20% of E-Commerce Revenue From Email: How On Running Uses Campaign Monitor to Drive Sales and Engagement
On's Challenge
On — the Swiss performance running brand behind CloudTec® footwear — needed to deepen engagement with a global runner community and drive e-commerce revenue through more targeted, personalised customer communications. Broadcasting generic campaigns to an undifferentiated list was producing diminishing returns: open and click rates were below potential, and the brand's community-oriented identity was not being reflected in email communications that treated all subscribers the same. On required the ability to trigger emails based on customer behaviour, personalise content by running preferences and purchase history, and build a referral programme that turned engaged customers into active advocates — all without a manual campaign production process that would not scale globally.
How Campaign Monitor Solved It
On implemented Campaign Monitor to build behavioural email automation and personalisation at scale. Automated emails were triggered by customer actions — including a sequence triggered when a customer downloaded On's running maps, turning a content interaction into a sustained engagement series. Campaigns were segmented by customer interests, purchase history, and running preferences, delivering content and product recommendations tailored to each segment. A transactional email component supported a referral programme that incentivised existing customers to introduce the brand to their network — converting community affinity into measurable acquisition. Campaign Monitor's automation capabilities allowed this personalisation infrastructure to operate at global scale without proportional increases in campaign production effort.
The Outcome for On
Email became responsible for 20% of On's total e-commerce revenue — a meaningful contribution for a channel that operates at near-zero marginal cost per send relative to paid acquisition. Personalised campaigns outperformed broadcast sends by 10% on engagement metrics, validating the segmentation investment. The behavioural triggers — particularly the running-map download sequence — demonstrated that content-led email nurture could convert passive brand interest into purchase intent systematically. The referral programme extended the email channel's reach beyond the existing subscriber base by activating existing customers as acquisition agents.
What On Learned
On's case makes the attribution case for email in a direct-to-consumer e-commerce context: 20% of revenue from a channel with negligible marginal cost per send is a structural profitability advantage relative to paid channels where each click carries an acquisition cost. The 10% engagement lift from personalisation quantifies what segmentation is worth in practice — not a theoretical benefit but a measurable difference in open and click behaviour when content is matched to the subscriber's demonstrated interests. For athletic and lifestyle brands building direct relationships with an identity-oriented customer base, email is particularly effective because it reaches the subscriber in a context where they have self-selected to hear from the brand — a lower-friction environment than social or search.
- Email driving 20% of e-commerce revenue at near-zero marginal cost per send represents a structural cost advantage over paid acquisition channels — the same revenue at a fraction of the channel spend.
- Behavioural triggers convert content interactions into purchase sequences: a customer who downloads a running guide has signalled intent that a well-timed email can convert into a product consideration within the same session context.
- Referral programmes embedded in email automation extend acquisition reach beyond the existing list — existing customers who are engaged enough to refer are typically the highest-LTV segment and recruit customers with similar profiles.
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