As competition in the e-Commerce space continues to heat up, online retailers are focused on implementing solutions and marketing strategies that grab consumer eyes and dollars. For example, many eTailers are leveraging personalization and customization tools to provide more relevant shopping experiences for new and return customers.
Calendars.com, exceeds the competition with customized offers and messages that are driving engagement and sales. From email marketing messages to product pages and the checkout experience, the eTailer strives to make every channel of the browsing and buying process more pertinent to consumers’ wants and needs, according to Jessica Gillespie, Online Marketing Manager, Calendars.com. With help from Monetate, the retailer has harnessed the power of personalization and in turn, improved overall conversion rates.
Using a variety of tools and products from Monetate, including Personalization, Recommendations, Badging, Testing, and Performance Analytics, Calendars.com now customizes the site experience for each visitor “without putting additional strain on IT,” Gillespie said in an interview with Retail TouchPoints. “Prior to partnering with Monetate, we always discussed personalization but never had the bandwidth to implement it.”
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Gillespie explained that with Monetate, the Calendars.com team now rolls out personalization in an “agile way,” and makes updates to the e-Commerce site “in minutes.” As a result, employees have ample opportunity to test different personalization tactics and campaigns in a timely fashion, versus waiting months to deploy initiatives.
Being Relevant And Compelling Across Channels
Calendars.com has a core personalization strategy that hinges on product recommendations: Different calendars are promoted on the site based on customers’ geographic locations, weather, and their browsing and buying histories.
However, the eTailer also experiments with a variety of personalization strategies to identify which have the most profound impact on customer engagement and overall sales.
For example, free shipping thresholds have been tested via banner ads to help Calendars.com determine whether incentives truly resonate with customers. The eTailer also has tapped customer location data to generate traffic for Go! Calendars, an affiliated brick-and-mortar chain, during the holiday season.
“When it was too late to order online for Christmas delivery, we used geo-targeting to send customers to a pre-populated store locator that provided a list of retail locations that were close to them,” Gillespie explained. “The click-through rate on the store locator campaign far surpassed our expectations, generating record traffic in stores.”
But overall, the most successful campaigns for Calendars.com feature “echo messaging,” in which the company reiterates offers throughout several shopping and communication touch points. Gillespie shared an example of a customer visiting the e-Commerce storefront as a result of an emailed offer. To reinforce the deal, Calendars.com then republishes the offer when the customer arrives on the site.
“We have had a series of small wins that have added up over time, but also several big wins,” Gillespie said. “For instance, the echo campaigns have been extremely successful.” Calendars.com also has seen “great success” using product badging, especially in promoting items with limited availability.
