The Labor Day plan
What's going out, who gets what, and what we need from you before anything sends.
Jason's call, made today: WiO can't afford to keep giving cash away, so every offer this weekend is paid in food instead. We rebuilt the whole plan around that in a single day. There is no cash back, no straight-off pricing, no free-shipping offer, and no store credit anywhere in it. In their place is one ladder, and it is the same ladder for everyone who has an offer this weekend: the more someone spends, the more free items they get to pick.
1. What goes out, and when
2. The ladder
One ladder, the same for every customer who gets an offer this weekend. The more someone spends, the more items they get to pick for free.
| Spend | Get |
|---|---|
| $39 or more | pick 1 free item |
| $85 or more | pick 2 free items |
| $150 or more | pick 3 free items |
Customers choose from four items, one from each of our best-selling families: Tortilla Chips ($9.99), Creamy Peanut Butter ($13.79), Double Chocolate Chip Muffins ($14.49), and Chocolate Chip Cookies ($13.39). Worth $9.99 to $14.49 each, depending which the customer picks.
Everything on the ladder ends at the same moment: 11:59pm Mountain time, Monday September 7.
One thing worth knowing. Picking the free item isn't automatic at checkout. Every button in every email carries the right code for that rung already attached and takes the customer to WiO's Top Sellers page, where the four free picks (Tortilla Chips, Creamy Peanut Butter, Double Chocolate Chip Muffins, and Chocolate Chip Cookies) sit at the top. The code travels with the click, so there's nothing to remember or type in by hand, but the free item still doesn't add itself. We also say this plainly inside the emails themselves, because last weekend roughly six in ten people who qualified for a free item never went and picked one.
3. Who gets what
We don't treat every customer the same. The offer each group sees is sized the same way for everyone (it's one ladder), but how many emails a group gets, and whether they get an offer at all, depends on how recently they've bought from us.
Recent buyers ~5,700 people
Half get the ladder, half get a warm no-offer email
These people bought from us in the last 30 days. As a test, half (about 2,850 people) get the food ladder, and half (also about 2,850 people) just get a warm thank-you message with no offer at all, so we can see whether the free item actually drives more purchases or whether this group would have bought again anyway. Both halves get the same two emails: the launch and the Monday finale.
Warm buyers, one to three months out ~8,970 people
The ladder
Bought within the last one to three months. Everyone in this group gets the food ladder, and gets all three emails across the weekend: the launch, the Saturday reminder, and the Monday finale.
Lapsed buyers, three months or more ~20,750 people
The ladder
Haven't bought in three months or longer, our largest group this weekend. Everyone here gets the food ladder too, and the full run of emails across the weekend.
Long-dormant frequent buyers ~2,590 people
The ladder
People who have bought from us many times before but have been away a long while, our best customers who've drifted. They get their own version of the launch email that recognizes that history, then join the lapsed-buyers group above for the Saturday reminder and the Monday finale.
People who have never bought ~29,950 people
Information, not an offer
This group gets one email, at launch only. It's about the products, no code and no offer language at all. We've offered this group something before and lost money each time, so this round we're informing, not offering.
A small group we hold back on purpose ~2,050 people, get nothing this weekend
Not an oversight. We're deliberately sending this small slice of our lapsed buyers nothing at all this weekend, so we can find out what mailing at all is worth, not just which offer works better. This protects a measurement we've never had before at WiO and it will keep paying off after Labor Day.
One more note. SMS-consented customers who haven’t already bought or clicked also get two coded MMS texts this weekend: one Thursday evening (≈2,796 people) and one Monday evening (≈3,894 people). Full detail in section 7.
4. What it costs, and what we expect it to earn
We priced the new ladder against Jason's own rungs from the plan we were about to send, so it's a fair like-for-like comparison.
| Rung | Old plan, cost to WiO | New ladder, cost to WiO |
|---|---|---|
| At $85 spent | $21.25 | $4.60 |
| At $150 spent | $45.00 | $6.90 |
At the $85 mark the customer actually ends up with more value than before, about $25.00 of food against $21.25 of cash, and it costs WiO roughly four and a half times less to give it. At $150 it costs roughly six and a half times less. Across the whole weekend, the cash we used to give away drops from about $1,610 to about $220.
Our best estimate for what the weekend earns is about $6,850, against about $7,040 for the cash-based version of the plan we were about to send. That's close enough that we're calling it the same number. The small difference isn't about food versus cash, it comes from a group of very lapsed customers turning out larger than we'd planned for, which costs a little in unsubscribes either way the offer goes.
One thing we're honestly not certain about yet. Per order, food wins clearly: it costs WiO far less to give away for the same or better value to the customer, and that part isn't close. Per thousand emails sent, our own history says a cash-based offer pulls in more buyers than a free item does. Food costs less per order, cash brings in more orders, and right now nobody knows which one wins once you add it all up. We can't test that side by side this weekend, because testing it would mean sending some people a cash offer again, and that's exactly the thing we're moving away from.
What we'll do instead is compare this weekend's results against July 4th's, at matching customer groups. It's the best read available even though it won't be a clean side-by-side. One number in that comparison is clean, though: give-away as a share of what we brought in. On July 4th that ran at roughly 15 cents of every revenue dollar. This weekend it's expected to run at roughly 2 cents. If you read one number out of this whole plan, that's the one to read.
5. What we need from you
Please review today, ahead of this morning's launch
- Read through the groups and the ladder above, and check the numbers match what you expect.
- Reply on this thread with anything that looks wrong, whether that's the ladder, a group, a date, or something in the creative itself once it's posted below.
- If we don't hear from you, this plan ships exactly as shown here.
6. The emails, ready for your look
Grouped the same way as section 3 above. Each card is the exact rendering as built, live inside the frame, subject line above it. Groups whose emails aren't built yet say so below instead of a broken preview.
Recent buyers 4 emails
Ladder half
Thursday launch
Subject: “Spend $39, pick a free item worth $9.99 to $14.49.”
Monday final
Subject: “Last day: pick a free item worth $9.99 to $14.49.”
No-offer half no offer, this half is a warm thank-you only
Thursday launch
Subject: “The long weekend, and what is worth eating.”
Monday final
Subject: “Last day of the long weekend.”
Warm buyers, one to three months out 3 emails
Thursday launch
Subject: “Refill: pick a free item worth $9.99 to $14.49.”
Saturday reminder
Subject: “Still on: pick a free item worth $9.99 to $14.49.”
Monday final
Subject: “Last day: pick a free item worth $9.99 to $14.49.”
Lapsed buyers, three months or more 3 emails
Thursday launch
Subject: “Been a while. Pick a free item, $9.99 to $14.49.”
Saturday reminder
Subject: “Still open: pick a free item, $9.99 to $14.49.”
Monday final
Subject: “Tonight: pick a free item worth $9.99 to $14.49.”
Long-dormant frequent buyers 1 email
Thursday launch
Subject: “Still your food. Pick one free, $9.99 to $14.49.”
People who have never bought 1 email
No offer this group gets no offer this weekend. The email below is informational only.
Thursday launch
Subject: “What to put on the table this long weekend.”
7. The SMS leg
Two MMS sends, bound in Klaviyo. Shown here exactly as authored (source: mms-thu.md, mms-mon.md). Not emails, no HTML template, no Klaviyo email object. The image is attached directly in the Klaviyo UI, not via the API.
Thursday evening MMS-THU
Send: Thursday 2026-09-03, 17:00 recipient-local
Audience: SMS-consented customers in the Warm buyers (1 to 3 months) and Lapsed buyers (3+ months) groups only. Recent buyers are deliberately excluded from this touch, per the rule against a fourth touch to that cell. Delivered after standing exclusions: ≈2,796.
Text as bound, verbatim
Image candidates, pick one
A
B
CMonday evening, last call MMS-MON
Send: Monday 2026-09-07, 17:00 recipient-local
Audience: SMS-consented customers across the Recent buyers (ladder half), Warm buyers, and Lapsed buyers groups. Delivered after standing exclusions: ≈3,894.
Text as bound, verbatim
Image candidates, pick one (reused unchanged from the Monday build)
A
B
C8. What's next
Once you've had a look, the remaining work is loading the ladder and the emails into Klaviyo for the sends on the schedule above.