How Spice & Story Recovered ₹14.6 Lakh in Abandoned Carts with Email Automation
Spice & Story, a premium Indian spice and gourmet food brand based in Jaipur, was losing over ₹18 lakh per month to cart abandonment on their Shopify store. Their email list had 12,000 subscribers, but was used only for irregular newsletters with a 9.2% open rate and 0.4% click rate. NK Digital rebuilt their entire email programme from scratch, turning their list into their most profitable revenue channel.
The Challenge
The 12,000-subscriber list was completely unserved — no segmentation, no automated flows, no personalisation. Every email went to everyone with the same message. The result: a disengaged list that was slowly being abandoned by its own subscribers. 340 people were unsubscribing per month, and the list had been declining for 6 consecutive months.
Our Email Marketing Strategy
- List Audit & Segmentation — Cleaned and segmented 12,000 subscribers into 7 groups by purchase history, product category preference, and engagement level. Removed 1,800 unengaged contacts to improve deliverability.
- Abandoned Cart Flow (3-Step) — Built a 3-email abandoned cart sequence triggered at 1 hour, 12 hours, and 48 hours post-abandonment. Email 1: gentle reminder with product images. Email 2: social proof + FAQ. Email 3: 8% discount with 24-hour countdown.
- Welcome Series (5 Emails) — A story-driven welcome journey introducing the brand’s Rajasthani heritage, sourcing ethics, recipe inspiration, and a first-order discount. Achieves 48% open rate.
- Festival Campaigns — Custom campaigns for Diwali, Holi, Eid, and New Year — each segmented by past purchase behaviour and personalised by product category interest.
- Win-Back Flow — Reactivated 14% of 90-day lapsed customers via a 3-email “we miss you” sequence with a storytelling hook and personalised product recommendation.
Results After 4 Months
- ₹ Abandoned cart revenue recovered: ₹14.6 lakh/month
- 📊 Email open rate improved from 9.2% to 41.8%
- 🔗 Click-to-open rate improved from 0.4% to 7.2%
- 📉 Unsubscribe rate dropped from 2.8%/month to 0.18%/month
- 💳 Email revenue now accounts for 38% of total monthly store revenue
“We had a 12,000-person email list sitting completely idle. NK Digital turned it into our most consistent revenue source. The abandoned cart flow alone pays for their entire fee multiple times over.”
— Anita Rathore, Co-Founder, Spice & Story
"We had 12,000 email subscribers sitting idle. NK Digital turned that list into our most consistent revenue source. The abandoned cart flow alone pays for their entire retainer."
