How JOLYN Increased CVR 9X and Grew ARPU 26% with Monocle
A dive into how JOLYN captured more subscribers and won back lapsed customers with Monocle's AI Journeys.
About
JOLYN is a Southern California swimwear and activewear brand with a cult following among athletes and everyday swimmers alike. Known for bold, stay-put styles built from high-performance fabrics, JOLYN has grown into a globally recognized brand featured in major publications and embraced by Olympians, college teams and loyal fans worldwide.
The Challenge
JOLYN identified two key opportunities to enhance their retention strategy through smarter personalization: improving welcome capture efficiency and optimizing winback performance.
Challenge 1: Maximizing Email Capture While Protecting Margins
JOLYN’s list growth had stalled, capping their ability to convert first-time visitors into long-term customers. With only a 3% capture rate, most site traffic bounced without subscribing. Their universal 10% discount popup wasn’t helping: it was easy to ignore for many visitors, and for those who would have subscribed anyway, it gave away margin unnecessarily.
The team wanted more than just a bigger list, they wanted to make the first interaction feel personal and intentional. Their goal was to adapt each popup to the visitor and their on-site behavior, creating stronger relationships from the start while maintaining profitability.
Challenge 2: Optimizing Winback Timing and Offers
JOLYN recognized potential for improvement in their winback strategy. Some customers were ready to repurchase within months, others not for a year, yet their approach treated every lapsed shopper the same, sending emails once customers hit a "lapsed" definition with the same offer and message sequence.
"We've always struggled with winbacks," said Jennifer Fenton, Senior Director of Marketing at JOLYN. "It's like trying to find a needle in a haystack."
The team was eager to test whether Monocle's AI journeys, which adapt winback flows based on individual customer behavior, could bring more lapsed customers back at higher order values.
The Solution
JOLYN partnered with Monocle to test AI Journeys across welcome and winback flows, creating individualized paths for each customer while working seamlessly with their existing stack, including their email provider, Maestra.
AI-Optimized Welcome Capture
JOLYN replaced their generic popup with a dynamic experience powered by Monocle's AI. Instead of showing every visitor the same 10% discount, Monocle analyzed behavior, like intent signals, exit activity, and on-site engagement, to decide when to show a popup and whether an incentive was even needed. That way, each visitor saw a message that fits their behavior, and JOLYN avoided giving away margin unnecessarily.
AI-Powered Winback Timing, Message Selection & Offer Decisioning
For winback, JOLYN replaced static rules with AI that continuously learns from each customer's behavior. Monocle analyzes purchase history, browsing patterns, and preferences to select the right moment, the right message and the right offer for every shopper.
"There's no way we could personalize each customer touchpoint manually," says Fenton. "This technology has completely changed how we think about both acquisition and reactivation."
The Results
Welcome Capture Performance
- 21% increase in popup submission rates
- 22% lift in revenue per user
By analyzing visitor behavior in real time, Monocle accurately predicted intent and selected the right incentive, ensuring customers signed up without unnecessary discounting. More visitors became subscribers, and more importantly, those subscribers proved to be higher quality.
The best part is we're maintaining our profit margins. We used to offer everyone a flat discount, and now the AI is only giving higher discounts when that's what's needed to make visitors sign up. It's a big win for us!
Winback Performance
- 9X increase in conversion rate from email winback flows
- 15% lift in average order value from reactivated customers
JOLYN's old winback flow treated every lapsed customer the same, which meant missed opportunities and unnecessary discounts. Monocle changed that by adapting to each shopper's behavior in real time, resulting in more efficient retention with higher conversions and stronger order values.
The Bottom Line
For brands looking to balance list growth with profitability, or bring more lapsed customers back, JOLYN's results demonstrate the power of AI-powered reasoning at key customer touchpoints.
There's no way we could personalize each customer touchpoint manually. This technology has completely changed the way we think about personalization.
With Monocle, JOLYN proved that smarter personalization drives both higher conversions and better unit economics.
