Direct Mail for Retail Cooperatives
Empower 5,250+ Ace Hardware Stores with Automated, Localized Direct Mail
With 71M+ Ace Rewards members and thousands of independently owned stores, Ace Hardware needs direct mail that scales locally without sacrificing personalization. Lob helps Ace automate loyalty campaigns, seasonal promotions, and grand opening mailers — all tracked, personalized, and integrated into your omnichannel marketing stack so every store delivers the helpful, neighborhood experience your customers expect.
Localized Campaigns at Cooperative Scale
Trigger personalized mailers for each of Ace's 5,250+ domestic stores — from grand opening announcements to seasonal promotions — without manual coordination across your independent retailer network.
Ace Rewards Mail, Fully Automated
Engage your 71M+ loyalty members with targeted postcards, retention offers, and patronage communications that are automatically personalized and sent based on purchase behavior and membership data.
Verified Addresses, Reduced Waste
Complement your existing NCOA processes with Lob's real-time address verification to ensure every piece reaches the right mailbox — reducing undeliverables and maximizing ROI across your massive member base.
Track Every Piece in Real Time
Gain full visibility into mail delivery with scan-based tracking, giving Ace's marketing team the same analytics rigor you expect from digital channels — perfectly aligned with your omnichannel growth strategy.
Improve your retail mail ROI – even with a lean team
Direct mail for retail & ecomm marketers
Retail marketing teams are expected to move fast, personalize everything, and prove ROI – often without extra headcount. Lob combines advanced campaign tools and industry-leading infrastructure, so your team can launch campaigns without managing multiple vendors, handoffs, or timelines.
How Lob helps
- Templates and automation: Create reusable templates, then trigger mail via API integrations.
- Routing intelligence: Lob coordinates print, routing, and USPS entry through our print partners to help shrink delivery time.
- Campaign analytics: Integrate with your CRM or CDP to track multichannel campaign results.
See Lob in action
How ecommerce and retail brands use Lob
Add mail to your CRM or CDP
customer journeys
Trigger postcards to reactivate
lapsed customers
Drive digital engagement with QR
codes or PURLs
Mail to new audiences you can’t get
to with email
Send personalized promotions or
offers timed to key events
Launch and deliver new campaigns
faster
25%
of marketing budgets are
going to direct mail in 2026
98%
of leaders say direct mail is
effective for winback
94%
say direct mail is best when
integrated with other
channels
Our experts know retail mail
Read the Q&A from Lob retail experts
How do we add direct mail to existing journeys so it runs alongside our digital channels?
Lob's API integrates directly with your CRM or CDP, so direct mail becomes another trigger in your existing journeys, not a separate workflow. When a customer hits a segment or behavior threshold, you can program mail to fire automatically to amplify your other channels.
What are the best ways to trigger winback mail, and when should it send?
Postcards work well for reactivation since they’re low-cost, easy to personalize, and can be stuck to a fridge as a reminder. Set your trigger based on lapse behavior in your CRM: typically 30, 60, or 90 days of inactivity, depending on your purchase cycle. You may even be able to reach customers that you can’t reach through email.
How do we personalize retail direct mail at scale without slowing production?
Build your template once in Lob with merge variables and conditional logic, then let your customer data do the work. Content, offers, and format can all flex dynamically at send time, whether you’re sending 500 thousand pieces or 500.
See How Lob Helps Ace Hardware Turn Direct Mail into a Scalable, Trackable Growth Channel
