A good win-back campaign doesn't wait until day 90 or 120. It starts around day 65.
On Ecommerce Coffee Break, Michael Epstein laid out a compelling timeline that I think reframes the whole approach. For the first 60 days after a customer should have repurchased, you use automated emails. If they don't respond, you escalate. On day 65, you send a postcard. This is the key. As he pointed out on Honest Ecommerce, the longer a customer goes without buying from you, the more likely they are to defect to another brand or just forget you exist. You're fighting against permanent churn, and Win-back campaigns are your best tool to stop it.
The 60 to 90-day window is a common benchmark you'll hear. Debarshi Chaudhuri mentioned this same timeframe on Ecommerce Coffee Break for sending a personalized video to re-engage someone. The important thing isn't the specific day, but the fact that you have a multi-step, multi-channel sequence planned out. Epstein's main point is that if someone is ignoring your emails, sending more emails probably won't work. You have to try a different, higher-impact channel. He proved this by using direct mail postcards to profitably reactivate customers over three years old who had been ignoring digital campaigns for ages. The postcard was a pattern interrupt that got their attention.
This is why these are some of your most important campaigns. As Dave Rodenbaugh explained on an earlier episode, your three most lucrative flows are abandoned carts, the welcome series, and post-purchase follow ups. But he also said it's where he sees merchants do the poorest job. They often don't even ensure the customer is successful with the product that they just bought, which is the very first step toward earning a second purchase.
The 65-day rule isn't just an arbitrary number. It’s a philosophy about escalating your efforts for customers who are drifting away and being willing to invest in different channels to bring them back before it's too late. It recognizes that not all communication is created equal, and sometimes an old-school postcard is exactly what you need.