Underground Ecom named a finalist at the E-commerce Germany Awards



Jamie Watkins



October 16, 2026

September 2026, Berlin. By Emini Jaggan-Hilton

Our work solving the AG1 retention gap earned Underground Ecom a place among the top 10 finalists in the Communication & Engagement category at the E-commerce Germany Awards 2026.

Underground Ecom has been named a finalist at the E-commerce Germany Awards 2026, one of the most closely watched ecommerce competitions in the DACH region. We reached the final 10 in the Communication & Engagement category with our entry, Solving the AG1 Retention Gap: A data-driven approach to incremental and sustainable e-commerce revenue growth.

Winners were announced at the awards ceremony in Berlin on 17 February 2026, held alongside the E-commerce Berlin Expo at Messe Berlin.

About the E-commerce Germany Awards 2026

The E-commerce Germany Awards (EGA) are organised by E-commerce Berlin Expo and recognise the best ecommerce solutions and service providers in the DACH market. 2026 was the 9th edition, with around 300 companies competing across 12 categories.

Reaching the final is a two-stage process. A public vote, which drew more than 23,500 votes this year, decides the top 10 in each category. Those finalists are then assessed by a jury of senior ecommerce leaders from brands such as MediaMarkt, Fielmann and C&A.

The Communication & Engagement category

Communication & Engagement recognises the solutions that improve how brands engage and interact with their customers. It is one of the most competitive categories in the awards, and is usually dominated by technology platforms.

Underground Ecom was shortlisted alongside Brevo, Trusted Shops, Pipedrive, LINK Mobility, iAdvize, Allegro, Netex, yoummday and Rule. Being named among them for client delivery work, rather than for a software product, shows what strategic CRM and retention marketing can achieve for a brand.

Who is AG1?

AG1, formerly Athletic Greens, is a global health and nutrition brand founded in 2010. Its flagship product is a daily foundational nutrition powder that combines 75 vitamins, minerals and whole-food sourced nutrients in a single scoop.

AG1 sells direct to consumer and runs on a subscription-first model. That makes retention the centre of the business: the first few months of a customer’s subscription decide how much that customer is worth over time.

The challenge: AG1’s retention gap

AG1’s acquisition was performing well, but lifecycle engagement was not keeping pace. Key flows had low interaction, communication during the critical early stages of a subscription was limited, and onboarding was inconsistent.

Messaging was also broad rather than tailored to where each customer was in their journey. That meant missed opportunities to convert one-time buyers into subscribers and to keep new subscribers past their first months.

Our approach: a data-driven lifecycle rebuild

Working on AG1’s Klaviyo account, alongside WhatsApp and AfterShip, we rebuilt the flow programme around customer behaviour and subscription stage. The aim was simple: guide every customer from first purchase to long-term subscription, reduce early churn and grow customer lifetime value.

Rebuilding the flow architecture

Pre-purchase: personalised prospect welcome flows, with offer messaging that updates to match live website promotions
Onboarding: a dedicated one-time purchaser flow focused on converting to subscription, and a Month 2 onboarding flow to reinforce product value at a high-risk point for churn
Retention and loyalty: subscription reinforcement and reward reminders, habit-building and education touchpoints, and milestone rewards for customers who stay beyond six months

Personalisation at scale

We introduced deep segmentation and stage-based personalisation across AG1’s large customer base. Predictive and behaviour-based segments now target high-intent subscribers, and each stage of the journey gets messaging written for it, from first sign-up to loyal subscriber.

Testing built into delivery

Rather than treating testing as an occasional project, we built it into everyday delivery, so every flow and campaign keeps improving against AG1’s own lifecycle and retention priorities.

The results

Flows became a stronger retention and revenue channel for AG1. Engagement improved across key touchpoints, more one-time purchasers converted to subscription, and early churn risk fell thanks to clearer Month 2 reinforcement.

Overall, AG1’s flow revenue increased by 18% in 2025, driven by more relevant messaging, stronger retention and a more intentional customer journey.

What our CEO said

“Being named a finalist at the E-commerce Germany Awards is a proud moment for the whole team. Communication & Engagement is a category full of major technology platforms, so to be recognised there for our work with AG1 says a lot about what great retention strategy can do.

Our mission has always been to build industry-leading retention strategies and help ecommerce brands get more from CRM. Thank you to the AG1 team for their partnership, and to everyone at Underground Ecom who made this happen.”

Jamie Watkins, CEO, Underground Ecom

Meeting the industry at E-commerce Berlin Expo

The awards ceremony took place during the 10th edition of E-commerce Berlin Expo (17 to 18 February 2026, Messe Berlin), one of Europe’s largest ecommerce events. Our team spent both days at the expo meeting brands, partners and fellow finalists. If we met you there, thank you for stopping by.

Who are Underground Ecom?

Underground Ecom is a London-based retention marketing agency and a Klaviyo Master Elite Partner, named Klaviyo Agency Partner of the Year EMEA 2025. We specialise in CRM, email and SMS strategy, creative, data analysis and execution for DTC and ecommerce brands, with teams in London and Cape Town.

Want results like AG1’s? Talk to our team about closing the retention gap in your own customer journey.