Challenge:
A leading ethical fashion brand approached us with a key challenge: while their sustainability mission was central to their brand identity, leading with it in top-of-funnel messaging was limiting their ability to drive conversions.
They wanted to grow their sales without compromising on their sustainability and impact storytelling.
Insight:
Most brands emphasise sustainability upfront, assuming it drives purchasing decisions.
However, behavioural science tells us otherwise.
Consumers are primarily motivated by price, quality, and convenience at the decision-making stage.
Sustainability messaging often creates friction, triggering skepticism or decision fatigue.
Instead, we leveraged the Peak-End Rule—the psychological principle that people judge experiences based on their most emotionally intense moment and how they end.
Solution:
We redesigned the brand’s post-purchase email flow to ensure the final impression of the customer journey was both emotionally resonant and brand-reinforcing.
Instead of pushing sustainability messaging pre-purchase, where it is less relevant, we strategically positioned it after the sale to validate customers’ choices, reduce buyer’s remorse, and build long-term loyalty.
Key Implementations:
Personalised thank-you messaging: Every customer received an emotionally impactful thank-you email, highlighting that their purchase directly empowered three women and girls—a metric derived from the brand’s impact reporting.
This approach tapped into virtue signaling, encouraging customers to share their impact with their networks. By making customers feel like ambassadors of change, this messaging leveraged word-of-mouth marketing to organically spread the brand’s mission and attract like-minded consumers.
Sustainability validation: Instead of creating friction in the sales funnel, we positioned sustainability as a reward—reinforcing customers’ ethical choice after they had already committed.
This not only validated their purchase but also gave them a compelling reason to share their positive impact, further strengthening brand advocacy and social proof.Optimised post-purchase flow: We transformed post-purchase emails from a passive touchpoint into a revenue-generating asset, increasing engagement and lifetime value.
Results:
The impact was undeniable:
- Revenue Per Recipient: £2.52 from post-purchase emails—traditionally considered non-revenue-generating.
- Placed Order Rate: 2.86%, directly boosting lifetime value.
- Returning Customer Rate: Increased by 6%, proving the power of ethical validation.
- Email Marketing Revenue Growth: +119.5% (from 4% to 7.41% of total revenue).
- Newsletter Open Rates: 52.26% (99.4% increase; industry avg: 31.82%).
The Peak-End Rule isn’t just a psychological theory—it’s a valuable tool for ecommerce brands. By shifting sustainability messaging to the post-purchase phase, we not only reinforced the brand values but also strengthened customer relationships and revenue streams.
