Klaviyo success story · Family tea company selling direct and wholesale

How Harney and Sons earned a 114x return by running email, text, reviews and analytics in one place.

Name: Overtop Media Digital Marketing
Address: 933 Louise Ave Suite 101-18, Charlotte, NC, 28204, US
Telephone: (704) 237-0707
Price range: $$

The family tea company used Klaviyo only for email, with texting, reviews and loyalty spread across other tools that did not talk to each other. Bringing them together, then adding analytics that spot customers about to drift away, delivered a 114x return in its first quarter with four Klaviyo products.

Business: Harney and Sons
Market: United States, with distributors in 50+ countries
Goal: One retention stack instead of many tools

Clay teapot with loose leaf tea on a wooden tea tray beside small cups

The results.

The return covers Q4 2024, the first quarter with four Klaviyo products. Revenue per recipient and click rate compare Q4 2024 with Q4 2023.

114xreturn on Klaviyo spend
13%year-over-year growth in revenue per email recipient
34%year-over-year growth in click rate on flow emails

Q4 2024; year over year for growth figures. Klaviyo-attributed results as published by Klaviyo. Klaviyo does not state the attribution window or method.

The challenge.

Harney and Sons was founded by John Harney in 1983 and is now run by the second and third generations of the family. It sells more than 300 teas online and through distributors in more than 50 countries, and runs two tea shops on the East Coast.

Its texting tool could not aim sign-up offers only at mobile visitors who were not already on the email list, so it kept paying discounts to people it already had. Reviews and loyalty ran on another platform that made it hard to show reviews in emails and sometimes emailed people who had unsubscribed. An outside analysis of its customer data came back as static findings the team could not act on without developers.

Klaviyo AI flow audit recommending a text message and a longer abandoned cart wait

What they did.

Email and SMS · Product reviews · Marketing analytics and RFM segments

Texting aimed at new people: With Klaviyo SMS, text sign-up pop-ups were shown only to mobile visitors who were not already known subscribers.
Reviews where they sell: Klaviyo Reviews put customer reviews into emails and onto the Shopify store, from one place.
One list as the source of truth: Loyalty and subscription emails moved into Klaviyo through integrations, so an unsubscribe in one place now counts everywhere.
Win back customers at risk: Klaviyo marketing analytics sorted customers by how recently, how often and how much they buy. A re-engagement campaign with a modest offer to customers marked at risk or needing attention had an average order 21% higher than the brand’s overall online average for 2024.
Goodbyes timed to each customer: A sunset flow now starts when a customer moves into the inactive group, instead of a fixed 180 days after the last order, and is clearly outperforming the old version.

Why it worked.

Our read on the decisions behind the numbers, and what any business can take from them.

No more discounts for people you already have: Showing text offers only to new visitors stopped the brand paying twice for the same customer.
One list means fewer mistakes: When every tool reads the same subscriber list, nobody gets an email they opted out of, and trust stays intact.
Customer health you can act on: Groups like at risk and inactive update on their own and trigger messages directly, so insight turns into action without a developer.
Reviews sell tea: Real reviews in emails and on product pages give new customers a reason to try an unfamiliar blend.

How we would run this play for your business.

You do not need a national budget to use the same ideas. This is how Overtop Media Digital Marketing puts them to work in our Klaviyo email and SMS management.

Consolidate your retention tools: We map every email, text, review and loyalty tool you pay for and bring what makes sense into one platform, run through our Klaviyo email and SMS management.
Segment by customer health: Customers are grouped by how recently, often and much they buy, with a flow for each group, from VIP thank-yous to win-back offers.
Put reviews to work: Review requests go out after delivery, and the best reviews appear in emails and on product pages.
Grow wholesale and direct together: For brands that sell both ways, we keep retail customers and trade buyers in separate journeys, and our Google Ads management brings new direct buyers in.