Case study · D2C sleep brand · 20+ markets · 2022–2026

Four years running CRM for a sleep brand in 20+ markets.

Popups, a product finder, email, SMS and a referral programme. Five channels built or rebuilt at Emma Sleep, each one tested before it scaled.

2.2M+Contacts collectedemail opt-ins, synced to the CRM in real time.
20+Marketsone playbook, local creative, local rules.
100+A/B testsonsite, email and SMS, run on one test framework.
~10%Revenue attributedto onsite capture alone on Shopify markets.
  1. 01Popups
  2. 02Product Finder
  3. 03Email
  4. 04SMS
  5. 05Referral

The starting point

Twenty storefronts, twenty calendars, one team of three.

Emma sells mattresses direct to consumers in more than 20 countries. Each market has its own prices, offers, opt-in law and promotional calendar, and most of them had set up their CRM tools once and left them alone.

I joined Emma’s global CRM team of three in 2022 as Senior CRM Marketing Manager, and led it as maternity cover for the Head of CRM. The job was to make every channel work the same way everywhere: one setup, one way to test, one set of numbers everyone trusted. The five chapters below are the channels where that changed the result.

“We treat every campaign as a hypothesis.”Global CRM team, Emma

01 Popups

One capture funnel for every storefront.

Every market had its own popups, offers and opt-in rules, and nobody could test across them. All 20+ sites moved to Wisepops. Visitors were asked what they were shopping for before being asked for an email, with an SMS step after it. Each opt-in lands in Ometria and Attentive the moment it happens, and existing subscribers never see an acquisition popup.

The seasonal calendar runs on the same logic with local creative, and in Black Friday weeks 22 to 27% of the visitors who see a popup sign up.

41Mpopup impressions across 20+ storefronts
5.5%email sign-up rate, up 43% year on year after the move
17%Irish Week sign-up rate, against a 7% baseline

TestedPercentage discount over a fixed amount, +18% sign-ups. Removing the “no thanks” line from the SMS step, +10%. A cart-page exit message with no form and no discount, 5.5% fewer abandoned carts.

02 Product Finder

A five-question quiz that converts better than browsing.

A survey of lost leads in Italy said the same thing: they could not tell the mattresses apart. The answer was a guided finder, placed on the homepage, the category pages and the welcome emails, with every result tracked as its own channel. It went live in Italy in April 2023 and now runs in every market.

The answers turned into product intelligence too. 88% of Italians wanted medium or firm, 55% sleep hot, and half of Dutch visitors came for a pillow. In 2025 the business case for a new tool with cross-sell and personalised results was approved, and Emma now runs it on Zoovu.

10%+higher conversion rate than other engaged visitors
10%+higher average order value, same comparison
7.2%email sign-up inside the quiz, against 2.7%

TestedSubscription step before the result. Bundles in the recommendation for order value. Five questions, no more. Incrementality checked with GA4 segments and a multi-touch view of converted journeys.

03 Email

Flows that grew in a year the markets shrank.

Email is Emma’s largest CRM channel and carries no media cost. In 2024 the three pre-purchase flows, cart, browse and welcome, were rebuilt on one template for every market, with the purchase drivers of each country written into the copy. The new design lifted click-to-open by double digits in the UK and Brazil at 95% confidence, so it went everywhere.

Timing mattered as much as design. Sending the cart email after 30 minutes instead of an hour lifted its conversion sharply in Australia. In 2025 the team added dozens of post-purchase automations and custom journeys across most markets, and automation revenue grew while the markets fell.

10%+higher click-to-open from the redesigned flows
+6%automation revenue in 2025, with markets at −14%
77%of CRM revenue from channels with no media cost

TestedWait times, subject lines with and without the discount, product imagery against lifestyle, one email against two. An audit of the 2023 programme found that few tests had a documented significance check, so the test framework was rebuilt, along with the tracker the team still uses.

04 SMS

Switched off, proven, switched back on.

SMS on Attentive reached 13 markets. In April 2024, holdout tests in five of them showed no lift, so in June the channel was paused rather than kept on spend. A second test in the UK and Brazil that summer proved it moved conversion, and in November it came back in six markets with two segmentation models, one for Latin America and one for Europe and North America.

The relaunch put automations first, because they earn the most per message. Broadcasts only pay with tight segments and a steady calendar, so that is how they run now. In 2025 SMS grew 6% in markets that fell 21%, and five new markets launched.

30×+return on automation spend, early 2025
+28%return on SMS spend in 2025
968kphone numbers from the popup flow

TestedHoldouts in seven markets over two rounds. Friday 10 to 13h as the UK send window. Compliance changes in the UK and Ireland that moved sign-up rates. One SMS in the welcome journey instead of two.

05 Referral

A referral programme with a margin model behind it.

A mattress is bought once a decade, so the best lead is a friend who just bought one. After a vendor selection, Mention Me launched in seven markets in early 2024 with the customer’s own name as the code. Referred customers spent more per order, but enrolment and share rates sat under benchmark.

The data showed why. Under 4% of advocates ever redeemed their reward, which meant rewards could be far more generous at no cost to margin. A break-even calculator per market moved everyone to a fixed amount over a minimum order, and rewards went up in July 2025. Share rate rose by more than half, to benchmark. Fourteen markets run it today.

30%+higher order value from referred customers
+50%share rate after higher rewards
14markets live, from seven at launch

TestedFixed amounts beat percentages. Gift cards beat store credit at equal value. A larger reward on a larger minimum order beats a small one with no floor. Product imagery beat lifestyle in Germany.

What this means for your brand

Three habits that carry over to any brand.

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Miguel AlmeidaRetention Marketing Expert · Founder, denuo.
denuo.

/deˈnuː.oː/ · deh-NOO-oh · adverb

From Latin de novo: anew, afresh, once more. Growth that starts again with the customers you already have.