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Hobo Bags Increases Revenue 62% With E-Commerce Site Launch

As a handbag and leather goods start-up that began its journey in the wholesale space, Hobo Bags has come a long way. A few years ago, the company expanded to the direct-to-consumer industry and in October 2017, launched its e-Commerce flagship shop — hobobags.com — in a partnership with Kibo. In less than a year, Hobo has seen a more than 62% increase in revenue, significant improvements in conversion rate and a 12% lift in units per transactions.

Other improvements have included:

  • Conversion rates for mobile and tablet are up approximately .03% (or 30 basis points);
  • Conversion rates for desktop are up approximately .05% (or 50 basis points);
  • Time spent on the lookbook page is more than one minute; and
  • Exit rates are down on the homepage by more than 7% year to date over last year.

“When we began the search for a new platform, we looked for a company that was the right fit for Hobo, as our goal was to build a long-lasting partnership,” said Jane Scott, Sr. Director of Direct To Consumer for Hobo. “Most importantly, we were seeking a company that would provide the support required for the growth that our emerging direct-to-consumer brand is experiencing.”

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Some of the criteria Hobo was looking for in a partner, included:

  • A solution with a clean commerce experience and ability to be customer-first;
  • An engaging experience for new and existing customers, where the company could hear from them and share their story in a meaningful way;
  • The ability to have creative control over the digital flagship; and
  • A partner that would scale along with Hobo.

“This effort into direct-to-consumer has a wonderful opportunity to scale,” said Scott. “We are very focused and looking to bring these bags to more people. Kibo is able to really able to be there for us in our current and scale with us as we grow, which was very important to us. We want to form a partnership with a platform for the long term. It’s a decision that needs to be made with intention and care.”

Bringing ‘Touch And Feel’ To E-Commerce

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When launching the e-Commerce shop, creative power was very important to Hobo Bags. The site features beautiful static and moving visuals, user generated content and virtual catalogs and lookbooks. Every feature allows the consumer to experience the luxury leather goods as close to real life as possible.

“We try so hard to bring touch and feel, as well as quality and experience to life on the site, so consumers feel really connected to the product so that they are absolutely sure they’re getting just what they expected and thought,” said Scott.

The e-Commerce site also allows customers to navigate and shop by parameters such as style, color and price. Later, when a customer adds a leather good to their cart, the solution delivers a pop-up to encourage the customer to purchase a product from the leather car line to maintain the shape and feel of the bag. “That’s been a wonderful feature for us and a great addition to the cart,” said Scott.

The new solution also allowed Hobo Bags to deliver the same experience on the wholesale portion of the site as they provide customers on the direct-to-consumer side.

“We have a wonderful network on SMBs to whom we sell to, including boutiques,” said Scott. “They need our help and support as well. So, relaunching our B2B site was another selling point of Kibo. They’re able to handle omnichannel businesses like Hobo and help us with this digital flagship, but also to provide us with a mirror image with additional customization that really puts the customer first in the case of B2B.”

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