ABOUT THE BRAND

How LSKD’s App Amplifies Community Engagement

What happens when a brand known for its daring marketing moves finds a direct line to its community? For LSKD, it’s not just about their best-selling leggings anymore — it’s about their app strengthening their customer engagement. 

LSKD is an Australian functional sportswear brand that prides itself on producing high-quality clothing with a street aesthetic. Founded in 2007, they’ve always been inspired by the "restless few who influence style, shape the future, and chase the vibe.” Their #1 best seller? Leggings.

For them, community is everything, and they were in serious need of an outlet to reach their shoppers directly and on demand — without paying a third party for access to their attention. Enter Tapcart.

“We’re not this fast fashion acquisition brand that's going out there trying to spend boatloads of cash to get new customers in every week. We want to develop our community — and that comes from executing well-planned out marketing campaigns and listening to what customers want.”
Locke Fitzpatrick, Digital Marketing Manager

LSKD launched its app in 2021 and now has apps for both Australia and the United States. 

‍

THE CHALLENGE

A direct and efficient channel for re-engagement and growth (outside of Meta’s limitations)

Like so many ecommerce DTC brands at the time, LSKD’s biggest re-engagement and acquisition channels were Meta and email. Prior to building their app, Meta ads were the driving force for the business. However, these channels had limitations, like rising costs and diminishing returns, making it difficult to grow their customer base. They needed a more efficient, direct, and cost-effective channel to engage and acquire customers.

The team knew having a mobile app would be a lucrative and forward-thinking investment that would secure long-lasting customer relationships. Retention and being at the top of their customer’s minds was the crux of their decision to launch a mobile app.

While the LSKD team knew a mobile app was important to their customer base, they were skeptical about the logistics. Would they be able to customize it? Would it be easy to update? Would their customers even download it?

The short answer to all those questions: Yes.

‍

THE SOLUTION

LSKD’s app launch generates 35% of total revenue in three months 

The LSKD team quickly realized how intuitive the Tapcart platform is, from creating the app to launching and managing it. Updating content is even easier on the app than on the website. That made launching the app in 2021 a breeze.

How LSKD created an immediate revenue spike in two months

To encourage early app downloads, the LSKD team ran multiple launch campaigns with promotions like:

• In-app exclusive products
• Limited-time offers
• Various incentives

Their main goal was to encourage app downloads and grow their push notification opt-in rates. They saw push notifications as a lucrative alternative marketing channel where they could engage with their customers in their own brand voice, with their brand visuals, and without the costs and restrictions of SMS.

“A big win of the app is being able to exercise our unique brand experience and voice within that platform. How we sound as a brand on email or on the website is very different from how we sound in a push notification. When you get a push on your phone, it feels like a personalized message. We use this platform and how it's perceived to add value to our community and not just sell.”
Locke Fitzpatrick, Digital Marketing Manager

The app launch was a resounding success. LSKD’s total revenue increased by 32.5% in the app’s first month and 45.3% in the second month after launch. Despite selling its products online for over ten years, LSKD’s app generated 35% of its total revenue in just three months.

With early success, the team knew that the real trick to retaining those customers was to provide value once they downloaded the app.

The VIP customer experience

The LSKD mobile app launched with a conversion rate (CVR) 3.1 times higher than their mobile web. Push notifications were the clear traffic driver. Combined with the app’s significantly better shopping experience than the mobile web, it was a no-brainer for their customers.

“What we do really well at LSKD is create this FOMO and heart for the community. A lot of that comes down to the content that we create, and when we release it, it's all about timing. If you create these moments that have a whole lot of energy for the community, [the community is] scared to miss out on it. When we execute well on that, we see a great return in terms of revenue. So that's kind of the sweet spot for success.”
Locke Fitzpatrick, Digital Marketing Manager

The mobile app's searchability is far superior, making it easier for customers to find the products they are hunting for. Customers can also create their own wishlists to save items and share them with friends and family.

Digital Marketing Manager Locke Fitzpatrick has seen his role evolve over his four years at LSKD. He focused on paid digital marketing in his early days, but he’s now expanded into leading product releases, providing promotions support, and creating hype. He excels at delivering personalized, inspirational messages that resonate with LSKD’s community. 

Locke has also noticed a big benefit to their customer service. The app’s easy-to-use interface improves the overall customer experience. With just a few taps, users can go from push notifications to making a purchase — which is especially important for brands with timely product drops, like LSKD.

LSKD frequently launches limited-quantity sales, which means their items can sell out in just 20 to 30 minutes. Push notifications play a crucial role in these timely drops, offering instant and high-visibility alerts to their community. When they release these limited-quantity items, they send push notifications to their loyal customers. Then, customers with push notifications enabled can jump into the app and make a purchase in just a few taps. 

This immediacy ensures that dedicated fans who care about the brand have the first opportunity to secure these exclusive products, enhancing their shopping experience and reinforcing their loyalty. The mobile app is the easiest and fastest path to purchase.

‍

THE STRATEGY

LSKD’s successful app marketing strategy — from a BFCM blackout to car giveaways

LSKD’s app marketing strategy (and brand strategy as a whole) can be summed up in one sentence: They’re not afraid to take big swings. Their bold strategy focuses on building hype across digital touchpoints, including push notifications, social media, email, and SMS. 

They build their marketing calendar around three big events throughout the year:

1. An extended Black Friday Cyber Monday sale (+ Cyber Week)
2. “Trust Us” boxes event in February
3. Mid-year sale

But they don’t limit their big swings to these events alone. They also strategically plan their product marketing a month before each launch, releasing three to four products weekly. They pick hero products and build out the storytelling to strike the right chord with their customers. 

They also involve customers in product development. They launch products from local (Australian) designers once a week and develop products based on client feedback.

Driving community growth with the app

Because of the app’s ease of use, it fits easily within LSKD’s ecosystem and community. Locke says it has become an engaging community growth tool

After three years of app growth, it’s now part of the foundation of the community. And you can see it in the numbers. App users are more likely to make a purchase than customers on their website, with 156% higher app CVR. This reflects the app’s ability to provide an engaging shopping experience, with LSKD’s push notifications, personalized content, and ease of use driving customers to complete their purchases.

App customers also spend more per purchase, with a 51% higher AOV than the website. Customers invest more in products and add to their purchases more frequently in the app. The app also sees a 218% higher revenue per session, proving how effective LSKD is at turning engagement into sales. The app provides a better overall shopping experience, and LSKD effectively uses push notifications to encourage timely and relevant purchases.

Adding value with a push notification strategy

Now, push notifications have become an extension of their brand experience. They’re less disruptive to their customers than SMS, plus SMS restrictions.

Locke says they use push notifications to speak to their audience in a less intrusive way than SMS. While they do share sales, exclusive deals, and product-focused messages, they also use push notifications to engage with their customers and build a culture of hype. They often share non-transactional messages like:

• Inspirational/feel-good messages
• In-store and IRL event updates 
• Helpful/friendly tips like book recommendations

“You try to have these inspirational messages laid out two or three months in advance. But the truth is, if you just listen to what the community has been reacting to lately, what’s been going on currently in the local environment and just think of it on a whim. Those messages are highly valuable because they're highly relevant in the moment. We just try to provide as much value as we can [in our push notifications]. A little feel-good message in the morning or on a Sunday afternoon just brightens people’s days.”
Locke Fitzpatrick, Digital Marketing Manager

Taking advantage of the agile nature of push notifications to boost sales

Push notifications are inherently a lower lift to create and send to customers compared to email and SMS, and LSKD does a great job of capitalizing on that. They can create and send out a push notification within a few hours. 

This makes it easy for them to pivot their strategy — especially during sales. The team can watch what’s selling well in the early hours and create new notifications based on the results. 

“[Push] allows us to be very nimble and pivot based on the activity that we're seeing. So, during a sale period,  we can watch what's happening and what people are buying on the site. And then, within ten or 15 minutes, we can pivot and [send out a push notification that says], ‘There's this other secret pocket that you guys should look at,’ or, “Check out this extra offer here. There's more discounts here.’ Or, ‘This style is being shopped by a lot of people. Heads up.’ It allows us to be very quick.”
Locke Fitzpatrick, Digital Marketing Manager

For example, their midyear sale launched with 50% off site-wide messaging. Even though there were deeper discounts, they marketed the 50% so customers weren’t disappointed if the sale didn’t live up to their expectations. But they still wanted to capitalize on the 70% discount. 

So, after a few hours, they sent out a push notification promoting a few deep-discounted, high-selling items, and they saw an instant revenue increase.

LSKD also spends less on free push notifications than on SMS. It has built its app push notification subscribers into a large database of its best customers that they can tap into on a regular basis.

LSKD’s powerful BFCM marketing strategy pays off

Besides the brand being authentically itself at all times, the LSKD team isn’t afraid of taking risks that their audience loves.

Several days before Black Friday and Cyber Monday, LSKD shuts down its entire website and app. The only thing they leave on the web page is a countdown and signup form. Leading up to Black Friday, they saw app downloads grow by over +200% in the first two weeks of November.

They updated their app icon and launch screen to communicate the upcoming black Friday launch across all touch points. Once the sale went live, they communicated multiple times via push to announce the sale, build awareness, and send secondary reminders throughout the sale.

“It makes it more exciting than just another sale,” said Locke.

He was absolutely right. They reopened the app and the website at midnight on Black Friday. Since they first did this blackout strategy in 2022, they’ve repeated it each year and have consistently rode the hype all the way to the #1 spot in the Apple App Store rankings — beating big brands like Nike and Amazon.

In 2023, the response was even bigger. The app made 40% of their total BFCM sales.

But that’s not the only potentially risky marketing move. In 2024, LSKD held a giveaway for a Suzuki Jimny — that’s right, a car. Because, like Locke said, “Why can’t you give away a car?”

To enter, customers had to download the app and make a purchase within the one-week time period. The results? They smashed their goal of getting over 20,000 new downloads.

Not only is the LSKD team killing it with their mobile app marketing, but they’re inspiring many other ecommerce brands with their innovative and highly successful strategies. In fact, LSKD's mobile app marketing Masterclass is coming soon (JK, but it seriously should!)

‍