transitioning vip vaping from decline to growth
VIP Vaping became popular for providing vaping products in the UK and marketed itself as catering to a premium, “VIP” experience for smokers looking to transition to e-cigarettes. However, VIP Vaping faced significant issues in the past. In 2017, the company entered into financial trouble and eventually went into administration.
Reports indicated that despite its initial popularity, the company struggled to maintain profitability, leading to the closure of its physical stores and a significant reduction in operations. The company was purchased by British Americcan Tobacco who tramsitioned it to their VYPE brand.
In a fast-moving digital landscape, the business faced a critical challenge: underperforming customer engagement and stagnant ecommerce growth, with no clear way to track which levers were driving revenue. The existing CRM system was limited, making it difficult to measure impact, optimize campaigns, or scale effectively.
To turn the business around, we implemented a data-driven approach focused on the KPIs that truly matter — revenue per customer, repeat purchase rate, conversion, and lifetime value. The first step was investing in a scalable, adaptable CRM (OMETRIA), providing the infrastructure to consolidate customer data, track performance in real-time, and deliver actionable insights across acquisition, retention, and loyalty.
This strategic investment enabled a full commercial turnaround, allowing the team to identify high-value segments, optimize marketing and trading activity, and drive measurable growth across all customer touchpoints.
To address the underperformance, the focus shifted to identifying the key metrics that would drive commercial growth and using them to guide decision-making across the business. Rather than tracking dozens of isolated metrics, we implemented a simplified KPI framework aligned with core business goals: new customer acquisition, repeat purchases, retention, and overall revenue per customer.
Over an 18-month period, this framework was applied to transform performance. Initiatives included improving SEO to capture non-brand traffic, defining high-value customer segments, and delivering personalized, relevant marketing at every stage of the customer lifecycle. By linking these actions directly to measurable KPIs, the business was able to drive accountability, optimize campaigns, and achieve tangible growth, creating a foundation for long-term commercial success.
Turnaround from Decline to Growth
The application of this simplified KPI model led to impressive improvements across multiple metrics:
New Customers increased from -43% to +32% YOY, primarily driven by better SEO and non-brand term rankings.
Second Orders grew by +19% YOY through tailored marketing strategies for first-time buyers. The At Risk customer segment saw a significant decrease from -6% to -30%, as targeted offers prevented customers from becoming at risk.
Lapsed Customers also improved, dropping from -6% to -30%, with better-targeted offers keeping customers engaged.
Won Back Customers increased dramatically from +46% to +153%, thanks to more personalized marketing efforts based on additional customer data points.
These improvements contributed to the overall growth of the business and demonstrated the power of using the right KPIs to drive data-driven success in email marketing.
