Segmentation & Personalization
Overview & Challenge(s):
DEMDACO had been a wholesale company for over 20 years with a client base spanning small businesses to national accounts.
The retail landscape included everything from small hospital gift shops and "mom and pop" stores to big box retailers like Scheels, Tractor Supply, and online marketplaces (Amazon, Target, Wayfair, Zulily). Retailers were allowed to self-identify their store type during the application process, making it difficult to segment for marketing purposes.
New products were launched two times per year and each launch included ~5,000 new SKUs across 8 distinct product categories. In support, the Digital Marketing Team oversaw marketing communications of all new products to all store types. Unsubscribe rates were negatively impacted due to the broad approach (ex: Tractor Supply does not carry baby products).
Goal(s): Condense the number of store types from 50 to ten or less, incorporate personalization, increase revenue, and improve campaign metrics.
Strategy & Approach:
Conducted analysis from Google Analytics and BigCommerce data to understand which store type was most clicked by retailers when shopping online.
Based on the findings, re-categorize outlying retailers into the most appropriate group and notify them of the change.
Hosted a focus group with the sales teams to gather their feedback and recommendations.
Partnered with peer IT Director to complete a data re-mapping and cleanup exercise, update front and back-end site navigation, and adjust the customer service software to align.
Directed the Email Service Provider (ESP) team for updating data points received via our API and make them available for segmentation purposes.
Redesigned the lifecycle marketing strategy to appropriately target retailers based on demographic and purchasing behavior vs. communicating all products to all audiences.
Results:
The unsubscribe rate dropped an average of 32% as compared to previous campaign results.
Retailer retention increased by 15% within the first six months.
NPS improved by 22% overall (based on survey data specifically regarding marketing communications).
The average order value increased by 27% after segmentation was applied.
Built an ongoing foundation of trust with both the sales and customer service teams by including them in the process.
Streamlined the site navigation, resulting in lower bounce rates, increased time on page, and higher conversion.