How Hulken Drove 10% Higher CVR and AOV With Monocle
By using AI to decide who really needed an offer, Hulken lifted conversions and AOV in its abandonment flows while protecting profitability.
About
Hulken is a fast-growing DTC brand known for its oversized rolling tote bags that make schlepping easy—from groceries to laundry and everything in between. Featured on Good Morning America and CNN, with collaborations including Supreme and Poosh, Hulken has gone viral while expanding its lineup with a carry-on tote, laptop bag, and case—cementing its place as a go-to for stylish, functional bags.
The Challenge
Optimizing Retention Strategies for Profitability
Hulken’s team knew that adding personalization to their retention strategy could help them scale faster. But as a lean team, digging into complex rules and manual testing wasn’t realistic. They wanted to avoid the rabbit hole of building and maintaining endless segments that would eat up time and slow them down.
At the same time, they also knew a blanket discount strategy wasn’t the answer. It risked cutting into margin and conditioning shoppers to only buy with an offer. What they needed was a smarter way to personalize their email flows.
"It's very easy to blindly spend on marketing without thinking through the key metrics that will lead to profitability. Every dollar counts to optimize margins," says Alex Schinasi, Co-Founder and CMO at Hulken.
The Solution
Smarter Offers, Automatically
The Hulken team decided to test out Monocle's AI, starting with two core retention flows: welcome and abandonment emails. Instead of sending the same 15% discount to everyone, Monocle used Hulken’s customer data to predict intent and decide what, if any, incentive was needed.
The results were eye-opening. Many customers converted with no discount at all, while others needed only 10%, not the 15% Hulken had been giving away by default. Monocle now makes these decisions in real time, customer by customer, so Hulken can drive more revenue while protecting margins.
We had been offering discounts without any real strategy. Monocle's AI puts a data-driven strategy in place to ensure we're only offering discounts to customers who need them the most.
The Results
10% Higher Conversion and Order Value, Without Extra Discounting
With Monocle running in the background, Hulken no longer has to choose between over-discounting or spending hours managing rules. The AI makes incentive decisions customer by customer, giving the team a retention program that drives revenue without diluting the brand or cutting into margins.
Now that the foundation is in place, Hulken plans to extend Monocle beyond welcome and abandonment emails into other lifecycle flows—turning retention into a dependable engine for growth.
Monocle helped us optimize every metric of the conversion line.
