Send reorder reminders

Kite learns how long a product lasts by looking at how long your repeat customers wait between buying it. If most customers who reorder your 12-pound bag of dog food do it between 26 and 32 days later, that bag lasts about four weeks. That number comes from what your customers actually did, so it's more reliable than a guess or a figure printed on the label.

Kite reads this for each product separately. A 30-day face serum and a 90-day supply of vitamins need very different reminders, even when they're sold by the same store. For a product that's too new to have many repeat orders, Kite starts from its size and how it's used, such as 60 capsules taken twice a day, and replaces that estimate with real data once enough customers have reordered.

Kite also adjusts the timing for each customer:

• How much they bought. A customer who ordered two bags of dog food won't run out in four weeks, so their reminder comes about four weeks later than a single-bag customer's.
• Their own pace. Once a customer has reordered a couple of times, Kite uses their own rhythm. If they reliably reorder every three weeks, their reminder comes earlier than the store average.
• How they buy. A customer on a subscription already gets the product automatically, so Kite leaves them out of reminders.

Kite shows you the timing it proposes for each product, along with how many orders it's based on, so you can correct anything that looks off before the first reminder goes out.

Send the reminder a few days before the customer would run out, plus the time it takes your order to arrive. If the dog food lasts 28 days and shipping takes four, the reminder should land around day 21 or 22. That gives the customer time to reorder and receive the new bag before the old one is empty.

Kite builds the timing that way. It takes the point where a product usually runs out, subtracts your typical delivery time, and adds a small buffer so the reminder lands while the customer still has some left. A reminder that arrives after the bag is empty is too late, because the customer has already bought a replacement at the store.

Kite usually plans one reminder and one follow-up. The follow-up goes out about a week later, only to customers who didn't reorder, and it's the last one. If a customer reorders before the reminder date, Kite drops them from that day's list, so nobody gets reminded to buy something they bought yesterday.

A good reorder reminder is short and specific. It names the exact product the customer bought, says plainly that they're probably running low, and gives them one button that takes them straight back to it. The customer shouldn't have to search your store or remember which size they ordered.

Kite writes each reminder in your brand voice from what it knows about your products and customers. A typical first reminder for the dog food might have the subject line "Your dog's food is probably running low," open with the product name and size they bought last time, and link to that product. On Shopify, Kite can link to the exact variant they bought, such as the 12-pound bag of the salmon recipe.

The follow-up does a different job from the first email. It might mention that you offer a subscription, so the customer never has to think about reordering again, or answer a common question, such as how to switch flavors. Kite gives each email one job and one call to action, and every email includes a clear way to opt out.

Kite doesn't put a discount in every reminder. The customer already likes the product, so convenience is usually the reason they reorder. A discount makes sense for a first-time buyer who hasn't reordered yet, or in the follow-up for a customer who usually reorders but didn't. In Shopify, Kite can add unique codes to a discount you've already set up, so you can see exactly which reminders were redeemed.

Kite runs reorder reminders as a scheduled job that checks your store every day. Each morning it reads the latest orders from Shopify or WooCommerce, works out which customers reach their reminder date that day, and removes anyone who already reordered, is on a subscription, or has unsubscribed.

Then it sends the day's reminders in one of two ways:

• From your Kite team address. Every team has its own Kite email address, so Kite can send reminders without any other email tool. Each customer gets an email written for the product they bought.
• Through Mailchimp. If your customers already hear from you through Mailchimp, Kite adds or updates each due customer in your audience and tags them, for example "Reorder due: dog food." From there it sends the campaign to that group, or it starts a Mailchimp Customer Journey for each customer when your journey begins with an API trigger.

In Shopify, Kite can also tag customers so the group stays visible in your store and in any other app that reads Shopify tags.

At first, Kite brings you each day's list and emails to approve with a reply or the Approve button, in the Kite web app or in Slack. Once you trust the timing and the copy, you can let Kite send the reminders on its own.

Kite measures reorder reminders by how many reminded customers bought again, and how soon. Opens show whether the subject line worked. Orders show whether the program did.

Kite reads your Shopify or WooCommerce orders to see which reminded customers reordered and how many days after the reminder they did it. If you send through Mailchimp with your store connected, it also reads the orders and revenue each campaign brought in. When a reminder carried a unique code, Kite can see exactly which codes were used.

The timing of those reorders tells Kite whether to move a product's reminder. If many customers reorder a few days before their reminder arrives, the reminder is late, and Kite moves it earlier. If customers who get the reminder wait two weeks before buying, it's early, and Kite moves it later. Kite brings you these changes with the numbers behind them, and it records what it learns in your knowledge base so each product's timing keeps improving.