Bloom & Co is a DTC beauty brand based in Austin, Texas, known for their clean-ingredient skincare line and fiercely loyal customer base. Founded in 2019, the brand had built a solid email program and a strong Instagram presence. But by mid-2023, they were hitting a ceiling.
Email open rates had plateaued at 18%. Customer acquisition costs on Meta were climbing. And their flash sales—once reliable revenue drivers—were generating diminishing returns through email alone. They needed a new channel. They found Shymo.
The Challenge
Bloom & Co's marketing team was lean: a director, two coordinators, and a part-time designer. They didn't have bandwidth to manage a complex new platform. They needed something that could generate meaningful revenue without requiring a dedicated team.
Their specific goals were straightforward:
- Recover more abandoned carts (their site had a 74% cart abandonment rate)
- Improve flash sale conversion rates beyond what email could deliver
- Build a VIP communication channel for their top 20% of customers
- Do all of this within their existing tech stack (Shopify Plus + Klaviyo)
— Rachel Torres, Marketing Director, Bloom & Co
Implementation
Bloom & Co launched their Shymo SMS program in August 2023. The onboarding took less than a week. Here's what they set up:
Week 1: Foundation. Integrated Shymo with their Shopify Plus store and synced their existing customer data. Set up compliance-ready opt-in forms with a "15% off + free shipping" incentive. Added a text-to-join keyword ("BLOOM") to their packaging inserts and Instagram bio.
Week 2: Automation flows. Built four core automations using Shymo's visual flow builder:
- Welcome series (3 messages over 5 days)
- Abandoned cart recovery (2-touch: 1 hour + 24 hours)
- Post-purchase thank you + cross-sell
- VIP early access alerts for their top-tier loyalty members
Week 3: First campaign. Sent their first promotional campaign—a 48-hour flash sale on their bestselling Vitamin C serum—to their initial list of 3,200 subscribers.
The Campaigns That Worked
Flash Sale Blitz: Bloom & Co's signature move became the "SMS-first flash sale." They'd text subscribers 2 hours before announcing the sale on email or social. The exclusivity drove urgency. Their September flash sale generated $38,400 in revenue from SMS alone—with a 41% click-through rate.
Abandoned Cart Recovery: Their two-message cart sequence became their highest-performing automation. The first message (sent at 1 hour) used a conversational tone with no discount: "Hey [name], your Midnight Repair Cream is waiting! Tap to finish checkout →". The second message (24 hours later) added free shipping as an incentive. Together, they recovered 22% of abandoned carts.
VIP Early Access: For product launches, Bloom & Co gave their top 500 customers a 24-hour head start via SMS. These messages averaged a 52% click-through rate and drove $14,200 in revenue from a single launch.
Birthday Flow: A simple birthday message with a personalized 20% discount code. Low volume, but an 8.4x ROI—and customers loved it. "It's the one marketing message people actually thank us for," Rachel said.
The Results
Over their first six months on Shymo (August 2023 – January 2024), Bloom & Co's SMS program delivered:
Breaking it down further:
- Subscriber list: Grew from 0 to 18,400 in six months
- Revenue from automations: $142,000 (59% of total SMS revenue)
- Revenue from campaigns: $98,000 (41% of total SMS revenue)
- Opt-out rate: 1.2% average per campaign (well below industry benchmark)
- SMS as % of total ecommerce revenue: Grew from 0% to 14%
The automated flows did the heavy lifting. The abandoned cart sequence alone drove $67,000—all without a single manual send.
— Rachel Torres, Marketing Director, Bloom & Co
Key Takeaways
Bloom & Co's success wasn't accidental. A few principles drove their results:
- Automations first, campaigns second. They got their core flows running before sending a single promotional blast. This meant revenue was flowing from day one, even before they had a large list.
- Exclusivity drives engagement. By positioning SMS as the VIP channel—early access, text-only sales, birthday perks—they kept subscribers engaged and opt-out rates low.
- Less is more. Bloom & Co sends 4–6 campaigns per month, never more. They let the automations handle the volume and keep campaigns reserved for moments that matter.
- Integration matters. Having Shymo connected to Shopify and their loyalty platform meant they could segment based on real purchase data, not guesses.
- Test everything. They A/B tested message copy, send times, and discount amounts on every campaign. Small optimizations compounded into significant gains over six months.
Bloom & Co is now expanding their SMS strategy with Shymo's conversational AI features, testing two-way product recommendation chats for their skincare quiz. Early results are promising—but that's a story for another case study.