How M.M.LaFleur is growing through SMS

M.M.LaFleur is a women's workwear brand and one of few DTC brands founded in the 2010s that achieved profitability. To survive the everchanging retail landscape, the brand has introduced new store formats, expanded its product range, shifted away from paid social toward in-store events, and diversified its manufacturing after tariffs hit its China-based supply chain.

In the last two years, SMS has become one of M.M.LaFleur’s most leaned on tools. We looked at every text M.M. LaFleur sent for the past year to identify some of the interesting ways M.M.LaFleur is using SMS to drive growth.

Here’s what’s ahead:

In the first few years of M.M.LaFleur's existence, they offered a “Bento” program, which shipped full boxes of curated clothing to customers on spec: try it on, keep what you want, send the rest back. Bento got shut down in 2019 for unsurprising reasons - this was way too expensive.

In April 2024, M.M.LaFleur relaunched Bento as a text-based styling service, and the cost structure flipped entirely: no inventory goes out the door until the customer actually buys. (See COO Katie Tidwell discuss the change here) A customer fills out a style survey on the site, then gets matched with a (human) stylist who texts back and forth with her directly, asking follow-up questions, refining picks, and building a personalized digital lookbook she can shop straight from the thread.

The link drops the customer onto a live, filterable collection page built just for her, browsable by size, color, fit, and body type, with the stylist's note framed as an open invitation for feedback rather than a hard sell.

The infrastructure behind this is Endear, a retail CRM built for clienteling. A couple of details worth knowing if you're evaluating something similar: Endear's core feature is "Shoppable Stories," personalized visual lookbooks that store associates build from notes taken during styling appointments (what a customer liked, sizing preferences, upcoming trips she mentioned), and its whole pitch is scaling one-to-one clienteling with a small team rather than replacing personal outreach with automation. M.M.LaFleur runs this program with a five-person retail team.

Aside from clienteling, M.M.LaFleur of course has an active SMS content calendar that includes promos, links and shoppable landing pages. Starting in July 2026, M.M.LaFleur began layering in another mechanic on its campaign broadcasts, skipping the link entirely and asking the customer to complete the purchase inside the text thread.

This Text-to-Buy functionality is powered by OneText which we covered more broadly in a previous Tiny Texts newsletter titled, Spotted: 5 Brands Using Text-to-Buy.

M.M.LaFleur appears to be applying the Text-to-Buy mechanic in its campaigns and in its flows, like this cart abandon text.

It appears M.M. LaFleur is testing out different approaches here. Sometimes I received a cart abandon text but not an email. Later in the week I received a cart abandon email without a text, from a different shopping session.

OneText’s strength is the Post‑Purchase Upsell, which we see M.M. LaFleur applying also. After I purchased the Erne St Belt in Biscotto, I received this text incentivizing me to add to my cart in the next 60 minutes:

When I chatted with the team at OneText, they told me that on average their Post-Purchase Upsell product results in a 3-5% increase in revenue, and a 55% increase in cart value.

Sometimes it is interesting to see what tactics brands tried and abandoned, and this is one example. Starting in February 2026, M.M.LaFleur pushed SMS subscribers to their Substack, THE M DASH, with texts like this one about how GLP-1s are changing the way women are getting dressed. The Substack landing page included a plug for the brand's latest product drop. They linked to interviews and styling stories. After 5 weeks and as many texts, they ended this experiment.

Another tactic that M.M.LaFleur has kept in the mix for a long time is staff curation as content. M.M.LaFleur repeatedly turns specific staff members into the reason to buy, not just the messenger. Co-founder and former Chief Creative Officer Miyako Nakamura got her own discount code and dedicated SMS send. New Design Director Jenn Cote anchors a recurring "Dress Like Our Design Director" format. CEO Sarah LaFleur got her own SMS send in January 2026 to promote a statement suit.

This is a way to generate personality-driven content without hiring outside talent or paying for influencer placement. The people already work there.

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