When Vela Streetwear came to Upturn in early 2025, they were a fast-growing DTC streetwear brand with a loyal customer base but a fragmented marketing stack. They used one tool for email, another for SMS, a third for analytics, and a spreadsheet to try to keep it all coordinated. Sound familiar?
Within six months of switching to Upturn, Vela saw a 340% increase in marketing-attributed revenue, a 210% increase in SMS revenue specifically, and a 45% improvement in customer retention. Here is how they did it.
The Challenge
Vela Streetwear had all the ingredients for marketing success — a strong brand, engaged customers, and quality products. But their marketing execution was holding them back. Their email open rates had plateaued at 15%. SMS campaigns were inconsistent because the tool was clunky. They had no automation beyond a basic welcome email. And most critically, they had no way to coordinate SMS and email campaigns because their tools did not talk to each other.
Marcus R., Vela Head of Marketing, described the situation: "We were spending more time managing tools than actually marketing. Every campaign felt like starting from scratch. We knew our customers wanted to hear from us — we just could not reach them effectively."
The Strategy
After migrating to Upturn, the Vela team implemented a three-phase strategy over 90 days:
Phase 1 (Days 1-30): Foundation
First, they cleaned and unified their contact data. Upturn deduplicated their list, verified email addresses, and merged SMS and email subscriber data into single customer profiles. This immediately gave them a 360-degree view of each customer. They set up proper email authentication (SPF, DKIM, DMARC) and began IP warming with a structured schedule targeting their most engaged subscribers first.
Phase 2 (Days 31-60): Automation
With clean data and solid infrastructure, they built their automation engine. Five key flows went live: a 4-email + 2-SMS welcome series, a multi-step abandoned cart recovery flow, a post-purchase sequence with review requests, a VIP recognition flow for top 10% customers, and a 90-day win-back campaign for lapsed buyers.
Phase 3 (Days 61-90): Optimization
With automations running, the team focused on segmentation and testing. They created dynamic segments based on purchase category, engagement level, and customer lifecycle. They A/B tested subject lines, send times, SMS copy, and discount levels. Every week, they analyzed results and refined their approach.
The Results
Email performance: Open rates jumped from 15% to 32% thanks to better segmentation and deliverability. Click-through rates doubled from 2.1% to 4.3%. Revenue per email increased 180%.
SMS performance: With a unified platform, Vela could coordinate SMS and email timing perfectly. Their cart abandonment SMS alone recovered $47,000 in the first month. VIP SMS campaigns saw a 42% conversion rate.
Automation impact: Within 90 days, automated flows were generating 38% of total marketing revenue — revenue that required no manual effort after initial setup. The welcome series alone converted 24% of new subscribers into first-time buyers.
Key Takeaways
Unified data is the foundation. When SMS and email data lives in one place, you can create truly personalized, coordinated experiences that feel seamless to the customer.
Automations compound. Each flow Vela built contributed incrementally. Alone, each was valuable. Together, they created a revenue engine that grew stronger every week as more data fed better personalization.
Segmentation is the multiplier. Moving from batch-and-blast to segmented campaigns was the single biggest driver of improved metrics. Relevant messages to the right audience at the right time — that is the formula.