We sat down with Eric Koger, CEO of ModCloth, to talk about how the online clothing, accessories, and decor retailer uses The Monetate Agility Suite.
Why Do You Use Monetate?
ModCloth is growing incredibly quickly, and Monetate helps us keep our focus on the needs of each individual customer as we grow. Monetate drives revenue for us every day by giving each shopper a relevant and compelling experience.
ModCloth provided one of the first case studies showing Monetate’s geo-targeting feature in action. Location-detecton was used to boost revenue at zero cost. This is also a good example of how Monetate empowers clients by providing improved site access, flexibility, and measurability.
ModCloth and the Foreign Fashionistas
As you may know, Modcloth.com is one of the hottest websites in the world of indie fashion. However, when we applied Monetate’s SalesMap™ technology to the site, we found that 20 percent of site traffic was converting poorly. Further SalesMap™analysis revealed that this traffic was coming from outside North America. Modcloth was popular overseas, but very few “foreign” visitors were actually buying.
We discovered that although ModCloth was happy to process overseas orders and ship internationally, this was just not obvious from the site. The reason? ModCloth was more focused on domestic sales and reluctant to use up scarce website real estate with messaging that was just for international visitors.
The solution was to create a set of Monetate campaigns that displayed messaging about international shipping in the form of banners and overlays, but only to visitors from locations outside North America. This type of segment-specific targeting gets the point across without blocking out space on the site. For added effect, campaigns targeted visitors by country, letting them know that Modcloth was happy to ship to their location. The results? Measured against a control group, this campaign produced, from the targeted segment:
- 100% lift in conversion rate
- 100% lift in revenue
- 167% lift in new customer acquisition
What Do You Like Most About Monetate?
Bear in mind that this segment was fully one fifth of the entire site traffic, and these campaigns were not “offers” of free or reduced shipping. The campaigns simply served a relevant message to the appropriate traffic segment. That segment’s revenue doubled, and more than two and a half times as many visitors were converted into new customers, without the retailer having to cut prices, give up space on the site, or give something away.
When you do it right, this type of location-based marketing can produce very impressive numbers. Of course, very few forms of marketing are guaranteed to work in all cases, so we suggest you talk to your Customer Service Director about testing messaging and promotional campaigns using a Control Group or A/B tests. If the tests prove positive, you can then drop the Control Group, go with the winning campaign, and maximize your lift.