I bought from SKIMS. That probably surprises some people.
Kim Kardashian's brand launched a men's line, and I was curious. I placed an order, it shipped, and a few days later I got a post-purchase email with the subject line: "There's more where that came from."
Great subject line, honestly. I opened it.
And there was Kim, doing her thing, surrounded by bras, bodysuits, and women's shapewear. Not a single men's product in sight.
I'm a guy. I ordered guy products. I'm sure SKIMS makes great bras, but my man boobs don't need one just yet.
This is a massive missed opportunity — and it's one that a shocking number of ecommerce brands make every single day.
The mistake: zero post-purchase personalization.
SKIMS knows I'm a male customer. They have my order data. They know I bought from the men's line. And they still sent me a generic post-purchase email featuring the women's collection.
This isn't a small thing. The post-purchase window is one of the highest-engagement moments in the entire customer lifecycle. Someone just gave you their money. They're excited about what they bought. They're paying attention to your emails. And what you choose to send them in that moment tells them whether you actually know who they are or whether you're just blasting the same content to everyone on the list.
SKIMS chose the blast.
What they should have done instead.
The fix here isn't complicated. Any brand running Klaviyo, Shopify, or really any modern email platform has access to the data needed to solve this in about an hour.
You segment your post-purchase flow by product category or collection. If someone bought from the men's line, the post-purchase email shows men's products. If someone bought from the women's line, it shows women's products. If someone bought from both, you show a mix.
This is conditional content. It's one of the most basic features in Klaviyo, and it's available to every brand using the platform. You don't need a developer. You don't need custom code. You just need someone who actually looks at the data before building the flow.
Beyond the product recommendations, here's what a properly segmented post-purchase flow could include for a men's customer like me: a cross-sell to other men's categories I haven't tried yet, sizing guidance specific to the men's line (since it's new and I've never ordered before), and maybe a review request that actually asks about the product I bought — not a generic "rate your experience" email.
Why this matters more than you think.
SKIMS is reportedly doing over $750 million in annual revenue. They have access to the best agencies and the best talent in the world. And they're still making a mistake that a brand doing $2 million a year on Shopify could fix in an afternoon.
That should tell you something. Having a celebrity founder and unlimited budget doesn't automatically translate into smart email marketing. The brands that win at retention aren't always the biggest — they're the ones that treat their data like it actually matters.
When you send a male customer an email full of women's bras, you're telling that customer you don't know them. You're training them to ignore your emails. And the next time you send something that IS relevant, they've already tuned you out. That's how deliverability erodes. That's how a customer you just acquired at significant cost becomes a one-time buyer.
The bigger picture for ecommerce brands.
If you're running an ecommerce brand right now, open up your post-purchase flow and ask yourself: does this email change based on what the customer actually bought? Or does everyone get the same thing?
If the answer is "everyone gets the same thing," you're leaving money on the table. Post-purchase flows with product-specific content consistently outperform generic ones. We've seen it across every client we've worked with. When the email feels like it was written for the person reading it — because it actually was — click rates go up, repeat purchase rates go up, and customers stick around longer.
This isn't about having perfect automation. It's about using the data you already have. SKIMS has all the data they need to get this right. Most ecommerce brands do too. The question is whether anyone on your team is actually looking at it.
If you're making this same mistake and want help fixing it, that's literally what we do. We build email systems for ecommerce brands that use customer data to send the right message to the right person at the right time. Not bras to guys who bought boxers.
