The Client
Liquor Royale is an online spirits store in San Diego, shipping nationwide: allocated and hard-to-find bourbon, top-shelf tequila, Japanese whisky and gift sets. We have run their Google, Meta and Microsoft ads since 2025 (the full-funnel case study). In June 2026 they handed us their Klaviyo too.
The Challenge: An Email List on the Edge
Klaviyo was connected in March 2026 and the first campaign went out in May. The setup that ran it until June did what almost every liquor store we audit does: it blasted the whole list, about 17,000 people, every day or two. In May alone that was 240,000+ emails.
In our view, Liquor Royale was weeks away from being blacklisted by Gmail and Outlook, and from losing email as a sales channel altogether. Here is what we saw in the account:
- Spam complaints over Google's limit. Gmail asks bulk senders to stay under 0.10% and never reach 0.30%; Outlook enforces similar rules. The May 5 blast drew 0.153% with a 1.99% bounce rate, and the next day's blast 0.106%. Two of the smaller sends were over the line too. That month brought 162 spam complaints.
- A list that had stopped listening. Only 19.5% of emails were opened and 0.52% clicked. Most of the people being mailed hadn't opened anything in months.
- Every email earned almost nothing: $0.15 per email received, and $0.10 per campaign recipient.
Once a domain's reputation drops, every email lands in spam: campaigns, flows, even order confirmations. Rebuilding it takes months. Blasting everyone every day can make one month look good in Klaviyo, because Klaviyo credits any order placed within days of an open. But it was burning the list the store depends on.
What We Built
1. Stop mailing the people who stopped reading
On day one we built an exclusion for anyone who had received more than four emails and hadn't opened or clicked in 90 days. Today 22,000+ of the 26,000 profiles on the email list sit in it. Campaigns go only to people who still read.
2. Segments instead of blasts
We built 21 segments by engagement and by what people buy: customers, premium bourbon buyers, tequila buyers, collectors, bundle buyers and a restock window. The average campaign audience went from 11,600 to about 2,200 people.
3. Every flow rebuilt, and the missing ones added
In the first week we rebuilt the welcome series, abandoned checkout, browse abandonment and post-purchase flows. Then we added a win-back and a sunset flow, a welcome series for tequila leads from Meta lead ads, and text-message flows for age-verified subscribers. The rebuilt welcome series alone has brought in $21K+ since the takeover.
4. Campaigns built around the drops
Liquor Royale sells allocated bottles, so the campaigns follow the inventory: restocks, launches and pre-orders, each sent to the segment that buys that bottle. The Fortaleza restock email to tequila buyers earned $2.77 per recipient, about 27 times what an average blast earned before.
5. One team for ads and email
Because we also run Liquor Royale's Google, Meta and Microsoft ads, the people our ads bring in are welcomed, segmented and followed up by the same team.
The Results
Every Klaviyo KPI, before and with us
The numbers a store owner sees in their own Klaviyo dashboard. "Before" is the setup we took over; "with us" is our campaigns and months since June 15, 2026.
Campaign open rate
2.1x
Campaign click rate
2.6x
Campaign revenue per recipient
3.6x
Revenue per email received
4.4x
Placed-order rate
2.8x
Spam complaints per month
-89%
Lower is better
Unsubscribes per month
-70%
Lower is better
Klaviyo share of store revenue
2.5x
| KPI | Before us | With us | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Campaign open rate | 20.2% | 43.0% | 2.1x |
| Campaign click rate | 0.49% | 1.29% | 2.6x |
| Campaign revenue per recipient | $0.10 | $0.37 | 3.6x |
| Campaign placed-order rate (orders per recipient) | 0.042% | 0.119% | 2.8x |
| Average order value from campaigns | $241 | $312 | +29% |
| Revenue per email received (all emails, May vs October) | $0.15 | $0.67 | 4.4x |
| Open rate, all emails (May vs October) | 19.5% | 38.4% | 1.9x |
| Click rate, all emails (May vs October) | 0.52% | 1.42% | 2.7x |
| Spam complaints per month (May vs October) | 162 | 17 | -89% |
| Spam complaint rate (May vs October) | 0.067% | 0.040% | -40% |
| Unsubscribes per month (May vs October) | 609 | 182 | -70% |
| Attributed orders per month (May vs October) | 155 | 191 | +23% |
| Attributed revenue per order (May vs October) | $235 | $281 | +19% |
| Klaviyo share of store revenue (June vs October) | 7.8% | 20.2% | 2.5x |
October also brought 2,500+ new email subscribers, the most of any month on record.
Better every month
The month-by-month climb, all emails (campaigns and flows):
| Month | Open rate | Click rate | Revenue per email received |
|---|---|---|---|
| May (before us) | 19.5% | 0.52% | $0.15 |
| June (takeover June 15) | 27.4% | 0.99% | $0.27 |
| July | 31.2% | 1.63% | $0.49 |
| August | 41.1% | 1.28% | $0.40 |
| September | 35.7% | 1.30% | $0.41 |
| October | 38.4% | 1.42% | $0.67 |
Revenue grew every month
Klaviyo-attributed revenue rose every month after the takeover, from $12K+ in June to a record $53K+ in October, more than 4x. The first 11 days of November brought in another $32K+, nearly a third of the store's revenue for those days, with the Black Friday sends still ahead.
Key Takeaways
- Deliverability is the whole game. If Gmail and Outlook stop trusting your domain, nothing else in Klaviyo matters. Watch spam complaints on every big send.
- Mailing everyone is not a strategy. People who never open cost you reputation and earn nothing. Exclude them, then win back the ones worth winning.
- Segments beat volume. A restock email to 472 tequila buyers out-earned full-list blasts to 17,000 people.
- Flows are the base. Welcome, abandoned checkout, browse, post-purchase, win-back and sunset should all run before you write another campaign.
- Judge Klaviyo by the rates. Total revenue rewards blasting. Open rate, click rate, revenue per recipient and spam complaints show whether the emails actually work.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can sending too many emails get you blacklisted?
Yes. Gmail asks bulk senders to keep spam complaints under 0.10% and never let them reach 0.30%, and Outlook enforces similar rules. Above that, your emails start going to spam, including order confirmations. Liquor Royale's two biggest blasts before we took over drew 0.153% and 0.106%. In our view the domain was close to being blacklisted. Since we took over, monthly spam complaints are down almost 90%.
How long does it take to turn a Klaviyo account around?
For Liquor Royale, open and click rates roughly doubled within the first three months. Attributed revenue then grew every month, from $12K+ in June to a record $53K+ in October, our fifth month.
Why send fewer emails if you want more revenue?
Because every email to someone who never opens hurts your sender reputation. We stopped mailing people who hadn't opened or clicked in 90 days and sent to segments instead. The average campaign audience fell by about 80%, and each campaign recipient now brings in $0.37 instead of $0.10.
Which Klaviyo flows does a liquor store need?
At minimum: a welcome series, abandoned checkout, browse abandonment, post-purchase, win-back and sunset. We rebuilt Liquor Royale's four existing flows and added the rest, plus a welcome series for tequila leads from Meta lead ads.
What does Klaviyo management cost?
Klaviyo Marketing is $899 a month plus 5% of Klaviyo-attributed revenue above $10,000 a month, with a six-month minimum. It can be added to an ad management plan or ordered on its own on our pricing page.
About This Engagement
Industry: E-Commerce: Wine & Spirits Platforms: Klaviyo (flows, campaigns, segmentation, deliverability), plus Google Ads, Meta Ads and Microsoft Ads Location: United States (nationwide shipping) Engagement: Ads since 2025; Klaviyo since June 15, 2026 (ongoing)
Revenue is Klaviyo-attributed revenue as Klaviyo reports it (campaigns and flows, email and text messages, Klaviyo's default attribution), never the store's total sales; the store's revenue appears only as a percentage. Revenue figures are rounded down. Campaign KPIs compare the 23 campaigns sent May 5 to June 6, 2026 with our 55 email campaigns sent June 19 to November 11, 2026; monthly KPIs compare May 2026 with October 2026 (June 2026 for the store share). Open rates are as Klaviyo reports them. The deliverability assessment is our professional opinion, based on the complaint and bounce rates Klaviyo reported.