American Soda are distributers of American food and drink products for the UK and Germany. To drive average order values, they turned to SmartFocus to provide personalised product recommendations for customers. The campaign resulted in 50 per cent increase in site conversion rate and 45 per cent rise in revenue. SmartFocus tell us more
The Challenge
American Soda benefit from a loyal customer base who regularly re-order their favourite products. But, although customers purchased every few months, they bought the same products every time, which meant that average order values were flat lining.
American Soda identified two key issues that they needed to address.
First, while it was easy for existing customers to purchase products they had previously ordered, it was difficult to discover new products that they might also be interested in.
Second, the ‘best sellers’ merchandising module within their ecommerce platform presented the same products to all visitors, regardless of their interests. These suggestions were often irrelevant to the majority of new visitors—causing potential customers to abandon their visit prematurely, and leading to a lower conversion rate and more lost sales.
American Soda needed a solution that enabled them to increase their customers’ discovery of new products, but that didn’t require heavy maintenance or expensive custom integration.
The SmartFocus Solution
American Soda were able to quickly get up and running with personalisation, with minimum effort. Now, when a new visitor arrives on the website, American Soda instantly learns their unique preferences (like their favourite soda brand or flavour). Intelligent algorithms then predict products that each customer would be likely to purchase, and offer relevant product suggestions throughout their purchase journey. This has increased conversions and sales.
These preferences are remembered, powering personalised recommendations for existing customers on their returns to the American Soda website. Using what it knows about a customer, and similar customers, SmartFocus predicts complementary products that customers may be interested in adding to their basket, thus growing average order values.
American Soda ensures that these recommendations help to meet business goals. To do so, they set rules like ensuring only products above a certain price are suggested, or restricting recommendations to products that are from certain brands.
Comprehensive reporting allows American Soda to identify which pages on their website have generated the most sales from recommendations, as well as to measure the impact on revenue, average order value and other metrics.
Results
American Soda has shifted its approach to recommendations from rule-based merchandising to dynamic personalisation. Customers can better discover products they are interested in buying, leading to increased sales and average order values.
Since implementing SmartFocus’s personalised recommendations on the website, American Soda have seen a 50 per cent increase in conversion rates and a 45 per cent rise in revenue.