How Fair Harbor Lifted CTR by 139% and Improved Site CVR

Ecommerce brands send high-intent emails every day, running cart reminders, browse abandonment flows, and product launch campaigns. But very few of these brands know where those emails actually land.

Fair Harbor was facing this exact risk. Their lifecycle program was active, but they didn’t have certainty that critical emails were reaching the primary inbox, especially as volume increased.

Instead of increasing sends or changing copy, they changed how inbox placement was handled.

By using Tie’s Promo Tab Protection, Fair Harbor was able to:

• Increase click-through rates by 139% at 100% statistical significance.
• Improve site conversion by 49% (orders per click).
• Validate a 29% CTR lift again months later in a follow-up test.
• Roll the solution out across every flow and template, with no increase in unsubscribes or deliverability issues.

"The lift was immediate. A 139% increase in click-through rates at full statistical significance with no downside to unsubscribes or deliverability. Once we saw it, we added Tie across every flow."

Alexa Chryssos, CRM & CX Director

About the brand

Fair Harbor reflects the effortless ease of coastal living, laid-back and shaped by the elements. Expanding beyond its original swimwear, the brand now brings its signature comfort and versatility to year-round apparel essentials. Every piece is made to be worn hard, sun-faded, salt-washed, and broken in by the life you live. 

As a DTC business, Fair Harbor relies heavily on email to educate new customers, drive repeat purchases, and communicate its mission. That makes inbox placement and email deliverability critical, not just for campaigns, but for every lifecycle flow tied to revenue.

The challenge: Inbox placement couldn’t be assumed anymore

Despite an active and well-maintained email program, Fair Harbor lacked clear visibility into inbox placement.

High-intent messages were going out every day. Cart reminders, browse abandonment emails, launches, and lifecycle flows were all firing as expected. But once those emails left Klaviyo, the team had no clear view of inbox placement.

“You can have a really strong program, but if those emails aren’t landing where people actually see them, performance quietly drops.”

This uncertainty became more uncomfortable as volume increased. Scaling sends without clear inbox placement meant the team was making decisions without full visibility.

A dip in engagement could be caused by creative, timing, or fatigue. It could also be caused by emails landing in the Promotions tab. There was no reliable way to separate the two.

Scaling felt risky without clear signals

Fair Harbor wanted to grow responsibly. That meant expanding segmentation and increasing volume only when they were confident that it wouldn’t hurt the overall program.

It all came down to inbox placement. If key lifecycle emails landed outside the primary inbox, engagement would drop before the team noticed. That kind of drift is difficult to reverse and affects every downstream metric, from clicks to conversion.

“Once you start scaling, you need to know you’re not damaging the foundation.”

Past tools didn’t inspire confidence

Fair Harbor had experience with email deliverability and placement tools before. Some promised results without showing how they were measured. Others reported lifts that couldn’t be validated inside Fair Harbor’s own account. That created hesitation.

The team wanted to test using their own data and segmentation, and read the results directly in Klaviyo rather than trusting external dashboards.

“We wanted to prove it out ourselves. If we couldn’t see it clearly in Klaviyo, it didn’t count.”

Program health was non-negotiable

Short-term gains weren’t worth the cost of unsubscribes, spam complaints, or sender reputation damage. Fair Harbor needed a solution that improved engagement while safeguarding the long-term health of the program.

“Most tools say the dip is fine because the numbers look big. That wasn’t good enough for us.”

The team needed a way to improve inbox placement while keeping the program stable and controlled.

The solution: Proving inbox placement before scaling

Fair Harbor chose to test Tie carefully before committing to a wider rollout. The goal was to improve inbox placement for high-intent emails without risking deliverability or relying on external reporting. That meant testing everything within their own Klaviyo account, using their own flows and data.

Here’s how the process looked:

Step 1: Add a universal Promo Tab block to Klaviyo

Tie added a single Promo Tab Protection block directly into Fair Harbor’s Klaviyo instance. No engineering work was required, and no changes were made to existing flows or templates.

Once the block was live, Fair Harbor could insert it into any email they wanted to test.

“It was very easy. We gave access, Tie added the block, and we were testing almost immediately.”

The simplicity mattered. The team could move quickly without disrupting the rest of the program.

Step 2: Run controlled A/B tests inside their own account

Rather than relying on third-party benchmarks, Fair Harbor ran clean A/B tests using their own sends.

Each test compared identical emails, sent at the same time, to similar audiences. The only difference was the presence of the Promo Tab Protection block.

With everything running inside Klaviyo, Fair Harbor could track clicks, conversions, and unsubscribes in one view, which made the results easier to trust.

Step 3: Validate incrementality before expanding

The first test showed a clear lift in CTR, along with stronger downstream conversion from those clicks. Just as important, there were no negative signals: unsubscribes stayed flat, and email deliverability remained stable.

“Once we saw it working, there was no reason not to expand it.”

Fair Harbor didn’t rush the rollout. They confirmed the lift, reviewed the data internally, and made sure the results held up before moving further.

Step 4: Roll it out across flows and templates

Once the results were clear, Fair Harbor added the Promo Tab Protection block across all lifecycle flows and campaign templates. This made inbox placement improvements consistent across the entire email program, without adding extra work for the team.

To confirm that the impact held over time, the test was run again months later. The lift remained, which gave the team confidence to keep the block in place as they scaled.

Results: Clear engagement lift, validated twice

Once Promo Tab Protection was live, the impact was immediate and measurable within Fair Harbor’s Klaviyo account.

In the first A/B test, Fair Harbor saw:

• 139% increase in click-through rate, at 100% statistical significance
• 49% lift in site conversion (orders per click)
• No increase in unsubscribes
• No negative impact on deliverability

“The lift was immediate. A 139% increase in click-through rates at full statistical significance with no downside to unsubscribes or deliverability. Once we saw it, we added Tie across every flow.”

Results held over time

To confirm the lift wasn’t temporary, Fair Harbor re-ran the test months later. The outcome was a 29% CTR lift, again at 100% statistical significance. This second test reinforced that the improvement wasn’t tied to timing, list behaviour, or short-term factors. Inbox placement gains were maintained even as volume increased.

Rolled out across the entire email program

After validating performance and program health, Fair Harbor deployed Promo Tab Protection across all lifecycle flows and campaign templates. With stronger engagement and stable deliverability, the team gained confidence to scale sends without risking inbox placement or long-term reputation.

Ready to turn inbox placement into measurable engagement?

For ecommerce brands, email performance often breaks down at the point of visibility. Messages are sent, delivered, and reported on, but where they land determines whether they get clicked at all.

When inbox placement improves, engagement follows. By validating Promo Tab Protection within their own Klaviyo account, Fair Harbor proved that better placement translated directly into stronger results:

• 139% increase in click-through rates.
• 49% lift in site conversion.
• A repeat test months later showing a 29% CTR lift.

After validating the initial lift, Fair Harbor expanded Promo Tab Protection across every flow and campaign template, ensuring consistent inbox placement across the email program.

If your brand sends high-intent emails and wants confidence that they are landing where customers actually see them, Promo Tab Protection helps you improve engagement without compromising long-term deliverability.

Book a demo to see how Promo Tab Protection works inside your existing email stack.