How Fulton boosts email & SMS list growth by 19% with Fondue

“Fondue surpassed my expectations across every single metric. Numbers I didn’t expect to improve have spiked. We see a higher conversion rate across our customer journey as well as improved social media engagement. Fondue is just incredible.” - Libie Motchan, Co-Founder of Fulton

About

Fulton is modernizing arch support with comfortable, sustainable, and custom-molded insoles — designed to improve full-body wellness from the ground up. To date, the brand has enhanced the day-to-day comfort of over 30,000 happy customers. 

Challenge

Coupons can be clipped and abused, harming your brand’s bottom line

As a consumer, Libie Motchan, Co-Founder of Fulton, is a big fan of promo codes. As a founder — not so much. Here’s a discounting scenario that’s all too common for brands, yet rarely talked about: 

1. Your brand generates a coupon code meant for a designated audience. 
2. That coupon gets clipped and shared by an aggregator like Honey or Rakuten. 
3. Soon enough, one coupon code costs your company thousands in unplanned costs. 

When Libie began searching for a more profitable alternative to coupons, a fellow ecommerce operator recommended Fondue. 

Though she was initially hesitant about CashBack and how it would integrate with the customer journey, Libie heard from more and more founders about their success stories with Fondue — and eventually decided to give CashBack a shot. 

“I was super, super skeptical as I vetted potential solutions. But, when I heard about Fondue, every brand I spoke to was so happy with it.”

Solution

Before onboarding, Libie expected Fondue to bring a moderate uptick in email signups. In reality, we delivered far greater ROI than she ever anticipated — thanks to two benefits of our CashBack solution. 

‍Benefit #1: Fulton offers higher-value incentives while minimizing payouts

After A/B testing, Fulton decided to add a 20% CashBack offer to its homepage and welcome series. Here’s the step-by-step look at why this new incentive has been so effective: 

1. The psychology of the shopper journey — Even if a coupon converts, that discount cuts the profit margin of the purchase. Meanwhile, CashBack is redeemed post-purchase, so fewer customers follow through to actually claim the offer. 

2. Higher-value offers, lower payouts — Fulton can reinvest those savings to offer higher-value CashBack (i.e., 20% CashBack instead of a 10% coupon code). These larger offers are even more likely to incentivize purchases or list opt-ins. 

3. More repeat purchases — CashBack can be redeemed as straight cash or a site credit to Fulton. To date, roughly 1/3 of Fulton customers who opted into Cashback claim their offer as a site credit, meaning they have plans to return and repurchase. 

Benefit #2: CashBack is seamless for both Fulton’s team and shoppers

CashBack is a streamlined experience for all involved: from Fulton’s internal team to their customers. According to Libie, integrating Fondue was low-lift, high-reward. Meanwhile, shoppers can easily learn about CashBack, make their purchases, and redeem their offer. 

Although Libie initially worried CashBack would have cause friction for site visitors, Fulton has seen very few customer support tickets about the new offering. To Libie, this signals that implementing Fondue succeeded without a hitch. 

“Fondue is such a great way to offer a better discount to our customers. If you need an incentive that doesn’t hurt profit margins, I can’t imagine a situation where CashBack and Fondue wouldn’t be the right choice.” 

Results

Fulton uses CashBack to drive list growth and LTV — and preserve profit margins

Since implementing CashBack with Fondue, the Fulton team has enjoyed impressive results, including: 

• 1/3 of customers who opted into Cashback choose to redeem their offer as a Fulton site credit
• 19% list in email & SMS growth
• 21% increase in email welcome series revenue

Based on these numbers, Fulton will keep amplifying CashBack’s impact through email and SMS drip sequences as well as paid media messaging. Plus, Libie looks forward to exploring even more unique ways to integrate Fondue with her brand’s digital experience. 

No matter the need, the Fulton team knows CashBack is an ideal solution for marketing incentives and customer retention — without the lost revenue they might have incurred in the past. 

‍“I’m so excited to keep seeing the impact Fondue has on our LTV. CashBack is the one solution I think every brand should explore and implement.”