SPANX unlocks 78% revenue lift with automated abandonment journeys
About
For over two decades, SPANX has transformed how people feel in their clothes. What started as a revolutionary shapewear brand has evolved into a global apparel empire, where a customer's journey often begins with shapewear but rarely ends there.
As millions of SPANX customers began shopping across categories, from bestselling loungewear to denim, basic marketing segmentation couldn't keep up with the scale of daily interactions.
SPANX needed a way to deliver personalized experiences that matched its expanding product line and growing customer base.
Challenges
Before implementing Simon Data, SPANX faced several critical challenges in its marketing operations. The marketing team’s approach to abandonment recovery was fragmented, with email abandoned triggers and optimizations running in their ESP rather than in a CDP. This meant missed opportunities to re-engage potential customers effectively.
While SPANX had identified valuable customer segments, including its top 500 customers and promising "Prodigies" (apparel-first buyers with high potential lifetime value), they lacked the tools to nurture these relationships effectively.
Most tellingly, the marketing team was constrained by manual processes — often spending significant time managing inventory checks and customer segments, limiting their ability to develop more sophisticated campaigns and focus solely on creative marketing strategies.
"There is no unicorn platform that's going to store customer data and tell us exactly what to do with it and how — but we felt that Simon Data was going to deliver on that promise the best."
–Natalie Miller, Sr. Retention Manager, SPANX
Solution
SPANX partnered with Simon Data to transform its customer engagement strategy.
First, SPANX migrated its abandoned browse, cart, and checkout emails to automated customer journeys in the Simon CDP that adapt in real time to customer behavior. These new journeys incorporated customer preferences and data based on purchase history and engagement patterns.
Then, SPANX implemented Simon’s identity resolution capabilities, ID+, to improve customer identification and reach across channels and journeys.
"Our goal was to leverage Simon’s ID+ to capture more of our target audience and our customers," says Natalie. "So, when we first implemented Simon, we started with an MVP goal: migrate existing flows and slowly focus on improving email abandons."
Next, SPANX integrated Simon Data’s segmentation and predictive capabilities with their CX team's initiatives around top customers.
Through a webhook integration, they automated VIP customer tagging for their top 500 customers to prioritize responding to and engaging with their top customers first. Finally, SPANX automated its inventory management system.
“Simon helped us automate key pieces around browse and cart abandoned flow. If a customer abandons a browsing session for an item that’s out of stock, we don’t want to email them to encourage them to buy it, so we’ve set up Simon to send a different personalized email if our inventory is zero.”
–Natalie Miller, Sr. Retention Manager, SPANX
Results
The impact was substantial.
Within 90 days, abandoned journey revenue increased by 78%, while the team expanded their daily targeted emails across abandoned sequences by 2,000. Their new automated inventory systems ensure customers only receive communications about available products, which has significantly improved the relevance and personalization of their outreach.
SPANX has also incorporated strategic customer segmentation and engagement tiers into their marketing strategies, with customers receiving between 2-5 emails weekly based on their interaction level.
Additionally, SPANX’s top 500 customers now receive VIP treatment through an exclusive invite program to deepen brand loyalty and drive increased lifetime value through meaningful, tailored marketing campaigns.
What's next for SPANX + Simon Data
Looking toward 2025, SPANX plans to leverage AI and advanced personalization even more to maximize customer value.
“One of our most important company-wide goals is to tap into and nurture our top 20% of LTV, high-value customers even more. The more we can leverage Simon to understand what makes that group different, the more we can increase order frequency."
–Natalie Miller, Sr. Retention Manager, SPANX
The team’s 2025 roadmap includes:
- Enhanced personalization across all channels
- AI implementation for website product descriptions, customer experiences, and overall messaging
- Multichannel journey development
- Optimized deal-seeker customer segmentation
- Continued migration of existing flows into Simon Data
SPANX is particularly focused on apparel growth, recognizing that apparel buyers demonstrate higher lifetime value. Its strategy includes implementing sophisticated cross-selling initiatives, such as transitioning Shape/Intimates buyers into Apparel categories.
“I get excited to launch multi-channel journeys for these campaigns in the future,” says Natalie. “Simon would be the place to do this in, and it would be a huge unlock for us.”
