thredUP
reactivates lapsed customers, drives 128% ROI with Lob
Impact at a glance
- 128% boost in ROI from reactivation campaign
- Highest engagement among email-unsubscribed group
- CEO letter creative outperformed alternatives
“When we started our relationship with Lob, we just needed to get some postcards out to reactivate customers. Other than that, we didn’t know what our strategy was. In just a short amount of time, we’ve learned a lot. We know we’ll make direct mail with Lob a permanent part of our strategy moving forward.”
A successful reactivation campaign helped thredUp re-engage customers.
Industry
Resale/eCommerce
Website
https://www.thredup.com/thredUP faced high churn, with many customers inactive for over a year. Lapsed customers were the hardest to win back, and some had unsubscribed from email, making them unreachable through digital channels. The team needed a new approach to re-engage these segments and test which creative and offers would perform best.
thredUP partnered with Lob to design and execute a direct mail reactivation campaign. The team segmented customers into two cohorts: those subscribed to email and those unsubscribed. Using Lob’s campaign interface and nationwide Print Delivery Network, they:
- Personalized and automated postcards at scale
- Tested two creative approaches: a personal CEO letter and a “three reasons to thrift” message
- Established a control group to measure ROI and conversion impact
- Quickly produced and delivered high-quality mail without manual vendor coordination
- The winning creative drove a 128% ROI boost
- The unsubscribed cohort responded especially well, showing strong engagement and higher average order values
- The CEO letter emerged as the top-performing version
- In a follow-up test, a 45% off offer converted at 4x the rate of 30% off
- Automation through Lob reduced manual effort and enabled faster, repeatable campaigns
Campaign Spotlight:
testing new formats
The initial campaign revealed that direct mail could outperform expectations, especially for previously unreachable unsubscribed customers. Building on that, thredUP ran a second test with different offers, confirming that higher-value incentives significantly increased conversions.
thredUP plans to make direct mail a core part of its marketing strategy. The team will continue testing formats, experimenting with handwritten-look designs, and triggering personalized campaigns based on customer behaviors like liked items or recent purchases. With Lob, thredUP can keep optimizing campaigns to drive ROI, revenue, and customer re-engagement.
