On June 30th, the StudioForty9 team headed to K;LDN, Klaviyo's flagship, annual UK conference. The event brought together Klaviyo's own product and leadership teams alongside some of the biggest names in beauty and fashion, all sharing how they're using email, SMS and AI-driven marketing to build genuine customer relationships. Klaviyo used the stage to showcase just how fast the platform is growing in Europe — over seventy thousand UK and European brands now run on Klaviyo, collectively generating more than £18 billion in attributed sales — alongside a look at where the product is heading next, particularly around AI agents. Here are our key takeaways from the talks we sat in on.
The Future of AI Agents (Klaviyo Welcome Keynote)
Klaviyo opened the day with a bold vision for what AI means for marketing teams. Andrew Boileau set out a shift from the general-purpose LLMs of 2023 to the specialised, task-oriented agents brands are using today, splitting them into two camps: agents that help run and grow the business ("Composer") and agents built for customer interaction ("Customer Agent"). The standout idea was Klaviyo's five-pillar framework for what makes an agent genuinely useful — accessibility, taste, context, trust and self-improvement — with "taste" singled out as the real differentiator, since an agent needs to understand a brand's ethos and style, not just follow a set of design rules
On the product side, Composer was officially launched to all customers, letting marketers build campaigns, flows and segments simply by prompting the platform. In a live demo, the Analyse Agent spotted an 18% revenue opportunity in an abandoned cart flow in a single click, and beta customers are already seeing big results with this. An example given demonstrates the Spanx uncovered 79% more revenue in just two weeks. Klaviyo also introduced K Social (pulling Instagram handles straight into customer profiles) and smarter WhatsApp integration, so brands can message customers on whichever channel they actually prefer.
Skin Rocks: Scaling with Soul
Gemma Stevenson, Chief Commercial Officer at Caroline Hirons' skincare brand Skin Rocks, gave one of the day's most refreshing talks. The brand's philosophy runs right through the business: rather than pushing customers to buy more, Skin Rocks focuses on selling the right product, using simple colour-coded packaging and literal naming (numbered retinoids, "The Eye Cream") to make skincare genuinely easy to understand. That same clarity carries into their CRM. Gemma shared how they have set up automated flows to check in with customers, for example after 12 months on Retinoid 1, to see if they're ready to progress. This was all informed by real questions pulled from Caroline's Instagram Lives and community FAQs.
Community is the other pillar of the Skin Rocks story. From the "Skincare Freaks" Facebook group to a waitlist of over 5,000 people for a facial service that hadn't even launched yet, the brand treats its audience as genuine collaborators — even using them to test website UX before rolling changes out. Gemma's advice to the room: think mobile-first in everything, lean on your community for honest feedback, and remember that "it's nice to be important, but more important to be nice."
Beyond the Drop: How Beauty Brands Turn Hype into Loyalty
This panel brought together Refy, Sculpted by Aimee and Wonderskin to unpack how viral, drop-based beauty brands keep customers coming back after the initial hype fades. The common thread was closing the loop between social virality and owned channels: Sculpted by Aimee drives TikTok and Instagram traffic into broadcast lists for early access, while Wonderskin segments its welcome flows by the exact product a customer first bought, so follow-up messaging actually feels relevant.
Community-led product development came up repeatedly. Refy's members test new formulas and applicators before launch, and Wonderskin's new cheek stain was inspired directly by customers repurposing an existing product. Education also plays a big role, from Wonderskin's dedicated Head of Education to Sculpted by Aimee leaning on founder Aimee Connelly's makeup-artist background for technical content. On AI, the brands were pragmatic rather than starry-eyed: mostly using it for reporting, resizing retail assets and refining copy, while keeping AI out of brand-led creative to protect their distinct identity.
Beyond the Season: How Fashion Brands Build Lasting Customer Relationships
Representatives from Victoria Beckham, Casablanca and Billionaire Boys Club discussed how luxury and streetwear brands use data without letting it dull the creative edge. Victoria Beckham's team is bridging the gap between in-store and online by digitising a much-loved handwritten note into a custom "Victoria font" for email, built in partnership with Movable Ink. Casablanca talked about culture that's "earned, not borrowed" and about moving away from static segments towards journeys that follow a customer's evolving lifestyle.
A recurring theme was using data as a "pulse check" rather than a creative director: it flags when something needs adjusting, but it doesn't dictate the story. On the technical side, Casablanca is training its team in SQL to query their BigQuery warehouse in real time, while Billionaire Boys Club highlighted how a lean team of five or six can move fast when Klaviyo and Shopify do the heavy lifting, completing in minutes what used to take months
Why We Attend Events Like K:LDN
At StudioForty9, we make a point of attending our industry partners events like K;LDN because like everything in ecommerce, things move fast, and the best way to stay ahead is to hear directly from the platforms and brands shaping where it's all going. Days like this sharpen how we think about strategy, automation and AI for our own clients, and give us a chance to see what's genuinely working for brands at every stage, from indie beauty labels to global fashion houses.
If you'd like to chat about your email marketing, or want to explore what Klaviyo's growing suite of tools — from Composer to Customer Agent and beyond — could do for your business, get in touch with us. We'd love to help.
