LTV LAB: We Bought from Tushbaby (Featuring CEO, Tammy Rant and Head of Marketing, Evelyn Eichler)

Brand Overview

Tushbaby created an entirely new category: the hip seat carrier. Founded by Tammy Grant out of pure necessity when her daughter constantly wanted to be held, Tushbaby has grown from a side project into a thriving business built on solving real parent problems. The brand has expanded from their original hip carrier to four different carrier types, plus accessories, toys, and teethers, all designed with the same philosophy: put parents at the center, make it functional and beautiful, and never compromise on quality. With gifting representing 30-35% of purchases and a fiercely loyal customer base, Tushbaby has proven that premium quality drives premium results.

Customer Demo

New and expecting parents, gift-givers (representing 30-35% of purchases), and grandparents seeking easier ways to carry babies and toddlers.

Tushbaby's Email & SMS Marketing Goals

Personalization is a major focus heading into 2026, with the team recently consolidating their tech stack by moving to Attentive for both email and SMS. "We really want to be able to hit people at the exact moment in their journey," Evelyn explained, whether through preference collection at signup or targeted flows based on age ranges and product interests. The team is also eyeing more sophisticated approaches: "One of our dreams is being able to have flows where we can really drill down—like if someone buys toys and accessories and they haven't bought a carrier, we could do some kind of education or toy-specific flow that would upsell into these other categories." With products spanning newborn to toddler stages, getting segmentation right means meeting parents exactly where they are in their journey.

The On-Site Shopping Experience

The Tush Baby website showcases their premium aesthetic effectively. The brand offers strong incentives and has a dedicated gift page with personal concierge service that helps customers "build a gift, answer questions, and even design a package with personalization, gift wraps, embroidery, patches," according to Tammy.

One common e-commerce challenge surfaced: an expired promotional code appeared in cart, highlighting how managing multiple offers across different markets requires constant vigilance.

Emails We Received Post-Purchase

Here's what we experienced as real customers: we received a well-designed welcome series, but discovered opportunities to make messaging even more effective through focus and personalization.

The most striking observation was the difference between Tush Baby's exceptional Instagram content and their email approach. Their social feeds showcase real parents using carriers at Halloween, in grocery stores, during everyday moments—exactly the content that helps customers envision the product in their lives. Email focused more on product merchandising, missing chances to leverage that compelling use-case storytelling.

Key opportunities we identified:

• Welcome emails sometimes featured CTAs above discount codes, potentially causing customers to click through before seeing redemption details

• Multiple strong messages competing in single emails (celebrity endorsements, founder story, product features) when each deserved dedicated focus

• Educational content occasionally arriving before product delivery, when it's most valuable post-unboxing

• Brand USPs like YKK zippers, premium foam, and customization options mentioned but not consistently reinforced

Kayla, our senior strategist who purchased the kids' toy carrier for her 4-year-old, had this revelation: "I didn't know the Liftoff toddler sling even existed or was in my range until I was re-looking at this." Her daughter would have been perfect for that product, but the connection was never made in her customer journey.

The timing challenge: Kayla ordered October 9th during a period when recent purchasers were excluded from promotional emails to minimize discount-seeking behavior. As Evelyn explained, "We filter those out because we'll get a lot of people who ordered, call it October 4th, and the sale goes November 5th and they're wanting the discount." The strategy makes sense for margin protection, but Kayla's response reveals the trade-off: "With the quality, my instant thought was, oh my God, my sister would love this for Christmas. I was waiting for that Black Friday sale email and it never came."
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Unboxing & Product Experience

The unboxing experience was the best we've encountered across 15+ LTV Lab episodes. Gold embossing, premium packaging, personalized note from Tammy, detailed instruction manual, and product quality that immediately communicated brand values.

Kayla's 4-year-old daughter now brings her toy carrier to school almost daily, and as Kayla noted: "Teachers notice the quality and they're like, oh, where did you get this? The quality and the product really speaks for itself." Even more impressive: the toy carrier featured the same premium construction as adult versions, reflecting Tammy's philosophy that "there's nothing more important than safety and quality when it comes to babies."

What Tushbaby is Doing Well

• Uncompromising product quality that justifies premium pricing and drives word-of-mouth

• Exceptional unboxing experience that reinforces brand positioning

• Strong Instagram content showing real use cases

• Comprehensive welcome series with good email design fundamentals

• Strategic cross-promotion partnerships (Disco) generating 5:1 ROI

  
  

Opportunities to Drive Higher LTV

Use zero-party data collection to enable meaningful personalization. The most valuable question isn't always demographic—sometimes it's behavioral intent. For a brand with both self-purchase and gifting customers, asking "shopping for yourself or as a gift?" fundamentally changes the sales argument and product recommendations. Kayla bought a toy carrier for her 4-year-old but never received messaging about the Liftoff toddler sling—a perfect fit for her daughter's age and stage. One question at signup could have unlocked an entire product line. For your brand, identify the single data point that most dramatically changes which products, messaging, or offers are relevant, then collect it upfront.

Repurpose your best social content for email. If content performs on Instagram or TikTok, it will convert in email—yet most brands treat these channels as completely separate. Tush Baby's Halloween carrier content, grocery store moments, and real-parent scenarios lived only on social. Moving from "merchandising in the inbox" to content-forward selling means taking engaging lifestyle content that shows real use cases, then tying in products with clear CTAs. The content already exists. The work is packaging it for email where it can directly drive conversions.

Give each conversion angle its own focused email. When celebrity spotting, founder story, and product features compete in one email, customers miss all three. The 80/20 rule applies: 80% of openers never scroll past the hero section. If your brand story is worth telling, give it a dedicated email where it's impossible to miss. Same for social proof, comparison content, and USP education. One focused message per email consistently outperforms trying to communicate everything at once. Test this by breaking apart your most content-heavy emails into focused single-message versions.

Ruthlessly audit segmentation for gifting opportunities. Excluding recent purchasers from promotions makes sense for margin protection—until you consider gifting behavior. Someone who just received your product, fell in love with the unboxing experience, and experienced the quality firsthand is your highest-intent gift buyer. As Kayla noted about wanting to buy for her sister: "With the quality, my instant thought was, oh my God, she would love this for Christmas." During holiday periods, segment by purchase type (self vs. gift) and timing, not just recency. Recent self-purchasers should absolutely see your gifting promotions.

Match email incentives to conversion waterfall reality. Day 1 converts highest, then Day 2, then Day 3—this is true for every brand. When your welcome email promotes SMS signup for the same discount already offered for email, you're adding friction at your highest-converting moment. Either offer a stronger SMS incentive (20% vs. 15%) or wait until Day 3-4 when email conversion naturally declines to promote channel switching. The goal is getting customers back to site with their code immediately, not creating additional signup steps that delay purchase.

Implement comparison-based messaging early in the journey. If you created a new category or have clear quality advantages, comparison content converts—especially against knockoffs or inferior alternatives. Tammy's confidence was striking: "Buy both and if you decide to send ours back, I'm more than okay with that. When you see them side by side, there's no comparison." Turn that confidence into an email showing visual comparisons of materials, construction, features. For any brand competing on quality, this is especially powerful in the welcome series when purchase intent is highest but customers haven't yet committed.

Trigger post-purchase education after delivery, not before. Educational content works when timing aligns with need. Tush Baby's "5 Tips for Your Brand New Tush Baby" email arrived before the product, making it feel premature. "In the moment when I was receiving this, it wasn't valuable because I didn't have the product yet," Kayla explained. "But I actually did go search back through my email because I remembered seeing this." Trigger setup guides, usage tips, and care instructions 1-2 days post-delivery when customers are actively using the product. Alternatively, create a landing page with all instructions and link to it from a simple post-purchase email, letting customers access information exactly when they need it.

Cross-sell accessories with system completion messaging. Don't just promote accessories—frame them as completing the core purchase. Kayla bought a carrier but never learned why she needed the crossbody bag, pacifier pod, or changing pad. "Complete Your [Product] System" messaging with real customer testimonials about specific use cases (travel, errands, extended outings) positions accessories as must-haves, not nice-to-haves. If someone just spent $90 on your core product, a 15% bundle discount to add $60 in accessories feels like smart completion, not another transaction. Time this message 3-5 days post-purchase when product satisfaction is highest.

Rethink referral program branding. Third-party referral platforms often send emails with minimal brand customization—and it shows in performance. In A/B tests across our client base, fully branded referral emails consistently outperform generic platform templates. Your visual identity should extend to every customer touchpoint, including referral requests. If your platform doesn't integrate with your email service provider for full branding control, either find one that does or build referral CTAs directly into your owned flows. Strong brands shouldn't abandon their identity at the referral stage.

Reinforce brand USPs consistently, not occasionally. Your differentiators aren't one-mention points—they're the reasons customers choose you over competitors. Wide range of styles, premium materials, customization options, limited editions—these need systematic reinforcement across every email type: welcome series, post-purchase, campaigns. The average customer needs 7+ touchpoints before brand positioning truly sinks in. One mention in one email isn't enough. As Tammy explained: "Fashion is a very big part of it alongside function and quality"—but that combined value proposition needs to be woven throughout the entire customer journey, not stated once and forgotten.