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Marlow White Magento 1 to Magento 2 Migration

Christian Bodine on November 5, 2019

With end-of-life looming ahead, Marlow White knew they needed to make the move from Magento 1 to Magento 2. The sunsetting of your current platform isn’t generally a cause for celebration, but Dan from Marlow White was strategic about using the jump as an opportunity to make improvements to their customer experience.

Marlow White sells dress uniforms for military and first responders, as well as ceremonial swords and service awards and decorations. That being said, professionalism and precision are the name of the game.

Classy Llama helped carry this commitment to excellence in marlowwhite.com’s upgrade to Magento 2. Magento 2’s improved theming helped set the stage, and our design team helped reimagine their most popular pages for an improved custom experience.

Moving to Open Source

Marlow White’s previous site was built on Magento 1 Enterprise edition. They wanted to reduce the overhead of license fees by moving to Magento 2’s Open Source edition. We helped Marlow White evaluate this choice and helped find extensions for M2 that would help bridge the feature gap to meet their needs.

Uniform Centers

A key area of Marlow White’s customer experience is their “Uniform Centers.” Each Uniform Center serves as a hub for a certain uniform type, where any compatible uniform component can be purchased individually, or a complete uniform can be bought as a package. Uniform Centers also serve an educational purpose, as they demonstrate requirements for various uniforms, filtered by military branch, gender, rank, and occasion.

Classy Llama helped to re-architect this feature on the backend and design a new UX that would help customers find what they were looking for more quickly. 

Though Uniform Centers were part of Marlow White’s Magento 1 site, they were heavily customized and required a lot of effort to maintain. On the backend, the upgrade to Uniform Centers made it easier for the Marlow White time to manage and update packages and components.

On the frontend, a new user interface streamlined the way customers selected complete packages or individual components. Our design team crafted a tabbed interface that allows customers to view either Packages or Components without loading separate pages. Previously, customers looking for individual components had to scroll down the listing to find components below the package.

Awards Builder

One of the more complex aspects of a military uniform is the awards rack. Marlow White’s “Awards Builder” feature is the best rack builder on the market for arranging the right awards and devices according to military regulations. We helped migrate this pre-existing feature from their Magento 1 site to Magento 2 with a complete overhaul of the frontend architecture and a significantly improved design and user interface.

Outcomes

A key success for Marlow White’s move to Magento 2 was their mobile experience. Nearly 60% of their site traffic was coming from mobile, but visitors in this segment were rarely completing purchases. Since the upgrade, they saw revenue from visitors on mobile devices increase by 200%.

Long-term, Marlow White will reap the benefits of a site that uses Magento 2’s native functionality better and has improved architecture. Its design improvements will continue to please shoppers for years to come.

The site was completed just in time for the Army’s major uniform overhaul coming in early 2020. As these members of the service update their look, they’ll enjoy Marlow White’s library of helpful industry information, as well as their new site’s attractive design and improved user experience.

“The Classy Llama team is highly skilled, yet down to earth. They were able to tackle and complete some extraordinarily complex jobs without stressing us out in the process. Our new Magento 2 site runs twice as fast as our old site and is already showing an increase in mobile conversions. We are very pleased with the Llamas’ work on this project.”

Putting the Focus on Post-Purchase: A Guide to Perfecting Transactional Email Campaigns

Christian Bodine on October 28, 2019

When it comes to building an online retail brand, few things are more important than building a base of customers. And with rising competition meeting you at every turn, customer acquisition costs continue to skyrocket. 

This shift has caused many brands to turn their focus inward and look at retention marketing. After all — according to Harvard Business Review, the cost to acquire a new customer is 500% more expensive than the cost to retain one. 

Email marketing remains a sound channel to reach and communicate with existing and net-new customers. While many brands drill down into creating new promotional email campaigns, it’s important to also look at how you are delivering post-purchase messages. 

Transactional emails — those communicating order confirmations, shipping, and logistical details —  are a fundamental part of the eCommerce experience, but are often neglected by marketing and campaign teams. In fact, these emails have an 800% higher open rate than any other type of email — which poses a great opportunity to refine and optimize those campaigns to delight purchasers and get the most out of returning customers.

When it comes to transactional emails, template defaults are often left in place, showing a lack of care and world-class service your customers expect. This is a costly mistake that can be easily remedied. 

Let’s dive into what makes a transactional email great and what steps your brand can take to start making the most of your post-purchase customer communications. 

Transactional vs marketing emails: What’s the difference, and why does it matter?

When you’re told to optimize an email campaign, your instinct is to jump into a queue and make edits to all the newsletters, sales, and other traditional “marketing” emails.But this approach leaves out some of the emails your customers are most likely to interact with.

Transactional emails are sent out based on specific engagements your customer has with the business, such as:

  • Placing an order 
  • Filling out a form 
  • Making a return

Rather than a promotional email incentivizing a shopper to shop, a transactional email simply communicates information to customers after they’ve interacted with a company. Transactional emails provide more than just a paper trail to a shopper — they’re an opportunity to keep the customer engaged and returning for more. 

A customer needs to be served up different language, value propositions, and incentives depending on how they’re navigating through the purchasing process. 

Consider your transactional email campaigns the equal reaction to their action. The more actions you’re able to predict, map out, and respond to, the more effective your overall email automation strategy will be.

Let’s take the example of an actual purchase. While a single receipt will certainly be read by the customer, it’s just the beginning of that journey. 

There are many more transactions that actually occur here. The order is typically: 

  1. Received 
  2. Processed 
  3. Shipped
  4. Delivered 

Digitally-adaptive customers have come to expect a lot of information after they order. Look at the Domino’s Pizza Tracker, for example. Customers can see exactly where their pizza is, from payment through to delivery and everywhere in between.

Source: Domino’s Pizza

We’re in an age where there is no such thing as too much information when it comes to fulfillment. If available as close to real-time as possible, transactional emails and alerts can change a customer’s experience from so-so to memorable in a short amount of time.

So, why are brands so behind the curve with transactional emails? For many, it’s simply because they haven’t shifted their focus to be on customer retention — but this is a global change that is currently happening with retail brands across all verticals.

That’s not to say that brands aren’t already creating rockstar transactional emails — let’s take a look at how some major brands are doing this moving into 2020.

Order Confirmation Email

Immediately upon receiving an order, you should send an email to acknowledge the transaction.

This is your first communication with a customer who already made a purchase. The focus should be on giving them the information they need about the order, while also turning them into a repeat customer with other incentives. 

Check out this Care/of email:

It relays the order information immediately, but it is also chock-full of other offers. In this email, readers are: 

  1. Incentivized to share their purchase with a referral code, 
  2. Able to view their account for more information,
  3. Prompted to download the app to see when they’ll get their items, and
  4. Given links to the brands social media accounts. 

You’ll see carefully sprinkled CTAs throughout their email to continue selling to a proven customer who already made a purchase. As the customer scrolls, they’ll see help topics, deals, and more.

It’s important to keep your customers interested, so work towards making these transactional emails an extension of your website and branding. Use bright visuals, clickable buttons, and rich information to turn a boring, flat email into an interactive brand catalog.

Order Shipped Email

The only thing a customer is more interested in than an order being received is an order being shipped. Let’s look at what another vitamin company, Ritual, sends to their customers.

Ritual uses the space below the shipment reminder to cross promote a referral bonus and remind shoppers of their Instagram account. It’s a triple play.

Order Delivered Email

It may seem unnecessary, but you should also send a confirmation when your order is delivered. 

People are busy, and your customer may not be home when your package arrives. Package delivery services are different for each person’s home too — just because the package was delivered doesn’t mean the recipient is aware.

And Walmart takes this final opportunity to upsell an extended warranty.

That’s not all the company does. Walmart is a model of efficiency. After the product details,, Walmart helps its own staff by emailing a scannable barcode for returns.

It also provides links to social media, mobile apps, and the help center. Like all the marketing emails above, you’ll notice this one came from an unmonitored mailbox. That’s because it is a transactional email.

Scoping Out the Competition

Once you understand the transactions, you need personalized email responses to them.

The best place to get an idea of what others are doing is MailCharts. Over 10,000 companies use this service to keep an eye on email marketing trends without having to subscribe to their competition. 

Really Good Emails is another great place to discover upcoming email marketing trends. You’ll find basic structures and frameworks that can be really helpful in inspiring your own unique templates. Think of it as Github for marketing emails.

Even though these are automated, you should still sound human, so make them friendly, exciting, and actionable. Status bars, ads to similar products and accessories, reminders of your charity involvement; so many “riders” can be slipped into a properly branded transactional email. 

4 Tips to Improve Transactional Emails

Now that you understand the fundamentals of a great transactional email, it’s time to improve your own. Here are four ways to get started. 

1. Reduce return complexities by clearly communicating processes. 

Like the Walmart example above, easing the return process can save your company on operational expenses. By including a barcode and order number in the transactional email, it makes it easier for brick-and-mortar staff to easily facilitate a return in-store. 

If you don’t have a brick-and-mortar store, there are still ways in which you can reduce return rates with transactional emails. Make sure return instructions and deadlines are clearly communicated in post-purchase emails. That way, you’ll reduce customer inquiries about returns, which your customer service team will appreciate. 

2. Strike while the iron is hot by asking for up-front feedback.

Customer feedback is vital for any online business — it helps improve existing products, discover potential pain points you can resolve, and build a stronger customer relationship. These are all high-ranking factors when it comes to customer retention.

Solicit feedback at every step of the customer purchase journey. Dominos doesn’t just give customers access to a delivery tracker — right after the order is placed, they ask customers to rate the speed and quality of the food, delivery, and driver. This comprehensive survey lets the company pinpoint exactly where any problems (or successes) may have occurred in the delivery process.

3. Ask for a simple product review. 

Online reviews are more influential than ever, as BrightLocal found 91% of 18-34 year olds trust online reviews as much as personal recommendations. The same survey found 68% of consumers will leave a review if asked, which makes this an easy add to transactional emails.

Asking for reviews on online platforms — from your owned website, to eCommerce marketplaces like Amazon and Walmart, to platforms like Yelp and Google — turns your customer into a brand advocate, and builds social proof. 

4. Make easy add-on product recommendations. 

Both Ritual and Walmart do a great job of cross-selling and upselling in their transactional emails. A customer already purchasing a product may be interested in an extended warranty, accessory, or even joining a loyalty program. You can also offer referral programs or upsell to a higher-tiered product or subscription plan. 

Transactional emails are a great upsell/cross-sell opportunity that shouldn’t be ignored. Regardless of the improvements you want to make to your transactional emails, make sure you are making the changes in a thoughtful way. Depending on your email service provider, consider doing an A/B test to measure the impact of the changes before you set anything in stone. 

Conclusion

Automation is the future of email marketing and transactional emails are a key component of humanizing that experience. With personalized transactional emails, you’ll maximize every engagement with your company, turning it into multiple engagements effortlessly.

The key is understanding when to send transactional emails — and filling them with vibrant, clickable, digestible information that’s relevant to the transaction at hand.

Following these transactional email best practices will get your business get more out of every customer purchase. These tips will help you get repeat purchases, improve customer loyalty, and streamline returns.

Getting Started with Magento Page Builder

Christian Bodine on October 15, 2019

Not Your Grandfather’s WYSIWYG Editor

For those of you coming to this article with zero experience in Page Builder in Magento 2, here is a brief introduction to what Page Builder is. Page Builder is a drag and drop interface for creating richly styled, dynamic content, without needing to write any CSS, JavaScript, or HTML. This makes Page Builder a perfect utility for merchants who want to create good looking dynamic content without needing to employ an in house developer or pay an agency to build, style, and maintain content for them. Page Builder branches out from more traditional WYSIWYG editors by adding custom content types in addition to your basic text styles. These are the content types included in Page Builder out of the box.

  • Row
  • Column
  • Tabs
  • Text
  • Heading
  • Buttons
  • Divider
  • HTML Code
  • Image
  • Video
  • Banner
  • Slider
  • Map
  • Block
  • Dynamic Block
  • Products

In most use cases, these components are enough. However, there will likely be a feature request made by a client or an ambitious marketer who wants Page Builder to do something that it doesn’t do out of the box. Fortunately, Page Builder was made to be extended with minimal effort. If you’re not a developer, the rest of this article isn’t going to be useful to you. I recommend reviewing Magento’s well-written user guide for Page Builder if you are a content creator or need to have an understanding of how to use Page Builder in general. It covers in detail all the native components, as well as how to use those components to build richly styled, dynamic content.

If you are a developer, or just someone interested in understanding the architecture of Page Builder, the rest of this article is for you. I am not going to explain how to create a custom component. For that, Magento has already provided detailed documentation for creating custom Page Builder components. Their documentation does an excellent job of walking you through creating a custom component, but it can be a little frustrating going into it without any understanding of Page Builder’s architecture. This article exists to fill that gap in knowledge so you can read the documentation with a little more comprehension.

Inserting Data

First, it’s important to understand how the data used to generate the content is sourced. Page Builder uses the same UI component forms and form fields that Magento uses throughout the backend. The form configuration files for existing Page Builder components can be found in the directory vendor/Magento/module-page-builder/view/adminhtml/ui_component. Since Page Builder utilizes the same UI component form architecture, you can find a lot of helpful blog posts and tutorials covering how to build your UI components and use existing ones. For a comprehensive overview of UI components, I recommend reading through Alan Storm’s series of articles on the topic.

If you are planning to add a field to a form for a Page Builder component and you aren’t sure how to do it, make sure you see if existing fields are being used elsewhere in the backend, or even in a native Page Builder component. I haven’t yet added a field type that didn’t already exist somewhere else in Magento.

Preview and Master

Once you have a place to insert the data, you have to put it somewhere. In the case of Page Builder, the data gets stored within the content. A key thing to understand about the Page Builder architecture is that the markup, functionality, and styles needed to render a component on the frontend, generally need to be reproduced to render the component in the backend. This duplication of styles is required because a component may need to look or behave differently in the frontend then it does in the backend. Magento calls the backend look and behavior “preview” and the frontend “master.” Magento splits up these areas by allowing for separate HTML templates to render the markup, separate JS component files for controlling the behavior, and separate CSS files for styling the markup. The file structure for a Page Builder component that had all three of these concerns separated would look like this:

Markup

Frontend: view/adminhtml/web/template/content-type/component-name/appearance-name/master.html

Backend: view/adminhtml/web/template/content-type/component-name/appearance-name/preview.html

Behavior

Frontend: view/adminhtml/web/js/content-type/component-name/master.js

Backend: view/adminhtml/web/js/content-type/component-name/preview.js

Styles

Frontend: view/frontend/web/css/source/_module.less

Backend: view/adminhtml/web/css/source/_module.less

I say “generally need to be reproduced” earlier in this section because there is the option to only write one of these files for each concern. Most native Page Builder components follow the pattern of separating the markup and styles into their respective areas while only adding custom JS to the preview.js file. The master.js file is available for very complex components and, according to Magento, rarely necessary. You also have the option of setting a single HTML file as both the preview and master template if your component is simple enough. As for the styles, the “base” area in a module’s view directory applies styles to both frontend and backend. If your module is simple enough, you might be able to get away with only writing the styles in this base area.

Data Storage and Retrieval

The bridge of the data between markup and form fields is the content type config file. Looking at the Magento_PageBuilder extension, you’ll find these config files in the directory view/adminhtml/pagebuilder/content_type/. The content types config file defines the source of the data. It is also where converters are assigned to manipulate the data as it’s passed between the markup and the form fields.

All data that is inserted into the markup via a form field will be used in the markup for one of these four purposes.

In the preview and master knockout templates, the data for these fields can be seen represented as data.element.dataType. For example, if a field outputs its data as HTML in an element named container, the templates would have the object data.container.html, and the preview.js and master.js components would render that object using any converters assigned to that particular field.

Converters and Mass Converters

Sometimes a field contains a value that needs to be parsed into something else before it can be put into the markup. For example, if you have an input field to define a pixel value for a CSS style, you might want to have that field validate as a number. However, that CSS style still needs that value to come in the form of a pixel value (e.g., 10px), so you need a converter to append ‘px’ to the value when it’s being parsed in the HTML and remove it when retrieved from the HTML. Magento created a converter that does precisely this in the file view/adminhtml/web/js/converter/style/remove-px.js.

Mass converters serve the same purpose as converters in that they convert some value into a modified value. The difference is that mass converters are generally used to create a single output from multiple inputs or vice versa. They are useful when you need to convert a form field value, or multiple field values, into something that cannot convert back into its original value. A mass converter also allows you to place the original value of a field into a data attribute while converting the new value to what it needs to be in the dom. For example, the background-images mass converter converts the mobile and desktop background images into media directives ({{media url='wisiwyg/background.jpg';}}). These media directives get saved to the markup to be parsed by PHP, but the original background image URLs also get saved to the markup in the form of a data attribute:

data-background-images="{'desktop_image':'https://example.test/media/wysiwyg/desktop.jpg', 
'mobile_image':'https://example.test/media/wysiwyg/mobile.jpg'}"

If all this is a bit confusing, think of mass converters in the way the name implies. A converter is a straightforward one-to-one conversion, while a mass converter is everything else. Converters are a compelling feature of Page Builder and possibly require the most time and experience to master. Take plenty of time to review the existing converters so you can see how they work.

Conclusion

By now, you should have a good understanding of how everything is put together within a Page Builder component. You have learned how the data inserted into the markup with form fields, modified with converters, rendered in the templates, and retrieved from the markup for editing. If you still feel like you aren’t grasping Page Builder enough to begin reviewing the documentation, take a look at Magento’s example components. The example components are a bit more simple and straight forward than the ones included with Page Builder, so they should be easier to grasp. Look through one or two of those examples and then come back and reread this article.

I hope this article has been enlightening. Feel free to comment below if you have any questions. Page Builder is a project that is still undergoing many changes, and some of this article might end up out of date. If you notice an error, please let me know so I can make the necessary changes.

Avoid Abandoned Revenue with Abandoned Cart Emails

Christian Bodine on October 3, 2019

If a shopper stood in line at a retail store, ready to make a purchase, and walked away once they reached the cashier—leaving the merchandise on the counter—you’d hope a store associate would ask, ‘did you forget something?!’ For eCommerce, it should be no different.

In a world filled with endless distractions and digital storefronts that remove human interaction from the shopping experience, it’s no surprise that nearly 70 percent of online carts get abandoned.

Abandoned cart emails help you reconnect with the shoppers who displayed interest in purchasing your products, while gently nudging them across the virtual checkout line. These emails are essential for every eCommerce marketer’s strategy. 

After all, abandoned carts represent revenue lost. And that’s a lot of money to leave on the table. How much, do you ask?

For nearly 3,000 brands over the course of 3 months, those abandoned carts added up to more than $60 million dollars, according to Klaviyo’s Abandoned Cart Benchmark Report.

Researchers analyzed more than 3,100 abandoned cart emails that were sent to nine million contacts and the results were clear: sending timely, relevant emails is well worth the effort. An effort that (with the right tools) can be automated.

As you think about setting up a series of abandoned cart emails, keep in mind the many different reasons people abandoned their carts. 

People abandon carts for lots of reasons, but the most common ones, according to Statista, include: 

  • Shipping costs too much (63 percent).
  • Discount code doesn’t work (46 percent).
  • Order takes forever to ship (36 percent).
  • Have to re-enter credit card info (30 percent).
  • Have to re-enter shipping info (25 percent).

Whatever the actual reason someone abandons a cart on your site, it’s most likely not because they’re no longer interested in your products. 

With a little persistence, marketers can use abandoned cart emails to convert shoppers, capture revenue they’d otherwise lose, and build relationships with more customers. 

To make the most of your abandoned cart emails – and increase conversions – consider testing out the tips and tricks outlined below.

Use Subject Lines That Convert

Writing subject lines that are simple, clear, and to the point (and maybe a little clever – depending on your brand and audience) can help gain customers’ interest.

Consider the following three strategies to help you create copy that converts.

1. Keep it simple. 

Remember the goal of your abandoned cart email subject line. Its only job is to get people to open your email.

When you’re competing for your shoppers’ attention, your messages should not only be compelling, but also be simple, direct, and to the point.

Instead of a subject line like: 

Your favorite jeans are almost gone! Get 10% off, plus check out these items we think you’ll love!

Try something like:

Get your new favorite jeans before they’re gone! 

To entice people to open your emails, keep your subject lines to one specific message. Then, use the body of your email to get shoppers to click through to your site to ultimately make their purchase. 

2. Pair personalization with your automation. 

Shoppers today are demanding more from brands. 

They have more choices than ever and they’re choosing to engage with brands that provide value and are authentic—brands they trust. 

A little personalization goes a long way toward developing relationships that lead to long-term value for both you and your customers. And it pays to personalize your emails. In fact, companies that personalize their emails saw a 17 percent increase in revenue.

So how do you specifically personalize your abandoned cart email subject lines? Try these tactics on for size [no pun intended].

Reference the product category.

Get your new favorite pants before they’re gone! 

Or, to be even more specific, reference the item product type.

Get your new favorite jeans before they’re gone!

Include the shopper’s first name.

[Lizzie], you forgot something! 

Including your shopper’s first name in your subject line allows you to speak directly to them and make them feel like their experience with your brand is unique. 

3. Convert with curiosity. 

You can create a sense of curiosity with your abandoned cart subject lines in many ways. 

Phrase your subject line as a question.

Did you leave something behind? 

This encourages people to remember their recent experience with your brand and think back to items they added to their carts.

End your subject line with a cliffhanger… 

I think you left something behind… 

This gets readers wondering what they might have forgotten and encourages readers to open your email to learn more.

Segment Your Abandoned Cart Emails

Abandoned cart emails are essential to growing your business. But what’s essential to sending effective abandoned cart emails? Getting the right message to the right customer at the right time. 

Subject lines matter a lot, but so does segmentation.

Here are three ways to segment your list and send more relevant abandoned cart emails to your shoppers. 

  • Cart value (the value of the items in a cart).
  • Repeat vs. first-time customers.
  • VIP Customers

1. Cart value 

If a shopper leaves items in their cart, be sure to look at the value of those items. It could indicate that the shopper is considering how much they want to spend – or they could be looking for better prices elsewhere. 

Say your average customer’s order value is typically $100, but this particular customer has $300 worth of products in their cart. 

Consider offering them something like free shipping, a gift with purchase, or a discount to compel them to act. 

Pro tip: Klaviyo lets you easily split and branch emails within a series, so you can send each customer down the right path.

2. Repeat vs. first-time customers 

Every brand wants repeat customers. They’ve already expressed an interest in your products, and they’re likely to purchase again so it’s not necessary to offer them a discount right away. You also don’t want to train your customers to expect a discount every time they abandon their cart.

Instead, consider offering something else to incentivize them like free shipping, bonus rewards points, or a free gift with purchase. 

For first-time customers, offering a discount is a great way to incentivize them to make a purchase. 

3. VIP customers 

How you define who your VIP customers are is up to you, but in general, they’re the people who either buy frequently from you or spend a significant amount of money with your brand. These customers have a stronger loyalty or larger potential than your run-of-the-mill repeat shopper.

Say you have a VIP customer who hasn’t browsed your site or made a purchase in the last few months, but today they visit your site and abandon a cart with a high-value item in it. 

You’ll likely want to treat them differently than you would any other customer who’s making a regular purchase, so you can use your abandoned cart emails to offer your VIPs a special discount or exclusive access to something that’ll be relevant to them. 

A/B Test to Know What Works

Abandoned cart emails are proven to help you make more money. But not every abandoned cart email will live up to its potential on its first try. That’s where A/B tests come in. 

Not familiar with A/B tests? They’re a simple yet effective way to get some data on what works for your brand. You basically create two versions of an email and test them against each other to see what works best (version A or version B). The goal: design experiments to help you figure out which messages resonate best with your audience. 

When designing your A/B test, the most important thing to do is test one thing at a time (i.e., if you test your subject lines, only test your subject lines and nothing else within the email itself). 

Below are three components to A/B test when it comes to your abandoned cart emails: 

  • Test your subject lines. 
  • Test how many emails you send.
  • Test when you send your emails. 

1. Test your subject lines. 

A common question marketers ask is, “What will get people to open my emails?” 

Figuring out which messages will work best is a critical part of making sure your abandoned cart emails work as well as they can for your business.  

Try different variations of your subject lines. For example, see if a gentle reminder sparks more open rates or if a compelling offer does the trick. 

Variation A: [Lizzie], it looks like you left something behind.

Variation B: The [product] in your cart is almost sold out!

If you find the gentle reminder works best, try different variations of your gentle reminder next. 

Variation A: [Lizzie], it looks like you left something behind.

Variation B: Forget something, [Lizzie]?

Does the straightforward statement perform better or does the question format win? 

If you find the statement works best, try testing how you style your copy next. 

Variation A: [Lizzie], it looks like you left something behind.

Variation B: [Lizzie], it looks like you left something behind!

This subject line is almost exactly the same, but it’s been styled slightly differently. Notice the period at the end of the first variation and the exclamation point at the end of the second variation. There are lots of ways to style your subject lines—use bold text, brackets, emojis, symbols, etc. 

The best way to know what will work best for your audience is to keep designing experiments to test your subject lines and refine your messages based on the data you collect. 

2. Test how many emails you send. 

Another common question eCommerce marketers often grapple with is, “How many abandoned cart emails should I send?”

It’s a tricky question. You want to make the most money possible, but you also don’t want to annoy your customers. 

The answer to that question will vary based on your business, but the data shows that sending just one email will leave money on the table while sending more than five emails is considered overkill (and it could damage your sender reputation, too). 

In terms of benchmarks, these are the average abandoned cart open rates:

  • First email: 62.94 percent.
  • Second email: 48.65 percent.
  • Third email: 46.11 percent.
  • Fourth email: 46.59 percent.
  • Fifth email: 39.09 percent. 
  • Sixth email: 34.83 percent.
  • Seventh email: 31.91 percent.

The sweet spot is to send somewhere between two to four emails, though be aware that the open rates of each subsequent message will likely drop as time goes on. 

Create a series of emails and test their open rates to see where the point of diminishing returns occurs for your brand, then refine your series based on the data you collect.

3. Test when you send your emails. 

Another question marketers often ask is, “At what point after someone abandons a cart should I send an email?”

In its research, Klaviyo also looked at when the top 100 performers in the study sent their emails. They found 91 of these companies sent the first abandoned cart email less than five hours after someone left their site. 

These first emails were the most effective in the series, which makes sense—the sooner you reach someone when they’re considering your products, the better. 

That said, there’s no single best time to send an email. It really depends on your business and what you sell. 

Unless you sell big-ticket items, where it might make sense to have a longer delay between your messages, try sending your first message anytime between one and four hours after someone’s started a checkout. Then, send a second message a day or two later if they haven’t responded to your first message. 

There’s no shortage of things you can test when it comes to your abandoned cart emails. Start by keeping things simple and experiment as you collect data and grow. 

Taking Action 

There’s plenty of data that shows abandoned cart emails help brands recover potential lost sales and make more money, so it’s clear why every eCommerce marketer should include a series of abandoned cart emails as part of their email marketing mix. 

To get people to open your abandoned cart emails, there are many different strategies to try:

  • Play around with all sorts of of subject lines.
  • Experiment with how you write and style your copy.
  • Segment your list so shoppers receive the most relevant messages.
  • Test each experiment and let data tell you what works best. 

But the bottom line is that every eCommerce business is different. 

What works for one brand might not work for another. And what works for your brand today might not work for your brand as you grow. 

Take these tips and tricks as inspiration, and test some new techniques that you think will resonate well with your customers. Then test again and again.

About Klaviyo

Klaviyo is the growth marketing platform built for online businesses of all sizes.

Consuming more customer data than any other solution on the market, Klaviyo helps brands own the customer experience. The platform analyzes every interaction and captures 360-degree views of your customers. Delivering richer insights, Klaviyo empowers you to create more personalized marketing moments and higher value customer relationships.

When you own your marketing experiences, your growth possibilities are endless. That’s why more than 22,000 of the most innovative brands rely on Klaviyo to own their marketing.

To sign-up for a free account, or request a demo, visit www.klaviyo.com.

Five Essential Components of Successful eCommerce Search

Christian Bodine on September 17, 2019

Having an effective on-site search strategy is more important than ever for today’s online retailers. According to a blog by Econsultancy, 30% of users on eCommerce sites will utilize the search bar and conversion rates through site search can be up to 50% higher than average.

Regardless of whether you engage in B2C or B2B eCommerce, today’s shoppers are savvy and have high expectations. It is important for every online seller to provide their customers with meaningful and satisfactory search experiences.

Here are five vital elements that every eCommerce on-site search tool should have in order to increase conversions and develop loyal, returning customers. 

Relevant Search Results

In today’s ultra-competitive online shopping environment, it is essential that sellers provide relevant and fine-tuned search results for every visitor. People want to find what they’re looking for as quickly and efficiently as possible and when they can’t find it, they’re likely to go somewhere else.

An autocomplete feature can be used to predict a user’s search query as soon as they start typing into a search bar, significantly cutting down on the time it takes to find a product. Hawksearch’s Smart Autocomplete uses data from popular search terms to intelligently suggest search queries.

In addition to finding a result quickly, visitors expect to find the right results. Search tools that group similar synonyms together and correct misspellings and typos can create a more intuitive search experience for users. Relevancy as a whole not only saves the user time in search, it helps to assure shoppers that they’re in the right place and that your website can deliver what they want.

SEO Booster

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is fundamental to the success of any eCommerce website. SEO is the process of optimizing your site to rank as highly as possible in major search engines so that shoppers can see your site and click on it. There are a number of ways that on-site search tools can help boost SEO. Hawksearch’s SEO Influencer, for example, automatically indexes the facets, or product attributes, throughout an eCommerce site and creates expansive sitemaps. An eCommerce seller’s most popular product search terms can be added to the site map, which helps Google recognize these important keywords.

Tools like SEO Influencer also allow merchandisers to choose terms to avoid. Because attributes like clothing type and color tend to apply to many different products, a site’s search ranking can be negatively impacted by what Google may perceive to be duplicate content. A search tool that gives companies more control over the content search engines use can be very beneficial for SEO. 

Machine Learning

Effective search tools can engage in machine learning, which is a form of artificial intelligence. Machine learning allows on-site search engines to analyze huge amounts of real shopper data and then make predictions about what shoppers most likely want to see in search results.

Robust search tools, merchants can track and analyze every visitor, interaction, and abandoned search to automate merchandising efforts. At Hawksearch, we’ve seen major increases in time on site and conversions when automated tools like these are implemented on a site. 

Machine learning technology can also power automatic product recommendations and display similar or alternative items of interest for site visitors to buy. Econsultancy found that conversion rates can increase by 32% when a recommendations engine is used. Retailers that take full advantage of artificial intelligence can provide a more intuitive search experience for their users.  

Visitor Targeting 

When a search tool uses knowledge about the shopper to improve results, it can greatly increase the chance of a conversion taking place. By using known visitor attributes such as gender, age, zip code, prior purchases, and other data, online retailers can narrow down search results to refine personalization and optimize search satisfaction.

For example, let’s say an online retailer has a customer searching for a black winter jacket and, through established information about this shopper, we know that she lives in California. Visitor targeting technology will automatically display lighter weight coats higher in search results, as compared to a person who lives in Chicago and would need a heavier jacket to wear.

Visitor targeted search results create a buying environment that makes the decision-making process much easier for shoppers. Studies show that the chance of conversion greatly increases with optimized relevancy for the online shopper. Shoppers have come to expect it, too. According to research by Infosys, 59% of shoppers who have experienced personalization believe it has a noticeable influence on their decision to purchase. Hawksearch’s visitor targeting can even integrate custom criteria into search results for further fine-tuning. 

Search Result Metrics

One of the most important developments in recent years regarding search technology has been the availability of shopper data. Online sellers looking to increase their conversion rates can do so by carefully studying visitor trends and behaviors. Hawksearch provides data that helps merchants target lower performing areas and expand what has been successful.

In addition, reports such as top facets, conversion summary, and top keywords can all be utilized to continue to perfect the quality of the search results you are providing for shoppers. For example, the “Searches with Poor Results” report on Hawksearch logs the description of search queries that return little to no results and the number of times it has occurred.

This data is an excellent way to see which visitor search terms are not syncing up with those that are recognized by the site. Conversely, this information can also suggest to a retailer that they might want to consider carrying a certain brand of product if there are search results that show a demand for it.

Conclusion

The on-site search tool is the lifeblood of nearly all eCommerce sites. There are so many opportunities for online sellers to capitalize on the technology available in today’s advanced search solutions. As the world of eCommerce continues to grow, the buying public’s expectation of personalized and relevant search results will expand as well. Victory in eCommerce will go to the sellers that get to know their shoppers as unique individuals. 

To learn more about how Hawksearch, a leading on-site search and recommendations tool, can help you take your B2C or B2B eCommerce sales to a new level, click here.

Automation Emails – The Key to Easy Email

Christian Bodine on August 13, 2019

Email is one of the most powerful tools in marketing. It can quickly become one of your top revenue generators and, if done right, provide you some of your highest eCommerce conversion rates.

Merchants wanting to get the most out of their email marketing lists need to be serious about using automation to send emails more often and with better targeting. Automated emails allow you to set emails up one time and then monitor and make small changes instead of creating many emails from scratch.

Automation emails build a form of marketing “equity” for your brand. While a typical marketing email is one-and-done, automation campaigns continue to yield results with little to no input.

While you can get pretty sophisticated with email automation, this post is a primer on the most foundational automation workflows your shop should be using. I’ll also share some suggestions for more advanced automation tactics.

Cart Abandonment Emails

The most common, and most successful, type of email automation is the cart abandonment email. In 2017, our partner Klaviyo conducted an abandoned cart benchmark study analyzing more than nine million abandoned cart emails sent through their service. The results only reinforced the importance of these automated emails.

  • 41% of abandoned cart emails were opened by potential customers.
  • Abandoned cart emails had a click-through rate of 9.50%.
  • Merchants using cart abandonment emails generated an average of $5.81 in revenue per recipient.
  • 3-5% of users return to make a purchase after receiving an email.

As you can see, not having a cart abandonment program in place can cause your company to miss out on a lot of traffic and conversions.

Setting Up Cart Abandonment Emails

Often, cart abandonment emails can be configured in your eCommerce platform. These are typically pretty simple and don’t give you a lot of customization options. Instead, we advise that you create your cart abandonment emails in your email service platform, so you can customize them to look like your brand.

Essentially, a cart abandonment email sends a reminder to shoppers that have added an item to their cart, but not purchased in an extended amount of time. A cart abandonment email can remind distracted shoppers about a product they liked or even create urgency with a special offer.

A basic starting point for cart abandonment emails is a three email series:

  • Trigger 1: 1 hour (This can be longer, but we recommend no later than 24 hours after a cart is abandoned)
  • Trigger 2: 1 day
  • Trigger 3: 3 days

You should monitor this and make changes according to what is working best for your particular email audience. Testing will be your friend, and you should tinker with your time delay, subject line, and email content.

Put yourself in your customers’ shoes and imagine why they might not have gone forward with their purchase. Test content that emphasizes different aspects like customer testimonials or your warranty and returns policy. Maybe it’s time to try a discount or free shipping.

As you monitor your open rates with each email in the workflow, you might find that three is too many, and you can reduce your sequence.

For more actionable advice, check out our blog post, “Avoid Abandoned Revenue with Abandoned Cart Emails”

Welcome Emails

The next most important email is the Welcome Email.

Welcome emails usually don’t yield as high of a return as the Cart Abandonment Email, but serve another very important purpose: introduction to your brand and to your email marketing channel.

You can tell them what you want them to know about your brand and what you have to offer them.

You’ll want to include what they can expect from signing up to receive your emails, the benefits of being on your email list, and other ways they can connect with you, like social media or your blog.

These should be set up to send very closely after a new subscriber signs up. We recommend a series for this as well. You can do anywhere between 3-5 emails, but again, this should be monitored to see what works best for you.

Here is an example of a welcome email series:

    • Email 1: Immediately after sign up
      • A quick hello and thank you for joining the email list. If you’re offering a discount as an incentive for subscribing to the newsletter, this would be where you deliver that coupon code.
    • Email 2: Two days after sign up
      • Show that your email communications are high quality. Tell a story from your blog. Offer a resource. Show a series from a recent social media campaign. This is also a good time to point people towards your social channels in case they want to connect further.
    • Email 3: Five days after sign up
      • Broaden their horizons. Help them create comfort with your brand by telling more about what makes your shop special. What shipping incentives do you have? Are there glowing customer testimonials you can share?

If you have more you’d like to say, you can add more emails, but you shouldn’t have more than five.

Your welcome series should last about a week, give or take a few days.

When planning your welcome series, be clear about your objectives for it. Do you want to accelerate the first purchase? Is your goal to express the brand and build trust?

The emails included in your welcome series should be a reflection of your objectives for the list. For customers, it sets expectations for future communication. For merchants, it’s a way to kickstart a new customer relationship.

Win-Back Emails

A win-back email is sent to bring customers back who haven’t visited your site or purchased in a while.

We recommend a trigger based on a customer’s previous order date. This would be sending to those you haven’t purchased in the last 3, 6, 12 months, depending on what makes the most sense for your business.

These emails will most likely convert better if you offer an incentive to come back. If you aren’t able to offer a discount, you might choose to show them new things you have to offer that they are missing out on, such as new items for sale or best sellers.

You might also choose to create a win-back series. In a series, you can build urgency by having a coupon with an expiration date, or try a sequence of different product recommendations to make sure you’re presenting the item that appeals to your customer most.

Segmentation-Based Automation

This is where you can really help email provide value to you without having to spend hours creating emails each month.

Segmentation is a very powerful tool that not enough companies use to its full potential.

You can segment based on anything, but the most beneficial segments we’ve seen are behavior-based such as what links your subscribers click within your emails, how often they interact with your emails, their browse history or their purchase history.

Other useful segments may be built based on customer gender, location, age, or any other data you might have about your subscribers.

Example 1: Segmenting by Email Interaction

In your Welcome Email series, you show your new email subscriber the product categories you have to offer. They click on the category that interests them the most. By clicking on that category, they are automatically put into an address book (segment) where they will receive an automated email about the products in that category. You can set up an automated email series to go out to subscribers once they are added to that segment.

Example 2: Segmenting “Value Shoppers”

You may have “value shoppers” that will only click on an email when they are offered a discount code or incentive. Add these subscribers to an address book that you only send them emails when you’re having a sale or promotion. This will help decrease your unsubscribe rate and number of spam complaints.

Example 3: Segmenting by Product Category

Most Email Service Providers offer web tracking. This allows you to retarget customers based on products or categories they viewed on your site. You can then group customers by the products they have viewed on your site so that you can send them emails to let them know when you’re running a promotion or sale on the products they’re interested in.

Example 4: Segmenting by Purchase Frequency

An important segment to consider is an active customer, or frequent purchase segment. Depending on your business, you can set an automation to be sent once someone has purchased 3 or more times letting them know they are on your VIP list and will get special offers/promotions. Treat these people well; repeat customers make up 80% of most online customer bases! Send them some special discount codes, offer them a special rewards program or lifetime free shipping.

Conclusion

There are so many more automated emails you can set up; these are just the basics. You can slowly add each one to your email marketing platform. As you grow, you will want to add more, but getting started with these should show you a significant lift in revenue.

For our email marketing clients, automation is one of the first things we focus on. These efforts have a powerful return on investment, not just in the short-term, but for years to come. If you’re looking to take your online store’s email marketing to a higher level, let us know.

Tombow’s Magento 1 to Magento 2 Migration

Christian Bodine on August 2, 2019

Tombow USA came to Classy Llama looking for help migrating their site from Magento 1 to Magento 2. With Magento 1’s end-of-life looming near, Tombow wanted to get ahead of the curve and move their site to the latest version of Magento. The mission was to make the move quickly and cost-effectively, then build the site up over time once it was moved.

The Tombow site needed to continue to support their significant dealer and retail channels. After spending years on Magento 1.7, Tombow saw that a migration to Magento 2.2 would expand their B2B capabilities. Specifically, setting minimum quantities for customer groups or stores, group pricing, and discount flexibility led the desire for Tombow to push into a migration to Magento 2.2. 

Magento 2’s B2B improvements allowed them to better serve their smaller retailers who historically ordered by phone, email, and even fax. Giving these dealers a better online experience saved Tombow time and also helped them showcase their expanded product offering through the site.

In addition to core B2B functionality with Magento 2.2, the Tombow site required enhancement to the mobile experience. The move to the latest Magento release would help deliver on this.

As with any migration from Magento 1 to Magento 2, data was a major part of the project. Classy Llama migrated Tombow’s data from the M1 site to the new M2 site, allowing customer account management to be as seamless as possible with the transition.

In addition to the data migration, Classy Llama helped improve Tombow’s integration with their ERP, Navision. The existing integration did not close orders to complete the integration cycle. We created a cost-efficient solution utilizing flat files that allowed for orders to be sent to the ERP for fulfillment and back to Magento for order status and tracking number updates. Tombow now had a complete integration to ensure order status was automatically updated within the ERP and Magento. This wrapped up a long-standing need for Tombow.

Though new features weren’t a primary focus, we used the opportunity to make small changes that helped to stabilize their site and increase their direct to consumer sales. Since social media like Instagram and Pinterest play such a significant role for Tombow, we helped use the Magento CMS to create widgets that could tie-in posts from their social channels and link to their blog.

In the end, we were able to deliver Tombow their new Magento 2 site under budget and ahead of schedule. Tombow was excited to take use this as an opportunity to make more front-end improvements on their site before launch. Already, this new site has proven to be a strong foundation for their future growth.

“Working with Classy Llama has been a great experience. The team was super knowledgeable and easy to work with throughout the entire project. They were able to take our ideas and vision and create exactly what we were looking for in our new website. We look forward to working with Classy Llama on future projects.”

Five Reasons to Use Magento for Your Auto Parts eCommerce Site

Christian Bodine on July 15, 2019

At Classy Llama, in addition to developing on Magento for over a decade, we’ve worked with many automotive industry merchants over the years. Because of this we’ve come to recognize several features that are important when building an automotive parts site.

Selling a car part online is a unique challenge. Many merchants have large catalogs with lots of categories. Customers now expect an intuitive search experience where they can enter their specific year, make, and model or maybe even a VIN lookup to ensure they are getting a part that fits.

When thinking about this kind of advanced functionality, one of the most significant decisions that parts sellers and automotive merchants face is selecting their eCommerce platform.

Let’s take a look at some specific benefits of Magento and how they relate to selling automotive parts online.

Caching and Progressive Web Apps

Magento is a very powerful application that provides a ton of features out of the box. It can also support massive product catalogs and be extended with customizations. Can all of this flexibility and power be delivered at speeds the modern shopper expects?

Magento provides two different methods for building the front end pages of your site, both of which have unique solutions for speeding up page load times. You can use the responsive theme framework with full page cache, or build your pages with Progressive Web App technology.

Full Page Cache

When you have a sizeable parts catalog, there can be a large number of product pages being accessed by multiple users concurrently. While many factors contribute to page load times – from hosting and application performance to image optimization – load times can be significantly reduced with Magento’s built-in full page cache.

As pages are served the first time, these page files are stored in the cache, allowing them to be delivered to the end user faster the next time they are accessed. This not only speeds up the response time, but also reduces the load on the Magento application, alleviating additional slowness during peak traffic.

All versions of Magento 2 from Open Source (the free community edition) to Commerce Cloud (Magento’s enterprise cloud offering) support the full page cache feature. Magento is designed to work with Varnish as the caching mechanism out of the box.

Varnish is a third party caching solution which takes the load off of your web server when delivering cached assets. Magento Commerce Cloud includes Fastly, which is an enhanced Content Delivery Network (CDN) powered by Varnish. This is a powerful caching solution that also has the benefits of a distributed network, placing the cached files closer to the end user.

Progressive Web Apps

The newest way to build the front end of your site is using Progressive Web Apps (PWAs). Magento’s PWA Studio provides a set of developer tools that makes it easier for merchants and developers to build fast and engaging mobile experiences.

Using modern web technologies, PWAs provide much faster load times and more of an app-like experience on mobile devices. PWAs cache most of the assets in your device’s browser and communicate with the site via API to get dynamic data and perform actions, providing an overall faster experience for the user.

This is important in the automotive industry, as many times shoppers are on mobile devices in the shop, at the car show, or on the go, and will return to your site multiple times as they look for that perfect part. With Magento PWA, mobile shoppers also benefit from app-like features such as native push notifications and limited offline access without requiring the user to install an app.

Powerful Attributes

Magento’s Entity, Attribute, Value (EAV) data model provides tons of flexibility out of the box. With the ability to add different types of attributes to your products, you can refine how shoppers find what they need.

Magento gives you the ability to set up different types of attributes depending on what data you need in order to identify or describe your products. These include:

  • Text Field
  • Text Area
  • Text Editor
  • Date
  • Yes/No
  • Dropdown
  • Multiple Select
  • Price
  • Media Image
  • Fixed Product Tax
  • Visual Swatch
  • Text Swatch

These attributes allow you to get very detailed in providing specs for your products. Attributes can then be set to be used in layered navigation, which allows shoppers to drill down to the exact product they are looking for. Attributes can also be used for displaying certain details on the product page, or even to power configurable product variations (like color, size, etc).

You can create attribute sets for the various types of products you sell. For example, you can have one attribute set for batteries and another for mufflers, each containing different sets of attributes. This makes managing your product catalog much easier. When you add a new product, you can simply select the relevant attribute set that includes all the attributes you need for that type of product.

Fitment

Fitment provides a method for shoppers to “shop by vehicle” and makes the shopping experience more streamlined by only displaying products that are compatible with the vehicle selected.

Rather than clicking through categories and subcategories of products for all different vehicles, fitment allows users to enter their vehicle information when they arrive on the site and review only relevant results.

While fitment is not a native concept in Magento, it is something that many automotive merchants rely on. Fortunately, there are a couple of ways to add fitment functionality to Magento.

One way is to build a custom solution – a benefit of having an open source platform that’s designed to be customized. A Magento-certified developer or agency can build an integration with ACES (Aftermarket Catalog Exchange Standard) fitment data or other data sources to power a year, make, model lookup.

If you want to avoid a custom solution, you can leverage Magento’s extension marketplace or third party apps that plug and play to provide shop by vehicle functionality. For example, Classy Llama built an automotive accelerator that includes a fitment extension.

This extension supports various fitment fields, so in addition to the standard year, make, model, you can have fields for the drivetrain, body style, etc. It also allows customers to save vehicles to their “virtual garage” so they don’t have to select their vehicle each time they return to your site, while allowing them to easily switch between multiple vehicles they may own. Classy Llama’s fitment extension also allows you to integrate with various data sources such as ACES/ PIES, vendor data, or a product information management system.

Multiple Product Types

A unique advantage of Magento is the flexibility it provides for catalogs with different types of products. Magento starts with the concept of a simple product and then builds upon that. Simple products are a single product with no variations or configurations. Magento then allows you to create configurable, bundle, and group products. You can assign simple products to these other product types and allow customers to select from different variations or kits.

Configurable products allow you to create product variations based on product attributes. For example, you may sell a specific product in either a black or chrome finish. This allows the shopper to select from these options on the product page and see an updated image for the option chosen.

Bundles or groups are useful if you want to sell a set of parts for an assembly. You may have a part that requires several nuts and bolts, gaskets, wires, etc. and you can configure a bundle to include all the parts needed for the job. Magento also provides the ability to make your bundle products configurable – letting a shopper pick from a list of products to build the kit they need.

Flexible Integrations

Many times automotive merchants are working with older back-end systems that have very specific integration requirements, such as an ERP that houses customer data, inventory, or a point-of-sale system. Here are some valuable ways that Magento 2 provides flexibility when integrating with other systems:

Pre-built integrations are available through various software vendors.
The API for Magento 2 provides access to nearly all data you would need in order to build a custom integration if needed.
Custom API endpoints can be developed into the platform allowing full control over how data is sent and received.

With these tools, there really is endless flexibility in how you can integrate with Magento.

Conclusion

While the automotive industry has many specific needs and challenges, a flexible and powerful eCommerce platform like Magento will allow you to create a great shopping experience, while also equipping you to integrate with your existing business systems and processes. For these reasons, Magento is a great fit for your automotive parts site.

Five Key Ways to Increase the Customer-Generated Content on Your eCommerce Site

Christian Bodine on May 24, 2019

It’s easy to let your eCommerce site’s strategy around Customer-Generated Content (CGC) fall from your list of top priorities. But there are some great reasons why you shouldn’t.

Our research shows that more than 75% of shoppers were less likely to buy something from a website that lacked Customer-Generated Content like five-star ratings and reviews. Just about the same number of shoppers said high-quality ratings and reviews, customer Q&A and product photos were at least somewhat influential in their purchase decisions.

A constant stream of product reviews is also helpful for search engine optimization (SEO). The Customer-Generated Content that TurnTo collects is fully indexable by search engines like Google, helping to improve the page ranking of your product detail pages.

A recent study from Salsify backs up the idea that content submitted by shoppers helps guide your customers to make a purchase. The study found that, on average, people wanted to see 112 reviews per product. (Yes, you read that right.)

Unhappy customers tend to be the ones most willing to move mountains to share their opinions online. That can leave shoppers with a skewed impression of your product catalog.

For most retailers, the reality is that the majority of their customers fall into what we at TurnTo call “the happy middle.” These are customers who were completely content with their purchase but couldn’t be bothered to go to the trouble of leaving an online review.

By tapping into this largely silent group, your site can collect product ratings and reviews to give a more accurate picture of overall customer sentiment about your catalog.

So how can you increase the number of reviews your shoppers submit to capture the positive sentiment of the happy middle—and offset negative reviews in the process?

Make it as easy as possible for their customers to make a purchase by eliminating obstacles and creating a frictionless experience.

Here are 5 key ways that eCommerce sites can tap into that happy middle to get more—and better—reviews from their customers:

1. Get Your Post-Purchase Email Strategy Right

If you want more reviews, you have to ask. A post-purchase email, also sometimes called a review solicitation email, is intended to make the process of submitting a product review as easy as possible for your shoppers.

You should make your request for a review as clear and as short as possible—don’t take up any more time than you need to. Pay attention to the simple things, like a meaningful email subject. You should also create a customer experience with as few barriers to content collection as possible.

TurnTo’s Inbox Submission product, which allows shoppers to submit product ratings and reviews directly within the body of an email, makes review collection easier than ever—essential for capturing the voice of mobile millennial audiences.

2. Ask Your Customers to Review More Stuff

It might seem counterintuitive to ask your customers to submit even more content right after they’ve just submitted a review. But believe it or not, our research shows that’s the best time to request more material, according to TurnTo’s internal data.

Capitalize on that tendency by showing your customers other items from their order history right after they’ve penned a review. It doesn’t even have to be another review—you can ask them to answer a question posed by another shopper, or just have them tap a star rating. No typing required!

This simple follow up can reap some solid rewards. At TurnTo, we’ve seen clients increase their content collection rate by 30% just by following up on a review submission and asking customers to “Do More.”

3. Optimize for Mobile

A recent forecast from eMarketer projected that retail eCommerce sales transacted on a smartphone would account for more than one-third of all US eCommerce sales this year.

Mobile is eating the world, and if your customer content collection strategy isn’t taking that into account, you’re missing out. These days, optimizing displays for mobile devices and then calling it a day isn’t going to cut it.

There are more strategic ways of improving content collection efforts from mobile users. One way is with a visual-first collection flow.

This approach asks smartphone users to submit a photo or video without having to write a review first. Some of our clients have increased their visual content collection rates by as much as 300% with this strategy.

4. Get the Review First, Then Authenticate

Automatic authentication is the gold standard for review solicitation. But if you do need to authenticate the identity of a customer reviewer, wait until after they’ve written the review.

Why? Because asking a customer to authenticate before they’ve submitted any content causes friction can put them off of the whole process. If they’ve already written the review, they’ve invested time and effort and are therefore more likely to sign into their account. It’s a concept similar to the one economists describe as sunk costs.

5. Go Omnichannel

Online retailers don’t need to limit themselves to digital channels when trying to solicit Customer-Generated Content. Those that have physical store locations can ask for reviews in a receipt.

But a more effective way of generating reviews might lie in the “stuff in a box” model. In these instances, a review solicitation comes in the box for the product itself. One effective way of getting Customer-Generated Content might be by including the request on a product registration card.

If you want to learn more about how TurnTo can help your eCommerce site increase its collection rates, feel free to get in touch.


TurnTo Networks is the industry and innovation leader in Customer-Generated Content (CGC). TurnTo’s platform is optimized to collect the most CGC from online shoppers, helping eCommerce companies improve their organic SEO, drive traffic to their sites and increase conversions. Our product suite includes four offerings: Ratings & Reviews, Community Q&A, Visual Reviews™, and Checkout Comments™.

More Sites, Same Staff, Less Maintenance

Christian Bodine on May 23, 2019

When Gardner acquired a large competitor with many sites, they found themselves split between two dated platforms with more than 1.8 million SKUs across 25+ B2C and B2B websites. They needed a partner that could handle unifying their massive catalogs and lead them through a major platform upgrade.

Gardner chose Classy Llama because they wanted a partner with experience in complex development and migrations. These qualifications were essential for Gardner because the project would entail migrating 25 sites from Magento 1 to Magento 2, transferring over a website from another platform, and adding new sites to their new multistore network. We took on the challenge, completed the project, and continue to develop new features for Gardner. Features that thanks to multistore, only need to be built once and can be enabled/disabled across all of Gardner’s sites.

With all sites on a single instance of Magento 2, inventory only needs to be kept in sync with one eCommerce platform. Since completing the project, Gardner has seen a 50% increase in conversions. And because Gardner’s marketing team can now launch new B2C and B2B websites without any server configuration or development changes, their hosting and maintenance costs have decreased by 37%.

“Working with Classy Llama we have been able to easily replicate our B2C direct sites allowing us to double the number of transactional sites we are managing without adding any additional staffing. Additionally, we have been able to support the online growth of one of our key retail partners by providing a simple but effective way to allow their customers to transact seamlessly through their site”
-Rich Sher
Sr. Manager, Retail Sales & Key Account Mgmt.”

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