Koala Eco grows US email revenue 62% YoY with Klaviyo after switch from Mailchimp

Koala Eco makes cleaning products for laundry, home, and body with Australian essential oils and all-natural ingredients. It started in 2017, when husband and wife co-founders Paul Davidson and Jessica Bragdon went through a health scare with their infant son. They suddenly saw the ingredients of their cleaning products with fresh eyes—and decided to create natural alternatives.

In the years since, Koala Eco has grown into a purpose-driven global brand, sold online and in stores like Erewhon across the US and Australia. The team continues to prioritize the natural world through recyclable packaging and philanthropic efforts like 1% for the Planet.

Learn how Koala Eco knew Klaviyo would outperform Mailchimp right out of the box

Challenge

Back when Koala Eco used Mailchimp, they didn’t approach email marketing as strategically as they do now. They sent campaigns to their entire list, as often as they’d want to receive them—about 2x a week. Automation-wise, they only had a few flows set up.

Their design team created beautiful visuals, but Mailchimp’s editor made it hard to create the sophisticated, branded feel they wanted.

We knew that we needed to professionalize our email marketing. We wanted to get very data-oriented.

“We knew that we needed to professionalize our email marketing,” says Claire Dalziel, director of marketing and ecommerce for Koala Eco. “We wanted to get very data-oriented.”

To do that, they needed a new platform that made it easier to analyze and act on performance data.

Solution

Koala Eco started shopping around, and “all of the brands I loved and trusted were using Klaviyo,” Dalziel says. (One standout example: Olipop.)

Klaviyo had the analytics dashboards, “detailed metrics,” and design tooling to solve the problems they were having with Mailchimp right out of the box, Dalziel recalls.

The team was sold. The migration went smoothly. Once onboarded, they were able to make quick, impactful changes.

My knowledge and abilities have grown through Klaviyo’s tools pushing me to learn more. We’ve gotten more sophisticated because of the tools available.

They started focusing campaign sends on engaged segments, and realized they had room to send more frequent campaigns without oversaturating their audience. They launched an array of net-new abandonment flows. They started using sleeker email templates, and A/B tested layout variations.

The easy access to performance data, flows, segmentation in Klaviyo made these updates intuitive.

“My knowledge and abilities have grown through Klaviyo’s tools pushing me to learn more,” says Dalziel. “We’ve gotten more sophisticated because of the tools available.”

Strategy

What are the main ways Koala Eco has leveraged Klaviyo to get more sophisticated with their marketing? So far, the team has used the platform to:

• Test performance of more frequent sending: With Klaviyo’s user-friendly analytics, Koala Eco felt confident testing out 3 campaigns per week, and sending top performers 2x a day—the second time to non-openers only. It performed unexpectedly well, and they stuck with it: In the past 90 days, total campaign volume in Australia was up 26% YoY, campaign click rate was up 4x+ YoY, and Klaviyo-attributed revenue for the region was up 20%. “That’s one of the most useful things about Klaviyo—relying on data rather than just going on gut feel,” Dalziel says.
• Expand efficiently into the US: Koala Eco built Facebook lookalike audience based on their Australian email list—and cloned segments, flows, and templates in a few clicks from their Australian Klaviyo account to their US one.
• Identify (and nurture) VIP brand evangelists: Using Klaviyo’s campaign reporting by segment, Dalziel high engagement from the segment of customers with recurring product subscriptions—even when it came to newsletter-style, mission-focused content. Now, Koala Eco is investigating ways to nurture these customers into even bigger brand evangelists with tactics like a free gift with purchase, or potentially a VIP community.

Ultimately, Klaviyo has helped Koala Eco expand from an Australian powerhouse to a global brand.

“We’re scaling all the things we need to that we were held back with before Klaviyo,” says Koala Eco co-founder Jessica Bragdon. “As we grow, our applications need to grow with us—and that’s what we’ve found thus far working with Klaviyo.”

We’re scaling all the things we need to that we were held back with before Klaviyo. As we grow, our applications need to grow with us—and that’s what we’ve found thus far working with Klaviyo.