True Classic Drove 8% More Conversions and 10X Profitability with Monocle
How True Classic uses Monocle to personalize retention campaigns at scale, driving higher conversions and healthier margins.
About
Starting with the simple goal of making a better-fitting tee, True Classic has grown into a household name in DTC apparel. Today, their lineup spans t-shirts, polos, jeans, and athleisure, all designed with quality, comfort, and an accessible price point that’s won over millions of customers.
The Challenge
Personalization That Didn’t Scale
As True Classic grew, the team wanted to make their retention touchpoints more sophisticated. They built out segments based on product affinity and lifecycle stage, aiming to create more personalized conversations with customers. But in practice, managing it day to day was time-consuming and difficult to measure.
That realization pushed the team to look for a smarter, more efficient way to get granular with personalization, without adding manual work.
"Without personalization, you're just giving away margin," explains Jonathan Tsao, Director of Global Commercial Strategy at True Classic. "We needed a way to scale personalization without hurting the customer experience."
The Solution
User-Level Personalization, Automated with AI
Monocle offered True Classic a way to move beyond static segments by creating live, 360-degree profiles of every customer. These profiles didn’t just reflect how many products someone had purchased, but also how they responded to previous campaigns, onsite interactions, and offers over time.
With that holistic view in place, Monocle’s AI could automate personalization at the user level, deciding when to reach out, what kind of message or incentive to offer, and how to balance conversion potential with profitability.
The first major application was a mystery sale. Instead of manually building dozens of cohorts, Monocle automatically sized the right offer for each individual, delivered through email and welcome popups. This meant every customer experienced a journey that felt tailored to them, while True Classic avoided the margin loss and heavy lift of one-size-fits-all promotions.
To extend the experience onsite, True Classic connected Monocle with Recart, ensuring that popups, product pages, and messaging instantly reflected Monocle’s recommendations.
We had built this big personalization framework, but executing it manually was not scalable. Monocle gave us a way to actually bring it to life dynamically.
The Results
Higher Engagement, Lower Discount Spend
True Classic’s success with its mystery sale showed them that personalization could scale without adding operational headaches. Compared to a previous holiday campaign, topline revenue held steady even during a lower-traffic period, but profitability per order improved 10x thanks to smarter targeting and more efficient incentive spend.
Touchpoints managed by Monocle also drove stronger engagement: conversion rates rose 8%, while average discount spend dropped 13% across customer journeys. That meant more customers converted, at healthier margins.
"We drove the same top-line revenue as a major holiday sale, but with way better profitability," says Tsao.
By leveraging Monocle's technology, True Classic was able to eliminate operational complexity and improve the performance of it's retention efforts.
