CASE STUDY / HOT ONES
An extra dab of strategy grew Hot Ones' flow revenue 37%
Hot Ones is the hot sauce line from the show with hot questions and even hotter wings, sold in grocery stores and on its own site since May 2025. Their flows were thin, most with only one email and one text, and sending to unengaged subscribers was hurting deliverability. FlowCandy rebuilt the retention system, then handed it back to their small team to run.
37%
Flow revenue growth after the rebuild
42%
Lower unsubscribe rate
58%
Growth in SMS flow revenue
INDUSTRY
Hot sauce & food
TIMEFRAME
90 days, start to handover
FLOWS BUILT & REWORKED
10
FLOWCANDY ' S ROLE
“[Placeholder — two to three sentences from the client on what the rebuild changed and what it's like running the system in- house.]”
Niki Sawyer
[Title], Edie Parker
THE CHALLENGE
A show fans love, with email that hadn't caught up
Flows built for the basics
Cart, checkout, and browse abandonment each sent one email and one text, then stopped. Prospects and existing customers got the same messages. After someone bought, there was almost nothing to bring them back.
Sending to the wrong people
Campaigns were going to large parts of the list that hadn't engaged in months. Bounce rates at Hotmail and Outlook had climbed, and inbox providers were starting to treat their sends with suspicion.
One small team, two stores
hotones.com launched in May 2025, and the same small team also runs HEATONIST. They didn't have the time to plan a full customer lifecycle on top of everything else.
THE GOALS
Clean up the sends, then build the lineup
GOAL #1
Repair sender reputation and get emails back in front of people who wanted them.
GOAL #2
Map the full customer lifecycle, then rework the existing flows and build the ones that were missing.
GOAL #3
Leave the team with a system they could run without us.
THE APPROACH
Reputation first, then the flows
We started by fixing deliverability, rebuilding the segments around engagement, and giving Hotmail and Outlook subscribers their own tighter segment. Campaigns were capped at two a week while the reputation recovered, and a new sunset flow now clears out unengaged subscribers automatically.
Then, with sends reaching the right inboxes again, we rebuilt the flows. Cart, checkout, browse, welcome, and review request went from one or two touches to three or four, with separate paths for prospects and existing customers. We added post-purchase flows for first and repeat buyers, plus replenishment and winback, so customers hear from Hot Ones after their first order. Alongside the flows, we ran their campaigns through spring, including the BBQ sauce launch and Season 30.
Emails Built
A few of the flows as subscribers received them.
THE RESULTS
After the rebuild
Flow revenue up 37%
weekly average, before kickoff vs. after handover.
28% more orders from flows
every week, on the same comparison.
SMS flow revenue up 58%
the biggest jump across both channels.
Unsubscribe rate 0.96% ➔ 0.56%
of emails sent, once sends went to engaged subscribers.
Campaign open rate 45% ➔ 55%
after the list was cleaned up.
RESOURCES
Level Up
Hot Ones came to us at Level 2, with the basics in place but thin flows and a list that needed cleaning. They left with a full flow lineup and a system their team could run. See where your account stands.
Journey Map
Every flow we built for Hot Ones maps back to a real customer behaviour, laid out in one place so the next opportunity is always clear. See how a journey map makes the next move obvious.
Email Design System
Hot Ones' Email Design System keeps every send on-brand and lets their team build new flows and campaigns without starting from scratch. See how an EDS makes retention faster to run.
NEXT CASE STUDY
HEATONIST
An entire retention system rebuilt in 90 days for the makers of Hot Ones' sauces.
