Lapsed doesn't mean lost
Every store accumulates customers who bought once and went quiet. It's easy to write them off. Don't. Many just got busy or forgot you exist. A win-back sequence - a few well-judged emails - reaches these lapsed buyers and pulls a share of them back. It's cheaper than finding new customers, because you already earned these ones.
Define what 'lapsed' means for you
- Look at your normal repeat gap - for a coffee brand it might be 60 days; for furniture, a year.
- Set the lapsed line past it.
- Trigger the win-back when a customer crosses that line, so you catch them at the right moment, not too early.
Email one: we miss you
Start gently. Remind them who you are and that they mattered. No discount yet - just a warm nudge and maybe what's new since they left. Some people come back on the reminder alone, and those cost you nothing in margin. Save the offer for those who need more.
Email two: give them a reason
If the reminder didn't work, add a reason to return. A genuine offer, a new arrival they'd like, or social proof of what they're missing. Make it specific to them where you can. This is the email that does most of the recovering, so make the reason a real one.
Email three: last call
End with gentle urgency. The offer is expiring, or you're about to stop emailing them. A clear, honest last call prompts the fence-sitters. And if they still don't respond, that's useful too - it tells you who to stop spending sends on.
Clean your list as you go
A win-back flow doubles as list hygiene. People who never re-engage across the sequence can be moved out or emailed less. A smaller, engaged list protects your sender reputation and your open rates. Letting go of truly dead contacts makes your live ones perform better.
Where your store helps
The Storemate runs win-back on an inactive-customer trigger, emailing lapsed buyers automatically once they cross the quiet threshold. Set the sequence once, and it quietly rescues customers in the background while you focus on new ones. Watch the reports to see how much revenue it brings back.