Jimmy KimCEO & Founder, Commerce Roundtable · Marketer of 17+ Years, 4x Founder. Former DTC/Retailer & SaaS Founder. Newsletter. Host of ASOM & Send it! Podcast. DTC Event: Commerce Roundtable

Stop Overengineering: The 3 Flows That Drive 80% of Email Revenue

7 Nov 2025 · 1 min

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In this segment Jimmy Kim and a colleague discuss why the most successful email‑driven brands rely on simple, repeatable tactics rather than complex, over‑engineered strategies. They identify three core email flows—abandoned cart/checkout, post‑purchase, and browse—that together generate 60‑80% of email revenue. They note that a small slice of the subscriber list (20‑30%) accounts for 70‑80% of revenue, urging marketers to focus on that high‑value segment. While content remains important, it must be differentiated and timely, and teams should avoid needless complexity. The key takeaway is to use data to pinpoint the top 20% of actions that drive 80% of results and then double, triple, or quadruple effort on those drivers.

The brands that we work with, the brands that we audit, and the brands that we see who are making the most money from email aren't the one with the most complex strategies. I know you think that's the case, but frankly, they're not. They're really the ones that just do the boring basic things over and over, and they actually focus on what moves the needle.
Yeah. So the recap here is 3 flows drive 60 to 80% of revenue: abandoned carts or abandoned checkout, post-purchase, and browse. 20 to 30% of your list drives 70 to 80% of your revenue. Focus on those people. Content matters, but only if it's differentiated and timely. And stop over-engineering shit. That's probably the, the TL;DR with everything we talked about, right?
Yeah. And I'd say one last thing kind of from my perspective is if you take one thing from today, pull your data, find the 20% of things that drive 80% of the results and double, triple, quadruple down.