rate	Not measured	Just above 1%	1.69% average	Below

Campaign "before" figures are not available because no consistent campaign programme existed before the engagement. Abandoned cart "before" uses January and February 2024, the two months immediately preceding the rebuild.

Results by programme

Initiative	Outcome	Figure
Welcome and Nurture flow	Became the single largest revenue source in the account from launch, and the flow that carried the account through slower months.	~80% of flow revenue
Abandoned Cart flow	Rebuilt in March 2024 after underperforming; conversion more than tripled the following month.	2% to 7% conversion
Post Purchase and Review Request flows	Launched and live; a small, steady contributor rather than a headline driver. Review requests began producing orders in March 2024.	Not material
Nurture series	Underperformed other sequences in the January review and was flagged for a rewrite. Honest gap: it never reached the Welcome flow's level.	Below plan
Occasion campaign calendar	Strongest sends were Hens and Bucks, Easter, Sparklers, Girls Accessories and the Christmas range with a dedicated code; several were repeated as evergreen seasonal sends.	25% open, ~1% click
Send time and segmentation strategy	Monday primary sends, non opener resends, Friday Smart Send and a 120 day active segment; open rates and click rates improved month on month after adoption.	Up to 30% open
Domain protection during migration	All sending paused until DNS authentication was confirmed; no deliverability damage from the migration.	Domain intact
Monthly reporting and health checks	Month end report every month; a Klaviyo API change that silently affected a flow was caught in the monthly check.	Monthly, every month

In Hitesh's words

Three lines from his own emails and messages while the calendar was being built, and the testimonial he wrote for us in October 2023.

“For October, please focus on Halloween. We can do Promo Code for Halloween 15% off Codes for all Halloween Emails.”

Hitesh Parmar, email to Excelohunt, 21 September 2023, setting the October calendar

“For the Calendar, looks fine, except please remove all "thanks giving". This is more for USA, and we do not have Thanks Giving in Australia as well, so its not relevant. Instead, put in Christmas Decoration and Dressup etc.”

Hitesh Parmar, email to Excelohunt, 24 October 2023

“Can you do an email for this product. It does well every Easter.”

Hitesh Parmar, message to Excelohunt, 20 February 2024

I have had the pleasure of working with Excelohunt for my email marketing needs, and I couldn't be more satisfied with their services. From the very beginning, their communication has been exceptional, making the entire process smooth and efficient.
Excelohunt didn't just meet my expectations; they exceeded them. While there were some initial teething problems, their team worked tirelessly to address and resolve any issues promptly. I was particularly impressed by their dedication to ensuring a smooth transition into our email marketing campaigns.
One aspect that truly sets Excelohunt apart is their creative and innovative approach to email marketing. They've consistently delivered high-quality artwork for our campaigns that not only look great but also effectively convey our message to our audience.
What I appreciate most about Excelohunt is their proactive approach. They go the extra mile to stay ahead of the curve and keep our email marketing strategies current and relevant. This forward-thinking mentality has led to improved results and a growing customer base for our business.
I wholeheartedly recommend Excelohunt to anyone in need of professional and effective email marketing services. Their commitment to their clients and their ability to adapt and excel in this ever-changing landscape make them a valuable partner for any business.
Thank you, Excelohunt, for your outstanding work and dedication to our success. I look forward to continuing our partnership and achieving even greater results together.

Hitesh Parmar, Owner, Unique Party Shop. Written testimonial provided to Excelohunt, October 2023. Reproduced in full and unedited.

Your turn

You are the next hero of this story. The plan is the same three steps.

If your Klaviyo account collects subscribers and rarely speaks to them, you are where Hitesh was. The order of operations does not change. Only the products and the dates do.

Step 1

Build your foundation

We audit what your flows are doing today and launch the ones that are missing: welcome, abandoned cart, post purchase, review request.

Step 2

Run your calendar

A monthly calendar built on your market's real dates and your own knowledge of what sells, approved by you in minutes a week.

Step 3

Measure, then optimise

A month end report you will actually read, and a team that rebuilds what underperforms instead of explaining it away.

Start with a free Klaviyo account review

Thirty minutes. We show you what your account is leaving on the table, whether or not you work with us.

Book a Strategy Call